Power of Doing Your Face

I just went through a rather long and particularly symptomatic PMS. Normally at this time I start to feel a ton of relief from all that, but I didn't take my pills for 1.5 weeks and I'm only taking the bare minimum to get by for the last 3 days. My face has become a total disaster through this. Very dry acne ridden skin with mild rashes, and total lack of color. It's still that way, even though it should be recovering well by this point, but I'm still just as dehydrated and exhausted from my lack of pills.

Want to see a cool trick?



I painted concealer on one eye and not the other, can you tell which one?

My camera doesn't do the best job with capturing details, so I look better here than the mirror showed me. But you can see what I'm talking about.

That's the power of make up. I do this every time I need to go out so that people treat me normally. I don't want people to think, "Oh, she's not looking her best." or "Is she on something?" I've learned that people treat you with less esteem when you look like you're not feeling well. They can treat you like you need extra care, that you're not as high functioning as other "normal" people, or like you're someone who does drugs and they show less trust in you. I've experienced it. When I wear my make up people treat me normally, like they don't need to treat me any differently from the next high functioning person. I'm not accusing everyone of doing this, but many do.

So I wear make up. I did it quickly without much detail work, put on a thin layer, skipped the lip products so I could eat, and used copper eye shadow to blend in the redness if it starts to show through:



Just think about how you treat people based on how well they took care of their face that day. Thanks. :)

Current Favorite Products

I've been updating this post as I think of things to add to it, and I may continue to update it. These are my current favorite products!

Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques

The whole entire brand. I've written about natural and organic make up before, including Lauren Brooke lip colors (I never finished that post because... fatigue and sickness making me not look camera ready), Mineral Fusion, and MyChelle. MyChelle no longer makes make up. I don't understand why, because they had this awesome foundation cream stick that I loved, but the company decided to focus on skin care instead of cosmetics. Such a disappointment. I switched to Mineral Fusion pressed powder foundation. I like it a lot, but I find it's a bit dry and I broke out to their liquid foundation. I learned that Mineral Fusion is not 100% trustworthy and only some of their products are safe, but the safe products are excellent and I highly recommend. I decided to finally try Lauren Brooke's pressed powder. I'm never going back. It's the bomb! It's not drying, applies really smoothly and evenly, and has this radiance to it that Mineral Fusion didn't give me. I don't feel it on my skin. It looks so natural and feels so natural, but covers the perfect amount and warms up my skin tone nicely. It also neutralizes my undereye bags without concealer! It doesn't hide them like concealer, but it masks the purple color so it looks like I'm not wearing make up or trying to hide them.

I just purchased two new items from them (as in minutes ago, have not arrived yet.) One is their lash conditioner. They sent me a sample of it last time I ordered. I never really thought I wanted a lash conditioner until I tried it, but the sample of it convinced me. It helped tone down my itching and my lashes did act stronger - as in, not falling out at the normal rate. What I would actually like from regular use of it is to regrow lashes. I have a "bald patch" in my lashes that drives me nuts. This conditioner has horsetail in it, and from my understanding, horsetail is the only herb known to create new hair growth (as opposed to helping the hair you already have grow more.)

The other new item I just bought is their creme concealer. I have an issue with eye shadows creasing on me - all brands, doesn't seem to matter if it's powder or liquid. Reviewers said this concealer mixes really well with eye shadow and prevents the creasing. I'm going to test this out and see if it's true! As it is, I tend to wear very light amounts of eye shadow so that when it ends up creasing it's not as obvious. I want to be able to rock a normal layer of eye shadow for hours!

I'm wearing Lauren Brooke Cool 20 Pressed Powder Foundation in this photo (along with Honeybee Garden eye liner, and Mineral Fusion mascara and blush.) I took this on a day when I was feeling badly and tried to get ready for work, so I did my make up, but wasn't strong enough to actually work. I never expected to use the photo, lol, but you can see how it makes my skin look natural with a glow. My chest skin was more pale than normal. I love it!






