haul from iherb!

heh!  please indulge me and allow me to blabber on about my loots!  yes, i'm aware it does seem like i'm on a shopping spree recently, though they are generally household items and healthier alternatives to the commercial detergents.

my parent's order from iherb arrived a couple of weeks ago, and take a look at the hauls!

[caption id="attachment_1441" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Hauls from iherb.com![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1442" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Dr Bronner's Soap! My cousin mentioned that I could open a shop! only 1 bottle is mine - the rest are for my parents and sis.[/caption]

as you already know - I am switching all my hand wash to Dr Bronner's cos' it has less nasty chemicals.  My parents got the Rose Hemp and it smells really nice!  a little bubble gum like smell - in a good way.  Managed to convince my sis to change too and she got the eucalyptus and lavender.

[caption id="attachment_1444" align="alignleft" width="205"] Magesium Oil[/caption]

i got magnesium oil for myself -  see link for what it's supposed to help you with. for me, I mainly wanted to improve my sleep quality (cos' i wake up an average of 3 times per night!) and boost my energy level cos' I feel lethargic and sluggish at times.   I rub it to the base of my feet and the 2nd night I did it - I actually slept throught the entire night w/o waking up!!!

While on holiday I didn't bring it but still managed to sleep well.  Back home, I was lazy to apply (cos' I slept well on holiday so figured doesn't hurt to skip it), and the past 2 nights - i woke about 3 -5 times.  Sigh.  Not quite sure if it's cos' I didn't use the magnesium or the late afternoon coffee or the later nights i sleep.  probably a combination of all I suppose.

oh. you might like to know that you can use the magnesium oil as a deodorant!  they say to spray it directly on your arm pits, and smell-be-gone! Haven't tried that yet since I still have my Soapwalla deodorant.

There’s also pet shampoo, dental floss and shaver blades - quite amazed at the range that iherb has!

Now I know why so many people love online shopping.  if done properly and at the right places, it yields a lot of cost savings than from buying retail!

oh.  only thing - this time round, the delivery took 2 whole weeks before it arrived.  maybe cos' it's was during the new year?

itchy itchy itchy!

these past few days I've been plagued by a horrendous itch!

and i suspect it's the sweet potatoes I've been eating.  not a 100% sure, but that's the only difference since the itch started - which is kindda sad cos' I am trying to switch to a healthier middle-of-day/midnight snack rather than the high sodium campbell soup and not-healthy instant noodles.   anyhow, i'm laying off them and hope my itch goes away!

i try my darnest to resist scratching but ooooo....the instant relief is so irresitable...initially!  then that gives way to pain since your skin can only take so much abrasion.  no fun.

anyhow, if you ever suffer from an unbearable itch, you can try what I did...

1. ice cubes!  in a plastic bag and apply to your itch area and waaaaaahhhh.....instant relief!



2.  lotions

between the calamine and tea tree antiseptic cream - i actually prefer the calamine - it is a chalk like liquid, and when it dries - i find the powdery film left behind actually acts as a layer of protection from my fingers when I go into auto scratch mode!

The tea tree provides only mild relief but it's good if you need to get out of the house and don't want people staring at you - wondering what's that white film (that the calamine lotion leaves behind) on you!

[caption id="attachment_1243" align="aligncenter" width="534"] my life savers![/caption]

okay - i shall sign off now and go back to applying ice!  arrrrghhhh....so itchy!!!

toxics in our daily products and an easy way to change

over the past few months - i slowly but surely embarked on a quest to become healthier - in terms of the things I use in my house.

many reasons - big and minuscule led me to this journey.  started when a friend had health scare which made me more particular about certain ingredients in my deodorant. partly I was trying to reduce consumption, simplify my life, have more time to read and also of my easily irritated skin.

it can be kindda scary when you first start noticing the ingredients in your daily products - from your shampoo, body soap, hand wash, etc and see the list of scary ingredients.  aluminum, parabens, tricolsan, etc.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq000AF1i8&w=560&h=315]

So I started to see if I could replace the commercial products without burning a hole in the pocket.   and the happiest thing i found out??  switching to a healthier option - does not need to be expensive!  (you know when you step into organic shops that tout to sell healthier products?  ironically i get an unhealthy heart palpitation when 1 see the prices!)

