A new beauty product line on the shelf means a must try in my book. We're not talking blush or lipstick, but conditioner and face lotion. BWC, Beauty Without Cruelty is the brand. Not everything from them is gluten free, but they do have a nice tab on their website that lists out the gluten free options. I have been trying out their leave in conditioner for about the last month and I really like it. I'm more used to a spray leave in, versus a cream, which is what this one is, but if your hair is in need of extra conditioning, this seems to work well.
ll get overly stiff when it dries.
I have been working hard on using up my chapstick stash that I have in the house, and when I made it to the last stick I realized how much my husband hated it, and how I just could bare it's lemongrass flavor, so I tossed it, and picked up a stick of Kiss My Face Vanilla Honey Lip Balm with SPF 15. Interestingly, it does not smell or taste close to Vanilla- at all! It smells and tastes more like chocolate cake, and it's really thick feeling. The stick doesn't get soft in your pocket like some do, but then it also feels like it just sits on top of my lips and doesn't absorb.
I am very particular about the type of toothpaste I use. Most toothpastes leave me feeling dry and chalky, and most are mint flavored- I HATE mint! I also have problems with dry mouth. After many, many rounds of trial and error I think I have finally found the perfect toothpaste for me, and believe it or not it was my dentist who introduced me to it: Biotene. 
I was out of conditioner and so it was time for me to try something new: Earth Science Deep Conditioning Masque with olive and avocado. It's thick, creamy, and smells great! It made my hair so soft, smooth, and shinny, that I was obsessed with my hair for the first two days that I used this. Now it is a deep conditioner that you're supposed to leave in for 5 minutes, so I wouldn't suggest using this every day. Right now I wash my hair every other day, and use this conditioner once a week, and use a different product the other days of the week. And at $10 or less for a 6 OZ tube I think this is a great deep conditioner.
About 2-3 weeks ago I sent out my old, ikky, cheap nail polishes and then yesterday a box arrived with my 6 new nail polishes from Zoya: nail polish that is "formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and camphor free- long wearing, healthy, vegan friendly formula." I can't wait to get another pedicure to have my toes painted with one of these awesome colors! If you have not yet taken part of their exchange program, you should- you have until June 30.
About two year ago when I confirmed that my favorite body butter was gluten free I was so relieved. Now I confess I have not reconfirmed the companies gluten free status recently, but my skin hasn't alarmed me of any changes in their formula. Which body butter do I use, you ask? Hempz Body Butter. I've tried various lotions on the market, but I always come back to my beloved Hempz Body Butter. I would consider the product average in price. It's not the cheap stuff you'd find at the drug store and it's not a high end line. It's about $16 for an 8 OZ container, which lastly me about a month, when I lotion regularly. This is one of the few products that keeps my skin moist, and for longer than the first hour after application, and it kills any urges I might have to scratch.
ntly, with the change in the weather, I wanted to wear shorts, but I am white as can-be, and it's usually a 2 month process of me building up a tan before I'm actually comfortable wearing shorts in public. I wanted a product that would help decrease my time line, or negate it all together. The Hempz Touch of Summer product does give you a nice, almost immediate glow, not a glittery-fake look, and it doesn't come off with water, per say, but it does come off if you wipe your skin down while wet (after a shower), so I learned to air dry. Also, it doesn't really streak like other true "self-tanners" usually do. Overall, I love the Hempz lotions.
Dr. Bronner's is a long standing company, offering organic and fair trade soaps and beauty products. They have a complete line of organic lip balms: lime, peppermint, ginger, and what they call Naked- which is the one I decided to try. Yes I know, I already had plenty of sticks in the house, but a couple were low, and will be out soon, so I spent the $2 on yet another stick of lip balm. I like that it contains beeswax, without being the first ingredient, because I find blends without beeswax in them melt much too quickly in your pocket when the weather heats up. It has absolutely no scent from what my nostrils are telling me, and a very mild tasty, from what my husband tells me. It's soft, but not overly soft, and keeps my lips moist for a relatively long time.
Anyhow, my newest purchase was Lizard Lips, with an SPF of 22. It's a gluten free, paraben free, and petroleum free product. I have their original, but in the process of researching the product for this post, I discovered it comes in 4 flavors!, including Tangerine Dream, which greatly excites me. The product, regardless of flavor, is super soft. I mean it's like a hard stick of chapstick that's been sitting in your car on a medium warm day. Not so soft that it falls apart, but just nice and smooth. It's certainly not waxy like I found Badger Balm to be.