Biokleen Laundry Powder and Oxygen Bleach Plus

This has been a miracle worker for me! I use the Premium Plus one because it doesn't have corn products in it like the Fragrance Free one does (I'm allergic to corn.) I can use the Fragrance Free liquid from them, but I prefer this powder. It has Zeolite and hydrogen peroxide in it, both of which are excellent ingredients for KILLING perfumes and other fragrances. I might have to wash 2-3 times to get rid of badly contaminated clothing, but the majority of the time one wash is enough to completely remove any trace amounts of fragrances that stick to my clothes. It's awesome!!! It also cleans really well and keeps whites very white. This is the lowest effort most effective laundry product I've ever used.

The oxygen bleach is on the same page I link to. It's like Oxyclean, only with trustworthy ingredients. I use this in toilet tanks and to soak my bath tub with. The toilets have less grime and my tub that is stained a bit brown from using Redmond's Bath Salt Plus turned white. With no scrubbing. :D


This handmade turtle from a Fair Trade store in Minneapolis
...that was on clearance for $4 and I finally found a small succulent for.





Sierra Trading Post

Their website. It's part of the TJMaxx chain of stores, but is for outdoor and recreation enthusiasts. They sell a good variety of organic clothing and eco products. It may not be GOTS certified sweatshop free organic clothing, which is my preference, but I only work 12-16 hours a week. I can't afford my standard unless it's on clearance. I have a small variety of GOTS certified sweat shop clothing in my closet, but it was all purchased on good sales. When I need some article of clothing and I can't find what I need on sale elsewhere, going simply for organic cotton from Sierra Trading Post is amazingly helpful. It's all liquidation, so their selection is constantly changing, but their prices are fantastic. I've bought both organic clothing (brands like Prana, Patagonia, United By Blue, and Adventura) and natural leather with rubber shoes from them at huge savings. I can't rely on them to have what I need, but I've scored great deals from them. And it's excellent for men too! The focus on organic clothing is on women, but they actually have a good variety for men!

The only problem? Their return policy. You'll have to pay to return, which can make returns not worth it on some items. But their prices and discounts make up for it. Just make friends who will buy items that don't fit you.

Choice Mental Focus Tea and Choice Vanilla Roobios Tea

I drink a ton of tea. I can only drink water and tea, no juices or coffee or sodas. I'm limited in which teas I can drink due to medicinal properties of some teas and herbs, but thankfully both of these work for me. I use caffeine sparingly and I plan out when to drink it. I'm sensitive to it, so I have to be careful. Both of these are caffeine free, but work great in the day time! The Mental Focus tea is awesome when I'm wanting to lift brain fog without using caffeine. It really does help! The Vanilla Roobios tea just has this silky smooth dark flavor, and I love dark green and black tea. It's my caffeine-free dark flavor replacement. Sooooooo good!



GoWise USA Blood Pressure Monitor

I have blood pressure issues. I haven't written much about it yet, but I appear to have POTS (doctor tested). POTS is a heart rate issue, but in my case it's a blood pressure issue too. I'll get into this someday when I'm ready to write about the things stressing me out again, lol. Anyway, I bought this last year to monitor myself so I could learn when I was fighting low blood pressure instead of having another issue, like hypoglycemia. It has been really insightful. This monitor uses an arm cuff, which is much more accurate than the write monitors. It's not perfect because it's a machine, which uses averages to calculate. My doctor measures my blood pressure manually and spends a lot more time measuring it to be accurate and see how it fluctuates. This machine won't show fluctuations. But for an at home tool it actually is accurate enough to be helpful. I didn't get excited about it last year because it didn't ever seem to be accurate, but it was my fault. I was measuring incorrectly. I fixed my posture and arm position, which made all the difference in the world!

It does measure heart rate too. I think a normal person could trust the heart rate reading on it, but it doesn't read long enough for someone like me. My heart rate jumps all over the place within seconds. I think it give me an average, like Fitbit does (I'll get into why Fitbit is the wrong tool for people with POTS later.) But what it does tell me is when my resting heart rate is simply too high. Mine is often in the 80's, sometimes in the 90's. That's really not good.