In fact, if you shop at the right places, it can actually be even cheaper than the commercial stuff at supermarkets!   I've changed my hand soap, and am in the process of doing it for my parents too -  shared the info with my sis and cousin too and when they realised that it's a healthier option which is also more economical and smells darn good as well - it was easy for them to start trying.  some stuff I DIY - like my husband's hair gel which in fact made his scalp smelll wayyyyy better and in fact he said his hair is softer!  There are more I wanna try - just haven't start on it yet!



So I started a page to list the places where I shop - as my own personal reference list and also to share this info with you.  At the moment - both stores are online shops so they are able to provide better prices generally.  Will be building the list as I go exploring around!  Go check  it out if you are keen to start greening de-chemicalizing (yes, my own word) your home and whether it can help you save that bit too.

for your info, I am not a hardcore wellness person (at least at this moment) - I seldom buy organic stuff (maybe only 10%?), have stuff I'm unwilling to give up  my morning coffee!) and probably have a couple of products that I intentionally don't screen cos' i don't want to know...yet!  (like my Estee Lauder Advanced Night Recovery Serum cos' it helps heal my skin when I have those annoying pimples!), household products I love (bleach! to kill those nasty flies that reside in the drainage holes and for my toilet bowl), etc.

so I am by no means an expert.  My intention is very simple - reduce the nasties in my life and for my family so that we can stay healthier.   I would encourage you to try it - it takes just a little initial effort and the benefits of a healthier body / environment?  priceless.

Food Allergies!

shoot me please.

i spent more than an hour preparing for a new post and in my rush to meet a friend, did the silliest thing - I shut down my PC without saving my work!!  you know those days when you wanna smack yourself real hard?  yeah...i'm having it right now.  never mind, this 'new' post will be better than what i drafted yes?  argh.

anyway, today I'm going to share with you an embarrassing allergic reaction that happened to me years ago when I just started university life.

Although Singapore is just a dot, barely discernible on the world map - the commute to school was very long - 1.5 hours per way cos' home and school were at the extreme ends of our little island.  So I decided to stay in the school hostel - to cut down on travelling, and to experience what hall life was all about.

[caption id="attachment_104" align="alignnone" width="600"] stayed at a hall similar to this for a long year. campus was not so accessible then, so being the lazy bum - stayed in campus most of the 5 days and I felt so cooped! and probably also cos' home is still the best!   I remember my dad used to drive me back to school every Sunday and I sooo dreaded the trip!  Still, I had to count my blessings that i had a wonderful room-mate and it was still an interesting experience.  after the first year - I decided to take the 3 hour commute (2 ways) to school and crazily - enjoyed it!  cos' i get to see people and get to 'move' around![/caption]

with hall life - it revealed how utterly lazy  i was in settling meals.  hall food looked really blah and unappetizing and it doesn't help that I'm a picky eater.  So I thought 'okay lah - since hall food looks so yucky - I shall eat sandwiches.  besides Goober Jam and Nutella are easy to prepare and...FABULOUSLY YUMMY!!'.

at that time, I didn't realize how important diet is to our bodies do I happily ate my Goober Jam and Nutella breakfast, lunch and sometimes even dinner!!!  I kid you not - I'm mad that way.

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignnone" width="300"] i used to LOVE goober jam! the lovely swirls of nutty peanut butter, mixed with sweet jam.....oooo....no wonder i was so addicted to it before.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_95" align="alignnone" width="250"] okay - i used to LOVE nutella (though Goober was my ultimate favourite!!), but in recent years, I started appreciated good dark chocolate made with cocoa butter (instead of all the hydrogenated oils and all) - and realized actually nutella is not as tasty anymore. too sweet for me now![/caption]

So happily I indulged in my peanut butter / hazelnut craze...and many weeks/months later - I started noticing a pus ridden gigantic pimple (~8mm!!) on my right knee cap - much as it appeared on a really strange location, I didn't think much of it and it eventually went away. but when a 2nd pus ridden pimple developed on almost the same place on my other knee cap - i paid a little more attention, but didn't know what caused it.  That went away eventually too..

