Category — General Information

Lips are beautiful and sensuous and what you put on them is of vital importance, because a lot of it ends up in your mouth. Just Google how much lipstick women eat in their life time, and that may be the best stimulant to start taking what you put on your mouth more seriously.

So, let’s jump right to it.

This time of the year you probably have dry lips. Lips dry very easily because their skin does not have sweat or oil-secreting glands. So first line of defense for most women is a lip balm. To avoid the chemically loaded petroleum based mainstream balms, check out my list of affordable organic lip balms.

There are also pricier ones, such as Dr. Hauschka lip care stick. But these will do the job just as well, and cost you a mere fraction of the price. They can be picked up at most health stores. (Though the lip care stick is heaven sent for lips that need serious healing, so don’t overlook it if yours do.)

You can also try some organic homemade lip balm recipes. Here is one from Organic Beauty book , by Josephine Fairley:

Homemade lip moisturizing balm

1/3 cup (30 ml) sesame oil
1/3 cup (20 g) grated beeswax
1 tsp honey
5 drops peppermint essential oil

Melt the sesame oil, grated beeswax, and honey over gentle heat in a double boiler. When melted, add the peppermint oil and remove from the heat. Stir until thickened and pour into small, sterile containers. Let it cool.

Josephine also recommends applying mashed ripe papaya to your lips for 10 to 15 minutes for smoother skin appearance.

When you apply lipstick, look for natural organic products. Dr. Hauschka makes a few different types of organic lipsticks and lip pencils. (Including lip gloss and long lasting lipstick). Other brands that have great natural lipstick are Logona, NveyEco and SukiColor. (see this list of best natural makeup brands).

If you are feeling creative you can also make your own homemade lip tint. There are many recipes in books and online. Here is an example from The Ultimate Natural Beauty Book:

Homemade pink lip tint

You’ll need to grate cooked beetroot to extract the juice or use a bottled pure beetroot juice, available from natural food stores.

2 tablespoons sweet almond oil
10 g (1/2oz) beeswax
1 tablespoon beetroot juice (or less for paler balm)
4 drops peppermint essential oil

Gently heat the oil and the beeswax in a double-boiler. Remove from heat and gradually add the beetroot juice, until you get the color you like. Wisk very well, add the peppermint essential oil, whisk again and transfer into a small sterilized pot.

Some general lipstick tips, which apply to organic lipstick as well:

* Contour the lips first with a natural pencil, to prevent lipstick from bleeding out
 
* You can also use pencil/balm combination. Contour lips with pencil, then apply lip balm, then fill in with the pencil.
 
* Four fuller lips look, consider using two lipsticks of same color, but one lighter shaded. Apply the darker lipstick as usual. Then apply the lighter lipstick to the middle/inside part of the lip. (If you want your lips to appear smaller, do the reverse.)
 
* Professional makeup artist always use a brush to apply lipstick. It gives you much more control then applying from the tube.
 
* To keep the color fixed to the lips for longer time, apply a bit of powder on top. (Make sure it’s organic powder). Or apply twice — apply lipstick, blot with napkin, apply again.
 
* To avoid lipstick on your teeth, run your finger through the middle of your lips, so that the excess comes off on your finger and not your teeth.

* If you are above the age of a preteen, use common sense when selecting a lipstick color. Go for tones that have natural tints in them to avoid looking overly clownish. After all, experimental shades may belong on princess coloring pages, but certainly not your face

And most of all, choose shades and products that work for you. If a shade is popular, but you don’t like it – don’t bother getting it! There is enough organic makeup products out there for you to find you’re the perfect match.

A question I’ve been getting a lot since I’ve started this site is what products do I use in my own skin care routine.

Over the years I have used a few skin scare products, but not as many as you’d think. With the exception of a few creams here and there most of the things I tried had to be discarded, for they caused my skin to have one or another type of reaction, or do nothing useful at all. I have an incredibly sensitive and dry skin. I had a history of dermatitis that colored my entire childhood, but mercifully left me alone just as I was entering my teens. But it did leave me with awful memories and a skin that reacts to pretty much anything applied on it.