This Shark Vacuum

Vacuuming has always been an issue for me. I get allergy issues if I don't vacuum, but I get allergy issues if I do. It's because the vacuum we had before just kicked up dust and only collected part of it. My husband came to me and said he wanted to get me a better vacuum, but didn't want to get it for me for a holiday or birthday because he didn't want to imply that I'm just an objectified house maid. lol! So he got it for us "for Memorial Day." Ha! He was teasing, because I'm not sensitive about such things, but I enjoyed the laugh.

Anyway, this vacuum sucks! It actually sucks hard without kicking dust up into the air! It has 2 more amps (power) than the last vacuum, and it has a HEPA filter built in to prevent any dust from leaving through the exhaust. It's not only collecting a lot more from our carpet, it's allowing me to vacuum as much as I want without even needing to wear my face mask! All the other features are wonderful on it too, but the fact alone that the suction is powerful and it has a HEPA filter is enough to make me fall in love with it. If you need an allergy friendly vacuum, I highly recommend this one!



This was after a quick vacuum around the upstairs to try out the new vacuum. I had just vacuumed the week prior with the old vacuum. Clearly the old vacuum wasn't picking up very much...



Om Pure Air mask

I've been using Vog Mask, but suddenly I couldn't find their organic cotton version anywhere for sale. My old 2 from them are too worn out and they're not refreshing in the sun. It's hard to breathe through them. So I was forced to find an alternative to buy. I bought this mask, and despite it taking 4 weeks to ship to me, I actually like it better than Vog Mask. It's easier to breathe through it, it fits my face better and seals better, and it's more effective. I think they have a better carbon filter than Vog Mask uses. I'll want to write a full review on this later, so stay tuned for that.





Hemp Organic Life Etsy store

This shop is awesome. All the products are made from organic hemp and linen, and they are high quality. I bought an organic hemp sleeping bag from her to use when I need to travel and sleep in beds that aren't my safe organic latex bed. I bought it as a barrier between me and the bed so I wouldn't have skin contact, at the very least, with the flame retardants, polyester, and other synthetics. I'll review this sleeping bag after traveling with it later this summer, so stay tuned for that, but snuggling with it at home is wonderful! It breathes so well, but also traps in enough body heat to keep me comfortable. The fabric is strong. It's mildly scratchy the same way wool is, but it's softening up with washing. I actually really like that slightly rough texture, I think it feels good on my skin. Anyway, she did a fantastic job with this sleeping bag. She's from the Ukraine, so shipping almost made me cry, but it was so incredibly worth it! You can see how comfortable it is:



She also sent me a free gift of these linen socks, which are so perfect. They're very breathable, but keep me warm. They feel cozy on my skin. These are the best free gift I've received with an order!






Redmond's new Tooth Powder in Black Licorice

So... normally I'm an advocate of making your own toothpaste from scratch in order to save money and save plastic. It's really easy to make with bentonite clay and charcoal. But in this case, Redmond made theirs better than the DIY version. How, you ask? By making it very powdery. It's so much finer than any toothpowder I've made from scratch, and therefore it feels so much softer on the teeth. It brushes better and is much easier to rinse out of my mouth. But the best part? The black licorice flavor. It's awesome. It's so good. I accidently bought the peppermint version and I don't care for the flavor of it.

Also, for those of you who really don't want to do DIY, this is a great option, even though it's in plastic, because the tooth powder lasts about 3x longer than their Earthpaste in the tubes.



Avocado Oil Spray

I'm not sure I have to justify why this is a favorite thing of mine. It's a super healthy fat in spray form without aerosol. I just spray it on salads and it's perfectly evenly distributed on the leafs. I spray it on chicken before it goes on the grill and it means I don't have to massage the chicken with oily hands to get a nice thin coating of oil on it.



