I ran across a fun you tuber recently who was having fun critiquing woman’s skin care routines. I was having a giggle at his reactions to young woman doing this and using that and he was coming from a place of experience in the skin care industry.  I won’t lie I was a little intrigued at his intake.  He seemed informed.

Then he went on a little rant about DIY’ers.  Then he had MY ATTENTION.

His opinions were very much against the notion of people making their own skin care concoctions and I was really perplexed by this.  He made what seemed to be well-informed opinions on why this or that ingredient can be too harsh for your facial skin, how coffee grounds are too sharp and irregular to be good for exfoliation (don’t disagree with that).  There were more reasons there,  and for the most part he made sense and it gave me “food” for thought for a while.

Don’t forget I use almost 100% DIY body products and makeup.  Almost 100 percent. That I make myself.

We all live in this world of Monumental Marketing.  We are all bombarded with advertisements galore, social media, pressure to remain youthful and fit.  We all want great health, glowing skin and rockin’ bods.  Well I do. Im pretty sure YOU DO TOO.

What we are NOT, are SCIENTISTS or DOCTORS.

Nope!

Not me, not you (well maybe YOU, probably NOT YOU EITHER)

What we DO have is GOOGLE, BOOKS, BLOGS, YOU TUBE, LIBRARIES and our own bodies, our peers, our mothers, our children, and our BESTIES to learn and grow with.

This IS the information age after all isn’t it?

yes.

I am pretty forking proud of my little ole education and experience.  I also have to navigate things like marketing rules and laws.  I can’t make claims.  I can’t diagnose and prescribe (yikes, wouldn’t want too).  These lurking liabilities have kept me in my kitchen making my OWN skin, body, pet, family and home care products, maybe some for my MOM or DAD, maybe my friends,  but not making them PUBLICLY.  I chase my son with goos for his rashes and snot looking potions for his bouncy cowlick I adore.  I make after shave serums for my man, I make my own foaming hand soap and of course you know I wash my hair with TEA (right now its Coffee, and rice water… and aloe.)

I was standing a whole 3/4 of an inch taller until this adorable and funny, obviously experienced young man popped my bubble.

Was I really being one of those naive “mom bloggers” who believes I am saving a dollar making a facial mask out of coffee grounds?

uhhh

YES???

Am I really doing MORE harm to my skin because I am using potentially dangerous and way too strong ingredients from that cucumber I peeled, squashed and slathered all over my face (don’t really do that) ?? wait WHAT?

 

Another recent happening that came across my path was all this drama around a popular hair product for curly hair types called DevaCurl (google it or go to youtube and search it)

I AM also a curly girl (ok, my spirit animal is…ANIMAL from the MUPPETS) that’s my hair type. Once in a while strands coil up like a spring and I get all excited.  I tried to figure out my curl type (its A for ANIMAL) and I tried to figure out if its porous or not. I still don’t know. 

anyways,

I like to imagine  my hair looks like this:

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

but it really looks more like this:

Don’t judge, I need a trim.

Its sooper very impossible to be a stylin curly girl when you are product free.  (not entirely true) but very tricky.  Believe me I tried.  Try and decipher all the lab created ingredients in a tub of something that has exactly zero English words in it.  You see chemical ingredients are non-pronounceable because they are not English,  they are LABISH.

Every single curley bird out there (well the curleygirlmethodones) is constantly experimenting with this gel and this conditioner, this poo or no poo and I see this miracle product and that one each week and it makes me squirm for many reasons:

ONE I am not going to ever have those gorgeous goldie locks because rose tea doesn’t do that and two, its freaking expensive and I am a minimalist.   THREE: the amount of synthetic fragrance, un-pronounceable chemicals, additives, preservatives and laboratory created liquids designed to make you GAWJAUS isn’t good for your body.

I don’t want to be a lab rat.

I want to be ANIMAL, bang on my drums and SCREAM, but I also want pretty hair and glowing skin.

Making my own DIY everything empowers me.  I actually know that what I use to style my wild wavy curly mane is something I can pronounce.  Has ingredients that I purchased myself from a supplier and/or company that at present I trust (and when I don’t, I move on. … that’s purchase power my friends).

Im like the A LA CARTE of body products.

umm Yes.. I’d like a side of beans and a side of celery, please leave out the rest of the nacho, because corn scares me, I don’t know how you made your salsa and, well, lard freaks me out.

thats me.  except I like nachos in real life.

