Heavenly Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin.  At last, a vanilla, almond milk, and dove orchid moisturiser for sensitive skin.  Use this to soften and calm an easily irritated face and protect city skin against pollution.

Okay, so first off, I fell in love with this moisturizer at the Lush store and had to buy it.  It smells lovely — very mildly floral, and comforting.  I think it’s the slight vanilla fragrance — I’ve always found  most vanilla-fragranced lotions too overwhelming and kind of earthy — they’re just too strong for my nose.  This one though, just the slightest hint of a delicate vanilla fragrance, it’s very, very nice.  It’s like smelling cookies baking from far away.  

All in all, it’s a very nice moisturizer — very thick, very soothing.  I really like it.  It only has three problems — it’s seriously WAY too moisturizing for me — this would be far better for someone with really dry skin.  Even during the winter months when my skin goes dry it’s just too much for me.  Currently I use it once a week at most — it’s a nice break from my regular routine.  But I definitely would NOT use it any more frequently than that since I don’t have really dry skin.  Also, it won’t protect against skin cancer.  And, it’s a little too expensive for me to use all the time.  So I’m taking a star off for those three reasons.

(Lush products are 100%-cruelty-free, this product itself is vegan, and has some organic ingredients.)

Lush Celestial Moisturizer (1.5oz) is Available for $21.35 from your local Lush store or the Lush Online Store.

Ingredients: water (and) vanilla planifolia fruit, prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil, glycerin, theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter, parfum, propylene glycol and dendrobium phalaenopsis flower extract, stearic acid, cetearyl alcohol, methylparaben, triethanolamine, propylparaben.

I feel a little bad giving this 3/5 stars — it’s not that I don’t think it’s probably an excellent product, but it really doesn’t suit anyone who doesn’t have VERY dry skin.  If you have REALLY dry skin, this might be a 5/5 star cleanser for you.  But for me, which my slightly dry skin (just in the winter — in the summer, it’s oily), this is just seriously wrong.

However — and the reason I bought this in the first place — it smells SO GOOD!  Kind of edible and clean-smelling.  I’ve been using it once a week since I love the smell so much.  And it does make my skin very, very soft.

Why is this a good cleanser for someone with really dry skin?  Basically, It has no soap in it whatsoever — it’s kind of a waxy cream — it’s like smearing oil all over your face.  Not good if you have oily skin.  Repeat — DO NOT BUY THIS STUFF I YOU HAVE OILY SKIN.  And honestly, if you have fairly dry skin, I’d think twice about buying it as well.  On the other hand, if you have severly dry skin, or want a once a week nice oil-cleanser, this is quite excellent . . .

(Lush products are 100%-cruelty-free, and some of their products are vegan.  Lush does label every product with a vegan/not-vegan label, which is convenient.  However, this product is not vegan — it has beeswax and honey in it.  Sometimes Lush uses organic ingredients, but not all the time.)

(I’m a little confused by the paraben preservatives.  Aren’t those considered “bad” by knowledgeable organic-people?  Lush seems to think they are “safe synthetics.”)

Lush Ultra Bland Cleanser (1.5oz) is available for $14.45 from any Lush store.  

Ultra-gentle, thorough facial cleanser

This supreme facial cleanser, with magnificently softening rose water, peanut oil and beeswax cream, takes off everything you’ve plastered on and makes your skin astonishingly soft. It’s a marvel. Ultrabland is not the simplest cleanser to use, but it’s not that hard and it’s definitely worth it. Smooth it on, then remove it thoroughly with a slightly damp cotton pad or face cloth. Gently remove until your skin feels soft and not oily. 

Numerous people have recommended Juice Organics to me — it’s 100% cruelty-free, it’s vegetarian and it’s organic. (It would be the trifecta if it were vegan instead of vegetarian — I’m not sure why Juice Organics hasn’t gone vegan.) It’s made by the same people who make the Juice Beauty line — it’s just better priced, less concentrated, has fewer age-defying ingredients, and is made with only 5 organic juices instead of 26. Juice Organics is really much better priced than Juice Beauty — 6 ounces of the Juice Organics Nourishing Cleanser is $9.99, whereas 6 ounces of the Juice Beauty Cleansing Gel is more than double the price at $22.00.

I ordered a Juice Organics travel kit which was a really good deal — $11 from Amazon — and tried out the nourishing cleanser, the vitamin antioxidant serum, and the SPF 30 Light Tint Moisturizer. I hate to buy full size bottles of products I’ll never use, so this was great for me.

