AUGUST 2019 INSTAGRAM ROUNDUP

A little over a month ago I did a demo on my stories showing you how I cleaned my brushes. It was my first time using this new cleaner.

Not too long ago I would use sponges to put my makeup on so I could throw them away every week. I’m a bit ocd! I still use a sponge to put my primer on and I do still throw it away every week. However, I use a brush now for my foundation & blush/bronzer. I had just been using face wash to clean my brushes but YL recently came out with this brush cleaner so I had to try it out.

I haven’t had any face issues with this new cleaner. I’m always worried anything new will cause me to breakout but this hasn’t at all & it cleans my brushes SO well. I swirl my brushes on the soap and then rub them against the silicone pad in my sink. It gets ALL the excess makeup off. YL sells a silicone pad but I already had this one from Sigma.

The cleaner is made with lavender, lemon and orange essential oils! It is free from sulfates, parabens, synthetic dyes and colorants and it is even gluten free! I wash my brushes every weekend and love knowing that I’m cleaning them with non-toxic ingredients as they’ll be put on my face.

If you want to make your house smell like summer put a few drops of Orange in the diffuser. 🍊I actually keep this one right by my kitchen sink because I use it every night in my disposal. When I’m done doing dishes I throw a few drops of this down the sink and turn on the disposal. It helps keep the sink smelling fresh! How do you use Orange? I’m always looking for new ways to use it!

I have tried several different mascaras and this is the combo I love right now. Let me note that my Loreal primer is NOT clean! I always try to reiterate that perfection isn’t always attainable and that’s okay! This is a good example. I have been using this primer for years and I just truly love it so much and I haven’t been able to find an alternative that works yet…. I am looking though!

Since my primer is still “dirty” I make sure to choose better mascara. I switch up my mascaras often but recently I have been using the Honest Beauty one. Most natural mascaras I have found flake really easily. This one isn’t quite AS bad. This one actually has primer on one side and mascara on the other. To be honest I just really don’t like the primer. It doesn’t do anything for my eyelashes. I do really like the mascara wand though! It gives my lashes lots of length, which I love.

This mascara is free from parabens, paraffins, silicones and synthetic fragrances.

GIVEAWAY!

How cute is this little fox hand sanitizer case?
With school starting soon this is a nice little addition to a backpack or purse to help keep germs at bay.

This stuff kills 99% of germs. 👍🏼 To win a bottle and this cute little 🦊follow this account, like this post, comment below and tag a friend in your comment. Multiple entries allowed- just tag a new friend in a separate comment.

Entries will be taken up until tomorrow August 9th at 9:00 pm central time.

Not sponsored by Instagram- must be 18+ to enter and live in the United States.

In keeping with my eye theme this week, today I’m gonna tell you about what mascara and eyeliner I use. I don’t wear these every day because #lazy but I do love them so much!

First up- eyeshadow. I absolutely love Young Living’s Savvy Minerals eyeshadow. The EU has banned over 1,300 ingredients in cosmetic products. They are WAY ahead of us unfortunately. All of Young Living’s makeup is free of all of the EU banned ingredients & other ingredients all listed out on the website including: formaldehyde, phalates, synthetic preservatives, talc, sulfates, triclosan, parabens & more. These are very concentrated so you only need a tiny bit to make a big impact. I love that because it means these will last a long time.

As far as eyeliner I really like the Beauty Counter stick eyeliners. I have both brown and black. They glide on easily. I prefer this type of eyeliner as opposed to a powder so these work great for me. They are EWG verified which means the ingredients are A-okay! If you need anything from BC hit up my girl @mindfulingredient. She’s my sweet friend from college & she is a BC consultant.

My old toothpaste contained dyes, carrageenan and “unspecified flavors”. It is not highly ranked on EWG or Think Dirty. Carrageenan is a food additive and even though it’s “natural” (it comes from seaweed) it is not good. It can cause a lot of digestive/stomach issues. (This is found in a lot of dairy products so check your milk!) There is no need for it to be in my toothpaste. Remember, just because something is “natural” doesn’t mean it’s automatically good!

I actually got this Young Living Aromabright toothpaste for free in my ER order one month so I obviously tried it out. I have continued to use it since then! It has peppermint and spearmint oils in it so it has a nice minty taste. I love that YL has products for almost everything I normally use, including toothpaste!

No synthetic dyes, artificial flavors or preservatives.