Badger Face Oil Set:

Organic oils in a glass pump bottle - they're perfect! I don't react to any of the sets except the Argan oil one, which has orange essential oil in it. I don't do well with citrus oils. They're so gentle, take off make up way better than just coconut oil, and moisturize very well. I wear the face oil under my make up and it doesn't leave me greasy whatsoever. I can't say enough good about this set! My skin looks much more supple with regular use.



Vitamin C and Glutathione IVs (and my Mom.)

I had two of these on my last trip to see my doctor. They made me really nauseous and gave me some nasty headaches. I wanted to throw up, but was made very thirsty from them at the same time. I felt like a trillion micro explosions were happening in my body all at once. Why do I like them so much, then? Because they seriously help a lot after my body calms down from receiving the IV. Better energy, better mood, much less severe reactions to things, better digestion, clearer head and clearer thinking, less overall body pain... they're helpful! But the effect doesn't last long enough. I need to have them done regularly.



Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Soap

This soap is fragrance free, doesn't dry out my skin, is organic and doesn't irritate my skin, and is very travel friendly. I accidently left my container of it in the bathroom where my Chiropractor and Acupuncturist are. As you can see that building stocks heavily scented soaps - it's hard for me to use their bathroom and I need to slip on my mask to go in there (it's a shared building and they don't choose the soap.) My container was mostly full when I left it there, and exactly a week later it was only a quarter full. People were choosing my fragrance free soap over the fake scented cancer causing soap! That gave me a lot of hope for humanity, lol.

I buy the large 32 oz container of it and keep refilling this little one. I keep this small container in my purse so that I have safe soap with me in public.






Wokamon App

I got myself the cheap Fitbit Flex 2 because AT&T was having a special on them. I wish I had researched fitness trackers before impulsively getting it. At the time I didn't think I wanted to spend more for a heart rate monitor, and I was wasn't wrong to think that since Fitbit's heart rate monitoring isn't detailed enough for people with POTS, but some monitoring would be nice. It also doesn't have a GPS, so I can't map my walks with it. I was mostly interested in the sleep tracking feature, but as it turns out, it's not accurate. I think it's sleeping when I'm laying in bed with my eyes open wondering when I'll ever finally drift off to sleep.

But it's not all a disappointment! I know I can't challenge myself to do more exercise with it in my condition, but it's actually been helpful to see how much walking I do on a normal work day vs normal non-work day. I can see how active I really am when I tell my doctor how much exercise I think I'm getting.

The best part? Wokamon and Achievemint, two apps that are weirdly motivating.

Wokamon is the modern day smart phone Tomagachi, lol! You must take care of your monsters by leveling them up with steps from your fitness tracker. When it tells me I only need 156 more steps to level up, I actually want to get up and get those steps in, even when I'm feeling lazy and tired. I am too motivated by reward systems in video games. :) But hey, it's fun and it's working! I might only average 3,000 steps a day (so I can't compete), but my monsters are leveling up!

Achievemint pays you for using a fitness tracker. You can earn up to $10 a month for all the activity you do with your fitness tracker. It's going to end up being more like $10 every 6 months at the rate I earn points, but hey, I'll take the $10 when I finally earn it!




30% Grain White Vinegar

This stuff works amazingly for killing weeds. It burns weeds, but leaves the roots. After the weed shrivels up you'll have to spray again to burn the roots. The fact of the matter is that it's non-toxic and highly effective! That said, it does burn the skin. Cover your skin when applying!

It IS made from corn, but it's non-GMO corn. The company doesn't verify if the corn was sprayed with Round Up or not, but they do claim the corn is non-GMO and Round Up is mainly used on GMOs. It's also just the acid from the corn, so it doesn't seem to cause me allergic issues (I'm allergic to corn.) I'm not consuming it, just spraying it on weeds.


These reusable organic cotton produce bags

I've been using these for years now, but they're still one of my favorite things. They are fantastic for buying fresh produce with because they weigh nothing, they're breathable, and they keep produce fresh and clean. They wash very easily.

