Winter 2016 Natural Empties

Hello Lovelies :)

Today I am coming at you with my recent empties, and it is a mixed bag this time, beauty, skincare and supplements. Some Holy Grail items and a fair share of flops. So in no particular order here are my empties:

Aurelia Cell Repair Night Oil (sample size):
I received this as a part of a surprise giveaway via Youtube - I was contacted by the brand saying I won their secret new subscribers giveaway. I had a chance to choose any product from their brand, so I chose their Rose Mask (more on this later) and I got this and their Revitalise And Glow Serum mini as well. Sadly none of their products suited my skin, and by that I mean that they reacted with my dermatitis by making it worse, and the latter broke me out too, so I ditched it first, and held high hopes for the night oil and the mask. I waited for a couple of months, and when my dermatitis got better, I started trying those again. While Cell Repair Night Oil is a fabulous product on it's own, it didn't suit me, what I meant to say it reacted with my dermatitis again, so I am letting this product go.
It has a fabulous ingredients and I really wanted to like it, but sadly it is not for me, at least not now. I might purchase/try it again once my skin will be completely healed.

Aurelia Cell Revitalise Rose Mask:
This has fabulous ingredients and I was intrigued by probiotic mask (esp as I have read a couple reviews claiming it should help dermatitis) but sadly this did not help, but it made it much worse. However, the face part that is not affected my dermatitis felt fabulous after this mask, it was much brighter and happier, it took away all the redness and the skin felt plumped up and hydrated. I thought I liked this mask until I burned my skin with it by keeping it 5 mins longer than recommended (don't do this at home, kids!) I kept it for 15 mins instead of recommended 5-10 because I was watching YouTube video, and my skin felt like scalded with boiling water, it was that red and raw! It took me a few days of intense healing to get it back to normal and the mask immediately went to my friend, with the strict instructions not to keep it for too long!
A Purchase? Not likely. Maybe in the future once the skin will be healed fully.

Lavera Mango Milk Shampoo:
This is about two years old - having zero time to shop I ran into the health shop and asked to give me good natural shampoo, so this is what I ended up with,  but it didn't work for me, giving me dandruff and badly looking dull hair, my hair never looked good while I was using it, plus it does not work on it's own, so my hair not only did not look good, but it became a tangly mess as well. I quickly abandoned it on the bathroom shelf, hoping that my family members would use it, but their feedback was similar to mine, and they soon stopped using it too. So it was abandoned for many months, until I used it up last week washing random household items.
A Repurchase? No way.

Vapour Organic Beauty Soft Focus Foundation Sample in 115:
This was my first try at Vapour Organic products, I purchased a sample of it from Naturisimo (I really appreciate their sample program!). Despite having great ingredients and my hopes that it will be my holy grail foundation (the quest for the last year or so) it didn't give me any coverage whatsoever, which is the main thing I am looking for in a foundation, so I won't be investing in the full size. Even with the great ingredients, it wouldn't make sense to use it as a first base, because I am looking to minimizing my make up routine, not adding to it. But if you have flawless skin and looking for a light coverage foundation, please be my guest.

Oreganol P73 - this is wonderful stuff, magic in a bottle if you will, and I think I owe to do a blog post about it, as it is truly amazing thing - it is an extract of wild oregano (not all oils of oregano are created equal, so look for wild oregano, also for P73 on the bottle). I have touched a little bit on it here. It is a natures antibiotic that is also one of the most powerful antioxidant, which has so much more to it. I discovered it two years ago and never went without it since. Can be used internally and externally too. I won't go into too much details here because this post would be two miles long as it needs to be explained properly, so look out for my post about it in the near future. 
A repurchase? Always!

Malavit toothpaste - this was a gift from Moscow, so I am not even sure if it's avail in Ireland (probably not). A good while go I came across Malavit - this bio active liquid comes from Altai and has strong antiseptic, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties to it. (I do own Malavit itself too, but it is not finished yet, and I am still playing around with it, that's why I never mentioned it yet). Back to the toothpaste - I was super excited when I got it, but I am not repurchasing, because a) I don't get a feeling that my teeth are clean after using it b) weirdly enough it dries out my mouth mid-cleaning, and that never ever happened to me before c) my teeth get that "furry" coating on them, which to me only confirms that it not cleans well. I started using another toothpaste in the morning instead of this, combining the two, but it is not good enough on it's own. I also has some ingredients that I didn't like.
Repurchase?: No.

