Great Etsy Finds Washcloths, Cloth Hankies Etc.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5176740 sells great washcloths. Her four packs are inexpensive and they are soft and bigger than expected. Bigger than store washcloths and more durable. I love it!

For bulk cloth hankies (Great if you have a big family or are just starting to buy this stuff) Try http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19485628 You get 10 hankies for $5 plus shipping. Nice deal!

If you have small kids with very runny noses, get a few extra soft hankies from Rocker by baby http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5260109&section_id=5797824 They sell a lot of other cool stuff as well, like extra soft blankies!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=25893 Has the best deal I could find on terry cloth soap savers. This is an awesome way to use up small soap pieces and save lots of money by getting the most from your soap. I love these!

Kelsilove makes the crocheted soap savers and face scrubbies , as well as a multitude of other fun stuff. She also was willing to swap with me, so I sent her a couple of fun vintage brooches for a pile of awesome stuff. I am waiting to recieve it, so I will report back on this with more details. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6699949&order=&section_id=&page=3 Her prices or low as well, very awesome shop!


Claire de lune makes awesome cloth menstrual pads. I have some ordered from other sellers but I have not tried them yet. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5151807

And for custom sized spoon rings try http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=69585 She will even resize it if it comes out wrong. Check the sizing because it is a bit weird due to the thickness of the ring.

Lush Update !

I enjoyed the cupcake mask better than the seaweed one I have now. As for the other products in the kit, I love love love the vitamin E toner tabs. I saved the water as they suggested and I spritz it on after cleansing. Very refreshing and nice!!!! The celestial face cream was divine, I just used up the last of it. Ultra bland was a good cleanser, but I have not tried most of their cleansers so I dont have much to compare to. I did like it much better than charcoal and it smelled better. The paradise regained day cream lasted longer than the celestial, I still have almost half of the small jar left. I used it every day almost, so this is awesome. I would say most of the products in the kit have a week and a half supply (Both the cleanser pots were gone in about two weeks time). I still have a small spray bottle of toning water (purchased at container store for ninety nine cents ) and a lot of the mask left. If I liked the mask more it might be more empty by now. I think by the time it expires I will still have half a jar left. Overall I think the kit was a good value. If you get this save the black mask containers, because five of these will get you a free mask. A mini skin care pot gets you ten percent off the full size.

Wonderful Tea Company

I came across http://www.enjoyingtea.com/ while searching for chrysanthemum tea online. This is an awesome site. The floral tea sampler is an awesome deal for $12.98 http://www.enjoyingtea.com/vaflteasa.html It comes with six mini tins of floral tea including the chrystanthemum,. It is an awesome way to pick your favorite. They have some awesome tea pots that filter out the leaves, so you do not need a seperate filter. However, for a less expensive order you can get the small strainers. http://www.enjoyingtea.com/filters-infusers.html Get one for a cup and one for a pot. The chrysanthemum tea is divine and very good for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysanthemum_tea You get a free tea canister with $35 purchase and free shipping with $60 purchase. Get fifteen percent off with the coupon code clay. Enjoy!

Sale at my Etsy shop !

I am having a big Easter sale at my etsy shop. There is a sale section and also a second item of lesser or equal value is thirty percent off with purchase of the first. Lots of new brooches have been added ! Soon I will be adding necklaces and earrings as well, so please mark my site a favorite and tell your friends ! You can enter my site through the banner at left !

Go To Lush Now!

Lush is doing a promotion where for $20 you can get two mini jars of moisturizer, two mini jars of their ultra bland cleanser, two toner tablets and a fresh face mask. You can bring the mini jars back for ten percent off a full size item, plus save five of those fresh mask tubs and you can get a free one.

I love love love their masks. The cupcake is divine and now I am doing the seaweed. It is great too !!! Especially for sensitive skin.

With the kit you also get two soft muslin cloths for removing the mask and instructions for your at home facial.

You steam your face with the toner tab and then take off the mask with the rest of your toner tablet water, very very refreshing !!! It is just wonderful. My face was glowing after I put on the moisturizer in celestial. I felt celestial, like a shining star!