I stumbled upon yet another gluten free lip balm and of course I had to try it. Badger balm was a product I found online and wanted to try, and then there it was on the shelf at Ulta. The basic chapstick stick is about half the size of this .25oz stick, and those usually sell for $2 or $3, but this one was $5. In fact it's so much thicker you can actually coat both of your lips at the same time, instead of doing the top and then the bottom. I suppose that's a plus because it's a time saver, but it's kind of strange, just because I'm used to chapstick being a particular size.
Next to the register at my local health food store I found a new lip balm I had not seen before: Zambeezi. Zambeezi is a product of Zambia, Africa, and proceeds of this product go towards jobs and income of African tribes near the Miombo forest.
As a female, I'm a rarity, as I generally do not wear make up. Getting married and having my make up done was pretty much a shocking experience for me. As a result of that I now have a make up bag, but hardly use any of it. The one thing I really do need help with, depending on how much sleep I've gotten, are the circles under my eyes. My veins are super close to the surface, so whether or not I'm rested, the circles are just with me, but I can end up looking like I was hit in the face if I'm really tired.
three product lines, each of which feature the companies key ingredients: carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The Yes to Carrots line is for those with normal to dry skin, providing beta-carotene through the entire line of lip balms, hair and skin products. Beta-Carotene has been shown to improve skin health (one example here), and since skin is the largest organ, why won't we want to take good care of it. There is also the Yes to Tomatoes line is meant for those with oily skin, and the Yes to Cucumbers, for those with normal to sensitive skin.
stick 100% Natural Lip Butter Contains:
If you're new to the gluten free diet have you thought about all those other things besides for the food that might have gluten in it? I know it took me awhile to convert all my beauty products to ones that I knew were safe for me. And if you are gluten free, are you sure your beauty products are?
Recently I was given a new lip balm to try from Organic Essence. Now before I share my thoughts on this product I have to tell you that I am a lip balm freak. I go through a tube a month for sure, maybe more. My dad used to use the original "chapstick", the one with the black label, the entire time I was growing up. I used that one for a long while, and then switched over to their newer 100% natural lip butter line a couple years ago. I've tried at least a dozen kinds, but I always end up coming back to "chapstick".
Deodorant: my personal struggle. I hate it when I find a product that works for me and then they discontinue it. I had my go-to-deodorant-stick for years and then a little over a year ago they discontinued it, and ever since then I've been hopping from brand to brand looking for a new deodorant that is gluten free, aluminum free, and actually works! The closest thing I've found is Tom's of Maine Apricot deodorant; I have a reaction to the Lemon Grass scent, and plan to try out the sensitive care line from them next. Most recently, however, I purchased a roll-on from Naturally Fresh. I don't like the roll on at all, and it doesn't seem to work for me either, meaning within 30 minutes I need to put more on, although because I'm on the hunt, I probably will end up trying out their wide stick with aloe vera eventually. I haven't tried out the Jason or Desert Essence lines yet, but when each stick is $5 you have to stop and question. I know a lot of people stop and question the price of some of gluten free mixes, but for me it's beauty products.
r years I have been taking biotin daily. It promotes the growth of hair and nails, and you can buy 1,000 mcg or 5,000 mcg, and I tend to lean towards the stronger dosage. It's not going to necessarily make your hair thicker, but it will make it grow, so whether you're losing hair or you want to grow it out, this product really helps. And for only $10 a bottle of 120 pills it will last you about 4 months. Plus, I recommend the NOW brand, as right on the bottle it states "contains no sugar, salt, starch, yeast, wheat, gluten, corn, soy, milk, egg, shellfish, or preservatives."
uct was gluten free, and was told all Nioxin products are safe for me to use. This 3.4 oz bottle ran me about $25, but after a steady week of using it my pillowcase was no longer covered in strands of hair that fell out in the middle of the night. Sure it is normal for everyone to lose a few strands of hair everyday, but I was losing more than I normally do, and now, I believe thanks to this product, my hair is back to normal. It's meant to remove any build up of product, etc. that likes to clog up your hair follicles, and promote hair growth. The company and the store clerks where I bought it tried to tell me it wouldn't work, or work as well if I did not pair it with their brand of shampoo and conditioner, but that's just a sales pitch. In any case, my hair is currently healthy and shinny, and I did it within the restrictions of being gluten free.