Caudalie Divine Oil - this I bought in after Christmas sales a year ago, and I immediately regretted not getting a sample first - I hated the smell! that's why you see two almost full bottles here - they sat on my bathroom cabinet for a year, just collecting dust. I did try it multiple times, once as a full body oil post shower, a few times as a hair oil, but even now, typing this I am wrinkling my nose - I hated the smell so much! My daughter didn't like it either, and my hubby won't go near any pampering products, so I had to give it away. And Caudalie is not cruelty free company anymore, so I won't be getting any more products from them either.
A repurchase? No.

Lily Lolo mascara - this is the stuff that a lot of beauty bloggers and youtubers rave about, so naturally I had to see what the fuss is all about. At first I was really happy with it - it has great ingredients, it gives volume, length, everything you want in a mascara - and it is waaay better than most of the green mascaras out there. But.. only a few weeks into using it started flaking really badly, also falling into my eyes and irritating them! Panda eyes and irritated eyes? no thanks! to make matters worse, it started smelling really funky after just two months of use, so I obviously stopped using it, but it is really disappointing that it didn't even pass the standard 3 months mark. I don't know, maybe I got a bad batch or something, but the flaking and the irritation are a deal breakers for me.
A repurchase? Probably no.

100% Pure Caffeine Sheet mask - this is first impressions only, but this mask is AMAZING!! It made my tired winter skin glow again, all the pigmentation and the red patches went away and the skin was plumped up and dewy. I used it on Sunday and on Monday my skin was looking so fabulous that I was able to go sans make up, and that never happens! I still have four of them to go, so we will see if they will deliver the same results, but if they will, I will want this stuff for the rest of my life, and I even told my husband so :)
A repurchase? YES!

Himalayan salt - this I used for my spa day bath, I used food grade one that cost me 0.75€ per 350gr pack, and I added some essential oils to it and let me tell you it was pure bliss! I also added a couple of capsules of activated charcoal for detox purposes. I don't think I could ever spend 20€ for a fancy packaged (and highly overpriced) pack of bath salts to be honest. For me it's either this, or Epsom salts. 
A repurchase? Always.

Skin Revivals Organic Facial Cleansing oil - the label says avocado and rosehip oils, so this coupled with "organic" was what drew me to this product, but it didn't work out for me, it broke me out every single time I used it! I had no problems with other facial cleansing oils, so I am still not sure why it didn't work for me - and I did give it a fair shot, testing it for 6 to 8 weeks, using daily at first and then using just once a week, every time the same stuff happened, unwanted pimples on my face. I checked ingredients online and turns out it's sunflower oil based, so the front label is somewhat misleading, which was a bit disappointing for me to find it it is diluted, I assumed it will be pure avocado and rosehip oils there. See, a lesson for you to take away - Never Assume, Always Check! Not wanting to waste a good product (it wasn't the cheapest either) I finished it up for eye make up removal, it worked brilliantly for that, and I am a bit sad to let it go, but I won't be repurchasing it either. It does not work for what it was meant to, and I can remove my eye make up with plain old coconut oil.
A repurchase? No.

Bare Minerals Original Foundation in Medium (Spf 15). This is almost full, I am giving it away, because of bismuth oxychloride, I no longer will be using this ingredient, and I found myself not using the powder in the last year at all, which to me means one thing only - KonMari it, thank for the service and let it go!
A repurchase? No.

Solgar Balance Rhodiola Complex - rhodiola is an amazing herb that really helped lift my winter blues, I really tend to get depressed in winters (for more than a decade) and in the last two winters that I used this, my mood and overall well-being was dramatically improved. I think I will always use this in winters from now on. Solgal is a great brand that does quality products and this is no exception, great ingredients!
A repurchase? Yes!

