Poetic Pits Natural Deodorant (Plus a Giveaway!)

Posted by:  Jordan

 

One of our in-the-know readers, Serena, told us that we absolutely must try this deodorant, Poetic Pits, because she loves it so much.  Her review was so compelling (my favorite line:  ”Once I was in a restaurant only wearing the petal [scented deodorant] and someone at the table next to me kept raving about my perfume.  I did not want to tell her that she was mistaken–I was not wearing a perfume, it was just my deodorant!”) that we immediately reached out to Living Libations right away to see if we could sample a few of the scents to review.  They generously sent us four scents to try out: Palo Santo, Petal, Radiant Earth, and Rose.

The Rose scent is both my and Emily’s favorite of the ones they sent, but the Lavender and the GigerLily both sound beautiful too!  So, here’s the best part: they actually work as a deodorant!  And these tiny little bottles will last you forever because you only need a swipe or two per arm.  I often wear it to the gym and I smell lovely the entire workout.

The idea behind these deodorants is totally revolutionary; they use just very powerful essential oils to work with your body chemistry to act as an “odorant” instead of a “deodorant”.  I was a little skeptical that they would work after my numerous trials in natural deodorants, but they truly do keep odors away.

There are a couple things to note with this natural deodorant, though.  The first is that if you don’t like the scent of sandalwood, you probably won’t be a huge fan of the scents of these deodorants. All four of the scents we tried are extremely strong on the sandalwood oil and very potently scented–which is what makes them so effective–but it could be a turnoff to some.  The other thing that Emily and I found in testing these is that if you wear them all day and then don’t shower at night, you will stink to high heaven in the morning.  I’m not sure what it is, but we both agreed that we smelled HORRIBLE if we didn’t shower at night after wearing this deodorant the whole day.  So just be prepared to either shower before bed or right when you wake up the next morning!  Other than those two things, these powerful little “odorants” are pretty rockin’!

So who wants to test these amazingly effective deodorants out for yourself??  I have two to give away–Petal and Radiant Earth.  Both are the 10ml size, worth $70!!!!  Just leave a comment below to be entered.  For bonus points, share this post on Facebook or Twitter so your friends can enter to win too!  The giveaway will end at the end of the week on Friday, April 5th at midnight EST.  The two winners will be announced on Saturday (sorry, continental US mailing address entries only this time!)  Good luck and please continue to keep us informed of all your favorite natural products!

Another winner, another giveaway!

Posted by: Emily

Our randomly-selected winner (thanks, random.org) of the Vapour Lip Gloss is… Hallie Kapner! Thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats to Hallie! 

Stay tuned for another giveaway coming up. We will be posting about it soon, but in the meantime, you can get yourself a bonus entry before the contest even starts by commenting below and letting us know what brands/products you’d like to see us review!

Have a great day!

Ask a Junkie

Posted by: Emily

Last week, a reader wrote in with the following question:

Hi Emily and Jordan,

I am looking for a replacement for my Lancome Juicy Tubes. I love the way they shine, the color lasts forever, and they smell great, but I want to find a more green/healthy alternative. Can you help?

I am not kidding that LATER THAT VERY DAY Jordan brought over a new lipgloss we’d received in the mail from Jane Iredale. Incredible timing, incredible Gloss! Jane Iredale has just launched a brand-new formulation of their best-selling PureGloss LipGloss. Here’s what their website says about it:

Our lip glosses have always been one of our most popular products and now we’ve made them even better. We’ve improved the packaging so you get a flatter, sexier tube with a longer wand and more product. We’ve also improved the formula so it protects and nurtures your lips with state-of-the-art ingredients and a wonderful flavor – berry fresh.

What they don’t mention, which is very important to me, is that this new formulation has removed it’s previous first ingredient, Bis Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate 2, and replaced it with Triisostearyl Citrate, followed by a bunch of nice, natural oils.

I still wish it didn’t have Triisostearyl Citrate, something I wouldn’t find in my kitchen pantry, but I looked it up and there’s no data on it on EWG’s Skin Deep Database, so I asked Jane Iredale’s specialists about this ingredient and got this reply:

Triisostearyl Citrate is a jelly derived from citric acid which gives texture and glide; it is jane iredale’s  natural alternative to the petroleum-based ingredients traditionally used in other lipsticks and balms.