But I discovered a new use for them! They're perfect for washing bras in and other delicates in! Instead of a nylon mesh bag designed for bras, I just stick my bra in one of these, tie the top loosely, and throw it in the washer and dryer. My bras are coming out cleaner than when I used the nylon mesh bag, and I'm guessing the cotton allows more soap through. These bags make my life so much easier!


Alaffia Bubble Bath

This bubble bath is by far the best Alaffia product. It bubbles really well, the bubbles last a long time, it's effective soap, and it's great for washing hair with! I like to mix Starwick Botanical's Kelp powder, baking soda (to neutralize chlorine), and this bubble bath together. I'll wash my hair in the bathwater and soak in it for a while. Then I'll even shave my legs in the bathwater. The bubble bath stays soapy enough to keep my legs lubricated enough to shave with. I rinse in the shower after, of course. I don't particularly care for this brand's shampoo or conditioner (I loved them at first, then it started leaving residue in my hair that wouldn't wash out), but this bubble bath couldn't be better!


Mantra Sports Pilates Ring

I had to let this off gas for a while before I could use it - it's not safe right out of the box for MCS people like myself. But after it stopped being smelly I was able to play with it. The reason I like it is because it allows me to use my muscles even when I'm stuck in bed on my back. I just put it between my legs and squeeze. I put it between my ankles and lift it with my legs. I hold it in my hands and squeeze it and pull it apart. The simple resistance it offers helps me a lot when my muscles feel restless but I'm not feeling strong enough to stand up and walk around. There are probably other great similar products, but this is the one I chose and I really like it!



My acupressure mat - I still love this thing so much!!



....And more. I'm forgetting plenty of things I want to share with you, I'm sure of it, but I've been working on this post slowly all day. I'm done. :) I've leaving out obvious things I've already reviewed, such as my new organic latex bed, which I can't say enough good about! Seriously, your bed matters. A lot.

Iron and Acne

What an obnoxious winter so far! We've had about 60" of snow in just over a month. It's been a blizzard almost every Monday! Between the snow blowing, shoveling, roof raking, salting, being unable to leave the driveway for days waiting for snow plows to free our street, and trying to get hours in at work... you get the picture, between all of this I've been rather burnt out and exhausted. It's been actually very hard for me to even move some days due to the burn out. Instead of working on Part 3 of my mattress series, which I'll finish up soonish, I'm going to write about something a little easier: iron and acne.

My naturopathic doctor had me start taking pasture raised liver capsules 3x a day about a month ago. He wanted me to simply try eating liver first, but my tongue couldn't handle it and it made my stomach churn a bit. If you can tolerate liver, more power to you! The reason for the liver is to raise my iron level. Without telling him, I tried taking Black Strap Molasses with 29 mg of elemental iron. I've tried taking iron in the past during my teen years and it did help me feel way more stable and in control, so I decided to try it again to see what would happen. What happened was that I didn't feel any different at all (except for a little sugar high at times, and my yeast issues increased), but my lab values showed much better numbers:

End of 2015, Iron at 66:



If you go by Stop The Thyroid Madness's book/ support group, I was too low:




So after one month on those iron pills, my iron and CBC looked better than ever (almost everything was actually in range for the first time in years):



According to Stop the Thyroid Madness, my labs still are not optimal here, but they look much better.

My doctor received this lab and sounded a bit confused, and I told him I was on the iron. He wasn't happy with me. And THIS is why you listen to your doctor! He explained that I was "pushing" my iron without all the co-factors, which I understand to mean is disruptive to other minerals and nutrients in my body. He said if I'm going to push my iron I need to do it with all the co-factors, and the best way to do that is to take pasture-raised liver.

I've been on the liver for a little more than a month, but I have not had new labs drawn yet. I would like to do so soon so I can see what is happening. What I can tell you is that it's working. Taking the iron pills did not change how I felt. Taking the liver is changing how I feel. I haven't felt anemic and faint since taking them! I've felt weak from not being able to breathe well, low blood sugar, and maybe even low blood volume, but not the anemia-like weakness. I feel strong even while fatigued and exhausted. I'm not used to feeling strength below the tired.