Tabitha James Kraan Golden Citrus Hair Cleanser - oh man, where do I start with this? Disappointment of the decade, how about that? It didn't work for me at all full stop, and I gave it a fair shot using it for four weeks (I don't know why did i bother for so long, I like giving products a chance, but this didn't work out at all). Let's rewind - this promised to "cleanse, nourish, restore health and protect your hair whilst delivering incredible shine and body". It did none of those things, no matter if I used 15 recommended pumps or triple that amount, I was left with with ratty unwashed looking hair with zero shine, and it upset me a great deal. I tried it on it's own, with matching conditioner and the results were the same. (that is how I test new shampoos to see if they hold up on it's own without any help of a conditioner. While I do understand this is not a shampoo, but a cleanser and it is supposed to work differently, the fact is it did not work for me at all, leaving my hair dull, flat and stringy - like 5th day unwashed hair basically). When I mentioned my experience on someone's Instagram page, the brand called me out for "using it all wrong and way too much of it"! Err, thanks guys?! I do understand the need to defend/sell/promote your brand on social media, but that was ridiculous. How about making better products at that hugely inflated price point?
A repurchase? No way.

100% Pure Honey Gingerade Cream Wash
I had two samples of it and I used them both for a single wash, as it is very thin body wash. It has great ingredients as all 100% Pure products, but I won't be purchasing full size of it, and here's my reason - this product ships from US and I risk those damned customs charges every time I make an order from outside EU, so I better order something more worthy than this, right? It is just a body wash, and plenty of those are avail to me locally. But if I had 100% Pure store near me, I sure would go for it. Hope I am making myself clear :) Make up or skincare items I am dying to try out and that are not avail to me locally = worth paying extra custom charges. Body wash = no.

100% Pure Vanilla Bean Nourishing Body Cream 
I accumulated four samples of it, but i used them all in a single application. It smells amazing and I liked it more than their body butter, but I am not sure if I will get the full size of it, see the reasons above. Plus I wish it did not have japanese honeysuckle in it, even though it is from a natural source, it still behaves like a paraben in the body, and that might create problems disrupting endocrine system.

NYR Bee Lovely Body Lotion
This has certified organic ingredients (although the bottle does not specify the percentage of it, even though it is very clear on other products). I bought this because I was intrigued by honey in this product, but you can't feel it, and you can't smell it either, which was somewhat disappointing. It does smell lovely, but it smells of orange essential oil, not honey. It is one of those types of lotions that are white and you really have to rub it in. It did leave my skin very soft, and I liked it. I really like NYR and their products, plus the company's ethos are amazing. Will I repurchase this product? it is likely, but not straight away, as I've another body lotion at the moment.
Dr. Bronner's Hemp Almond Castille soap
This is a classic. Always repurchase in my house. I've written about this a lot already, please feel free to root around :) For those of you, who are not familiar with this soap, I've this to say to you - it rates zero on a toxicity level. Go get it now!
A repurchase? Always.



So that is all for now. What products are you using and enjoying at the moment? What products from these mentioned above did you try and how did you like them? Please share with me :) Also come say hi on my Instagram, I love chatting about beauty products with you there :)


Lot's of love,
Renata.

Dermatitis Be Gone!

Hi My Lovelies :)