When you’re switching out products it’s a good idea to switch out products that make the most impact first. For instance, you wash your body every day so body wash is a good first switch. If you only wear lipstick once a month then don’t worry about changing that right away. Change things that affect your daily life more. As I’ve said before, when I first learned about non-toxic products it was from a friend who sold Beauty Counter products. I tried out a few of their products and this body wash was one of them. Using natural body wash is an adjustment because it doesn’t get super lathery like traditional ones. I have used this one for over a year now and I love it! It works well & has a nice citrusy smell. Corey even uses it!

I actually hoard this stuff and buy several bottles at a time because I can’t run out! It’s made with squeaky-clean ingredients & gets your body squeaky clean. 😉

When that 3:00 hour hits and I need a snack this is what I reach for. I keep organic cashews in my desk at work at all times! I never know when I’m going to need a little snack throughout the day.

I absolutely love cashews and they keep me from reaching for candy that’s all throughout the office! 🍬 As always, I buy organic to avoid glyphosate and other pesticides. 👍🏼 These are just cashews & salt & so tasty. 😋

What’s your favorite afternoon snack?!

Non-toxic travel items I took to Florida last week.
Lavaderm Spray: A nice mix of Lavender & Aloe that soothes burned skin. I carried this in my purse & sprayed it when I got a little sunburned & it helped make my skin feel SO much better & also sped up the healing process.

Nutpods: Most hotels these days have a coffee maker in the room. We also had a fridge so I could enjoy my morning coffee without having to use the creamers provided that are full of junk like corn syrup, vegetable oil and carrageenan (stomach disruptor) Nutpods aren’t the cleanest creamer but for travel purposes they are good to have on hand and are better than any other creamer I have found so far.
Snacks: We definitely enjoyed eating out & ate some not so good foods but we did bring lots of our favorite snacks as well. 1. Larabars- very few ingredients and so tasty! 2. Beef Jerky- organic & Epic brand jerky. 3. Skinny pop- non GMO and only contains popcorn, sunflower oil and salt. 4. Organic nuts- good source of protein. 5. Wildway granola—clean ingredients and super tasty!

Genesis body lotion for sunburned skin!

Sunscreen- I brought Young Living and Beauty Counter sunscreen.
Thieves cough drops and R.C. just in case one of us got sick. Luckily we didn’t need these this trip!

Charcoal bar soap per usual.

Sandalwood face lotion.
Baby Wipes because I never go anywhere without those.

Thieves hand soap- I love that this comes with a cap on it so I can bring it when I travel. I’m not going to use yucky hotel hand soaps.

Thieves roller bc I use it daily for immune support.

Thieves spray for the whole hotel room upon arrival. I bring a few paper towels to use as well to wipe down nightstands, sinks, handles etc…

Lavender & Thieves oils to diffuse at night—of course bringing the diffuser as well.

Ninxgia to drink every day!

Hand & hair towels. If we were driving I’d bring my own pillowcase/sheets & bath towels but for space purposes I only had room for hand towels to use to wash my face. I also brought my own turbie twist hair towels. I bring my own towels bc I want to minimize my exposure to detergents used by the hotel, plus hotel towels just aren’t my fav.

Happy Traveling!

Is anybody else obsessed with ranch? I definitely am. I’ve always loved it and I dip everything from pizza to french fries in ranch. When I go out to eat I do still occasionally indulge in some ranch.
If you’re in Houston, go to Willie’s and get a burger and fries and dip it in their ranch. SO. GOOD. You will feel like crap after but it will be so worth it.

When I went (mostly) dairy free I was bummed about giving up my beloved ranch dressing. There are so many dairy-free products out now though that finding a better alternative is easy! Hidden Valley ranch (what I used to eat all the time) contains at least 22 ingredients including soy and canola oil, natural flavors, xantham gum, artificial flavors, modified food starch, preservatives, sugar…. YUCK! All of these should be avoided.
I love Tessemae’s dressings. I recently found their Everything Bagel Ranch and it’s a game changer! Scroll to the next picture to see the ingredients. Do you see the difference between this and HV ranch? This is made with REAL food & it’s all USDA certified organic which you know I love. It is dairy free, gluten free and sugar free. I made plain chicken the other day and dipped it in this ranch and it was super tasty. This will be found in the cold section at the grocery store.

I talk about Thieves cleaner all the time on here because it’s just THAT good. I clean our whole house with this stuff & recently I’ve used it as a stain remover several times. I’ve gotten makeup on a shirt and a hat and I’ve used it to clean them right up. Bagel also had a cut so he got blood on our comforter and rug and I used Thieves to clean those as well.