Citric Acid gets a “2″ rating on Skin Deep (Low Hazard), so that sounds okay. Here at PJR, we like to provide you with all the info and let you decide what ingredients you feel comfortable with. 

The Jane Iredale PureGloss is amazing. It truly feels, looks, and smells like the glosses of my glory-days using chemical products, but it’s natural! Like our reader’s request, it lasts long, has tons of shine, and has that delicious sticky-glossy feeling that chemical glosses like Juicy Tubes have. I have missed that. I’m now a really big fan of Jane Iredale PureGloss!!! I slather it on constantly.

The shade Jane Iredale sent to us is Spice, and I love it. It’s a my-lips-only-better-and-glossier shade, like Bobbi Brown’s Buff from the old days, or Stila’s Blackberry lip glaze.

I personally like a lot of shimmer in my gloss, so I hope to get to try out Jane Iredale’s Iced Mocha or Sangria soon. Beach Plum looks good too… I want to try all of them!

Just a side note:  I had previously thought that Jane Iredale was like Vapour Organic Beauty or Revolution Organics, where all the products are just totally, unquestionably natural, but not all of Jane’s stuff is. And that’s okay– no judgement here, just education. Just be sure to look at the ingredients and decide what you’re comfort level is. It’s a great company– really wonderful products, and the products that are natural are terrific. (See Jordan’s review of the Just Kissed Lip And Cheek Stain here, a product which I love and use.) I was just surprised to learn that not everything is natural. 

But if you’re looking for a no-brainer gloss with 100% natural ingredients that you don’t have to look up, I still heartily recommend Revolution Organics’ Freedom Gloss (my fave shades are Vibe and Integrity, and the main ingredients are Castor Seed oil, Olive oil, and Shea Butter.)

I also recommend Vapour’s Elixir Lip Gloss in Sultry, a sunkissed brown (I only wish it had shimmer!!), or their Elixir Plumping Gloss (I like Coax). In fact, we are giving away a Vapour Elixir Plumping Lip Gloss in Coax (possibly my favorite Vapour shade ever!) this week! Enter below by telling us your favorite gloss (natural or not, we are not judging!!) in the comments below. For an extra entry, post this blog entry on your Facebook timeline or tweet it. Winners will be announced at the end of the week.

P.S. When I checked back in with our reader who was missing Lancome Juicy Tubes, she said she’s trying (and liking!) Burt’s Bees’ 100% Natural Lip Gloss. Looks good– add that to my list of things to try!

Aye, there’s the [sc]rub!

Posted by: Emily

Two [scrubs], both alike in dignity…

In case you couldn’t tell from the title and opening line, I’m on a bit of a Shakespeare kick. The rest of this post has nothing to with The Bard, but the products reviewed are worthy of his poetry (one more than the other, but this Lady can’t protest too much). Okay, last Shakespeare quote, I swear.

The scrub that I find truly sonnet-worthy is Splurge Skincare‘s The Rub. Oh. My. Goodness. Jordan already mentioned how much we lovelovelove this company, and reviewed the amazing scrubs, when telling you about (and giving away!) their fantastic Lip Buttahs. But they deserve more fanfare. I’d post about Splurge each and every time I use The Rub or the Lip Buttah, but I’d be posting every five minutes and no one wants that. But that’s how much I love Splurge. 

So why write about Splurge’s The Rub again? Why now? Well, besides just being awesome, they have released their new scent, Spring. The ladies from Splurge were kind enough to send it to Jordan and me to try out, and surprise, surprise, we adore the new scent.

Here’s Splurge’s description of Spring: 

Our new limited edition Spring scent captures the crisp smell of the earth coming back to life after a long, cold winter.  A blend of yuzu, a sweet, but tart Japanese citrus, combines with the bracing litsea cubeba to provide a fresh, clean scent.  A touch of ylang ylang rounds it out to give it just a hint of subtle floral . The combination smells like Spring itself.

Yeah. I know. It sounds amazing, right? AND IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN THE DESCRIPTION! And the best part about all of Splurge’s Rubs is that they are SO moisturizing. I don’t even feel like I need to apply moisturizer after a shower when I’ve used The Rub. And that’s saying a lot– I’m addicted to moisturizer, and have super-dry skin. Buy it here. And when doing so, you’d really, really be missing out if you don’t also buy a Lip Buttah or two. Seriously. My favorite is Lemon, but they’re all awesome. 