I love it!

Baby Bath Options

http://www.nutricity.com/n/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=15716

This site contains the Jason Naturals baby wash and shampoo which for $3 is a great deal. It rates a three on the EWG scale. There are a lot of other commercial brand natural products on this site as well. Personally, I would prefer to buy from coastal creations or somewhere with homemade products if possible, but if money is tight, this is a good place to get a lot of cheap products that are pretty good for you as well.

A better option is http://www.bodysenseshop.com/bo00010003.html which contains a lot of good deals. Unfortunately the prices are a lot higher. Has tons of good products and as I mentioned in a previous post, this stuff is all rated on the site, so it makes shopping for good products easy. I think their max rating is a three, so everything is pretty safe for you. A great site to try out!

http://healing-scents.com/baby_and_child.html Has a baby shampoo as well. Either of these sites have a lot of other good products as well, so a big order would at least make the shipping fees worth your money.

http://www.nurturemybody.com/organic-hair-shampoos-sls-free This is another great higher priced site, with a lot of good products.

Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo, Lightly Scented is also a great choice and the plus side is that you should be able to get it at the drugstore. This has a high convinience factor and saves on shipping. Plus its inexpensive. With a rating of two, this is a real bargain.

http://www.coastalclassiccreations.com/ Has a baby shampoo bar for $6.00, rating 1, and a host of other products for babies and new mamas. Additionally, there are tons of other great products here, including a facial scrub I had previously mentioned. This is a great site, for stocking up on a lot of products, as well.

All Natural Dish Soap and Laundry Detergent

Check out GreenFamilyTree on www.etsy.com They not only carry homemade laundry soap, but also dish soap. I am getting a small sample of each to try, so I will let you know how it works out.

Meanwhile, all is going well on www.makeupalley.com I have done eight swaps so far, meaning I am getting eight packages full of awesome natural makeup and skincare! I am losing track, but I am expecting at least two almost full mineral powder/mineral veils , also a burts bees toner and lip balm, a tube of sunscreen, a frederick fekkai glossing sample (not natural but oh so wonderful, and concentrated , a sample packet will last weeks!) , a juice beauty sample skin care kit, a caudilae cleansing water (one of my favorite favorite brands), an all natural blush, an arbonne body cream and an eyeshadow brush !!!! I've traded possibly $10 worth of stuff I payed for the rest was GWP and freebies from Free After Rebates or Coupons ! After shipping is done, I will have payed maybe max $30 for all of this!! How thrilling is that! I am super lucky , because my fiance even ships everything for me, such a sweetie!

I can't wait for my packages to start pouring in ! I should be working on my honors thesis, but I am so tired. I need a snack, too. Maybe some apple carrot whole grain cake with yogurt on top, yummm delicious and healthy. I used the pulp from my juicer to make the cake, so it is half fruit and veggie with some maple syrup and flour added in ! So delightful!

Sites I love for Good Deals

www.etsy.com You can buy anything handmade here! It is awesome! I get cloth napkins, cloth hankies, soap, perfume, makeup. Its so sweet!

www.makeupalley.com You can trade away makeup you never use for stuff you love! So much fun! I joined, but I am loving it. I already made six swaps!

www.paperbackswap.com The same thing, but for books.

I know there are other swap sites, let me know if you find a good one! !

There is always www.ebay.com but it is way cheaper to do etsy or to swap. The shipping rates at etsy are low and sometimes you can add additonal items to ship for free. And its not an auction site, so there is no crying if you don't win on an item you really wanted. You can have it all!

Facial Scrubs

You can get Rachel Perry's Peach and Papaya scrub for $15.99 on drugstore.com . It is a gentle and effective scrub for combo/oily or acne prone skin. The sea-kelp herbal scrub is the same price, but the reviews show it to be rougher on the skin, which is why I chose the Peach and papaya . The sea kelp has a toxicity rating of 3, none is listed for the other. The three most worrysome ingredients to me are titanium dioxide, with a range of toxicity ratings dependant upon use; salycilic acid (toxicity 7), and propolyene glycol (toxicity 4). As far as toxicity, the sea kelp would be a safer choice, but may be rough on sensitive skin.