Today I am coming at you with a bit different post than usual - my dermatitis story. This photo illustrates my healing, and the picture on the left is not even the worst I had, I just didn't want to scare you or put you off your dinner! (if you are really really interested to see it at it's worst, click here).
About 6-7 months ago I started to get these horrible blisters all over skin that erupted mostly on my upper body and soon traveled to the face - it was horrible! Assuming it was a reaction to the change of laundry detergent I quickly booked an appointment with my GP (a family doctor if you are not from Ireland) and I got a round of antibiotics from her - three times in a row. That didn't stop my rashes nor it subsided the itching - it drove me crazy, and while I tried my utmost best not to touch myself in the daytime, I found myself scratching my skin in my sleep - even to the point that I'd wake myself up doing that. Like a fool I dutifully took three rounds on antibiotics thinking that the doctor knows best and I should do what she tells me to do. The antibiotic cream that I had to apply to the skin (mostly face) helped a bit to stop it spreading further, because at that point I was a month in and the patches were getting bigger and bigger, as in the blisters were pooling together and forming one giant sore on my face! One side was affected worse than the other, and needless to say it drove me to the brink of depression because no woman (or a man) wants to look like I did, and I was at a loss of what to do or where to turn to for help! I was in and out of my GP office, and I took to the giant sunglasses and a hat to hide my face, because people stared and kept their distance. My doctor sent a referral letter to the dermatologist in the nearby hospital with a note saying "Please see such-and-such patient who has this unexplained rash and it seems to be getting worse at the time goes by". Which would sound good, if you are not familiar with Irish medical system - it turned out I got an appointment to see a specialist wait-for-it in a years time! (more on it later). Needless to say I felt helpless and as well as researching any info about dermatitis like crazy, I went to the Chinese Clinic which happened to be nearby to my doctor. The Chinese doctor examined me and summoned me to do a couple of treatments straight away, saying he wanted to see my body's reaction and then he will see what needs to be done. So I had the acupressure massage, acupuncture and cupping therapy there and then, and straight away I was told it is a very strong allergic reaction! He told me I needed 10 treatments of the mentioned treatments plus two courses of their herbal remedies, all of which added up to more than thousand euro. The amount shocked me and of course l tried to weasel my way out of it, but he sort of bullied me into paying for six treatments and I am so glad he did, because this was what helped me the most! After every treatment my skin was clearer, less red and angry and even the worst patches shrunk in half. These acupressure and acupuncture treatments work by stimulating the body's self healing points, and the cupping therapy draws out toxins from the body. At the end of my treatment my skin was almost back to normal, and even though I was told to book six or ten more treatments to continue healing, I never did, as I didn't had that much money and what I had, I had to spend it on my kids to get school ready.  At the same time I did the hair mineral analysis test with the same Chinese clinic. Hair mineral test showed strong allergy to wheat, gluten, and dairy, as well as moderate level allergy to perfume, creams, shampoos, etc as well as dust mites. So I cut out all the wheat, gluten and dairy products on the spot, and in two days time my skin was almost healed, it was a miracle! the creams/skincare items allergy was also devastating, as I thought I have to kiss the blogger in me goodbye and I won't be able to do what I love - as in test new products and review them, but it turned out I react to the gluten in the products, and ass long as i avoid it, I am fine. Around the same time I did two blood test with my regular doctor, and that is also worth mentioning - my first test showed eight "abnormal" results out of 16 things tested (don't ask me what they were, ass the results were never explained to me) - a week later I got a call from the doctors secretary saying that my cholesterol is high and I need to come back for more testing in three weeks time to see if I have lupus, because they suspect it. I almost dropped my phone and asked why in three weeks, can I get it done sooner - she told me it's because the nurse is on holidays and then hung up on me. Can you imagine how I felt for those three weeks? Even now, a good few months past it I have tears in my eyes.. Zero compassion or interest in one's problems or feelings.The visit to dermatologist (220€ for 5 minutes, how about that?!) not only was expensive, it was worthless too, as she treated me like a naughty schoolgirl too, telling me off when I mentioned natural treatments or treatments at the Chinese practitioners.She also forbade me from using any products I was using, despite me telling her I was using only fresh aloe vera leaf and purest natural oils on my skin. She told me to get this product instead, and use it to wash my body and face with, and also use it as a face and body moisturizer too, it has only a few ingredients she said, and this is the only product you will use for the couple of weeks and it will help. So let's take a look at the ingredients of it, shall we? Aqua, petrolatum (derived from petrol if you don't know), cetearyl alcohol, SLS (or sodium lauryl sulfate), methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl paraben. I am lost for words here! I mean are you kidding me? Petrol by-products, harshest cleaning solution possible (it's the same stuff that cleans car engines!) in a form of SLS and three parabens are prescribed to people with skin conditions?!
Let's skip a few months of more of this, turns out I have dermatitis herpetiformis - nothing to do with herpes, mind you, it is a form of Coeliac disease where you don't have all these other symptoms, just skin erupting in painful blisters all over).
(You can read more about my visit to the dermatologist here. This link will take you to my Instagram post where I talk in depth about my visit to the dermatologist - and make sure to read the comments too.)

