Day 39: Bath and Beauty Products

The Task: To reduce our bath and beauty products and to choose safer products.

The Why:  First of all, moisturizers are having sex in my linen closet.  It is the only possible explanation for why I own 11 different moisturizers.  Either that or people who don't know what to give me for Christmas or my birthday pretty much always give me moisturizers and lotions.  Maybe I look dry?

But seriously, there are a lot of weird ingredients in the products we are marketed and sold for the sake of beauty.  Go ahead and type some of the ingredients in any ordinary shampoo into the Skin Deep database and you'll see what I mean.

Maybe it's because I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to consumer and marketing issues, or because I don't own a television and haven't seen a cosmetics commercial since 2006, but I really think that it is kind of strange that we rub products that contain dubious chemicals all over our bodies in the name of beauty.

I would like to opt out of a consumer culture that is constantly trying to sell me (and my daughters!) the right products to make us all look like supermodels.  In fact, I know this is a little counter-cultural, but I want to embrace the idea of growing old with grey hairs and laugh lines.

Well, I do most of the time, anyways.

The How:  Since this project started we've been reassessing our products as they run out.  When a bottle of a certain product became empty we would ask ourselves if it was really necessary, and if so, what is the safest product we can find to do that job. We've been using GoodGuide.com to choose items that we feel are safe enough for our family.

Today I went through and disposed of products we won't be using (such as the absurd amount of yummy smelling moisturizers).  This is what we are left with:

This is every bath and beauty product we own!

1. Shampoo.  We chose  Aubrey Organics Blue Chamomile Shampoo because it is currently the second highest rated shampoo on GoodGuide.com. It's mostly just for the kids (since hubby and I have dreadlocks and wash our hair with soap).
2. Soap.  We use Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap in Almond as a body wash.  Luke and I use it (diluted) to wash our dreads, and I've been using it to wash my face too ever since I ran out of face wash, and I am very pleased with the results. 
3. Deodorants. Because of the available selection at our local stores, Luke and I settled for deodorants that were safer than many other options but still have some questionable ingredients.  In the future, we may order a safer product online or consider making our own, but for now these are a step in the right direction.
4. Razors and Shave gel.  I've always been too cheap for shave gel, so I've been shaving my legs with just soap for at least 10 years.  I'm pretty sure Luke just buys whatever shave Gel is on sale.  We've both chosen razors with reusable handles because it seems awfully wasteful to throw away a perfectly good handle when all we really need is a new blade.
5. Moisturizers and lotions and creams.  We kept three.  It's interesting to note that the regular grown-up lotions that we happened to have scored much better on both GoodGuide.com and The Skin Deep Database than either of the two "gentle" baby lotions we had!  We also kept a Bee Silk bar and some Sweet Almond Oil.
6. Toothpaste.  We've been using Tom's of Maine Fluoride-Free Toothpaste for ages now and love it. My favourite flavour is Fennel! (My kids don't like the fennel flavour that much, but our bathroom isn't a democracy so I buy the fennel anyways!)
7. Lip Balm. We are using a Peppermint Lip Balm by Made On Skin Care. It contains only 4 ingredients: coconut oil, shea butter, beeswax and peppermint essential oil.
8. We also have plain ol' hand soap in our soap pumps. I wasn't sure if that counted as a bath and beauty product, so it's not in the photo.

Things we are happily doing without:

• Specialty dandruff products.  We've discovered that an apple cider vinegar rinse can help with dandruff.  Put about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a 250ml mason jar, fill the jar with water, and slowly pour the mixture over your head.  Let it sit for a minute or two, and then rinse it out.  Although your hair will smell like vinegar when it's wet, I find the smell goes away once the hair dries.
• Specialty kids' products.  I have found that kids products such as baby soaps and lotions and kids toothpaste almost always score worse for the safety of their ingredients than the grown up counterparts!

The Verdict:  The other day I had to go to the drug store for some razor refills and I was pleased to see how little I needed in that store.  It felt good to take my one little item up to the cashier and be in and out in minutes.

And I really don't think that our larger selection of bath and beauty products was really ever doing anything to make us cleaner or better looking. Between you and me, I think it's all just a scam....

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Announcing The September Monthly Challenge: Eat Your Pantry Month!

Each month we encourage you to join us in our pursuit of radical simplicity by doing one small thing with us for a whole month.

The September challenge is a dare to eat your pantry!

If you are like us, you have things in your pantry that have been there a while.  Foods that have been sitting there for months (or years!) because we lack the imagination and creativity to turn them into dinner.

When I stand at the pantry door and exclaim that there is nothing to eat, what I really mean is that there is nothing I want to eat.

This month we are going to clean out our pantry the old fashioned way, by actually eating the food we have.  We expect to see our grocery bill to go down, and maybe even learn a thing or two about contentment while we're at it.

And by actually eating the food, we insure it won't come to the end of it's safe shelf life while still sitting on a shelf.

Obviously there will have to be some exceptions.  We don't plan to use up the almond extract of corn starch.  But the three different types of dried beans I've had for, well, um, ages?  We'll be eating them this month.  Even though I hate beans.  (Don't ask why somebody who hates beans has three types of them in her pantry...I can't explain it.)