Burts bees peach and willowbark is another good choice, although a bit rough to use too often. I'm not sure of its rating either, but it is paraben and pthalate free with 98.43 percent natural ingredients. $8.79 at drugstore.com, readily available at drugstores, Target and some grocery stores. It is widely available, which saves on shipping costs. Although drugstore.com almost always has a "buy $## worth and get free __" promotion with Burts Bees, so watch for that sale if you are a fan.

Now onto the one's rated zero by the EWG. There are a lot so its going to take some time to shift through. Here are a few to start with.

http://www.bodysenseshop.com/bt00010001.html With $7.50 flat shipping on this site, you would want to buy more than just this to get a good deal.

http://www.coastalclassiccreations.com/scrubs.html This site is overall a great place to buy stuff from multiple catergories. Almost all very low or 0 toxicity. Awesome!

Office Chairs, Green Makeup, and Writing

I decided today that I needed an office chair. So, after wasting a lot of time looking around online, which I think I had already done about two weeks ago (when I first decided I needed an office chair), I decided to get one at Big Lots. So, last time I saw it in the ad, I think it was on sale for $5 less, but at least they still had it in stock, so that is a plus. Now, I'm looking for a desk on Craig's List. Do I need a new desk? I don't know, but I figured I do. Mine has a broken keyboard tray, which is what orginally sparked the whole "I need new office furniture" phase. I put some gorilla tape on it, but its not really helping. Anyways, my back has been hurting when I type, making it hard to work on my honors thesis, so I thought this would help. The chair seems to be helping a bit, I don't know if I need a new desk or not.

I was at Border's with my fiance and I saw a book on being green and gorgeous. Consequently, there is a website as well www.gorgeouslygreen.com . It is really cool, only I thought it would have more links to specific makeup and skin care sites, like the book did. I was hoping to get off without having to buy the book, since I am a broke college student. I probably can, it will just require some searching.

So, I figured I spent so much time searching for this kind of information, maybe I could gather it in one place, for my benefit as well as anyone else's. It seems that being green is relatively complex, especially if you want to be truly green. Especially if you want to avoid toxic chemicals in your makeup and skin care products and everything else you use on a daily basis. I mean this is a great place to start: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1 . The problem is this site does not have a comprehensive list of products and it takes a whole lot of effort to find something you want and then find it online for the best price and vice versa.

I've discovered most products labeled "green" are in fact not. So, what an interesting tid bit that was. So, anyways, I am busy, but I thought it would be cool to post some of my findings here. Since I love makeup and I love the environment and I hate toxins, this is part of my life quest. Looking beautiful and feeling great, while saving the environment and me from toxins and destruction.

Another good site is sprig.com, although a lot of what is on there is not in the price range of your average person. So, since I am on a tight budget, I need to find most of my own information in this field. Here is another cool article along those lines, although since their best option is three items for $60, I hope I can do better than that. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/fashion-beauty/budget-green-makup.html . And one more that might help out http://www.smartfamilytips.com/2009/02/16/budget-green-and-safe-personal-care/

One more thing to mention. Making your own stuff is good as well, as far as beauty products are concerned. I saw a book on this too. Problem is sometimes the supplies to start out are expensive, essential oils etc. You might save money in the long run though and if you make it yourself then you know it is good. I am going to start looking for some recipes online for this as well.

I happen to love Lush's cupcake face mask. The only problem is that it only lasts three weeks and my nearest Lush is an hour away. Be fair warned many of their products are not so safe, according to the EWG. I think the cupcake should be a safer option than a lot of their products, because it is freshly made and contains a small amount of ingredients. The two ingredients that sounded the most un-natural to me are glycerin and talc, which each rate a two as far as toxicity goes. I think $7.95 was a great price for it too, Doesn't hurt that is smells like chocolate yuuummmm