I did a search and looked at most traditional stain removers and the majority of them had fragrance and sodium borate. Fragrance= unknown and potentially harmful/cancerous ingredients. I highly suggest chunking anything in your home with that ingredient in the trash! Sodium Borate= the EWG lists this as a possible moderate concern for developmental and reproductive toxicity.

I love that I can use Thieves which is both safe and effective. I spray spots with the cleaner and rub them with a paper towel and they come right out! Super easy and effective!

This stuff is a little miracle worker- it’s great for so many different things and it is super potent so a little goes a long way! For all of you who are trying to find a cost effective one size fits all cleaning solution that safe to use in your homes- this is it!

Apparently today is National Dog Day. 🐶If you know me personally you know Bagel is the center of my world! He’s my best friend and I’m obsessed with him. As I’ve transitioned to non-toxic living I’ve also been working on making his little world non-toxic as well. Most dog treats are full of junk unfortunately and I’ve been on the hunt for better ones.

I happened to find these treats @Orvisin Florida! I hadn’t ever seen them before but I looked at the ingredients and fell in love. This specific treat only has organic barley flour, bananas, peanut butter and bacon. That’s it! Bagel loves them! He typically isn’t a fan of treats like this (he hates Milkbones) so I wasn’t sure if he would like these but he actually does! I think it’s because peanut butter is like cocaine to him… 🤪 His mouth literally waters when he even hears the words “peanut butter”. I also love that these are from a family owned/small batch company. I love to support small businesses so I will definitely be ordering from them again.

Check these out for your furry friends!

Swipe right to see some of my favorite pics of Bagel over the years. 💗 I miss his cute puppy face!

It might surprise you to know that whenever I use an oil and it works it still surprises me. I didn’t grow up using oils y’all! For all of you who think people who use oils are weirdo hippies- I get it. 😂 I too used to think that. I am SO thankful these are part of my life now though.

The other day I was having awful cramps due to a health issue. I always just try to push through pain but this specific pain was terrible and kept lingering. I grabbed my Panaway and rolled it on and within minutes the pain level went from about and 8 down to a 3! I use oils daily but even then I was like oh wait— yeah these things DO work! This is a great oil to keep on hand for pain.

Somebody reached out to me a while ago because her friend had just had a miscarriage and she wanted some oils to give to her to help with the healing. One of the oils I gave her was this one. 💙 Lately I’ve just felt like God has been using my suffering over the last year to help bless others which is why I share all of this oil and non-toxic stuff now. I never would have thought I would be able to help myself and others with these little plant juices. 🌱 & it all started with me somewhat randomly buying a starter kit from a college acquaintance.

I think it is so important to buy organic foods so when I grocery shop I buy everything organic that I can. I do sometimes buy non-organic avocados because those are on the “clean 15” list though and half the time my avocados end up going bad before I can eat them so I don’t waste $ on buying them organic all the time. Also, if something isn’t offered in organic (like Larabars) then I obviously just buy the traditional item while still evaluating whether or not I should buy it based on ingredients. I took an inventory of 15 items from my grocery trip last month and did a price comparison of what I paid vs. what I would have paid for a more traditional/non-organic choice of the same item. Swipe right to see my notes. It only cost me $24 more dollars to buy the “better” choice.
I know not everybody can buy all organic but if you can I recommend doing it! I was actually expecting it to be way more of a difference than what it was.

The “Dirty Dozen” are items that you should always buy organic because they are the most heavily sprayed with pesticides and glyphosate so if you can’t buy anything else organic, start with these foods. They are: strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery and potatoes.

I hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day weekend full of football and dove hunting! 😉 I’ll be cheering on my Sooners!

I talk about oils all the time on here but I’ve never shared how to clean your diffuser!

It’s really important to make sure you clean your diffuser regularly so it runs properly. You should wipe down your diffuser after each use and make sure it gets nice and dry. If essential oils start to build up on the plate, wipe it down with a cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol. If essential oils build up on the outer lid, wash with a mild soap and water only.

Easy as that!

I’ve posted about Valor before and how I use it as a non-toxic perfume. I have a roller in my bathroom at home and in my gym bag. I wanted to get another one to throw in my purse so I’d always have a little refresher with me so I snagged this pre-made roller.

For me, the easiest way to use my oils is by having a roller! I love being able to just quickly roll on an oil and go!
This blend smells SO good! It’s one of my favorite oils. I love knowing that I don’t have to give up “perfume” just because I don’t use traditional perfume anymore that is FULL of toxic chemicals.