JASON Pure, Natural & Organic Hand & Body Therapy Lotion

If you’re looking for a decently priced paraben, mineral oil and petroleum free vegan lotion, one of my favorites is JASON Pure, Natural and Organic Vanilla Hand and Body Therapy Lotion. 

 I like to change it up with lotion.  I have at least twenty different kinds on my dresser. I’m not exaggerating.   Yes I know that’s ridiculous.  But I just get bored using the same thing every day.  And I wear at least three different lotions on a daily basis.  So I have lots.  And I’ve tried lots.  And I think I can pretty confidently say I know my lotion.

Anyway, I tend to think of organic or natural lotions as too expensive and not good enough to be worth it.  By not good enough, I mean that I’ve found some of them to be runny instead of thick and/or creamy and they don’t often smell as yummy as I want them to.  But I keep going back to JASON whenever I run out, because the quality is so high it’s like any chock-full of chemicals lotion.  And you can feel way better about what you’re putting on your body.

The vanilla scent is delicious.  It’s a good blend of “I would love to eat that” with just a right amount of floral thrown in so that you won’t actually try to.  I haven’t tried any of the other scents, but I feel confident recommending them if vanilla is not your thing.   

 The lotion texture is not super thick, but relatively creamy and feels luxurious.   It leaves your skin soft and quenched.  Some lotions make you feel like you immediately need to reapply, but not this one.  I love it. 

-Scent: 4.5 (Very nice.  Sweet but not too sweet. Somehow it’s not my favorite vanilla but it’s in the top 10.)
-Health: 4.75 (Natural products, but not completely organic.)
-Ethics: 4 (No animal cruelty in making their products, but they didn’t say anything about if they hold their suppliers to that on their website.  Also, there was no mention about giving back on their website.)
-Price/Value: 4.25 (It’s not cheap, but it’s not too expensive either. It’s worth the price for the value!)
-Does what it says: 4.75 (Definitely.  Very lovely.)

Overall: 4.5 (Great quality you can feel pretty good about using!) 

LAVANILA Laboratories - The Healthy Body Butter - Vanilla Coconut

LAVANILA Laboratories has created a body butter that it deems "The Healthy Body Butter".  Sounded great to me!  I am a total vanilla person and always looking to be healthier, so I was obviously immediately interested in this product. 

The funny thing is that I completely hated the Pure Vanilla scented products that they make.  That scent is very very strong and floral.  I am not into floral vanillas at all.  I want like sweet, yummy, edible-smelling vanilla.  I find that funny too because I find vanilla as a flavor to be really boring, but as a scent extremely pleasant.  Makes no sense really, but there it is.

So anyway, after I was disappointed with the Pure Vanilla scent, I almost gave up on LAVANILA altogether.  But then I noticed that there was a Vanilla Coconut scent!   I clearly had to try it and when I smelled the deliciousness I clearly had to buy it.  If you don't like sweet scents, they also make a Lavender Vanilla and a Grapefruit Vanilla and a few others as well.

The body butter is not nearly as thick as (what I think of as) a normal thickness for lotions deemed "butters", but it is still very pleasant.  It is very rich, yet absorbs easily and is a great moisturizer.  The scent is pretty light and not overwhelming.   It's a great light butter for supple summer skin with a light beachy scent.  Fabulous and yummy!

Ratings:

 

Scent: 4.5 (Delicious but not too sweet or overwhelming.)
Texture: 4.5 (Smooth and creamy and easily absorbed.)
Health: 4.5 (The company seems dedicated to Healthy products!)
Ethics: 4 (Haven't heard anything about good works, but they do healthy well.)
Does what it says: 4.75 (A great light moisturizer with a great light scent.)

Overall: 4.5 (Dreamy!)

LUSH Sugar Babe Shower Scrub

LUSH is my new obsession.  I love their stuff.  My friend got me into it by talking about all their wonderful products, and of course I was not hard to attract to a company who hand makes their products, cares about where their supply is coming from, is conscious about packaging their products, and puts mostly fabulous ingredients into them.  And their logo is bright and catchy too.  Yay!

Anyway, so their stuff is fabulous, and my friend and I started a monthly trip to LUSH for supplies.  This month is only the second trip, but we are excited.  I expect the tradition will live on.  It's definately a day out activity because there are only two stores in CT.  One is at the Danbury Fair Mall, and the other is at Mohegan Sun.  In bigger city areas, they are easier to come by.  Or you can always order online.  