Then....the pimples came back with a vengeance !  this time...here's the embarrassing part.....~20 to 40 pimples started appearing on my butt (over a period of time)!  It may sound like a joke, but I can assure you that I am absolutely telling you the truth.  All pus filled, smaller than the two humongous ones on my knee cap, but as it was pus ridden, it hurt - badly.

It was again - many months of trial and error (and the whole time believing it was due to the environment possibly being dirty - cos' my earlier allergy was due to dirt).   I even went for a skin patch test at National Skin Centre but still couldn't find out the cause!

[caption id="attachment_103" align="alignnone" width="281"] I had something like that on my back - it didn't show any reaction when I went for my follow-up visit, and guess what - a couple of days later - there was some brown patch on some of the dots!  didn't think about it cos' it was such a 'delayed' reaction and also thought my allergy was more external driven than food related cos' my earlier eczema as due to dirt.[/caption]

then one day - i noticed the pimples seem to be better and healing....then 'Eureka'!  I hadn't had my goober jam or anything peanut butter related recently then and I decided to stop it for a while, and lo and behold! gosh! it started clearing!  i had very bad scarring on my butt and it took a good 3 - 4 years to completely clear.  Till this day - I thank the universe that the pimples decided to attack my butt instead of my face.

so.....what caused the pimples?  Even though I occasionally eat peanuts and nuts with no adverse reaction - never had I tortured my poor body with peanut butter sooo many times a day and for such a continuous extended period.  the 'toxins' probably built up and the body had to somehow tell me that it ain't loving what I was putting into my body.   it probably appeared on the butt cos of sebaceous glands / sweat ducts (yes, we do have sweat ducts on our butt!) which was exacerbated cos' it was constantly covered by jeans.

morale of the story?

everyone has a different trigger to allergies, so even though it is sometimes (usually!) painfully slow to find out what is causing you allergies / reaction - here are some usual and possible general triggers that i'm aware of .

1. Environment

• Dirt is  the usual suspect.  Try to keep your area dust / dirt free - plus point - a clean living area just enhances your life:) if you have feet related allergies - try slippers and see if it works for you.


• If you ever experience 'tingly sensations' -  you could be sensitive to wireless equipment...which includes our mobile phone!  (I get painful tingly sensations when using certain phone models - once i knew the phone was going to ring before it even did - cos' i felt a rush of pain in my arms!  before I figured this out - friends did ask me to consider seeing a doctor to see if i had nerve problems!).  change to wired keyboards or mouse where possible.   avoid typing on a laptop keyboard if you are hyper sensitive too.

2. Food

• food allergies are common.   If your allergies are serious - please go do a skin test at your hospital / skin centre for a test.  my  niece had super red raw skin when she was a few months old and turns out that she allergies to breast milk and quite a bit of other 'common' or supposedly 'safe/good' food like soy and fish!  sometimes certain food you had no previous reaction to could suddenly be a trigger.


• a friend is gluten intolerant and she has had stomach discomfort for the longest time and she managed to find her trigger through probably a eureka moment too!

3. Cosmetics / Lotions / Makeup

• if you have breakouts on the face - it could be the lotions / makeup that you are using (or food or environment!).  I recently had breakouts on my nose and i was so upset cos' before the scarring healed, a new pimple popped!   I suspect it's the powder I use!  It's supposedly has 'nano' sized particles (hence more smooth coverage) ...but maybe it was so small that it went into the pores and clogged it!  so i threw the powder away...and it seems under control now.  but still works in progress!


• oh...my dad used to have red patch on his cheek and it turned out it was the oil on the scalp that trickled down and cause the redness!   surprising huh!  he went to the dermatologist at the skin centre who helped him identify the problem.


• sometimes could be the body soap that dries your skin (and causing itch) OR the detergent that we use and somehow remains on our bodies.

