My hair has got needs!

My hair's curly and dyed, re-dyed and dyed some more. I say hair, you say brittle. Add some hairspray and you'd have cottoncandy.That's how bad it is.
While I love my conditioner, American cream from Lush, it doesn't do what it has to do during the winter. It just doesn't. My hair looks lik a bird's nest.

So I am looking for good hair treatments, hot-oils, masques, etc and the more natural, the better. No silicones and such. I save the scary chemicals for the nails and my nails only. That's one obsession where it's hard to go natural, but the hair? Shouldn't be that hard. An important issue is that what I use for my hair, my 4-year old daughter wants to use, so I want it a bit safer than your regular haircare.

I tried the Macadamian hair oil and while did something (not much), it was not very natural (despite it's description) and it was rather expensive. If I am going to pay that much to have nice hair, I want to buy a product that won't take a crap on the environment. I want something my kid can use herself without me thinking the WHO will be knocking on the door, telling me I am doing harm to my kid.

So any and all advice - what do you use? What have you been hearing good things about?

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Where do you put your toothpaste?

I was debating whether I was going to post this because strictly, it's not makeup and it's definitely not fun. But, it might belong under the cosmetics-category and it's one where I have been trying to go natural for a while. Yes, there's that word again, natural. What it means depends on who's using it and whether it's always better for you, that isn't as obvious as one would think.
Nevertheless, my polish-addiction aside, I wouldn't mind having less chemicals in my life.

So, when I had the chance to win a toothpaste/whitener marketed as the natural option by EVA in a giveaway, I jumped at the opportunity. While my current toothpaste may not contain triclosan, it has an list of ingredients that's almost as long as this post.
My last encounter with natural toothpaste was pure horror (anisflavored vomit) but keep in mind, that was maybe 15 years ago. A lot has happened since then. I hope.

First off, the hygenic aspect of this is pure horror. Powder in a big jar. Dip your toothpaste. That's not the brightest idea, so I just put some on a cup and dipped my brush into that.

Did it work wonders? Are my teeth whiter than any marshmallow? Does my breath make the birds sing?
Not really. It's nothing spectacular. I haven't noticed any change in my teeths' coloration yet (5 days in) and as a toothpaste, it's just a more expensive version of the old classic DIY-paste out of bakingsoda. For instance, How it all vegan has a good basic recipee for toothpaste as well as mouthwash.
The only difference is that with this, you have Sodium perborate and Sodium lauryl sulfate added as active ingredients. They're the guys that supposedly are going to make your teeth white(r).
I guess this is where it gets a bit tricky - the former is an ingredient that shouldn't be used on or near lips. Apparently, you shouldn't handle it unless using gloves. That is what I put on my brush and into my mouth. Then I spit it out.

Natural eyh? Guess I will use this as regular bakingsoda, a cleaning detergent. I bet it will be a killer on those dye-stains in the shower.
The Eva Whitener retails for $24 and contains about 1,6 ounces.

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Top dollar, if you got the dough

One thing, or rather two things, that makes me excited about fall being just around the corner, is that I get to use my favorite skincare products again. Slightly too rich and demanding during the summer, especially a hot clammy one like this, but perfect for the rest of the year.

I usually don't use a so-called purchased exfoliant, but rather go with a moist kitchen towel. Threadbare, old and scrubs just like the finest of sand. Nothing store-bought has ever been better than this old beauty-tip from the grannies of granny....until Stem Organics Smooth Skin Exfoliant.
While a towel may be somewhat rough on the skin depending on just how threadbare it is, Stem isn't. It's smooth and fine.
However, it's the Oil that really won me over. I use it on my face, lips, elbows, cuticles and sometimes even in my hair. Works wonders and smells divine.

The only thing that it has against it, is that I can't really afford it. The oil is $40 for 50ml/1,7fl oz and the exfoliant about a dollar less.
That's the problem with most organic products. A catch22 - using organic products is what I (we?!) want to do but I (we?!) can't afford  to try it. By not buying it, I am not supporting the companies that make organic products which means that in the end, if everybody was like me, there wouldn't be any organic products. No market, no products.
While the organic produce have become cheaper and easily accessible to public over the last 15 years, organic skincare and makeup is still quite pricey. Sometimes it seems organic just isn't for the working class. They get to stick with parabens and formaldehyde.

I won my Stem Organic products in a giveaway so I got to try them for free. I got to love them for free. However, I doubt I would have spend almost $80 on these products if they were new to me.  Would you?

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My favorite word - Natural

I have a lot of hair. Not thick hair, but a lot of it. Curly, wavy and straight, all on one big head. This means that more often than not, I look like Edward Scissorhands. I don't really mind, I've come to terms with it but what I do mind, is that it gets dry, frizzy and looks like I've slept for ages. As I am no sleeping beauty, I have no explanation and I feel I have to do something before I end up looking like a Brillo Pad with big eyes.

So, when I stumbled across a cheap(er) trialversion of the Macadamia oil (included in an inofficial  sampler-bag with Mario Badescu & Smashbox), I just had to give it a go.
The site and the packaging is promising. Natural. Oh, how I love that word and oh, how it makes me buy things that aren't more natural than say, Brillo pads.

But, the smell! There's a smell that has nothing to do with macadamias, nuts or anything natural. It smells like cheap eau de cologne. Valentines Day-lunch at the retirement home. Excited old men who thinks they smell refreshingly of sandalwood. Ice tea and bingo. My grandfather's deodorant.

Ok, I stray, but that smell is so off. The oil itself doesn't feel oily at all, which can be good or bad depending on your preference, but it doesn't stick to your hands or hair. Hair feels smoother and oh, the hands, they loved the oil treatment! I think my cuticles appreciated this more than anything else.
So far I haven't noticed anything different about my hair. I still look like Scissorhands but with a smell that makes people think of Senior Scissorhands.

I just don't know if I got fooled into buying yet another product because it said natural on the packaging. The biggest ingredients are dimethicone and cyclomethicone which are a staple in most hair-treamtments. it's the same old silicone that traps any moisture, making their hair appear stronger and healthier. Add some vitamin E, oils from macadamia and Moroccan ironwood tree and another big batch of chemicals and we get a natural healing oil treatment.

I feel cheated. I do. It might work, but it's not what I was hoping for.

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