Mmmmm...Coconut oil

Its funny to think back a few years and realize how far we've come in our quest to live a healthier life, particularly in the area of beauty and self-care products. Our home used to be filled with scented candles and room spray, and my makeup bag contained beauty products that met two criteria: cheap, and pretty-smelling. Six years ago, I broke into hives after putting on the body lotion I'd been using for ages and over time, I started reacting to pretty much every product I tried.  I went through the usual suspects at the drugstore, ventured into higher end beauty stores and gawked at the prices, and tried small, independent retailers of "natural" products. Some were far too expensive, some filled with noxious chemicals despite their "natural" labels, and some just didn't do the job. I was frustrated, rash-y and annoyed. Until this:

Jay was the one who finally found coconut oil and holy cow, I had a solution. THE best moisturizer, hair conditioner, lip balm, eye makeup remover that I've found and it was really natural, not just labelled as such, inexpensive and as an added bonus, can be used for cooking.

 I realized that I'd been approaching my search for the perfect products in the wrong way- it had never occurred to me to look back to nature. I'd been sucked in by shrewd marketing and thought I'd need to spend bazillions of dollars to get what I needed. How silly is that? It just shows how powerful the beauty industry is and I'm so happy to be on the road to finding a better, more natural way to take care of myself. Its not an easy process, to be sure, and I'd be lying if I said that my makeup bag had no harmful products in it all, but I'm on my way and at the very least, our family is committed to finding the least harmful ways to take care of ourselves. 

So. Coconut oil. Best thing ever. 

And also, olive oil for baby massages and castor oil for massaging gassy babies' tummies.  Don't let anyone tell you that you NEED fancy packaging and pretty labels and ingredients you can't pronounce. Don't get sucked in to the idea that everything has to come out of a lab when there's plenty available in nature that will do an even better job.