So, long story short I had a choice - I can wallow in self pity and throw more money/time/energy in visiting yet more doctors or I can take the matters into my own hands and do something about it! So I started googling like a mad woman and armed with this new found knowledge I did start a new eating regime and new supplements, all of which worked like a charm for me, and I hope you too can take something out of this?

So what helped me?

1. Going gluten free. This was one of the biggest factors in healing my skin, turns out the gluten creates this chronic inflammation in the body, and where is inflammation, there is breeding ground for diseases, in my case dermatitis). Going gluten, wheat and dairy free is the key in my mind, you have to take away the inflammation, as well as heal the gut). It is not easy but it's worth it. (You can check out my Pinterest board here to help you out, I have 680+ recipes there)

2. Getting your body into alkaline PH. This is a big one, as the diseases won't catch if you are alkaline, but if you are acidic, which most of us are, it's the bad news for you, your body has this toxin threshold that is different for everybody, and when that threshold  is reached, meaning your body can't take it anymore and will erupt into some kind of disease, in my case dermatitis herpetiformis. For a couple of months I didn't realise this, I was doing this restrictive diet and wasn't getting much better, but then I realised I just switched all those products to gluten free versions and tried to carry on as normal, but eating this way was what got me sick in the first place, so I had to do more than that! This meant looking more into alkaline products (mainly veg) and consuming lots of it, and

3. Consuming green smoothie every morning.

and

4. Drinking lemon water instead of coffee first thing in the morning - huge step for me as I tried and failed this many many times before. Lemon water is great for detoxifying your body, everybody knows that, but so few of us actually do it. If I really needed that caffeine kick, I'd have a coffee next, just not first thing in the morning. Gradually I switched to decaf.

5. I also stopped drinking tap water and started buying bottled water again after realising it has PH7, ideal for our bodies, and my tap water has 2, which is incredibly bad for us, and it is very hard not to be toxic if you dring and cook with this water everyday. This is something I am not proud of at all, after working so hard to wean us off bottled water and plastics in our household. But this is what's needed for my healing right now, so i will go with it for a while. All the good filters I looked at range at about 800€, and I am definitely getting one once I will own my own home, but for now we are only renting, so I use shungite (much better than Brita, trust me!) and this magnetic stick to purify my water, as well as buying bottled water. Let me know if you want to see a blog post about shungite?

6. Anti-inflammatory foods also became my new best friends, I was eating pretty healthy before, but I upped their intake much more, and since I love veggies, it didn't bother me at all. (if you are not familiar with anti-inflammatory foods - these are salmon and other cold water fish, berries, coconut milk, coconut water, turmeric, ginger, broccoli, leeks, papaya, maca, shitake mushrooms, grass fed beef, organic omega 3 eggs, olive oil, avocados, cherries, chia seeds, tomatoes, garlic, celery and so on. also specific plant compounds are strongly anti-inflammatory, such as turmeric (cucurmin), green tea extract, resveratrol, quercetin).

7. Reducing stress in your life! this is a huge one, and it is definitely something I have to work on. I just can't deal with it, I am sort of a person who takes everything in, and just explodes every couple of months, which is not good for your body at all! I also didn't do much to naturally relieve stress either, i didn't exercise or took yoga, nor I was in the nature a lot - all of those things do relieve your stress naturally. Please find what works for you and don't neglect yourself, do it regularly! People tend not to talk about mental health, but it is so important not to be in the constant stress! It is something I need to work on too, as I tend to put everyone else's needs before mine.

8. Sweating - I didn't realise before how much this is important in getting rid of toxins! I used to stop exercising once I started sweating thinking of it as a tipping point - ok, l did enough for today, let's stop for now". I never visit sauna either, so my sweating was minimum, meaning minimal riddance of toxins.

9. No sugar! Sugar does all kinds of bad things to our bodies, we all know that, but it also feeds cancer and all other diseases in our bodies, so in my mind the less we consume, the better. I have to be honest, I tried to do the Candida diet, but I failed in the third week, having found it too difficult. If you can stick it out and get rid of candida in your body, bonus points to you!

