Green Chi Tuesdays

Tantejoan here! If there is one product that unites women the world over, I’d venture to guess it is lip balm.  Whether a woman wears makeup or not, chances are that the need to soothe chapped or distressed lips will make her reach for some product bring relief.  Far back in history the earliest lip treatment was made of [WARNING! The delicate of stomach might want to skip down to the next sentence] ear wax! No fooling.  Another early remedy for crack, peeling lips? Beef and mutton tallow.  Gee, I’ll bet grateful women must have carried the inventor of Chapstick through the streets.

So what is lip balm?  The soothing salve is a form of topical ointment applied to the lips of the mouth to relieve chapping or dryness, and relief from cold sores.  Lip-gloss is similar in application and use, but generally lacks any remedial qualities; it is purely cosmetic.   Thankfully no longer composed of waxy body byproducts, balm is made nowadays from beeswax, petroleum jelly, menthol, camphor, scented oils, and various other ingredients, including vitamins, alum, salicylic acid, or aspirin. Some lip balms also contain octinoxate, avobenzone, or other SPF sunscreens to protect against sun damage.

Sweetassgal here...laughing a little about Meg's description of the women who dress up on Halloween, and I have to say for the most part girlie nailed it!  I, however, am one of those rare creatures who lays in bed at night for weeks prior to All Hallows Eve planning every detail of my costume and salivating over my pending trip to the fabric store for beaded applique and sequined fringe!  Yes, I make my costumes and I LOVE dressing up (minus the tramp girl motif...I'll leave that to the Hollywood starlets trying to get on Extra's Fashion Police list) in the most elaborate costumes I can dream up.  I have not missed, nor have I duplicated a costume in 35 years and I don't intend to. I will be 80 years old, dressing up like Greta Garbo in a silk dressing gown with marabou trim handing out candy to neighbor kids vamping "I want to be left alone!".  But I don't...I want every little witch, goblin and three foot Spiderman within a twenty block radius to stop on by and raid my candy bowl!

For this years costume I went as a Flapper dressed all in black and white.  Not original...I know...but it suited my mood and I was dying to try my hand at a really killer headband.  I spent hours hot gluing satin roses, feathers, rhinestones and sequins to the coolest elastic I could find and I felt like the girliest girl in the world.  And I for one have to say GOD BLESS GOSSIP GIRL for bringing headbands and girlie frill back!  Now that my headpiece was complete I needed really my makeup to POP and turned to my latest offering from Meg to make it happen.  Tarte's Lifted Natural Eye Primer with Firmitol was calling my name and was just the ticket to give my all black and white makeup the kick it needed for some true depth.  

Sweetassgal here checking in for this weeks edition of Green Chi Tuesdays!  If there is any ONE beauty secret I learned from my mother it's to take good care of your skin.  From a very early age Mom was always trying to teach me the best ways to take care of our sensitive and redness prone dermis.  When most mom's were busy nights watching Johnny Carson (pre-Leno for you young one's) or diving for bon bon's, my gorgeous mother was giving all of my best girlfriends lessons on steam facials and mud masks.  She even set up little individual mirror and face cloth stations around our kitchen table so we could get a good look at before and after pore sizing.  That and the constant reminder to "brush your face and wash your teeth"...yes she said it just like that...every night really helped me develop conscientious skin care habits.  Now if she could only keep me from picking at my blackheads, but that's another habit that will take Pavlov himself and enough pharmaceuticals to take down Shamu to cure!

As mentioned in a previous post I tried out the Dr. Hauschka Daily Face Care kit courtesy of Stylemama just before my sojourn to Hawaii in September.  I really do love trial kits because you get a chance to see what works and what doesn't and you also get to test beauty companies theories that you HAVE to use their products in conjunction with each other to really work at optimal effectiveness.  I can say without a doubt that I DID find some things that work for me and I DON'T think you have to use it all to really get the best results.  Off the bat I absolutely could not recommend the Cleansing Cream.  I found the smell horrific, the texture unpleasant and the consistency not in the least bit pampering.  It made it hard to want to continue with the rest but I was certainly glad I did.  The Normalizing Day Oil and the Clarifying Toner, however, are absolutely wonderful!  I started out with it in Hawaii and the humidity combined with the change in air really wrecked havoc on my skin so I decided to postpone the test and try it out on my home turf.  I'm SO glad I did because its so much more effective for me that way.  The Normalizing Day Oil hydrates me enough to not have to use a moisturizer and the Clarifying Toner is the perfect companion to keep my skin from going into oil over-production.  

Sweetassgal here battling the results of skin put into utter chaos by a lack of routine, change in locale and just a little bit more than normal stress in this gal's life.  I went to Hawaii and spent a week chasing kids and sweating my sweet ass off in the the unbearable September humidity.  The resulting oil slick that accumulated on my face broke me out BIG time and left me with plenty of pimples to test out on a new face wash.  But it was all worth it because I got to spend 7 full days getting to know my adorable nephews and learning that Jennifer is a Wonder Mom!  This girl could change a poopie diaper with one hand, suck boogie's with that little rubber thing with the other, dance and sing like a crazy woman to entertain the boys and probably STILL find 101 uses for diaper wipes!  Is it just me or do they work on EVERYTHING!

So now that I'm back in the comfort of dry Valley weather sans wee one's I'm looking forward to cocktails in the hot tub, being able to cuss at free will again and of course, indulging in some selfish "me" time which translates in Mommie terms to "exactly 5 minutes to actually groom yourself".  Seriously ladies with babies...hats off to you for all you do each and every day.  Motherhood is such a wonderful thing but I really do see the sacrifices you make raising the little one's.  So for you Jen...and all mothers out there...I've been settling down each night with a nice glass of wine and a new tube of Collective Wellbeing's Purifying Cinnamon/Clay Cleanser to combat my island breakout.

Meg here! I am known for many things-laughing when uncomfortable, laughing when happy and generally laughing whenever any slang word referring to a vagina is used. In fact, when I was younger I used to tell my friends if I ever had a daughter I would name her "Vageena." I would wait for them to ask me how that was spelled and spell "V-a-g-i-n-a." Just so I could see the perplexed look on their faces.

I know I'm very mature. So mature in fact that when we were sent the "Peeka-bu Intimate Grooming Mirror" to test both Eleni and MissRo looked at each other and said "Let Meg use it so she can write about it, God knows it will be the thrill of her week!" So Sad. So true. I couldn't wait!