KimmyLand

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Growing up ain’t easy.

My birthday is next week. Holy crow! One more year older. Am I excited? No not really, I’m kind of panicking to tell the absolute truth! Being in school has set me back a few years and I am unable to really say with certainty when I will be able to be on my own. I hardly think this is the time to start stressing out about my future, but I somehow cannot help but stress out a little bit. I’m sure my parents would like to enjoy their retirement sometime soon!

I’m only mentioning (well bitching about actually) this because I got to witness first hand how much money it actually takes to move out (this is mortgage wise, not renting). It is not even funny. I feel as though I (we) will never be ready. I don’t want to grow up, pay taxes, pay down a mortgage, or give the government one cent of my hard-earned cash.

Excess Baggage

I did it!  I officially cleaned out my beauty arsenal.  That’s right, I pretty much threw money down the drain in aspirations of ridding myself of paraben and other harmful substances.  Now you are all probably wondering why I did this?  Well fairly recently my family has been on somewhat of a “live better” approach to life.  And this consisted of taking a better look at what we are putting on ourselves everyday.  It all started with playing “where’s waldo” with the ingredient “paraben” and absolutely every piece of soap, lotion and cosmetic known to my household and their ingredient lists.

After this, I took it upon myself to do a little of my own research and I found a really good web-site that consists of a database of all harmful substances in which beauty products may contain.  Please visit http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ if you are interested.  I know I spent quite a few hours on it this weekend just researching products.

So anyways, to be more specific, I threw out most of my eye-shadows, lip glosses and pretty-smelling lotions and in exchange started purchasing mineral make-up, natural and chemical free moisturizers, and aluminum free deodorants.  It didn’t take me long to realize being healthier is a bit more expensive than bargain hunting for pretty beauty products.  But in the end, I think it will be worth it.  I will let you all know in a few days, weeks, months just how I feel – and that my friends will be the basis of whether or not going natural has instant benefits.  I know results of my decision to use more natural and chemical-free products will not show for years, but I like to think that I will feel the benefits a whole lot sooner.

Let’s start with a beauty review (I know already?):

I used Bare Escentuals a while back, and totally fell in love with it – back then I only tried the foundation though.  This time around I decided to buy the whole starter kit (hence the whole spending a pretty penny for more natural products from the previous paragraphs).  You can find this line at your local Sephora, and let me tell you, it feels so natural on your face.  It’s not like liquid foundations where it feels like your wearing a mask.   And best of all – and honestly what sold me – their makeup (minus a few products) is essentially paraben free!  :D  I’ll let you know in a few weeks how this brand is working out for me.  For now, check out their website!  http://www.bareescentuals.com/  Most of the products can be found on sephora.com as well.  I find sephora to be ubber helpful (and this goes for any brand really) because almost every single product on there has customer reviews.  I find these reviews super helpful because the women using this stuff are like me (not a professional cosmetics associate), and if they are finding it hard to use or impossible to apply – chances are I will find the same result.

xo

K