New Here? Start Here.
My Best, Lynn
Music: Geggy Tah "Whoever You Are". A throwback to a different time. The video is ancient and quite sorry by todays standards. Still good fun though. The violinist with the rockin' hat is from 123rf
Monday, March 23, 2009
Good Music...
Friday, March 20, 2009
Un, Deux, Trois...Lovely Winners
New Here? Start Here.
The winners of the 100% All Natural Lip Balm are as follows:
(1) Pam from Frippery (a great crafty blog it is...)
(2) Mrs. O from Positively Organic (ab fab recipes on here)
(3) April from The Frenzied Homemaker (a day in her life kinda blog)
Congratulations ladies and now your lips will thank you.
My best, Lynn
*Come back each week on Mondays for either new information or a terrific giveaway!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Lip Balm Love
New here? Start here.
Did You Know...
...the flavor you "taste" in your lip balm is really a sweetener named stevia? Our brains work in a way so that what we smell and what we taste intermingle. So if you smell the cherry scent on your lips and taste the sweetener, your brain will tell you that this is cherry flavored lip balm. If you removed the fragrance from each lip balm and just wore it with the sweetener inside, they would all taste the same.
So this weeks review and giveaway is just...great fun! I found a lip balm that is agreeable to all mankind (hopefully). This week I used Lip Balm All Natural Enriched with Vitamin E and it's super good. That's really it's name.
Review: I really liked this lip balm. I have been using Burt's Bees and I was looking for a backup just in case in the event of a lunar eclipse. This balm fit the bill. I put it on about a few hours ago and it's still workin' it's stuff. My lips got tingly and I figured that mmm....it must be working and I guess it was. I read that Menthol in lip balms is counter productive due to the fact that menthol has a drying effect because it is a form of alcohol and it CAN cause skin irritation. This contains peppermint and I was worried that it might do the same thing but no. Just good 'ol fashioned lip love. My lips are not dry whatsoever, they might even be described as supple. Now that's a good lip day! Whoa-pah! The ingredients are all natural as well. Let's visit this little aspect real quick.
Ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, sunflower oil, vitus vinifera (which translates into grape vine), grapeseed oil, peppermint oil, lanolin (it softens and protects) and vitamin E.
ONTO THE MAIN EVENT! GATHER ROUND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...NO PICTURES PLEASE, IT'S SHY....
The price......a whopping break the bank amount of $1.00! Yep. Heard it here first. A buck. You'll never guess where I found it either. Dollar Tree! Yep. The dollar store is carrying some serious stash of natural lip balm.
I do not have a picture of the product unfortunately. On the back of the packaging, it says it distributed by Greenbrier International, Inc. out of Chesapeake, VA. No website or anything. It's just called 100% Natural Lip Balm. I found it near the personal cosmetic items (i.e. nail polish, nail clippers, hair ties) It's just simply simplistic and cute encased in a plastic covering and attached to a light green and light yellow cardboard type pack. No frills really - but ALL THE THRILLS!!!!
I love this product and to show how much I love it I am going to share it with others and make them believers too! Spread the word, Lynn loves this lip balm so much that she purchased 3 extra just for this weeks giveaways! Yep, you read right...3 wonderful people will be getting these shipped their way. You know the drill people, leave a comment and you can win it. This week, tell me what your usual lip balm go-to has been and how it's treated you.
*Double entry point if you recommend someone else to enter also, just leave a 2nd comment telling me you did or tell your friend/family member to drop your name in their comment*
Winners will be announced on Friday...Happy commenting and happy week y'all!
My best, Lynn
Music: Cake "The Distance". Don't ask me what the first "official video" is even trying to convey because the concept is lost on me. Avoid watching the last one though, why everyone thinks anime characters must be turned into music videos is beyond me. I also have no control over which videos they put up for that particular song. Sorry in advance. All I can do is warn you about anything non-Kosher.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
DINCH...It's a Cinch!
New here? Start here.
This is a continuation of my NPR interview (with myself...ahem) on what phthalates and DINCH are and why we should care...
Q: What is DINCH?
A: DINCH is short for (wait for it) diisononylcyclohexane dicarboxylate. Whew! Long name. Amazing results. Anyone remember that radio ad? Nevermind that's neither here nor there...
Q: Is it a better alternative?
A: I am going to have to say it really depends on who you ask. If you ask manufacturers they would say "Oh yeah! It's great! We love it!" but could it be because it is really inexpensive to use? People are out to make money and not lose it, so if something they need is not expensive and gets the job done, then how safe it is for their customers basically falls by the wayside. So my answer to this would be that it's a cheaper alternative for sure.
Q: Is it safe?