Before I ventured to the organic side, I narrowed my routine down to a few relatively mild products that seemed to do what I wanted them to. My non-organic product of choice was Yves Rocher Moisturizer (Hydra Power Day Creme for Dehydrated Skin). I used that one for many years, and should I ever be in a situation where I can’t get anything organic, but need a cream, I would buy it again. Why would I still do it? Because when my skin gets dry, it can’t be ignored. It’s not a vanity thing. It’s a “can’t have any facial expressions” thing, and if there is nothing organic around I’d have to do something just so I can talk.

But luckily I haven’t been in a situation like that for a while now and my routine has a very pleasant short list of mostly natural and organic products.

Here are my personal favorite products that I use all the time:

Moisturizer: Right now the products I use most often are by Dr. Hauschka and Weleda. My skin is not easy to please, but these two do just that. It now feels soft and smooth. And very young. I use the Quince Day Cream on a daily basis, and Weleda Skin Food in extra dry cases, such as when I’ve been next to a dry blowing heater for far too long. I am looking into trying the Rose Day cream in Dr. Hauschka line. With luck, it will become my winter cream of choice, since I need something stronger than I did in the summer.

Cleanser: Confession – I really don’t wear too much makeup. So I don’t usually need anything strong enough to take off makeup traces. Thus most of the time I wash my face with water only. Or with oatmeal (which I also use for exfoliating). But when I do need to take makeup off, I still use Yves Rocher… I simply haven’t found anything organic yet that is not too expensive, gentle on the skin and tough on makeup. I figured that since I use it so rarely, I’ll just let my bottle run out first…

Toner: I don’t use one. I don’t see the point. I realized I don’t need one years ago, when all the advice I got from “beauty experts” at the counters sold me things that dried my skin into a state of parchment, without really telling me why I needed it so much in the first place. More likely then not, you don’t need it either. I found this very interesting article that argues that toners are not necessary. They are an extra cleansing step from tons of unnatural makeup. As I’ve mentioned before, I hardly use makeup, and what I do use ,Yves Rocher takes off just fine. The oatmeal does the rest better and more gently than any toner imaginable.

Special treatments: Oatmeal scrub. I apply it on my forehead anytime it gets too flaky. I also wipe my face with cucumber now and then (but mostly in summer).

That’s about it. I also sometimes use an eye cream, but not as regularly, cause I’m lazy. And also because I find that when I use things like organic mascara, my eyes are not really irritated even after makeup. The eye cream I use is also Dr. Haushka product, and it’s the Dr. Hauschka Revitalizing Eye Cream I reviewed a while ago and fell in love with.

I don’t use any night cream because I think the skin needs rest at night. It needs a chance to breath by itself. Though if my face feels too dry before going to sleep, I apply a little bit of the day cream.

Selecting your skin care routine is necessarily a trial and error process, whether organic or not. Everybody’s skin has its own quirks. So, just because something works for me or your friend, doesn’t mean you’ll get the same results. But as a rule of thumb, start by narrowing down on a line that actually aims at your general skin type (dry, oily, combination or sensitive). Then look at ingredients. Then try it on and see whether you get the results you want.

Another important tip – don’t ignore your intuition. If everyone touts this great new product, and your face doesn’t like it – trust your face. If the great new eye cream makes your eyes red and slimy – don’t believe that that’s supposed to happen. Who the heck would pay for red and slimy eyes?

This is not a theoretical story. It happened to me once, before I was focused exclusively on organic creams, and before I was focused, period.. I was confronted by Biore salesperson, who insisted that their eye cream were better than Clinique (which I was using at the time), and somehow convinced me into shelling my hard earned dollars on a tiny bottle of something that was supposed to be fantastic. Well, it made my eyes itch and swell. But I wasn’t smart enough to stop after first application. No… I did it a few more times thinking that it’s a fluke (I called the salesperson, and she said it probably was…), and it’s working for everyone else, what’s wrong with me? Luckily I came to my senses, went back to that salesperson and made her give me my Clinique. After which I had normal eyes again, and a lesson learned…

I apply these same steps in choosing organic skin care. I look for my skin type. I read the ingredients. And then I see if I like it. And when it comes to using it on a daily basis, I make sure I LOVE it.

After all, why treat your skin with anything less? There are so many choices out there, the cream that’s perfect for you definitely exists. You just have to look for it. And you are worth it