There have been plenty of side effects, though. The liver pills are certainly stirring up my liver, which is not in great condition. I've had lots of rashes, acne, nasty prolonged PMS, and a much heavier period. This makes sense considering the liver does help make sex hormones. It also is the first detoxer in the body. My stirred up liver is pushing toxins out through my skin, causing the rashes and acne. Add hormone issues to acne issues and I get super acne issues. It's not been fun. The majority of this acne has been under my jaw near lymph nodes, which also makes sense to me.

So what do I do about acne? What helps?

STOP EATING SUGAR! Sugar does nothing positive for the body, only negative. It's highly acidic, makes the pancreas and liver work overtime, feeds bad bacteria and yeasts, feeds infections, penetrates a weak gut lining, usually goes right into fat storage, causes hormonal imbalances... and the body tries to detox it through the skin.

Figure out your food intolerances. For me, dairy and grains both gave me acne and I didn't figure that out until I first went gluten free for a year, then dairy free for a while. My skin improved so much. Then I met my doctor, who had me cut all starches, grains, dairy, sugar, moldy foods, and nightshades.  I stopped getting acne except around my period, and it cleared up very quickly after my period started.

Okay, got those down? Good, now what to do about acne that defies preventative causes:

Aztec Indian Healing Clay mixed with Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar as a mask:

The darker areas are where it went on heavier. I simply pour about a quarter sized amount of clay in to my palm then pour just enough vinegar in my palm to make it fizz and turn into paste. Then I rub the paste in my hands and spread it all over my face and neck. I let it sit for 20 minutes, then typically shower to wash it off, but a wet warm cloth to scrub it off will do. It pulses my skin in the process, and after I wash it off it feels like my skin is breathing. The vinegar leaves my skin pink/ red for about 20 minutes, then my skin looks so refreshed! This stuff sucks junk out of pours with a magnetic bond. It feels amazing. The vinegar feeds the skin nutrients and kills bad bacteria. I love this stuff.

Note: French Green Clay is supposed to be the best kind of clay for acne, but I haven't tried it.

Desert Essence Blemish Stick

This is one that I reserve for bigger, more painful acne that I want to get rid of faster. It does work well, but it's a bit drying and irritating to my skin. It features tea tree (and this brand makes a high quality trustworth tea tree, it's not a knock-off or low quality version that other brands use.) Tea Tree is antibacterial and it does help clear up rashes and acne for me. I use this brand's tea tree soap for rashes. It does work, I just have to be careful not to over do it.

Badger Balm Beauty Balm

I'm a huuuuugggeeee fan of Badger Balm products in general. They're mostly organic and use safe low doses of extracts and essential oils that are strictly for a purpose, not a fragrance. I can't tolerate their orange oils, but I've done very well with all their other aromatherapy products, when I don't tolerate many essential oils in general. I typically stick to their unscented line anyway since I don't care for fragrances anymore, even when I don't react to them.

This beauty balm is ultra moisturizing, but doesn't clog pores. It has seabuckthorn, an oil known for healing skin blemishes. I find that this balm is anti-itch, soothing, cooling, very moisturizing, and noticeably healing. I when I'm broken out I use it as my face moisturizer, let it soak in for 15 minutes, then apply my Lauren Brookes Cosmetiques or Mineral Fusion make up.


Organic India's Amalaki
Make sure you're getting enough real whole food vitamin C. I really like Organic India's Amalaki, which is rick in vitamin C and has the ability to pull out oestrogens. Basic abscorbic acid (what's used for "vitamin C" in synthetics) is often made from mold, yeast, or with high VOC chemicals like formaldehyde. It's also incomplete - it needs bioflavanoids to complete the vitamin C, so why not just take a whole food version that doesn't have to be reconstructed?

I keep reading about Camu Camu being a great source of vitamin C too, but I like the alma berry (Amalaki) better because it has the oestrogen balancing effect.