My conclusions:

Juice Organics Nourishing Cleanser is a nice cleanser — it’s oil-based, so it is good to remove oil-based cosmetics from your skin, and it does gently clean without stripping your skin — in fact, it adds oil to your skin. It’s kind of like a very thin cold cream. I suspect if you’re a fan of the oil-cleansing-method this might work very well for you. It’s soap-free, and supposedly is made of white grape and apple juices, aloe vera, plant oils and vitamin antioxidants. Despite being oil-based, it does wash off my face pretty well — there’s only a mild oil residue, it doesn’t leave my face disgustingly greasy. (I suspect this might not work very well for people with really oily skin.)

Juice Organics Antioxidant Serum seemed just okay to me — supposedly it has age-defying antioxidants in a base of organic grape and orange juices to “revitalize, help smooth fine lines and help firm for radiant, ageless skin.” I didn’t see much effect, but I did find it a nice intermediate step before putting on the moisturizer — though I do think any sort of toner would have worked just as well.

Juice Organics SPF 30 Light Tint Moisturizer, however, is an excellent moisturizer with an organic white grape and pomegranate juice base with 10% titanium dioxide SPF. I really, really like this stuff — I think the idea of using tinted titanium dioxide as a sunscreen is a great idea — all the other mineral based sunscreens I’ve tried out have been awful because they use these brilliantly white minerals as the sunscreen without tinting them. I mean, I’m pretty pale but I still end up with bright white chalky streaks of titanium dioxide on my face from those things. Titanium dioxide is frequently used as a cosmetics base in nonsunscreen applications because it is brilliantly white — why anyone would think a mineral based sunscreen made of it is a good idea I do not know. So I think tinting titanium dioxide is a great idea — you get the skin cancer reducing benefits of titanium dioxide, without looking like you’ve smeared chalk all over your face. It’s the best of both worlds! (Plus titanium dioxide is a very long-lasting sunscreen, which is nice — unlike avobenzone which is only effective for 2 hours after you put it on, titanium dioxide is supposedly a good sunblock until you wash it off. If you hate to frequently reapply sunscreens, titanium dioxide is definitely a good way to go.)

I did have a little trouble putting on the SPF 30 Light Tint Moisturizer at first — I put it on way, way too thickly and ended up with an orange cast to my face. But now I spread it on very, very thinly and it blends right into my skintone and gives me a very slight evening out of my complexion (yay!). It doesn’t provide as flawless a finish as Earth’s Beauty powder foundation, but it’s a lot less trouble — with powder foundations I always manage to get powder all over the place, and I have to double check to make sure I’ve evenly powdered — this stuff is much less messy than powder, it blends in much more easily, and best of all, it does have a pretty matte effect once it goes on (though not as matte as a powder). (It’s very sheer — this would not be good for anyone who wants a lot of coverage.)

Overall, I really liked the way the cleanser, serum and moisturizer worked together. The pump packaging is very cute, easy to use, impossible to break a nail on, and pumps out exactly the amount of product you need. The scents were a little difficult for me to get used to at first — the cleanser and the serum smell kind of like fermented citrus fruit. But now I kind of like the way they smell — they smell kind of bright and citrusy to me now, and I’ve grown to like the lack of chemical fragrance. The moisturizer smells kind of like a mixture of kitchen spices to me — maybe allspice or cloves? That also took some getting used to but now I like it. I also appreciate the fact that all of these products are fairly concentrated — you really don’t need very much of any of them so I think they will last a long time.

However, I have had distinctly different experiences with these three products in the summer and winter. I started using the kit last November when it was still pretty warm here in the Bay Area, and the oil-based cleanser made my skin oily and the mineral-based spf moisturizer did not sink into my skin but stayed in a thin insulating layer on top of it — especially because I was applying it WAY too thickly — and the combination made me break out a little bit and become really sweaty every morning. So I was not happy, and was thinking of giving Juice Organics 3/5 stars at best. But I kept using the products and the weather suddenly became a lot colder, and miraculously my skin stopped breaking out and becoming sweaty and started looking great. Then I remembered that my skin usually goes from having oily patches and breakouts in the summer to having too-dry-skin in the winter, and realized that this oil-based insulating routine was great in the winter but bad in the summer.

Since then, I’ve ordered full size bottles of all the products and have been using them ever since — I like them a lot, I think they’re nicely moisturizing and skin-cancer-preventing and am ranking them at 4/5 stars. I actually think they are 5/5 star products for winter, but definitely not good products for summer unless you have really dry skin and do not live in a humid climate, so I’m compromising with 4/5 stars. In the summer I plan to switch back to the alba botanic sea moss line.

