Sorry for the long silence — my dog is very, very sick and I just haven’t had the chance to blog or check my email.  I spend most of time driving back and forth from the hospital that’s two hours away from here to visit her.  She’s doing a little better but I won’t know for another week if she’ll be okay.  I’ll start blogging again then more regularly.

I received a comment a few days ago relating to vegan alcohol.  If you ever wonder whether the alcohol you like to drink is vegan or not — check out Barnivore.com.  It looks like a great resource!  I was very, VERY, glad to see that Bacardi is vegan.  Phew!  (Whether you’re a vegetarian/vegan or not, I hope you’d be opposed to alcohols that use gelatin/bones to filter them — first of all, that’s kind of gross, and second, I can only assume said animal products were not taken from free-range animals.  And if you’re concerned about causing needless animal suffering, you should definitely be concerned about farm animal conditions.)  (Except, perhaps, for some European alcohols — in some European countries free-ranging is mandated by law, so it wouldn’t be as much of a concern there . . .)

Hal Sparks is on the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act bandwagon!  Yay!    Let’s all vote to end keeping livestock (who give their milk, eggs, and lives for us) in horrific conditions!  Florida and Arizona have already passed this sort of regulation!

Here’s the video of Hal Sparks speaking in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on Youtube — check it out!  (I have to admit I haven’t watched this video because I’m Afraid of the Animal Cruelty I Might See, and as you undoubtedly know, I’m 100% in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act so I don’t need any convincing from the video — I hope it’s not too graphic, but I’m sorry I can’t vet it for you.)

The original article I found this information in is from a post by Erinnuallain over at Ecorazzi.com, (my source for celebrity anti-animal-testing news!):

Hal Sparks wants your votes to save animals, California!

Hal Sparks (VH1, Queer as Folk, Zero1) may make a living cracking jokes, but the treatment of animals is something that he takes very seriously. If you watched him in Celebracadabra as I did, you probably picked up on that when he refused to do an escape that might harm snakes and also lamented over an earlier trick involving butterflies. In a video message for Californians for Humane Farms, Hal shows his support for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act by saying that “Treating an animal like a widget is cruel” and “Animals deserve to be treated humanely, even if they are raised for food.”

Hal is just one of the many celebrities who will be voting YES on Prop 2 in November. Others include: Ed Begley, Jr. (will Bill Nye be getting in on this too?), Hayden Panettiere, Alicia Silverstone, Rikki Rachtman, and many more.  (Source)

I am excited to learn that despite Jane Goodall NOT presenting the end animal testing petition in the U.S., the HSUS is involved in some sort of Stop Using Great Apes in Medical Research act. The Great Ape Protection Act has been introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives, and if it is passed, it will end invasive research on the 1200 (1200?!) chimpanzees remaining in laboratories. (Many other countries have already banned invasive research on Great Apes — the U.K, New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, and Japan.) Isn’t that wonderful? I really hope it passes. (And then we can move on to stopping using other animals, besides Great Apes, in animal testing!)

The original text is available here:

Help Support The Great Ape Protection Act

Approximately 1,200 chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, are languishing in laboratories across the United States—most for decades.

The Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 5852) has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to end invasive research on the 1200 chimpanzees remaining in laboratories, retire the approximately 600 federally-owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary, and make the recent decision by the National Center for Research Resources—part of NIH—to stop funding the breeding of federally-owned chimpanzees statutory.

TAKE ACTION
Please make a brief, polite phone call to urge your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor The Great Ape Protection Act. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or click here House Committee on Energy and Commerce. to look up your Representative and the Capitol office phone number. It is especially important to contact your Representative if he or she sits on the

After you make your call, fill in the form at the right to automatically send a message to your U.S. Representative. Your legislators receive a lot of email, so it is important to personalize the subject line and text below to make your message stand out and have a greater impact.

 This is, without a doubt, the best eye cream on the planet — it has titanium dioxide as its active spf ingredient, so it will protect the area around your eyes from fatal melanomas ALL DAY LONG (unlike those chemical-based sunscreens that need to be reapplied every 2 hours — for more information on what makes a good and a bad sunscreen, click here), it keeps the skin around your eyes gently moisturized without being too greasy, and it’s cruelty-free!  (Unfortunately it is not vegan or organic.)

But the absolute best thing about it is that it does NOT streak.  Despite having a mineral spf ingredient.  Isn’t that amazing?  I really don’t know how Dermalogica does this — all other titanium-dioxide-containing sunscreens I’ve tried have streaked like crazy on me.  But this one — nary a streak in sight!  It’s pale pinky-orange in the tube, but it goes on clear, and it DRIES CLEAR (even better!).  I should send the people at  Dermalogica a thank you card, really.   I am planning to buy more of Dermalogica’s other spf-containing products as soon as I become super wealthy, because Dermalogica obviously really understands what works in a sunscreen. (I’m not entirely sure it wouldn’t streak on someone with a very dark skintone — I’d be sure to try it out in the store first.  Though if you’re incredibly pale, it really won’t streak on you, I promise — I’ve tested it on my inner elbow which is white,white,white — and my face, which is “fair” — and there have been no streaks whatsoever.)

I originally got this eye cream because my Alba Botanica sunscreen, if applied close to my eyes, tends to run in them and Ow!  This stuff only gets in my eyes if am really sweating buckets, and it doesn’t burn my eyes when that does happen — it just feels a little uncomfortable.  (The whole not-making-the-area-around-my-eyes-look-oily was an excellent bonus.)  One slight issue I have had with it is that it doesn’t mix well with Juice Organics tinted moisturizer — I would get these weird demarcations where the eye cream met up with the moisturizer.

There is one problem with this eyecream — it’s very expensive.  However, despite that, I still think it’s a good value — I use a tiny, tiny amount every morning, and I foresee the tube lasting me at least five years.  So on a cost per year basis, it’s relatively inexpensive.  (Dermalogica’s face and body sunscreens on the other hand — $45 for a small tube of sunscreen?  Are they on crack?  I’d go through that in a few months.  Also a bunch of those appear to have bad sunscreens ingredients — or rather, not UVA-shielding — I’m definitely not paying $45 for those, thank you VERY much.   Dear Dermalogica — please make a face/body sunscreen with titanium dioxide as the active ingredient and your amazing non-streakiness, and charge a lot less for it.  And while you’re at it, if you could please put your ingredient list on your website so I wouldn’t have to go to Pure Beauty to see if you have good SPF ingredients.  Your consideration of this matter would be greatly appreciated!)

Dermalogica Total Eye Care with SPF 15 (0.5 oz) is available for $31.95 from WhatGreatSkin.com.

 Recommended for all skin conditions.  A technologically-advanced eye treatment cream.  Gentle alpha hydroxy acids smooth while firming plant extracts retexturize the skin, helping to reduce the appearance of puffiness and fine lines.  Optical light diffusers help dminish dark circles.  A chemical-free sunscreen helps to shield against further damage.  Contains no artificial fragrance or color.  

 Directions: Gently pat underneath eye area, blending inward from outer corner.  Use daily under makeup or alone.  

 Active ingredient: Titanium Dioxide (4.5%).

Warnings: For external use only, not to be swallowed.  Avoid contact with eyes.  If contact occurs, flush thoroughly with water.  If irritation develops, discontinue use.   Do not use on infants under 6 months old.  

Hi!

I’m back!  Finally!  The spotty internet situation lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.  But I’m glad it’s over and I have access to lovely high speed internet most of the time now!  It looks like there are a TON of comments from newbies — I’ll be going through there a few a day for the next week or so — I can’t wait to read them all!  Thanks for commenting