A: Right now the US does not require Co.'s to list all of the chemicals in their products. However, California has passed 2 laws that will soon require them to list all of the chemicals their products contain and the list will be available online. Awesome, right? Yeah. There is also a little matter of there not being any peer-reviewed conclusive public studies on the safety of it. The simple reason that this is a chemical being so widely used around the world and babies are affected by it because they really do gum a piece of plastic to death if you let them.
This is the point in the interview where I realized that I unfortunately don't have nearly any or as much information on the DINCH as I did with the phthalates and I start to cry....but don't fear loyal readers because I promise to keep my ear to the floor and listen for any rumblings about this particular chemical. I promise.
My best, Lynn
P.S. I have a product that I think you will all like and it's a million dollars! We can all afford that right? Just kidding. Stay tuned for the Monday post y'all!
My question clouds provided by 123rf.com
Sunday, March 1, 2009
About those Phthalates...
New here? Start here.
Did You Know...
...there are several diff't. forms of vitamin D? D2 comes from food sources, D3 is considered the natural and most active form of D. It's created in the skin from the sun's UV rays and then converted into an active form by the liver and kidneys. D3 has also been linked, in recent research, with a specific gene that releases an antioxidant enzyme to protect DNA from damage. "If you reduce DNA damage, you reduce the risk of cancer and aging...and demonstrate that vitamin D not only can be used as a therapy for prostate cancer, it can prevent prostate cancer from happening." (Yi-Fen Lee, PhD.) - health e times, Issue 2 Vol.1 2008
We are back for a new week of knowledge. Hopefully, this will be a great week for us all.
I did some searching around for information on phthalates this week. It really stemmed from a report I heard on my beloved NPR radio station where there was a reporter named Sarah Varney that had done a report on phthalates (just drop the ph and say th....) and she had such interesting information that I turned to my husband and before I even said a word, he said "Is this going to be the post for the week?" Bless his heart. He knows me. So yes, I made it my mission to find that story again (it's always a pain when you miss the intro to a story on the radio and then you have to search through online archives to find the exact one you're looking for) and try to recreate the interesting points for everyone here. I am going to do it Q & A-style living out my life-long dream of being an NPR reporter. (Don't mind the fact that it will be me asking AND answering my own questions and please just let me enjoy the dream...)
Q: What are phthalates?
A: They are a class of widely used industrial chemical compounds. In the body they can act like hormones.
Q: What are they used for?
A: They are used as a softener of plastics (many toys contain these), oily substances in perfumes (helps the scent linger longer), additives to hairsprays, lubricants and wood finishers. That new car smell is partly the pungent odor of phthalates evaporating from off the hot plastic dashboard. You can find them in soft toys, i.e. rubber duckies, bath books and soft vinyl blocks.
Q: Why be concerned?
A: These chemicals are part of a group considered to be "endocrine disruptor's". As stated above, when in the body it can mimic hormones and they can also block the effect of the body's own hormones. The people most affected by phthalates are baby's that engage in teething, sucking or gumming their toys to either soothe sore gums, explore tastes or just have an afternoon snack! Here are some findings in the recent years: They found that phthalates used while in utero on male rats caused reproductive developmental abnormalities such as undescended testicles, changes in testosterone levels and retained nipples (which I couldn't find out what retained actually means. I'm just going to guess that it means deformed in some way). By 2003, these studies were widely known and referred to as "phthalate syndrome".
Q: Is there anything being done to change this?
A: If you have some down time and want to look at this great timeline on phthalates then click on the link in the Sarah Varney story. In it, it says that in 1998 the US Consumer Product Safety Commission requested manufacturers to voluntarily remove phthalates from soft rattles and teethers. In 1999, Europe enacted a temporary ban on phthalates in children's toys and feeding products. In 2002, finally the Center for Disease Control and Prevention measured exposure of the chemical in humans and finds that it is present in 3 out of 4 people surveyed. Also in 2002, German chemical company BASF created a substitute for (can i sub out the full word for "thals"? My brain is getting tired today...thanks) thals called Hexamoll DINCH -DINCH for short - and it's now being widely used worldwide. *Most recent development* As of Feb. 10, 2009 there was a law put in effect for the US ban on "thals" in children's products through the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (in the mood for some not-so-light reading? Read up on it here).
Q: Is DINCH a healthy alternative?
A: So as not to make you all completely gloss over and lose the whole audience I will leave the answer to this to another day - come back tomorrow and I will have a new post especially with the DINCH answer for our talking point. I found some very interesting things about this alternative to "thals".
Tune in tomorrow for our next EXCITING installment of "Guess that Chemical Compound!!" (Enter the unauthorized use of The Price is Right theme music)
Until then all my best ladies (and gent),
Lynn
Music: Fiona Apple "Extraordinay Machine". Listen to the last of the 4 first, it's the studio version. The 2 middle ones are good live performances. The 1st video is peculiar @ times and if you can, I'd avoid it. I didn't care much for it. Picture provided by 123rf
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