The Juice Organics trial and travel kit is available for $11 on Amazon. The regular sized cleanser, serum and moisturizer are available from the Juice Organics online store.

Juice Organics Nourishing Cleanser. Ingredients: Organic juices of vitis vinifera (white grape) juice, pyrus malus (apple) juice & aloe barbadensis leaf juice, organic botanical extracts of calendula officinalis flower & matricaria chamomilla flower, glycerin, organic plant oils of carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed & helianthus annuus (sunflower), caprylic/capric triglyceride, cetearyl alcohol, cetearyl glucoside, sorbitan stearate, tocopheryl acetate & tocopherol (vitamin E), ascorbyl palmitate (vitamin C), tetrasodium edta, panthenol (vitamin B5), allantoin, phenoxyethanol, xanthan gum, benzyl alcohol, potassium sorbate, citric acid, limonene, linalool, citrus aurantium (sweet orange) & citrus aurantium (orange blossom) pure essential oils.

Vitamin Antioxidant Serum. Ingredients: Organic juices of vitis vinifera (white grape) juice, citrus aurantium dulcis (orange) juice & aloe barbadensis leaf juice, glycerin, organic essential fatty acids of linum usitatissimum (linseed) seed & borago officinali (borage) seed, thioctic acid (alpha-lipoic acid), ubiquinone (coenzyme Q10), magnesium ascorbyl phosphate (vitamin C), dipeptide-2, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3, tocopheryl acetate & tocopherol (vitamin E), sclerotium gum, phenoxyethanol, sodium hydroxide, benzyl alcohol, disodium edta, hyaluronic acid, potassium sorbate, amyris balsamifera & litsea cubeba (may chang) pure essential oils.

Juice Organics SPF 30 Light Tint Moisturize. Active Ingredient: Titanium dioxide 10% Inactive Ingredients: Pyrus malus (apple) juice,* vitis vinifera (white grape) juice,* punica granatum (pomegranate) juice* and aloe barbadensis leaf juice,* glycerin, cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract,* camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract,* glyceryl stearate, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil,* cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, caprylic/capric triglyceride, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), sodium PCA, hyaluronic acid, panthenol (vitamin B5), allantoin, cera alba (beeswax),* magnesium ascorbyl phosphate (vitamin C), mica & iron oxides (mineral tints), benzyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, limonene, linalool, farnesol, geraniol, citrus aurantium (petitgrain) and citrus reticulata (mandarin) pure essential oils.
* certified organic by a USDA approved agency.

This is an interesting toner — I kind of like it, though it seems like your basic toner to me, and I don’t much care for the scent, which is very strong and very herbal, though it fades pretty quickly. It does seem to help clean my face a little — I’ve been using it with the Dermalogica Dermal Clay Facial Cleanser and I think it helps remove all traces of the clay. It is nice that it doesn’t sting. (It’s 100%-animal-testing free, but it is not vegan or organic, and it’s pretty expensive.)

Dermalogica claims that it provides “critical hydration with a refreshing blend of skin-repairing Aloe, moisture-binding humectants plus soothing Lavender, Balm Mint and Arnica. Contains no artificial fragrance or color. ”

MakeupAlley gives it 3.7/5 stars.

Dermalogica Multi-Active Toner (8.4 oz) is available for $24.25 plus free shipping from Amazon.com.

You can also buy it as part of the Dermalogica sample kit for dry/normal skin for $30 plus free shipping or the Dermalogica sample kit for oily skin for $28.53 plus free shipping from Amazon.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Butylene Glycol, Extracts of: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender), Melissa Officinalis Leaf, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow), Hedera Helix (Ivy), Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit, Sambucus Nigra Flower, Arnica Montana Flower, Parietaria Officinalis, Essential Oils of: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender), Melissa Officinalis Leaf, Sodium Lactate, Sodium PCA, Sorbitol, Proline, Propylene Glycol, Ricinoleth-40, Methyl Gluceth-20, Polysorbate 20, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Polyquaternium-4, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorpenesin, Methylparaben, Linalool.

Tags : 4/5 stars, cruelty free, Dermalogica, face, skin care, toner

This is a nice gentle cleanser — it seems to clean my face pretty well without leaving my nose oily or feeling stripped. It does feel pretty calming, I think it’s the clay, though it has a peppermint tingle. It has a faint chemical scent. I’ve been using it for a week now, and so far, so good — no breakouts, no dry skin, no oil slicks.