10. Caprylic acid. Some people take it in a supplement form and find relief, I didn't do it, what I did instead was I started cooking exclusively with coconut oil (it is high in caprylic acid) and in a few days I saw a huge difference in my skin! I used to use cheap sunflower oil for frying before, and that was probably part of the reason of having inflammation in my body.

11. Cleansing the digestive track and healing leaky gut. I won't go into much details here, as there is so much to say and it needs to be explained properly, meaning this blog post would be two thousand miles long. Please do your own research or check my Pinterest boards for references. (here and here).

12. Probiotics. This is also a key in healing, so please don't skip it! I take Udo's Adults Blend which had 17 billions of bacteria. it is costly at 24€, but I have yet to find a good probiotic that would be cheap. Pay attention to how many millions/billions of bacteria you are getting, also how many strands. The more, the better - this one place not to skimp on - cheaper ones will have significantly less of the good stuff, and bacteria might not survive until it makes it's way to your gut, meaning you would be getting zero benefits. There's also a milk kefir and water kefir (which I do own) - these also provide probiotics, s well as sauerkraut and fermented veggies. Should I do a blog post about the water kefir? Oh, I forgot to mention I take two capsules of the Udos probiotics daily.

 

13. Bone broth. This is supposed to be one of the most healing things when it comes to healing the gut, thus getting rid of dermatitis, and it is one of the most recommended things by the holistic doctors. I have to be honest here, I only did it a couple of times, as the bones proved hard to come by as no butchers had them and the only ones who did have some leftovers bones had only pork ones, and it's not what you need, it has to be chicken or beef. Also it was impossible to find organic ones, so not wanting to drink concentrated pesticides I stopped soon. That and having to boil the bones for 8+ hours was a bit of a bother, not to mention the smell in the whole apartment. It is one of the things I'd rather pay someone else to do it, so if you are local and know where organic bone broth is sold, please let me know?

14. Pau d'Arco - this herb is new to me, I only have for a couple of moths, and i took it while trying to cleanse the liver along some other herbs. Check out DrAxe's website (or his Youtube channel) for more detailed info.

15. Oreganol P73 - I love this stuff! It is the second year I use this, and I never want to be without it! It's extract of wild oregano and not only it is nature's antibiotic (works great for that) but amazingly it is also one of the powerful antioxidants and helps enhance immune system! Awesome, right? Check out detailed info at oreganopro.com. It also can be used externally too, see the 24 point below.

16. Echinacea extract.

17. Milk Thistle. 

19. VitD in high doses. One of the reasons my body got weak and immune system got down was the vitamin levels were low - there are numerous reports emerging claiming that around 70% of us are vitamin D deficient, even those living in sunny climates. Thinking back about it, it makes sense, we don't get much sun here, and like majority of people I spend my day indoors, and the most I see the sun is getting to and from the car. And while I'd love to say we spend the weekends outdoors, we don't. I chose Solgar brand and take full dropper of 2500iu a day. VitD is fat soluble, so please consult your doctor first and ask him to do blood tests if you feel you could be deficient. It is also toxic when overdosed, so it is important to check regularly.

20. B vitamins.

21. MSM.

22. Turmeric. While it is possible to take it in a supplement form, I didn't do it, I upped the turmeric doses in cooking. I added it to everything! At first I also used to take 1 teaspoon of it in water, but then I started researching it a bit more and learned it has to be boiled for at least 10mins to increase the availability of it's active ingredient cucurmin, and it also has to be paired with pepper to activate it. So I started drinking golden milk at night - and oh boy it works! (there are millions of YouTube videos on how to make it if you are interested).

I think that's it when it comes to the supplements and the diet, let's talk about the skin, shall we? As soon as my skin started showing signs of healing, I stopped applying all the creams prescribed by the doctor and started applying 

23. Pure cold pressed shea butter or

24. My own DIY body butter. (you can find the recipe here. It came about when I started studying the ingredient labels of these emollient creams I had to use, and they had shea butter at 10% or 20% max, the rest being chemicals. I figured why not go to the source, esp as the creams weren't helping much. If I had an extreme itch (usually when I unknowingly ate gluten, that's when my symptoms used to come back with full force) I'd add a few drops or Oreganol and it helped like a charm in calming my skin and reducing inflammation. At first I used tea tree oil, but soon I found out Oreganol works much better.