Additionally:

• Eat your fats: drink bone broth, eat coconut oil, drink collagen, eat gelatin, eat the fattiest cut of steak, eat avocados, use real butter, etc. Your skin and brain need good healthy fats in order to function. Make sure you're feeding yourself what your skin needs.
• Drink organic fair trade green tea (certifications are important since non-organic green tea can contain high amounts of fluoride, aluminum, and pesticides.) It's a natural antioxidant. Then press the used wet green tea bag against your acne!
• Get chiropractic adjustments. Freeing up nerves that can't communicate well due to a spine that's out of alignment can significantly increase circulation in your body, and better blood flow means faster healing.
• Use a pimple popping tool for the ones that are ready to pop. In my experience, popping the ones that are ready with this tool doesn't leave scarring or bleeding.

Let me know in the comments if you have more good advice!

Make Up - Why wear it?

I've been asked a few times why I take a chance on wearing make up when I'm fully aware of the toxicity of make up products. I've covered this before, but I'll give a slightly different answer in this post.

First and foremost, I'm extremely careful about the make up that I use. The brands that I like best (that I've tried) are Lauren Brooks Cosmetiques, specific products from Mineral Fusion (their liquids contain dimethicone, which I don't tolerate, but their powders are great), and MyChelle (which I'm not linking to because they discontinued their make up line - which is such a shame!)  These brands are very careful about their ingredients, upholding strict standards. Their missions are to be truly non-toxic, mineral and flower based make up. They're also fragrance free!

Secondly, I'd like to give you some picture examples:

This is me without make up, after washing my face and moisturizing (with Badger's Unscented Face Oil):




This is me after applying Mineral Fusion's pressed powder foundation, eye liner, and mascara:



The make up makes me look a lot more alive and healthy, right? Okay, I'm super pale and I'm wearing my summer shade of foundation, lol! I'm out of my winter shade. I can't hide the eye bags with eye make up, but I can distract from them and reduce their appearance. That's worth a lot to me. When I'm at work or with friends or with family, I'd rather them not see just how tired I really am. I like to fool people into thinking I'm normal. I'll be very open and honest here on this blog, but in person, I want to look and act my best. It makes me feel better; it makes me feel like I have more energy than I do simply by looking the part.

I also don't wear make up every day. I pretty much only put it on on work days (3 days a week) or when my husband has a performance I'm able to attend.

I'd actually encourage those of you struggling with chronic fatigue to do this every once in a while. Put on some fun clothes, do your make up and hair, and enjoy the way you look. You have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself. Don't do it to make a statement. Do it for you - remind yourself how you can look and be. If you let the fatigue rule you, you'll start to give in to it and let it determine how you always feel. I know, I know. You don't feel like putting the effort into it. Believe me, I know! But when you're feeling slightly better than usual, go for it! You need to remember who you would be if you were not sick.

Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques - This post a work-in-progress

*I will be updating this blog post as I try each of the lip color samples.*
*Please forgive formatting issues in this post - Blogger makes it very difficult to align photos and there are spacing problems I can't seem to control.*

I recently won a a give-a-way from Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques of these Color Fusion Lip Glaze samples. I agreed to try them out and review them.

Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques is all about natural and organic beauty products, and I've been impressed with their ingredients. I have been curious to try their products for a while, and so I'm thankful I have the opportunity to try out their lip glaze!



Review of the lip glaze itself, not the color:

I don't wear lip colors very often because they tend to feel either dry and heavy or slimy and loose. Lip color needs to be maintained because it either fades or comes off whenever I eat or drink. In other words, lip make up tends to be a hassle that I don't like to deal with. I like to wear make up that I can apply easily and needs very little touch up throughout most of the day. I enjoy well colored lips, but not enough to have to check my lips in the mirror every hour or put up with dry lips. My favorite lip products have been tinted lip balms that I can apply like ordinary chap stick without a mirror. This Lauren Brooke lip glaze needs to impress me in order to win me over!