Will you join us? Will you commit to eating those beans and lentils and split peas in your pantry this month?

If you're planning to take the plunge with us, I've made a banner (it's 300 x 300px) for you to display on your own blog.  Just cut and paste the code below.

 

<a href="http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/announcing-september-monthly-challenge.html"target="”_blank”"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kFfLLh7FUdU/UDzbUPHwA7I/AAAAAAAADxU/0upetTde7yo/s300/pantry%2520banner%2520300.png" /></a>

OR

You can let all of your friends on facebook know that you are taking the challenge by visiting this photo that I've uploaded to our facebook page and clicking the "share" button!

Thanks so much for taking this challenge together with us! We can't wait!

Day 37: Downsizing the DIY Dreams

The Task: Downsize my pinterest boards to contain projects I really might actually do some day.

The Why:  Does anybody else feel like they have too much inspiration and not enough time?  Sometimes I get stressed out about all the projects I want to complete even though they are completely optional projects that shouldn't have the ability to stress me out at all!

Plus, I think sometimes pinterest convinces us to make something we really don't need or even really want, just because it's a neat idea.  Just because I can make a handbag out of my old tank tops doesn't mean I should make a handbag out of my old tank tops.  It isn't up-cycling if the finished project is clutter I don't need!

And the convenience of curating all the ideas and inspiration in one place lost it's actual convenience around the time my Pinterest pins exceeded 1000.  It was becoming easier to search Google for a new recipe than to find one I had pinned!

The How:  I created a few new boards and moved all my favourite pins into those few boards.  I left a couple boards alone, like my "recipes I've tried" board, which is uber handy when I'm looking for that peanut butter cookie recipe I know I tried but never got around to writing down.

I made a point of asking myself questions like "Does this project/idea/inspiration fit well with the life we're trying to live."and "Is this a project I may actually want to tackle in the coming year?"

The Verdict:  I went from 51 boards and 1477 pins down to 12 boards and 245 ideas I really think I might use someday. I was reminded of some great projects and recipes that had lost their appeal amid all the digital clutter.

By the way, you can check out my pinterest boards here, if you want!

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

How is No Dryer Month Going?

We've almost made it.  The August monthly challenge, No Dryer Month, is over after next week.  And as I plan to share with you the September challenge in the coming days, I thought now would be a good time to check in and ask: How is no dryer month going?

Us?  We've loved it. mostly. There have definitely been a few humid and rainy days that I have wished I could just pop things in the dryer.  And we've had a couple toddler meltdowns over blankies that aren't dry for nap time, but other than that I don't miss my dryer much at all.  In fact, I really hope to continue not to use it, at least not on a regular basis, after this month is over.

So, for all you fabulous people who took the challenge with us, please take a moment to leave a comment and let us know how it's going!

Day 34: Dreadlocks!

I know that many of you are following along each day, trying to accomplish the tasks as we do them.   Consider this a day off.

I know it's not for everybody, but my husband and I recently decided to get dreadlocks!

The Why:  We have been trying a number of natural ways to wash our hair, things that didn't involve nasty chemicals.  We tried the baking soda and apple cider vinegar method and gave it a couple weeks because apparently your hair needs a couple weeks of a new routine for the PH to balance out or something like that.  We tried a shampoo bar and found it left an awful residue that made our hair feel heavy and dirty.  We bought an expensive natural shampoo that works nicely, but is just too costly considering how much hair we have. And both of us, for ages, have wanted dreads.  As we struggled against our hair to try and get it silky smooth without using any of the chemicals that make it silky smooth we finally just decided to get dreads.

I had dreadlocks when we met, and I spent weeks conditioning them and tediously washing and combing them out 7 years ago because I felt that it was time to start looking like a responsible grown up.  I am so over that.

Dreadlocks are a journey.  They are a practice in patience and contentment.  They take time to become what they are going to be, and in the mean time you just wear a lot of bandannas!  They are controlled chaos.  Instead of using products to get your hair to look a certain way, you just wash dreads with regular soap and let them do what they naturally want to do. I don't just love our new dreads, I love the idea of dreads.

The Verdict: I know that a lot of you have actual jobs that require you to look professional.  I know that this isn't for everyone, that many of you are shaking your heads right now and writing us off as crazy hippies.  But for us this is a letting go of what we think we ought to be.  For us, this is a stepping into freedom.

Besides, let's face it: Luke is a construction worker with a passion for organic farming.  He reads Joel Salatin and Wendell Berry and will go off on tangents about Monsanto and Walmart if you let him.  I am a tattooed homeschool mom who wears clothes I made myself and writes about giving away all our stuff....we weren't really ever in the running for normal anyways!

The kids, by the way, don't have dreads.  They are using Aubrey Organics Blue Chamomile Shampoo (It is currently the second highest rated shampoo on GoodGuide.com, a site that rates products according to their safety to our health, environmental effects, and social impact).  My five year old is asking for dreads, but we just aren't sure.  We've told her to ask again when she's six....

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!