25. Aloe vera. I used my own fresh aloe vera leaf, you don't have access to the fresh stuff (you can get it in garden centres or even Lidl) you can use shop bought one, just look for the natural ingredients, it has to be as pure as possible, those "aloe vera" lotions next to tanning stuff in the shelves have horrible ingredients in them, that's not what you want.

26. Any natural creams with Marigold or Chamomile or St Johns Worth would work well too, again, look for the most natural ingredients possible. 

27. Dermalex works well too, you can get it from chemists, it has no steroids in it and it's really good at calming and soothing the skin. Can be used on the face too, and I found this product really good, better than my doctors recommended ones in fact.

28. Herbal teas. I forgot to add this to the diet section, so let's chuck it at the end, shall we? :) I drank and still drink a lot of sage and chamomile teas, at least 2-3 cups a day. 

29. Minimal products (or better still, no products) on the face!

30. Extra things for you to check out - I was either recommended these things or picked up during my extensive research, but never came around to trying, but let's include them in the hopes that it might help some of you?

-SOD diet

-FODMAP diet

-DHA

-Magnium/calcium in the right balance

-burdock root

-big doses of omega 3

-medicinal mushrooms

-glutamine

-biotin

-grapefruit seed extract

-manuka/turmeric masks.

Please do you own research for these things. I am not telling you to take all of this, my aim is to provide the information on what helped me, but I cannot be responsible for what you will do with this information. If you have a good doctor and trust him/her, by all means do what the doctor says, but as you can see, trusting mine got me nowhere! Sadly most of the doctors are trained to focus on expensive treatments rather than simple natural solutions. What I also don't like about our western medical system that the doctors treat the symptoms rather than disease itself, the more symptoms you have, the more tablets you are prescribed, but they only suppress the symptoms, not getting to the root cause of a disease. You aren't treated as a "whole" individual either, the doctors don't see a connection between other organs/systems, I stil remember the words of the derm - "no one ever got dermatitis from what they are eating". I coud go on!

I am not miraculously cured either, I still get minor flare ups sometimes, again, when I unknowingly gluten myself, the last time being when I ate some KFC fries - we were out of town with the family, and as it was impromptu trip, I had no food with me, so after we found ourselves starving and with the only option of open restaurant being KFC one, I only had fries and sweetcorn, crossing my fingers that the fries would be cooked in the separate oil - they weren't, and I had an outbreak on my shoulders, but I know how to deal with it now. I also swore not to eat out anymore, esp in fast food places - eating out bring fear, not glee these days!

So there you have it, this was the stuff that helped me to get rid of dermatitis! Please have in mind that I am not qualified in medical field to give advice, and that's why I was going back and forth whether to post this post or not. But I truly hope that some of you will find this helpful and will be able to take something from this post.

So that is all for now!

Lots of love,

Renata.

My Morning Routine on No More Dirty Looks

Hi Lovelies!

I am so excited to let you know that my every day routine has been published on No More Dirty Looks! How exciting is that?! You can check it out here.

Since I have been asked about how I healed my dermatitis, I am working on my blog post about it, followed closely with some more interesting things, including Nars Orgasm Dupes (green and natural of course). This 2016 year is looking up to be an amazing year, stay tuned for more :) 

And huge thanks for all of you who read my blog and follow me on Instagram! Huge bear hugs and kisses to all of you! xoxo

Lots of love,

Renata.

Best Nine Instagram Photos and Huge Thank You

Hi Lovelies,

Today I am coming at you with my best nine photos from Instagram and I wanted to thank you so much for 17930 likes for my 398 posts there, all the comments, conversations, laughs and friendships! I am so grateful for all the beautiful ladies in the green beauty community, it is so nice to connect with like-minded people! Looks like you like the green beauty and skincare as much as I do :) So I wanted to say HUGE thanks and bear hugs and kisses to all of you! xoxo