4. Stress 

• my reaction to stress is usually a loss of appetite but a couple of my friends get breakouts or fall sick very frequently.   do activities that you love (exercise, bringing your darling pets to the beach, yoga, etc) and try to see what you can to lower stress (i know it's easier said than done!)

probably a zillion more reasons, but it's a start to try to identify your triggers!  good luck! i know how disruptive allergies can be!

 

Body Soap!

a couple of months ago, i had a persistent albeit mild itch on my arms, and though i had an allergy to something I've eaten (I have an averse reaction to peanuts....more on that in future!), and my mum asked if it was the detergent I was using. I figured it can't be cos' I've always used the same detergent (though allergies do sometimes react to something you commonly used. probably the chemicals build up to a point where your skin starts reacting - so you may still want to consider that) and also, I use very little detergent in my washing.

However, it made me consider that the liquid body soap I use might be a possible culprit - so I resumed using the Ergo QV liquid soap which is supposed to be very gentle to the skin and the itch really started to ease!  But at $30 for 1 litre (more than 3 times the usual price of a normal liquid soap for the same amount!) - i was certainly not loving the price!  Also it contains  SLS and parabens (bad bad BAD for us - but it's so commonly used in many of the products we use daily - so while I can't eliminate them, i try to reduce them as far as possible), so i started seeing what could be a longer term sustainable solution to preventing the itch!

[caption id="attachment_62" align="alignnone" width="340"] a body wash that is indeed gentle but pretty expensive.[/caption]

i stumbled upon my stash of L'Occitane bar soaps I had stashed for YEARS!  5 years to be exact - cos' they came in the hotel we stayed in for our wedding!  so i started using it, and yes! it works just as well - still no itch, and psychologically i felt better cos' the ingredients didn't contain all those weird chemicals. and also, another important point - it lasts pretty long!

Over the past couple of months - i tried quite a number of soaps and here's a rundown!

L'Occitane 

didn't pay for this but think it's less than $10 per 100g bar.

[caption id="attachment_64" align="alignnone" width="225"] gentle bar soap[/caption]

pros:

• gentle mild soap

cons:

• slightly waxy after feel which i didn't quite like


• didn't manage to scrub me as clean as I like at the armpits! (i suppose I could use a hand scrubby thingy - but i'm lazy).

Dr Bronner's Organic Soap (I used the Citrus Orange Bar Soap)

$7+ per 140g bar (bought at NTUC Finest Marine Parade - organic section near the escalator)

[caption id="attachment_65" align="alignnone" width="274"] I LOVE the smells - even better when I know they are natural oils![/caption]

pros:

• made from organic oils


• smells darn good


• lathers well

cons

• somehow the soap seems to run down quite fast.  or maybe i love it sooo much that i happily used it so often.

Mount Sapola  (I have only used the Lemon Gingergrass)

$8.20 per 120g bar

[caption id="attachment_67" align="alignnone" width="609"] my stash of Mount Sapola bar soaps which i bought from Bangkok! this is only half of what I actually have! sufficient to last me a good year I think![/caption]

pros:

• smells great


• natural ingredients


• scrubs really well!

cons:

• a tad expensive ($8.20 per 120g bar)

VERDICT

My favourites are Dr Bronner's and Mount Sapola.

I would love to try more of Dr Bronner's soap, but managed to get Mount Sapola's soap cheaper in my recent holiday to Bangkok - and after conversion it's about $5 per bar - so now i have no worries for a good year!

Also, I like the 'scrubbing' effect that the ginger has in the bar soap - makes me pits smell good. :)

So if you do have sensitive / dry skins - you can try soaps that do not contain the normal chemicals and see how your skin reacts (I'm pretty sure it will turn out all the better). I'm sure there are good liquid soaps (you could try Su Kin - a huge bottle at $30 and sans nasty chemicals).  The reason why i use bar soaps? cos' economically it's more value for money - cos' liquids generally are more expensive and run down pretty fast.  The bar soaps generally lasts me 1 - 1.5 months.

I heard that Lush body soaps are pretty good too - made from natural ingredients as well.  I would try it if it's convenient, but meanwhile, I will happily soap up with my bar soap.