I found it very easy to apply. I used a basic lip brush made from natural fiber to paint it on my lips. It spread very well. It was smooth, easy to manipulate, and evenly spread across my lips. What I noticed right away was that it felt very moist and creamy, but not sticky or tacky. It simply made my lips looked polished with a light shine. It did dry up a little over the course of two hours, leaving my lips look well colored without much shine. I personally am okay with that, as I'm not a big fan of shiny lip colors that bring more attention to the lips than any other part of the face. I prefer my eyes to be the focus. The lip color has not come off on my water bottle, and after 3 hours of wearing it I think I still look good. It does not look "fresh" anymore, but I don't feel the need to apply more yet.

Because it's winter and the humidity is low, I think this lip glaze will work better if I apply some moisturizer to my lips first. It is more moisturizing than I expected, though, and I think that in better humidity I would not necessarily need use moisturizer first.

I like it! I really do! I went grocery shopping after applying it, and I honestly forgot I was wearing anything on my lips. That's a great quality. Normally, lip sticks and glosses tend to feel unnatural on my lips and I'm constantly reminded that my lips are painted with something when I wear them. I normally feel lip product as I talk because it's either dry, heavy, chalky, sticky, or slimy. Not this. My lips felt normal and happy the whole time I was out shopping.  When I got home I looked in the mirror and I was still happy with how my lips looked. They were not as shiny, but the color was strong. This is a lip product I will certainly buy when my samples run out! I recommend the lip glaze!


Review of the colors:The colors were not all named when I received them, but they have been named by fans since. I'm keeping both of these photos up for my reference at the moment so I can be sure I'm using the correct name.

#1 - Strawberries and Creme
This is a very soft rosy pink, but not a bright pink. It is similar to my lip's natural shade, which I like. It looks like I just enhanced my natural colors. The first photo was taken in front of a window (it was overcast, sorry,) and the second photo was in front of my bathroom mirror in the light of basic vanity light bulbs. What I'm noticing is that my blush is not coming through in either photo - I might need to find a better blush for me. ;) (Excuse my hair - it's looooooong over due for a hair cut, but I just haven't wanted to chance a salon because my health has been so fragile lately.)


 

#2 - DragonfruitThis one surprised me. It looked like more of a bright hot pink in the container, but the color looked more gentle than that on my lips. This is a very pretty color. It's a little bit bright, and has a bit of a "party" flare to it. It goes on shiny, but the shine faded as it dried. It works on me, but isn't quite my personality. It's a shade I'll use when I'm in more of a fun mood. I did layer it twice, but my camera deadened the color a bit. I may replace these photos with ones taken in a better light later on. There was no sun today, so I couldn't get natural light.

Snow Cherry
Whoa, this one is bold. It's a strong, dominating, gorgeous color. It made my face look twice as pale as it already is, ha! I think it's really pretty, but it might be too strong for my skin tone. I tried two different lighting situations for these photos. The first one was taken after it was freshly applied, the the second one was taken about 45 minutes later. As you can see, the color did fade slightly, but it never faded anymore than that over the next few hours. I thought it looked better on me after it faded. I have been feeling overly tired (reacted pretty harshly yesterday from shopping and I'm in still in recovery) and my eyes and hair really show it in the second photo, so look at my pretty lips instead.



#3 - Sugared Hazelnut

I am going to do a new photoshoot with this color later, but I will post what I have for now. I took this on a day when I had to go out, so I took the opportunity to play with the lip glaze, but I wasn't feeling well. My skin was flushing and I was overly pale from low blood sugar and probably low blood pressure. I ended up laying on the couch all evening from being over tired. So because my face wasn't a good pallet that day (I thought make up would help, but it just got slimy and dry because my skin wasn't accepting it) I couldn't judge this color very well. My impression was that it's about as dark as I like. It's darker than my natural shade, providing definition to my lips, but isn't intense. I think it would compliment my skin well if I were tanned, but summer is too far away! It is a little more orange than red, which these photos didn't capture well.