product review – UNSULLIED

Wild About Pemberley Jones! Alima Pure and Weleda For The Win!

KathryneJul 8, 2014 6 Comments

Alright, so if you are in the green beauty community and you also happen to blog, chances are you most certainly know about a certain Ms. Pemberley Jones. Her blogs and reviews are super helpful, from DIY hair masks to informing you about her newest favorite eye cream. (You know my weak spot is eye creams…I can’t get enough!)

When Pemberley launched her store a few months back, I was not only extremely happy for her, but I was ready to get on that bandwagon. Her motto is so universal yet so supremely awesome:

Go natural, stay beautiful.

She features brands like Caru Skincare, Meow Meow Tweet, Weleda, Osmia, Lina Hanson, Kahina Giving Beauty, Acure, Benecos, Alima, Waxelene and RGB…just to name a few! She offers free shipping on orders over $75, and you will receive the most adorable little polka dot-packaged surprise in the mail, as well as some samples of our favorite natural brands.

Here’s what I got and LOVED from my #pemjo haul!

Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a NUMBAH: Tata Harper Saves My Eyes

KathryneMar 19, 2014 4 Comments

Tata Harper, to the natural beauty, is sort of like caviar to the foodie.

It’s one of the most luxurious and trusted companies out there that supports the use of all natural ingredients that are biocompatible with our skin. According to their website, Tata Harper packs between nine and 29 active ingredients into each bottle, (most cosmetic formulas contain between one and three) and they manufacture in small batches so you know that your product is fresh and hasn’t been sitting on a shelf for two years.

All right, enough love for now! Jennifer was so kind this Christmas and got me Tata Harper’s Restorative Eye Créme ($90 for 15 ml). Being an eye cream junkie, you can imagine my glee! I want to tell you what sets Tata apart for me in the eye cream department.

Falling For One Love Organics: Essentials To Go Kit

JenniferJan 17, 2014 16 Comments

You know how love compels us to do things we normally wouldn’t? Like…eat arugula, for example. (My boyfriend abhors arugula, but choked down a pizza covered in it on our first date because he didn’t want to seem picky). Or, in my case, watch and cheer for the Patriots? (I’m from Bills country. I am in trouble.) Cue the Meatloaf: “I would do anything for loooove….”

Welp, the aptly named skincare line One Love Organics elicits similar actions. Minus the emotional hangover.

You see, I’m usually knee deep in labels, looking up every individual ingredient and triple-checking products to ensure they live up to their all natural claims. But due to its stellar reputation among bloggers and customers, I let my guard down with One Love Organics…and I don’t feel a bit guilty about it. Instead, I feel confident that the ingredients used in their products are 100% clean, as stated on their website. That’s a great feeling, when you find a transparent and trustworthy brand. Saves a heck of a lot of time, too! (Though, for the record, since I’m sharing these products with you on the blog, I did do some due diligence and look up every ingredient on EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. Old habits die hard? The good news is I found zero, zip, nada to be afraid of.)

First, a few quick facts about the brand:

100% natural
Chemical-free
Organic where possible

I wanted to try a bevy of One Love Organics products, so I put their “Essentials To Go” travel kit on my Christmas list. Thanks, Santa!

Bottled Beauty: Herbivore Botanicals Facial Serum

JenniferJan 9, 2014 10 Comments

Etsy is a goldmine for handcrafted, natural skin and beauty products. I could spend hours on Etsy. Wait, wrong verb and tense. I do spend hours on Etsy.

Hence where I discovered Herbivore Botanicals! Man, if I could award a “Best in Show” superlative to any of my natural skincare products, it would go to these guys. Their super sleek, geometric branding caught my eye immediately. SO LOVELY. The good news is the nutrient-rich oils and all-natural ingredients that they pack into those beautiful little bottles are just as good as what’s on the label. Feast your eyes.

I’ve only tried out Herbivore Botanicals’ Facial Serum ($36 for 1 oz.), but I’ve perused their Etsy page at length, and I have high expectations for all of their all-natural soaps, masks and more (I mean…worse comes to worse, it’s still going to look pretty on your countertop. Joking!). I selected their Organic Pink Clay Floral Facial Mask to include in my green beauty swap with Mayah of Call it Vanity. You can read her input over there!

Give a Little: Kahina Giving Beauty Eye Cream

JenniferDec 8, 2013 10 Comments

You know who put the fear of God into me when it comes to under-eye wrinkles? KATHRYNE.

…starting when she gave me my first eye cream on my 19th birthday (thanks, girl). I wish I could say that I’ve been extraordinarily proactive since then, taking utmost care of my delicate under-eye skin, wearing SPF 60 everyday and teaching myself how to smile without crinkling my eyes (could that work?). The reality is, I’ve been doing nada for my under-eye skin for the past four years or so (I’m sorry, sensei!).