It’s Dermalogica, so it’s not organic or vegan, though it is 100%-animal-testing-free. Supposedly it is “a skin-perfecting formula that provides deep-cleansing to oily, congested skin. Water-soluble Kaolin and Green clays combine with purifying extracts of Sambucus, Ivy, and Lemon to remove excess oils and refine the skin’s texture. Calming Cucumber and healing Sage soothe irritation, while refreshing Menthol revitalizes even the most tired skin. Contains no artificial fragrance or color.” MakeupAlley gives it a 3.7/5.

Dermalogica Dermal Clay Cleanser (8.4oz) is available for $23.37 plus $5.99 shipping from Amazon.com.

You can also buy it as part of the Dermalogica sample kit for oily skin for $28.53 plus free shipping from Amazon.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Butylene Glycol, Kaolin, Disodium Cocoamphodipropionate, Glyceryl, Stearate, Titanium Dioxide, Sorbitan Oleate, Extracts of: Melissa Officinalis Leaf, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow), Cucumis Sativa (Cucumber) Fruit, Sambucus Nigra Flower, Arnica Montana Flower, Parietaria Officinalis, Nasturtium Officinale, Arctium Lappa Root, Salvia Officinalis (Sage Leaf), Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Fruit, Hedera Helix (Ivy), Saponaria Officinalis, Montmorillonite, Ascrobyl Palmitate, Tocopherol, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Magnesium Silicate, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Sorbitan Trioleate, Menthol, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Propylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Tags : 5/5 stars, cleanser, Dermalogica, face, skin care

I really didn’t care for this skin prep scrub. It did have a nice consistency — not too thick or too thin so it was not difficult to get out of the tube, and the scent was very faint — sort of a trace-of-cornmeal-aroma. However, it had cornmeal particles suspended in a liquid base — it didn’t buff off the top layer of my skin leaving new shiny soft skin the way a good salt/apricot kernel/etc., exfoliator usually does, it just sort of scratched at my skin, leaving it with lots of small dry flaky pieces of dead skin. Really not attractive. I’d recommend using a different exfoliator if you have skin that’s prone to flakiness.

It’s Dermalogica, so it’s not tested on animals, but it is not organic, nor is it vegan. The Dermalogica website describes it as “a skin-polishing scrub exfoliant with natural grains that leaves the skin with a smooth, healthy finish. Finely-granulated Corn Cob Meal gently removes dulling surface debris, allowing for improved absorption of moisturizing treatments. Comforting botanical extracts of Mallow, Ivy and Cucumber plus soothing Aloe Vera help to prevent over-stimulation of the skin. Contains no artificial fragrance or color.”

MakeupAlley gives it a score of 3.9/5 stars.

Dermalogica Skin Prep Scrub (2.5oz) is available for $23.00 plus $5.11 shipping from Amazon.

You can also buy it as part of the Dermalogica sample kit for oily skin for $28.53 plus free shipping from Amazon.

Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Disodium Cocoamphodipropionate, Glyceryl Stearate, Zea Mays (Corn) Cob Meal, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Cocamide DEA, Plysorbate 20, Tocopheryl Acetate, Extracts of Malva Sylvestris (Mallow), Hedera Helix (Ivy), Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit, Sambucus Nigra Flower, Arnica Montana Flower, Parietaria Officinalis, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Titanium Dioxide, Butylene Glycol, Propylene Glycol, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin, Benzyl Alcohol, Sodium Benzoate, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Potassium Sorbate.

Have you voted for your favorite cruelty-free brands yet?

I ordered some Dermalogica stuff (not vegan, not organic, but 100%-cruelty-free) from WhatGreatSkin.com a while ago and it came with two free (!) samples of face wash products which I’ve just gotten around to trying — one is Dermalogica Ultracalming Cleanser, and the other is Dermalogica Essential Cleansing Solution.

Dermalogica Ultracalming Cleanser for face and eyes is

“A gentle cleansing gel-cream that shields against external environmental assaults with Dermalogica’s exclusive Anti-Ozonate Complex. Protects and soothes skin sensitized by pollution, temperature extremes, irritating cosmetic products, harsh detergents, chemical exposure, stress, poor diet or hormonal factors. Also contains Lavender, Echinacea, and Raspberry extracts for their anti-inflammatory, calming and healing properties. This cleanser is effective enough to remove eye makeup, and can be either rinsed off or gently removed with cotton. Leaves no irritating residue and is formulated for even the most hypersensitive skin that cannot tolerate water. Contains no artificial fragrance or color. Professional recommendation advised. Directions: apply to the face and throat, gently massaging with fingertips in light, upward strokes. Rinse with warm water or tissue off.”