So yes, about the Sugar Babe Shower Scrub.  When I think shower or body scrub I always think  liquid (well, cream or gel, really).  This is a solid scrub.  At first it weirds you out a little.  But I've figured out how to use it, and I LOVE it. 

What I do is break off a chunk to take into the shower or bath. Once the half ball is broken, the center is softer, and easier to use.  I place the chunk on the side well away from any water spray (it will fall apart if you get it fully wet) until I am ready to use it.  Once I am at that stage in my shower process, I step out of the spray, grab the chunk and use my fingers to take a little bit of it into my palm.  I rub that small amount on one part of my body, (i.e. thigh) and smooth around to exfoliate.  Then I continue using little bits on different body parts until I've covered all the body parts I wanted to. :)

The relatively small half sphere lasts longer then you'd expect.  It really depends on how much you use, and how many body areas you cover.  For me (and I cover most of my body when exfoliating) it lasts 5 or so showers.  That's really pretty decent.   It's less than $5, and though most scrubs may be bigger and last a little longer, they are also more expensive.

You do have to be careful with it, because it can crumble easily.  That's why I don't attempt to break off small pieces, but use big chunks and then just pull a little crumble off with my fingers.  And I also don't store it in the bath, but in the closet so it doesn't get wet and become mush.  Also by bringing in only a chunk, if it does get wet by dropping it or something I don't lose the whole thing. 

Sugar Babe is dreamy.  The smell is delicious, and it has a core of coconut oil, so not only are you smooth from exfoliating, you are also given an extra dose of moisture as well.  I exfoliate as my last step in the shower, and so I get that little boost of moisture at the end to prepare my skin for the day.   So you feel totally smooth and wonderful all day.  Who doesn't want that?  

Ratings:

 

Scent: 4.5 (Delicious but not too strong)
Texture: 3.5 (A great exfoliator, but falls apart easily.)
Health: 4.5 (I recognize most of the ingredients. No parabens, but it does contain sulfates.)
Ethics: 4.5 (Lush uses fair trade and fresh ingredients, seems great as far as I can tell.)
Does what it says: 4 (A great exfoliator but it falls apart easily so it can be a little hard to use.)

Overall: 4.25 (Very lovely!)

Some other fav LUSH products:

Zoya Natural Nail Polish - Erika

 

Zoya Natural Nail Polish was a great find.  I've worn nail polish almost constantly for years and years.  Senior year of High School I won a joke award, the "Sally Hansen" Award, because I was known for wearing polish at all times, usually at least 2 colors, and for changing frequently.  In recent years I haven't had time or patience to change it every couple days like I used to, but I still prefer to be polished rather than not.  

Anyway, as I've become more and more aware of what I'm putting into and onto my body I started to feel really guilty about the whole nail polish thing.  They put so much junk into that crap its AWFUL.  I decided to look for an organic alternative.

What I found out was that it's pretty much impossible to make a nail polish that is organic.  LOL.  Zoya, however, is formaldehyde, toulene, camphor and dibutyl phthalate free.  And they also make items such as polish remover, anchor coat, top coat, and quick dry drops that are also free of these agents.  I can feel pretty good about that. 

My first Zoya purchase was a set of fall colors and a set that included a top coat, anchor coat and drying drops.  They worked just as well as any other polish regimen.  I was hooked.  Why go back to using products that contain all kinds of horrible things when they can clearly be made a lot healthier, and work just as well?  Some colors don't wear as long as others, but I find that's true with all polish brands.  Nail polish always stays better you use a complete polish regimen, and Zoya is no exception.  These are decent across the board.   I've since enlarged my collection to about 20 colors.

The Erika color I picked out on a whim because I tend to stay away from girly colors.  When I found out it was named Erika, I thought it was perfect!  (Although I didn't understand why it wasn't yellow.  I had a friend named Erika who loooooooved yellow.)  It is really more peachy than pinky, I know the color swatch looks more pink (at least on my computer).  I wanted something subtle and girly for when I feel like being a little bit pretty.  Two coats is very nice: subtle, smooth, professional and decently long lasting.  Love it!

Ratings:

Texture: 4.5 (Very smooth, with a backgroud subtle orange sparkle.)

Health: 4.25 (It's still nail polish even though it is better than regular polishes.)
Does what it says: 4 (It is a pretty good nail polish in terms of length of wear.  Not the best, but good.)

Overall: 4.25 (Very nice!)