My Learning Curve

Wow! I thought I have reached a small plateau in my beauty learning curve, but I suddenly found a whole lot of new and good reads through The Body Shop Blog, after voting for Viva Woman to win the Naturally Beautiful Blogger Award.

Those other blogs offer perspectives that are different, refreshing, and thus brings me new beauty knowledge. As usual, I like to take down notes as I read, and here are some of the highlighted ones that I want to incorporate in my life, and so wish to share with you:

1. 5 Wonderful Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
~ by Beauty Secrets Revealed

Picture Courtesy of Beauty Secrets Revealed

Actually, I have known of Apple Cider Vinegar for 10 over years already. And I have tried drinking it before. But gave up, cos it is just too horrible to down a normal 250ml cup.

But what caught my eye is "just ingesting 2 teaspoons before meals"!

hahaha. That's so clever!

For locals who have listened to FM97.2 and know of Easy Billy/Dongfang Billy, you may have heard of him talking about using Apple Cider Vinegar for slimming. My mother bought his "secret recipes" book back then. But he didn't say in his book that 2 teaspoons before each meal is enough. So I tried to drink a whole cup a day. LOL.

Note: The book was written as a notebook about the food explorations done during his fight against throat cancer. Accordingly, he says that those health recipes helped him recover from cancer the first time. Unfortunately, the disease has now returned, after some 10 years.

2. Minty Mouthwash
~ by Wellness Oasis

Picture Courtesy of Wellness Oasis

What I really like about this is that it does not contains alcohol. Alcohol mouthwash can actually be bad, as alcohol is drying, and may end up inducing bad breath instead. There are also tonnes of worries of how alcohol mouthwash have the same effect as drinking alcohol, thus causing cancer etc.

Also, Wellness Oasis has so many super duper natural recipes for weird things, like nail treatments, footspray, deordorant etc. haha, just like how Viva Woman has yummy DIY masks recipes and more.

I totally must try all these out some time.

3. My #1 Piece of Health Advice
~ by All Natural Annie

Picture Courtesy of All Natural Annie

To fight flu, just use "one finely chopped clove of garlic and a tall glass of water".

Sounds like a really good idea! I normally drink 3 in 1 ginger tea if I feel the flu coming. I never knew garlic could be drunk like that.

I don't like to take medicine when I fall sick, because I belong to one of those who subscribe to the belief that taking so much panadol and antibiotics will make your immune system so use to it, that you develop resistance towards simple medicine, like panadol. And then you will end up having to take stronger and stronger medicines. But potent medicines have A LOT of side effects. Don't forget, they are still drugs afterall.

So natural garlic method is the way to go! =)))

Note: I have a friend who was wrongly diagnose of SARS during the SARS period, and he was made to take the SARS antibiotics, because the country just couldn't risk having someone out in the public with suspected SARS. It now ends up that he complains his body has weakened drastically, and he has lost his pre-SARS size and muscles. Basically, he said "it's just not the same anymore."

4. Interview with Patricia M. Bannan, registered Dietitian.
~ by All Natural Annie

I am so glad to find this post, as it gives a very good list of health food to swap your current meals for. This is something that I have posted about, but mine is an incomplete list, and also does not explains why each food is good.

I think those who like me, are trying to eat healthier, will find the tips really useful.

Below is a snippet of the list that I have taken the liberty to make. All credits to All Natural Annie and Patricia M. Bannan:

You hear of a lot of top 10 lists for healthy food/super foods, what top 10 items come to your mind when you think of healthy food?

1. A variety of colorful vegetables (e.g., spinach, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli)
   
2. A variety of colorful fruits (e.g., oranges, berries, kiwis)
   
3. Whole grains (oats, quinoa, barley, whole wheat)
   
4. Nuts (e.g., pistachios, almonds, walnuts)
5. Omega 3-rich fish (e.g., wild salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel)
   
6. Beans (e.g., black, kidney, garbanzo, navy)
7. Lean meat and poultry – natural when possible (e.g., Hormel® Natural Choice® deli sandwich meat)
   
8. Whole soy (e.g., tofu, soy milk, soy nuts, edamame)
   
9. Tea (e.g., black, green, white, oolong)
   
10. Low-fat dairy (e.g., plain low-fat yogurt, skim milk)

1. 
   

Enjoy!

Something to Say About The Body Shop

I am sure a lot of us know of the TBS Atrium Sale at Tampines Mall, and have been there already. My SO and I have also been there, and gotten some loots. =)))) Congrats to those who have picked up useful things and saving beauty money!

But what really makes me want to write about TBS is that I cannot understand why people keep thinking it is natural. And some try to argue their way out.

I am not against TBS, in fact, I like their products, and think some of them really works! But I feel that it is great injustice to really, truly natural and/or organic brands that TBS is seen to be on the same level as them. So I hope to open things up, and shed some light on this issue.

TBS products are NOT natural. Neither are they going huge on being natural with their products. They don't even have a full fledged mineral cosmetics range. The closest I can think of, which I have not seen in Singapore stores, is what Viva Woman alerted the public to: Nutriganics from The Body Shop.

They are just practising beauty ethics, and being Green, and eco-friendly. (In fact, I am not sure if going to far-flung places and digging out new plants is REALLY eco-friendly or not. For those who have studied human geography, and know about the side effects of eco-tourism, and eco-industrialization, you know what I mean.)

Step 1: Feel their bottles. Squeeze it.
You will notice that the plastic is very much softer than others. Look at the plastic label at the bottom, and you should see a triangle with 1 inside. That is plastic indication, meaning Polyethylene Terapthalate.

It is low strength plastic that is recyclable.

So if you want to be more beauty natural and eco-friendly, please kindly recycle all your TBS bottles. =))) I do! I wash out the soap from the bottles and send them to my Town Council's fortnightly recycle group.

Step 2: Look again at their paper bags.
Notice that they give you takeaway bags without handles for small purchases, and large paper bags for things like the Tampines Mall Atrium sale. These are all made from recycled paper. And of course, you can, and should recycle it.

Step 3: Look at their movements and promotions.
The Help is At Hand, Stop Sex Trafficking advertisement is still around in some MRT stations. Movements like these help us to be aware of the less fortunate around the world. So help if you can afford the hand cream. =)

Apart from the things that our eyes can see, here is the rest of the Green efforts that they are making: Values & Campaigns: Our Green Efforts.

The Reason - Why I say they are not natural in terms of products
Step 1: Look at the ingredients list.
All the bodywash the I have seen contains SLS.
I did not get rashes from it, to my delight. =)

Step 2: Look at the ingredients list again.
Their body lotion and hair creams etc contains a lot of silicones which some, including me are quite sensitive to.

Step 3: Compare the ingredients list to something organic.
Now you will see the difference. TBS has mainly all chemicals.

haha, so that's all for bringing justice to truly natural and/or organic products.

Below is a you-can-try-it-too list: (they are all things that I like from TBS)
- Cassis Rose perfume
- Brazil Nut Anti-Frizz Hair Cream
- Honey Shampoo
- Musk Shower Gel (this is my favourite. ALL the other flavoured gels are just simply, flavoured, nothing special.)