Beautiful Change Challenge #6: Making A Difference In Your Community
This is my last and final Beautiful Change Challenge and the topic centers around exploring ways to make lasting and beautiful changes within my own community, and quite frankly I found this Challenge the hardest one of all. It is much easier to focus on ourselves and our own selfish needs rather than putting our emphasis outward, and taking the time to notice the world around us and what we might be able to do to make it a better place for us to live.
So I sat and thought about it for a while, and I realized that one thing that really bothers me is the trash that I often see sprinkled throughout our community. The junk and paper that people mindlessly discard of without a care for how awful it looks or how it cheapens our environment. A dear friend of mine is so green and conscientious that whenever she is out and about and sees an out of place piece of trash, she takes a moment to pick it up and properly discard of it in the trash can. I have always admired this about her, her awareness of what is around her and her willingness to handle some gross stuff in order to beautify our planet. Most of us don’t take this kind of time to notice, let alone pick up trash and clean-up after others.
So I decided that my last and final Beautiful Change Challenge was going to emulate the actions of my dear altruistic friend: I am committing to make a conscious effort to pick up unwanted trash that crosses my path on an ongoing basis! So simple yet SO impactful. I am going to train myself to notice and beautify as much as I can, and I am hoping this will motivate and inspire others to do the same.
Earth Day 2012: My Top 10 Favorite Better For You Beauty Products
Happy Earth Day Rave Fans! I just love Earth Month and all that it represents: Making conscious choices that are better for you and better for the environment, such a simple and important message. Every year in honor of Earth Day, I curate a selection of fabulous beauty products that I consider to be greener, eco, more natural, cleaner and all around better for you. And I must say that this year, I noticed that this category is burgeoning with so many wonderful products which made it very hard to choose only 10! I continue to be impressed by the selection of eco chic brands with amazing green products that work beautifully. I am becoming more and more of a convert all the time, because why not use products that are better for you when you have the choice!
Without further adieu, I present to you my Top 10 Favorite Better For You Products of 2012:
1) One Love Organics Skin Savior Waterless Beauty Balm ($68)
One Love Organics is a beautifully handcrafted line that embrace’s the motto of simplicity and that you can achieve more with less when it comes to beauty. Skin Savior Balm is made out of pure, cold-pressed plant oils and extracts that break down dirt and makeup and clear out your pores without stripping your skin of its natural protective layer. This is one of those FAB one-product-does-it-all balms (which I LOVE!) You can use it as a cleanser, moisturizer, conditioner, skin smoother/dry patch healer, massage balm and so much more. I adore this product! It smells like a yummy orange creamsicle, it cleans my skin beautifully and I especially love it on my chapped lips, dry nose and cracked heels. This is a new must have for me!
2) Suki Skincare Exfoliate Foaming Cleanser ($32.95)
Suki Skincare is a fabulous results driven beauty brand dedicated to delivering clinically proven natural solutions. Suki’s products are made out of hand-selected raw materials and proprietary botanic concentrates that are blended with high percentages of scientifically-advanced cosmeceutical actives in 100% natural bases. The Exfoliating Cleanser is a deep cleansing complexion rejuvenator that contains a gentle alpha hydroxy acid (natural sugar), non-GMO rice flour & lemongrass to resurface & smooth, unclogs pores, and exfoliate dead cells. This is another swoon worthy product that I can’t get enough of! It smells like a fresh lemon, it has a delightfully refreshing foaming and exfoliating action and it leaves my skin feeling like buttah = LOVE!
3) Sprout Skincare Cream ($32)
Sprout Skincare is a 100% all-natural line made out of the purest high quality ingredients that are either certified organic, Fair Trade, or sourced from small family farms. Every product in the line is made from scratch, in small bathes with only absolutely essential ingredients. In fact, every Sprout product has only 5 (clean) ingredients or less, love that! The Cream is Sprout’s hero product, made out of wild-harvested shea butter that they get from a Fair Trade women’s cooperative in Ghana. To that luscious cream, they add some organic extra-virgin coconut oil and organic extra-virgin olive oil and that’s it! This is a wonderfully rich cream that doesn’t clog your pores, and I love how it babies, nurtures and heals my dry skin and calms it down post treatment. This Cream is a GEM!
4) Antho Lullaby for Dry Skin Organic Face Serum ($16.95)
Antho is another eco fab line that I recently discovered that is dedicated to using 99% USDA certified organic, premium all natural, vegan PETA approved ingredients. The Lullaby for Dry Skin Face Serum contains ten different superstar organic oils, including rare Moroccan Argan & Macadamia oils and luxurious virgin organic oils. This divine serum quickly soaks into your skin and immediately restores lost moisture, delivers rich antioxidants, and rejuvenates dry, dull skin. This serum smells heavenly and I love it under my make-up because it gives my skin a lovely radiant sheen.
5) Juice Beauty SPF 30 Tinted Mineral Moisturizer ($29)
Juice Beauty’s is dedicated to sourcing the purest, most effective sustainable and organic ingredients on the West Coast with over 80% of their products being manufactured using California’s sun/solar power (which is particularly appealing to this SoCal girl.) Juice Beauty uses also uses a 100% certified organic juice base (made from over 30 different juices) in all of their products. This wonderful tinted moisturizer blends a chemical-free SPF 30, mineral pigments and nutrient-rich white grape, aloe and pomegranate juices for a radiant, even-toned complexion. I really like the fresh herbal scent, the sheer coverage and how vibrant and refreshed it makes my skin look. This is the perfect eco fab BB cream for your favorite Greenista!
Spa Week Sneak Peak: Thai Sabai Traditional Thai Massage
Calling all Beauty Luvahs, have you heard the news? National Spa Week 2012 is taking place next week April 16-22, 2012 and all treatments are ONLY $50, WOOT! WOOT! Spa Week is the largest and most anticipated spa event in North America since 2004 and many of the nation’s top spas select some of their best signature treatments for you to experience at a significantly reduced rate, which makes pampering much more affordable and accessible to all, love that! And all that you have to do to take advantage of the amazing $50 treatments is go to www.SpaWeek.com, search for spas in your area, and then call the spa directly to book your appointment.
Well, I confess that I have the best job in the world because I get to test drive all these amazing spa treatments and services and share my experiences with you, so I was delighted when Spa Week reached out and told me that a local Thai Massage Spa had requested that an influential LA beauty blogger come in and try their signature service before Spa Week and they picked me! I was especially excited because I have heard amazing things about Thai Massage for years but have never had the opportunity to try one.
Before I tell you all about my amazing experience, I wanted to give you a little background on Thai Massage. Traditional Thai Massage dates back more than more than 5,000 years to ancient India and China incorporating elements of Ayeurvedic medicine, Hatha yoga and Chinese acupressure. Thai Massage is a unique healing art that combines gentle yoga-like stretching with massage of the muscles, pressure points and energy lines to release tension, relieve aches and pains, detoxify the internal organs and improve circulation. A typical Thai Massage is performed on a floor mat which allows the practitioner to get the body leverage necessary for the stretches and postures performed. An authentic Thai massage normally takes 90 minutes because it is a holistic approach that incorporates a series of integrated, sequenced postures designed to relax and heal the body.