This Cyber Monday, my fear of aging finally eclipsed my nonchalance (the 20% off sale at Beauty Sage also didn’t hurt). I’m in my mid-twenties now, and while I think society’s obsession with preserving youth can be pretty disturbing, I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t want to look as fresh-faced as possible for as long as possible. It’s empowering to take care of your skin, body and face in a way that maximizes your happiness and makes you feel good about your choices (that’s what this blog is all about!). And right now, for me, it feels good to use a natural, luxurious eye cream to ward off wrinkles.

Enter Kahina Giving Beauty’s Eye Cream.

Suki Eye Lift Radiance Renewal Cream: Tales from a Recent Convert

KathryneNov 23, 2013 2 Comments

All right, listen. I have a sordid history with eye creams and products. The skin around my eyes is pretty sensitive. I think most people have relatively sensitive skin around their eyes, right? One generally doesn’t have “tough” eye skin – unless you’re like, a cowboy, or something. I have used everything from Chanel to Olay, Mario Badescu to Garnier. I would never say I have tried it all, but my quest to have moisturized, young-looking and dark circle-free eyes has really run me a relative fortune.

Since going “all natty,” though, I feel I have become a hermit of epic proportions: staying on my computer for hours looking up reviews on a gaggle of different natural eye creams. Waiting for my “sullied” products to run out, I wanted to find THE BEST possible creams for my face. My goal was to find something that was going to help me combat fine lines, puffiness, and would really moisturize the heck out of my eye area. We all know what it’s like to have to reapply moisturizer whether it’s on your face or body because it simply absorbs too quickly. My budget was anything up to 60ish dollars. That may seem like a lot for an eye cream, BUT – with a regimen of using my DIY eye cream coupled with a newly bought eye cream, I estimate it will last me four or five months. That’s not bad, eh? That’s like, 12 bucks a month. Doable!

After finding some favorable customer reviews online of Suki Eye Lift Radiance Renewal Cream, I felt ready to push off and finally make a purchase. Their ingredients were on par with my ideals (the eye cream includes jojoba oil, shea butter, green tea extract, and many others – full list below) but I was scared. I won’t lie, I have been relying on the products listed at the top of this article for so long, and although I know now that they contain crap that is totally bad and TOXIC for me… they still worked! I was happy with them! What if what was preserving my skin was the BAD stuff? What will I do now?! I await the arrival of my Suki box like a father expecting his first child in the waiting room of a 1950s hospital. I’m ready to take up chain smoking and make small talk. “When’s yours due, pal?” “I don’t know, UPS said three days, but I don’t know, okay?!”

Think Like a Hippie, Smell Like a Rose: Soapwalla Deodorant Cream

JenniferNov 11, 2013 3 Comments

Leave it to me to talk about armpits in entry #1 of this blog. Who’s excited?!

No, our underarms are certainly not the most glamorous part of our bodies, but for me, natural deodorant was my “gateway drug” to chemical-free/organic/natural skin, hair and beauty products. After I tossed my “dirty” deodorant, my chemically enhanced cleanser, moisturizers, shampoo, body wash and makeup soon followed.

What’s so bad about deodorant, you ask? That stuff keeps me from smelling like a barnyard.

Traditional deodorant has been one of the poster children for harmful skincare products. “Your deodorant causes breast cancer!” said the media. “Antiperspirants cause Alzheimers!” cried the blogs. These claims freaked me out. But the truth is, they’re a bit hyperbolized. Here’s a peek at what I do know:

A 2004 study found parabens in 18 out of 20 human breast tumors (before you shout this from the mountains, note that the study didn’t test healthy breast tissue as a control…d’oh). Parabens, some of which the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database flag as highly hazardous endocrine disruptors and allergens, among other scary things, might be found in your (not so) trusty ol’ stick deodorant. In my opinion, they are best to avoid in every beauty/skincare product (they’re in pretty much everything), whether or not the case against them is conclusive.
Aluminum, which makes up key compounds used in antiperspirants, has been linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia since the ‘60s. Studies connecting the two continue to emerge, but whether or not aluminum in antiperspirants (and elsewhere: aluminum is all over the place, even in our water and some veggies) definitively causes memory loss remains to be seen.
Check out our spirit guides at No More Dirty Looks for more on other controversial chemicals commonly found in antiperspirants, like triclosan and BHT.

Conclusive? Nah, but alarming enough for me to stick my hippie flag in the ground and declare war on the white stuff. Our mom always taught us to be safe (or in this case, smelly) rather than sorry. Lucky for me, and hopefully you, all-natural Soapwalla Deodorant Cream delivers on the dream of clean, chemical-free coverage. The online community seems to unanimously agree that Soapwalla is one of the go-to, works-for-everyone, all-natural deodorants. I am now a member of that chorus. This product freaking rocks, is uncompromisingly all-natural (contains absolutely nothing sketchy or scary) and keeps me so fresh and so clean-clean. Let’s walk through it.