 

The other scrub worth talking about is from Nourish. Fantastic company, sold at Whole Foods, USDA organic. I love them. This scrub is good, but it’s really different. To be fair, it’s actually a Body Polish, which is a totally different animal.  It’s designed to be so gentle that it almost doesn’t feel like an exfoliator at all. It feels like a body wash, and even takes the place of one in the shower, but has a blend of organic corn cob, cupuaçu and murumuru seeds, and forbidden and jade pearl rice polish away dryness and leave skin glowing. I really enjoy it, but my only wish is that it came in scented varieties. I really love Nourish’s Lavender Mint scent. If this Polish came in that fragrance, it’d be even better. 

At $10 for 6 ounces, it’s really well-priced. If you have very sensitive skin and can’t do sugar scrubs, I recommend this one for you.

Here’s to glowing skin. Let us know in the comments what scrubs you love.

Must-Have for Spring: Jane Iredale’s Just Kissed Lip and Cheek Stain

Posted by:  Jordan

Obviously the huge perk of writing this blog is the chance to review new natural  beauty products.  But when we get to do that without buying the product, that’s enough to make me and Emily light-headed!  Now, sometimes companies send us items to sample that are good…and just that.  So it’s hard to go gaga all over them or have much to say at all, really.  This is NOT one of those items.

The Just Kissed Lip and Cheek Stain by Jane Iredale is my newest “must-never-be-without-it-again, EVER” product.  As soon as I received it I couldn’t wait to tear it open and try it out to see how the self-adjusting pink would look on my skin.  On me it’s a bright, happy strawberry-ish pink.  On Emily, it adjusted to her undertones to reveal a slightly darker pink.  We both fell immediately in love with our personalized colors!  Pink is such a cheery color for any time of year, but especially welcome as we start to anticipate Spring.

Unlike most lip stains this one won’t dry out your lips at all.  In fact, it’s super moisturizing and, since it’s a stain, very long-lasting.  I had one question with one of the ingredients in the list, Red 21,  so I emailed their customer service reps who responded immediately with a very informative, helpful reply:

The ingredient you are referring to, I believe, is the Red 21 (CI45380). Red 21 is a bromine salt that contains no petroleum derivatives and no heavy metals.  Free bromine does not occur in nature, but occurs as colorless soluble crystalline mineral salts, analogous to table salt.  It is free of all 27 allergens listed by the European Union and is approved in every country in the world.  It has passed all safety tests.  It is activated by the lips’ natural PH (acid balance) to create a unique shade of pink, that will vary with each user’s personal body chemistry and it is gluten free.

I recently returned from our annual trip to Puerto Rico and I used this dual-purpose stain every day, along with my Eminence tinted moisturizer, and some mascara.  It was all I needed to look put together for the day and it took less than 5 minutes to do my makeup each morning.  Clearly, a product that’s pretty, natural, and shortens my makeup routine deserves a permanent place in my cosmetic bag.  Now I just think I need another for my handbag!

Thank you to Jane Iredale for sending us this amazing product to test out.  We’re forever fans!  Jane Iredale Just Kissed Lip and Cheek Stain can be purchased on Beauty.com for $25.  Full ingredient list:

Triisostearyl Citrate, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Cucurbita Pepo (Pumpkin) Seed Oil, Beeswax, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Extract, Rubus Fruticosus (Blackberry) Fruit Extract, Vaccinium Angustifolium (Blueberry) Fruit Extract, Vaccinium Macrocarpon (Cranberry) Fruit Extract, Camellia Sinensis (White Tea) Leaf Extract, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Rosa Damascena Flower Wax, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Citric Acid. May Contain: Red 21 (CI 45380) (Aka 223)

Winner of Tinted Lip Buttah Set by Splurge Skincare

Congratulations to Kenzie Hill!  You won the set of three Tinted Lip Buttahs by Splurge!  We know you’ll fall in love with these moisturizing lip balms and become just as addicted as we are!

Reminder: Splurge Skincare Giveaway!

Don’t forget to enter to win a set of three of the new tinted balms from Splurge!  They’re the most moisturizing lip balms Emily and I have ever tried.  Definitely our new obsession that we’ll never be without!  Leave a comment to be entered–just be sure to do so by tomorrow, 1/8/13, at midnight EST.