On MakeupAlley.com it scores a average of 4.0/5, from 125 reviewers — many people compared it to Cetaphil, a few complained that it did not remove all of their makeup.

I tried this out and it seemed very nice — it left my face feeling cleaner than most gel-based cleansers, but not as stripped as the bar soap I currently use (302 face and body bar — it’s not cruelty-free, but I’m trying to wait until it runs out to replace it with a cruelty-free alternative), and it removed all the oil from my nose (that’s important!). It was a thin white gel, nonlathering, it washed off very quickly (which is nice). It had a very faint chemical smell. I only used it once, so I don’t know if it would eventually be too drying or not strong enough if I used it every day, and while it seemed nice I am still working my way through that bar of 302 face soap I bought a year ago, so I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy it, especially since most Dermalogica products are astronomically priced (but nice! and cruelty-free!).

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Cetearyl Alcohol, Extracts of: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender), Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit, Echinacea Purpurea, Rubus Idaeus (Raspberry) Fruit, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon), Fumaria Officinalis; Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Butylene Glycol, Fumaric Acid, Panthenol, Disodium Lauryl Sulfosuccinate, Cocamidopropyl PF-Dimonium Chloride Phosphate, Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Aminomethyl Propanol, Tetradsodium EDTA, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Dermalogica Essential Cleansing Solution, on the other hand, is intended for drier or prematurely-aging skin. It is

“A milky cleanser for drier skin conditions to gently lift impurities and remove make-up. Water-soluble, this soothing emulsion rinses off easily, leaving the skin refreshingly clean, soft and supple. Contains no artificial fragrance or color. Professional recommendation advised.”

On MakeupAlley it had an average rating of 3.8/5 from 29 reviewers — most people who like it seem to have very dry skin, and one person compares it to Cetaphil.

So, I tried this stuff, just once, as well, and it similarly did not lather, which was nice — it’s kind of creamy, it washes off fairly quickly. It seemed nice and gentle too me — a little too gentle since my nose was still oily after I washed it off. I think I prefer the ultracalming cleanser. Though it’s hard to say since I haven’t used either more than once. The smell was nice (though slightly chemical-smelling, which I don’t usually like, but I didn’t mind this one) — and very, very faint, which I like.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Butylene Glycol, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, PEG-8, Polysorbate 60, Cetyl Alcohol, Extracts of: Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Flower, Humulus Lupulus (Hops), Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf, Equisetum Arvense, Pinus Sylvestris Cone, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Fruit, Sorbitan Stearate, Ricinoleth-40, Beeswax (Cera Alba), Ceresin, Benzyl Alcohol, Salicylic Acid, Benzoic Acid, Benzethonium Chloride, Dehydroacetic Acid, Ethylhexyl Hydroxystearate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Aminomethyl Propanol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Propylene Glycol, Dimethicone, Carbomer, Disodium EDTA, Benzophenone-4.

Dermalogica Ultracalming Cleanser is available for $25.97 (8oz) plus free shipping from Amazon.

Dermalogica Essential Cleansing Solution is available for $27.19 (8oz) plus free shipping from Amazon.

I’ve occasionally become annoyed that there are only three high-end cruelty-free companies: L’Occitane, Juice Beauty, and Osea. It’s just so few to choose from! I’ve tried a lot of L’Occitane products — they had a great sale about a year and a half ago, everything was marked off at least 30% — but I haven’t really gotten around to trying the other two, mostly because I still have L’Occitane stuff to get through (so far almost all of those have been great). I haven’t tried any Osea products — they are really expensive — but I have tried one Juice Beauty product — the Green Apple Peel.

I love the Juice Beauty philosophy — Juice Beauty only makes cruelty-free organic juice-based facial products that are paraben-, fragrance-, and petroleum-free. I don’t think I’ve ever found a company that combined all of those at once, and I do intend to try more Juice Beauty products in the future. Though unfortunately, most Juice Beauty products are fairly expensive, and they’re mostly skin treatment products, and I don’t usually buy that many peels or microfoliant sorts of things.

