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If you're familiar with my blog, you've seen plenty of my Beauty Buzz posts and reviews on beauty products - especially make-up. But, what's been missing? A post on skin care. I haven't posted one because honestly, I never found skin products that were worth blogging about. I'm 35, so my skin is starting to get some fine lines and wrinkles. But, even at 35, I'm STILL having to deal with acne. Acne AND wrinkles??? Not fair, right??? I've tried tons of products & a few were ok, but nothing really blew me away. Then, I started researching and ended up reconnecting with a friend from high school, who happened to be a representative for Ava Anderson Non-Toxic. Now, before I get into what products I love and why I love them, I want to address something else first: a practice known as Greenwashing. Chances are you've been greenwashed, like I was. When I became a mom, life changed a bit. I made a lot of assumptions. In hindsight, they were unsafe assumptions. I bought products for our household - personal care as well as cleaning products - and I trusted the label. I trusted those big brand names that I recognized. I trusted the labels when they'd read natural or organic. But, I wasn't doing the research for myself, until recently. Unknowingly, I'd been exposing my family & myself to carcinogens, chemicals linked to birth defects, allergens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins - the list goes on. A quick Google search will reveal to you baby products, that up until recently, contained FORMALDEHYDE!!!! Our skin works like a sponge. Think about the nicotine patch or the birth control patch. Those items are applied to your skin because they're a quick delivery system. Now, think about all of the products - potentially toxic ones - that we've been applying to our skin, and therefore all that is being absorbed into our bodies. So, I started researching products that were truly non-toxic (not just ones that CLAIM to be). I started utilizing resources like the Think Dirty app for my phone as well as http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/. Go ahead. Download the app. I'll wait. Type in or scan some of the products that you have in your home that are "natural." Shocked at what you see? So was I. I decided to give a few products in the Ava Anderson line a try. I was blown away from the first few uses & want to share some of my favorite products with you. My absolute FAVORITE product is their Diaper Cream. Yes, I've used it for it's intended purpose, but this is quite possibly the best multi-tasking product I've ever used. My hands get horribly dry and cracked - especially in the winter & most hand lotions burn that cracked skin. This diaper cream gave me immediate relief. I've also used it on my boys eczema - which it has also helped clear up. And, are you ready for this? As my daily moisturizer. I never wore moisturizer before. As I've mentioned, I've got really oily & acne prone skin & other moisturizers just make my face oiler and break me out. This has done nothing but IMPROVE the look of my skin. My skin is soft, not oily & is no longer breaking out. This product is EVERYTHING.
The next product I fell in love with was the Night Serum. Now, as someone with oily skin, the word serum usually sends me running the other way. But, not this one. All I need is 1 pump of the serum to cover my face. It goes on light & leaves your skin feeling insanely soft. And the next morning, when I wake up, my skin still feels soft - not greasy AT ALL. It's got COQ10 to help combat wrinkles & sun damage & helps resurface & smooth out your skin. Check out these pics of my poor chin. I'm prone to breaking out there and end up with a lot of scarring because of the constant breakouts. These pics were taken just a week apart. I'd been using my Night Serum at night, Diaper Cream as a moisturizer during the day and using the Cleanser (which is also AMAZING) twice daily. The breakouts STOPPED and the scars are starting to fade.
Now, the next 2 products I want to tie together - the Hand Soap and the Hand & Body Lotion. I wash my hands a million times a day (which also contributes to them being dry and cracked). I decided to give this hand soap a try because it's specifically formulated for those of us who are constant hand washers. It eliminates germs & bacteria, but doesn't dry your hands out. The hand and body lotion is a great compliment to use after washing. It absorbs quickly (so you're not left with greasy hands), but keeps your skin super soft.
Two more products I want to tie together are the Baby Wash & Shampoo and the Baby Lotion. My boys both have super sensitive skin that's eczema prone. But we've switched over to using the wash - for the body as well as their shampoo & I'm loving the results. It gets them clean, but doesn't dry out their skin & I've never seen their hair so shiny. The baby lotion is great too. It's like the diaper cream, but not as thick. It goes on nicely & absorbs quickly and the boys LOVE it. They actually ask for it & they've NEVER asked for lotion before.
Now, let's get dirty. I purposely made a big mess in my kitchen the other day. Grease, grime, dried stuff on the counters. When I try new cleaning products - I want to make sure I'm using them on some tough conditions. Normally when I clean, specifically the kitchen & bathroom, I always feel like I need to open the windows because the chemical smells can be overwhelming (and quite frankly, not safe). But, when it's 0 degrees outside, the windows stay shut. So, once I'm done cleaning, I usually have a nasty headache from breathing in all of that crap. So, the smell of the Hard Surface Cleaner was the first thing that caught my attention - it smells divine. Delicious even. AND even better, it did the job. I've cleaned the stove, microwave, counter tops, sinks, toilet & sink with it and it easily cut through the dirt, grease & grime. The glass cleaner is great too for my mirrors. Just a few sprays and NO STREAKS!!!
And finally, let's talk hair. I have my hair cut & colored 4 times a year (damn gray hairs). And I wash it every other day, sometimes every day if I had a really sweaty workout. So, because of the constant washing & the products I've been using, my hair usually feels like straw. Dry. Damaged. Brittle. I've tried other popular shampoos that are more commonly labeled as "cleansers." Because they don't have the sulfates, they don't lather (and that's ok). But, with any of those that I've tried, my hair doesn't respond to them. My hair looks greasy, dirty and like I didn't even wash it in the first place. So, when I got the Ava Anderson shampoo, I really wanted to put it to the test. I'd gone 2 days with no hair washing and had worked out both days. It was nice and greasy and dirty. I didn't need a whole lot of the product & because it's doesn't get all sudsy when you use it (again, because of the lack of the harsh sulfates), I didn't really know how good of a job I was doing at washing my hair. And this is where I really put it to the test. I didn't use the conditioner the first time. Just shampoo. I got out of the shower, towel dried my hair and then headed to blowdry it. No serum on the ends. Just my blowdryer and a round brush. I. Was. Shocked. Usually I have to flat iron my hair to get it to look THAT SMOOTH. It was soft, shiny, smooth ad frizz free. Blown away.
If you're looking to transition your current products over to some non-toxic ones & want to give Ava Anderson a try, just click HERE. All orders placed this month with Party ID: 54697 will be eligible to win an Ava product from me!