Skin! Ecezma.

Did you know that our skin is the largest organ in our body?

I have to admit that I am one lucky gal - I have been blessed with good (face) skin for most of my life - but i also have my fair share of skin problems (mostly on the rest of the body!).

I know how terrible it is to have skin problems cos' it is downright uncomfortable or even painful!  So I'm going to share my skin issues with you - and if you have something similar - I hope you are able to figure out a solution - just as i have figured out mine!    Today's topic?  Eczema!

 

When I was young - I suffered from pretty bad eczema on my feet. It was dry and cracked so bad that my skin spilt apart and started to bleed - serious. no kidding. I resorted to walking only on my heels when my toes and upper half of my feet were bleeding - and then well....my heels started cracking and bleeding too.  It was a miserable and painful and I really didn't know what to do.  My mum bought me to the doctor, and they prescribe some medicated cream, but it didn't help much (not that i recalled) and something as simple as walking that most people can take for granted - hurt alot for me. 

[caption id="attachment_45" align="alignnone" width="598"] okay, i figured, a photo of a pretty feet is wayyyy better than one that is cracking/peeling and bleeding huh?[/caption]

Doctors do what they can to help diagnose your problem, but from experience I realise it is also up to ourselves to figure out what our triggers are and what works. most of the time - it is after much head scratching and trying out different methods that I found what was causing me pain, and from there - find some solutions.  

So if you are suffering from eczema, your triggers may not be the same as mine, but I hope in sharing - you might be able to start figuring out what is causing your pain.  

 

Essentially - my skin is sensitive to dirt.  and I didn't know I was subjecting my poor feet to loads of stress by walking barefooted in the house.  and when it couldn't take the stress from the dirt - it retaliated in the only way it knew how to - mild peeling at first, and then cracking and then bleeding...  

 

so what helped?   

 

1. Wearing Slippers. 

[caption id="attachment_46" align="alignnone" width="300"] yup, i wore these plain unassuming plastic slippers and they saved me from much pain![/caption]

 

Ha! so simple right!  But boy oh boy - i dunno why - but I only wore slippers after years of suffering.  Probably only when it hurt sooo much and became pretty unbearable that I somehow started wearing slippers - my skin improved and bleed less.  but they still bleed cos it was dry! so i started....

 

2. Moisturising my feet. 

 

another really simple and straight forward solution.  I used normal off-the-shelf moisturisers (hey! i was only 10+ so i just used whatever was in the house), and they helped alleviate the dryness - but still my feet were still awfully dry and a huge mess.  I was embarrassed if anyone ever had to see my feet cos' they were just in terrible form from all the cracking and skin peeling and bleeding. 

 

Then I found the PERFECT moisturiser!  okay - it was my mum :)  She (or we....i can't rem) was on holiday and bought Body Shop's HEMP FOOT PROTECTOR!    Initially when she bought the moisturiser - i was skeptical whether it would work cos' the cream is so liquidly!  I still remember thinking 'huh. so liquid ah.  absorb so fast - sure or not.  maybe like the other mositurizers - sure don't work one' (they changed the formulae over the years and it's thicker consistency now).  

and lo and behold - to my utter amazement, my skin on my feet improved TREMENDOUSLY within the week!  after daily usage and in a couple of months - my feet was transformed from a cracking, peeling, bleeding mess - to a normal looking feet.  it worked like a MIRACLE!  I'm not kidding nor exaggerating - the transformation was huge.  and for someone to have 'normal' feet after years of suffering is such an unbelievable relief!  I think by allowing the skin to retain its mositure - it helped in the healing of poor feet.  

 

so here it is - the first of my SUPER LOVE. I have been using it for 10 years already and I haven't not stopped - simply cos' it works for me.  It's not available in Singapore where I live - cos' it contains cannabis or something - so i get my stash from relatives who visit Australia. or well there is always online shopping!

 

[caption id="attachment_47" align="alignnone" width="870"] Body Shop Hemp Foot Protector! if you suffer from very dry skin - this is a miracle!  for being such a amazing product in my life - it deserves a HUGE photo space! yay!![/caption]