I make my own flax seed gel and not only is it the best hair gel I have ever used (but doesn’t smell like a pina colada) but it also slathers my skin with omegas, anti-oxidants, proteins and love.

Does YOUR body products include LOVE. NO I THINK NOT.

That said, I’m not a scientist, I am a CERTIFIED mommy blogger (Mom +Blogger=Mlogger) I may not have conclusive proof that flax seed gel is the fountain of youth and the miracle hair cure, but I DO KNOW it won’t give you scalp issues, cause gobs of hair to fall out, depression or cause me a lawsuit.

I am not selling it to you (although I should) I am SHARING my experiences and hopefully inspiring YOU to make a cup of snotty goo from a quarter cup of whole flax seeds, that can be later reused and either eaten or composted or given to your dog? idunnoyoufigureitout.

What does a quarter of a cup of flax seeds cost?  Just for fun let’s say it costs a quarter (its probably less) add in that pricey cup of filtered and fluoride-free water and BAM you have a sustainable, zero-waste, plastic-free, petrol-chemical-free, (harmful)-chemical-free, fragrance-free blob of snot-gel.

I should call it FREE, and then charge you for it. ?

I am really unclear why this needs defending.  DIY created PINTEREST .

I am not defending this, what I am is perplexed.

IF YOU wanted to be a rock star you could add a couple of drops (a couple is two in case you were snoozing in 3rd grade) of rosemary essential oil. The 100% pure kind, not altered or diluted or messed with by a sleazy seller (that will be the other half to this me only conversation) and you have home-made-DIY-italian smelling snot that is…wait for it…

….

AMAAAAAZING for your hair, SCALP, SKIN, or vegan muffin recipe.

Can your shampoo do that? for a quarter?

yup, i’m defending now. jeez

So the takeaway is this, YOU you very cute and entertaining young man whose name escaped my mind and also I am not here to be negative or ranty.  This man’s opinions made me take a really deep look at my own.  Also I LOVED his video. Also I would love to sit with him and have this conversation, debate style, with nachos, where I cream him at arm wrestling or settle this with rock/paper/scissors/chemicals.

ding ding. I win.

 

Every time we walk the isles of Target and chose a body product we make decisions based on packaging, based on marketing, based on chemicals that make us think its doing things we need.  We make choices based on commercials and celebrity endorsements, based on the SMELL of the product based on the packaging and based on the ingredients.

and that is no easy task.

Not even if you KNOW what ingredients you do and do not want in your body products and on your skin (and consequently IN your body).

Thousands of my Curlierthanme sisters are mourning right now one of their FAVORITE product lines, feeling betrayed, suffering medical issues, loss of their gorgeous hair and feeling lost and betrayed.

Maybe it was an ingredient that was changed or maybe the manufacture found a different source.  These products are tested for safety but not in the way we may think.  It also may be in the packaging. It is UNCLEAR but the takeaway for me is that it is SO DIFFICULT to make informed choices when so many of the parts of the whole are beyond the knowing of us regular every day consumers.

THIS EXACT issue is what drove me into my kitchen. Well, not at first. At first it was just cool to make my own anything, then it was about cost, THEN, after an education that changed my feelings about what is in our bodies,  did it become a mission.  Darn you school.  I loved pina colada shampoo.

Its NOT BASED out of FEAR, its OUT OF A NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for MY OWN BODY and that of my FAMILY, AND PETS.

As someone who has a great education and credentials in Essential Oils. Herbs and Nutrition,  I am appalled at how difficult it is to make informed and trustworthy choices.  AND I KNOW BETTER.

Things like “100% PURE” or “All Natural” or “THERAPEUTIC GRADE” makes me bonkers. (it turns me into Animal)

because its used deceptively. 

I started out this post being a little sad,  and feeling a little deflated.  But now I see, with just a wee bit more clarity, that I stand behind what I do and why I do it.  Its a multi-faceted complicated issue.  LIFE is complicated.  Trying hard to make all the right choices is a fuller than full time job and sometimes, I think, its good to take that wild hair that you can never control, and let it out, let it be not perfectly curly, not perfectly in place, stop worrying so much and let your spirit muppet (animal) fly.

Also I don’t think skin-care or body product companies LIKE that I am off the grid and promoting what I do, as if they know. LOL

Im not a customer and I am defiantly not the target market.

luckily for them there aren’t too many of me.

now if you’ll excuse me, I need to whip up somethin fun.

cuz Im a rebel.

For reals though: be informed and take that shaggy haired yak thing by the reigns and figure out what is good for you!  If you want a lesson on making stuff, hit me up.