Now available at Aveda: the 2009 Light the Way candle. This year’s model, which honors Earth Month and the Aveda brand’s 30th anniversary, features soy wax and a “French-inspired stress-relieving aroma exclusively comprised of Ecocert certified organic ingredients, including lavender, lavandin and clary sage”.
100% of the proceeds from the candle will go to support Aveda’s Earth Month partner, Global Greengrants Fund…
If you are looking for a natural dishwashing liquid to brighten up your spring cleaning this year, Biokleen has a great non-toxic biodegradable dishwashing liquid in Lemon Thyme. I’ve been using it consistently for a couple of months now, and have been just as consistently pleased with its scent and cleaning ability. It contains plant surfactants and grapefruit seed extract for cleaning power, and aloe and vitamin E to moisturize the skin.
The fragrance is light and totally natural, stemming from a blend of lemon and thyme extract. It smells softly of lemon juice with a subtle backbone of herbaceous woodiness from the thyme, and fills the kitchen with a scent that is both soothing and refreshing once you get the soapy suds going in steaming hot water…
For those of us on the East Coast, it has been a cold winter, no doubt about it. I'm entirely ready for spring, but meantime my skin is showing every sign of a mid-winter crisis — it feels taut, itchy and generally uncomfortable. So for the past few weeks, I've been grumbling and rummaging around for various solutions that would fit into my new 'returning student' budget!
I decided to take a chance on an Alba Botanica body cream since I've been pleased with their body washes (see my review of Honey Mango Bath & Shower Gel, and Bois de Jasmin has a review of their Midnight Tuberose Shower Gel). Their Kukui Nut Body Cream seemed like a good bet — chock full of rich nut oils plus shea and cocoa butter, hypo-allergenic, 100% vegetarian and it comes in a jar which always makes me feel that tad more luxurious…
Comptoir Sud Pacifique launched L’Eau du Gouverneur in 1993 under the name L’Homme — a clue, perhaps, that it isn’t one of the sweet fruity vanillas that now comprise much of the Comptoir Sud Pacifique line. If, like me, you’re a woman who prefers dry to sweet (see: the best [fragrances] for borrowing), you might find much to love among Comptoir Sud Pacifique men’s offerings*, which are quite different in character than the women’s and which can be found at very reasonable prices.
The notes for L’Eau du Gouverneur include verbena, bergamot, lemon, clary sage, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper, clove, cedar, vetiver and musk. If that sounds like a dense, heavy spice-fest, think again: like many of the Comptoir Sud Pacifique fragrances, L’Eau du Gouverneur is more transparent than not…
Remember those television commercials for Clairol Herbal Essences, the ones showing women having highly vocal “Totally Organic Experiences” while washing their hair? Me too. That is, I remember the beginnings of those commercials; I usually changed the channel or left the room before much of their thirty seconds could elapse. Fortunately, Clairol has been promoting its Herbal Essences line in a new direction lately, with more emphasis on the products’ effects and on their fragrances.
The new theme for Herbal Essences is the escape to a “fantasy paradise” of scent. I tried two formulas with different fragrances: Long Term Relationship (red bottle not shown, created to protect longer hair against damage) and Hello Hydration (turquoise bottle as shown, for dry hair). According to Clairol, “Herbal Essences developed each unique scent like a fine fragrance—with top, middle, and base notes.” Can that kind of composition exist in a shampoo or conditioner, the way it would in an oil- or alcohol-based perfume? Somehow, I doubt it (but I’m not a chemist, so who knows). In any case, I tried these two product pairs to see what would happen…