Product review - Clarins eye contour gel

After my previous post, Anti aging creams: are they effective or not it's time to write about an eye contour gel.

What should we know about Clarins?

I found these claims on their official site:

• They were the first french company in 1987 to ban animal testing and has also banned the use of cellular extracts of animal origin since 1991
• Clarins set a global objective to reduce greenhouse gases by 20% by the year 2012.
• The safe use of every Clarins product is at the center of the Laboratory’s concerns.
• Clarins prefers to use raw plant ingredients, natural ingredients from organic farming practices, and plants grown locally or from a Fair Trade program
• Overall weight and volume is reduced, recyclable material is reused, new printing techniques are always being investigated
• Today, if given a choice between a synthetic ingredient and its plant-derived equivalent, we always choose the plant
• etc

It sounds so amazing, doesn't it? A company who puts their consumer's interest into the first place, uses plant-derived equivalent, raw plant ingredient and natural ingredients from organic farming practices is rare treasure lately.

Anti-aging creams: Are they effective or not?

Oh, those fine lines and wrinkles...When they occur, we know that our teenage years are over forever.

And every women (and men too actually) who care about her skin, start to look for anti-aging creams in that hope that they can stop and reverse the aging process.

We can find countless anti-aging creams on the market which promise for us almost eternal youth.

But what's the truth? Are they really effective or are we wasting our money? Which one is better: the cheaper or the expensive one?

Before I start to answer these questions, let me explain some things about wrinkles.

Product review: Alaffia Shea Butter (Lavender/Mint)

I was planning to do to this review long time ago, but I wanted to wait until I use this shea butter up.

I chose Alaffia Shea Butter, because:

• It's hand crafted
• It's fair trade
• It's unrefined
• 10% sales fund community projects

Alaffia shea butter is from central Tongo. Originally I wanted to buy the unscented shea butter, but accidentally I ordered the lavender/mint -spearmint- one.

And I didn't regret it! It reminds me of the smell of a spa:) You know, when you enter into the spa, this is exactly the same smell. I am an esthetician and I got used to this smell through the years.(But it's a strong smell, so if you don't like the lavender/mint smell together, then choose the unscented one.) And the weird thing is, I can't smell the smokey kind of shea butter smell, although my family told me it smells like forest or wet bark/wood chips. (But for some reason I couldn't smell it.) Anyways: I like this lavender/mint smell.

How to choose a good, natural moisturizer?

The question first is why we should use a moisturizer and do we really need it?

As I mentioned in a previous post before (Product review - Pond's dry skin cream), the hydratation of the skin depends on the work of the natural moisturizing factors (NMF- a natural mixture of amino acids, lactates, urea and electrolytes, which help the stratum corneum retain water) and how much water gets into the body (basically how much water you drink).

With creams we just get temporary solutions, so the best if we start to drink plenty of good quality water and as a supplement use a moisturizer cream. If you want your dehydrated/dry skin back to its healthy state, then you have to understand what caused it and what it needs. Your skin reflects your health.

Product review: POND'S Dry Skin cream

I am sure everyone knows POND's. They exist since 1846.

Just from curiosity I checked what Pond's company says about their products. Altough I already saw the ingredients of their Dry Skin cream, I really wanted to see their claims.

In my opinion, it is the perfect example how marketing works: give a misleading/false information to the consumers, tell them how good is your product and make them belive that if they purchase the cream they will do a good deal.

If you are a conscious consumer you know what really matters it's the ingredients. No one can tell you anything, because you know what to look for.

Product review: Aubrey E Plus High C Natural Roll-On Deodorant

I was so excited to try this Aubrey deodorant, because I have read lots of good things about this company and their products.

I checked their site to get more information about the ingredients and it was kind of ok, but not the best and when I got my deodorant, the ingredients were way more detailed than on the site (which is good), but I got some surprises as well. The reason why it is more detailed: under Canada law you have to include every single ingredient in the products. US law is not that strict.

So I tell you what ingredients I don't like in this deodorant and why:

• Alcohol Denat.
• Tocopheryl Acetate
• Ascorbic Acid
• Cetyl Alcohol

Alcohol Denat.

It is an SD ("Specially Denatured") Alcohol. It is basically ethyl alcohol denatured with lavender in this case. EWG (Environmental Working Group): "Specially denatured (SD) alcohol is a mixture of ethanol with a denaturing agent."

Product review: Head & Shoulders Itchy scalp shampoo

I still read comments about this shampoo ( and other products) where people think it's not harmful at all, because it's on the market.

The ugly truth is it doesn't mean anything if a product is on the market, this is NOT a guarantee for safety. And if you read my other article about Why natural/organic products are better?, then you will understand what I am talking about.

People often don't read the ingredient list on a product, they trust the companies and this is what the companies are taking advantage of. I read somewhere: "If it has more than six syllables you probably shouldn't put it on your skin" and in most cases I agree with that (but not always).

I found that Head & Shoulders shampoo contain harmful ingredients and it's still on the market.

Ingredient list of Head & Shoulders shampoo for "Itchy scalp".

Pyrithione Zinc (1%),