I decided to try the green apple peel, because I’ve read many rave reviews about it and it comes in this great sample size at my local natural drugstore (there’s a whole Juice Beauty display!) in a pretty little glass jar. I really like being able to buy .25oz for $8.00 before committing myself to buy the 2 oz container for $39.00 to see if it works for me or not.

The Green Apple Facial Peel is supposed to “dissolve and free dull, lifeless skin for visibly improved skin and texture” through the use of a “hydroxy-acid complex of organic apple, lemon, grape juices, raw cane sugar and white willow bark.” I put some on, and it did go on really smoothly, and exfoliated a little. But it had a really pungent fragrance — different from most peels I’ve tried, I think that must be the juice-basedness? — and it didn’t exfoliate a lot. For such an expensive peel I was expecting some serious exfoliation. This might be better for people who have very sensitive skin, or who like to use peels very frequently. I’m just way too impatient to put on a peel for 15 minutes every morning — I tend to buy exfoliating lotions instead just because they take less time — I just slap them on and go. Though, come to think of it, this might actually be a good product for people with really oily skin who don’t ever use oil-based moisturizers on their faces — no oil! So, I’m giving it a few stars because of the slight exfoliation, the organicness and the lack of parabens, but I’m taking stars off because of the expense, and the not-enough-exfoliation.

Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel is available — $34.00 for 2.0oz — at Amazon.com. It’s also available at Sephora and many natural drugstores and grocery stores.

Ingredients:
Organic Hydroxy Acid Juice Solution of Pyrus Malus Juice (apple, malic), Citrus Medica Limonum Juice & Vitis Vinifera Juice (lemon, citric, white grape, tartaric), Organic Raw cane sugar (glycolic), Salix Alba Extract (willow bark, salicylic), Organic Milk Peptides (lactic), Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Glycerin, Hydroxypropyl Starch Phosphate, Sodium Hydroxide, Organic Algae Extract, Sclerotium Gum, Tocopheryl Acetate & Tocopherol (vitamin E), Ascorbyl Palmitate (vitamin C), Retinyl Palmitate (vitamin A), Phospholipids, Magnesium Aspartate, Zinc Gluconate, Copper Gluconate, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, Potassium Sorbate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Xanthan Gum, Azulene, Citrus Reticulata (mandarin), Litsea Cubeb & Cinnamum Camphora Pure Essential Oils (may chang, ho wood)

Alba Botanica Sea Moss Moisturizer SPF 15
4/5 stars

I started using this moisturizer two months ago, and it’s great. Alba Botanica does not test on animals, so no rats were tortured to produce it, and as a moisturizer it’s very nice — it’s lightly moisturizing and not too greasy. It’s hypoallergenic and 70% organic. Best of all, it has avobenzone, which is one of the best available UVA ray blockers. While many sunscreen products claim to have UVA protection, only avobenzone, mexoryl, octocrylene, titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide actually have UVA protection (http://www.skincancer.org/content/view/39/8/). Since mexoryl isn’t legal in the U.S., octocrylene may cause endocrine problems, and titanium dioxide and zinc oxide leave white streaks, avobenzone is by far the best available UVA protection in this country. UVA protection is really important — it protects against skin cancer. (UVB protection only protects against sunburn. It used to be thought that UVA rays were harmless, and UVB rays cause sunburn and skin cancer. However, a recent Australian study determined that in the past 20 years more and more people have been using sunscreen on a daily basis, but skin cancer rates were also increasing, which seemed crazy. So they then figured out that UVA rays were the real culprit, and that’s why you should have UVA blockers in your sunscreen.) Also, because it does not have titanium dioxide or zinc oxide, it’s clear and doesn’t leave white streaks the way many other UVA protecting SPFs do.

The only drawbacks to Alba Botanica Sea Moss Moisturizer SPF 15 are that it has weird sea moss ingredients in it (I’m not really a fan of sea moss, I would prefer a plain, unscented moisturizer), and that the avobenzone in it only works for 2 hours, so if I go outside I have to reapply sunscreen every two hours. However, this is worth it to me because I hate the longer-lasting sunscreens like titanium dioxide/zinc oxide products that leave white streaks.

It’s available for $13.69 at Amazon.com.

Active Ingredients: Octylmethoxycinnamate (7.5%), Benzophenone 3 (5.0%), Avobenzone (2%)

Inactive Ingredients: Certified Organic Aloe Vera Barbadensis and Lavender Hydrosol (lavandula officinalis), Glyceryl Stearate, Stearic Acid, Organic Marine Complex: Chondrus Crispus (Irish Moss), Dermochlorella (Algae), Enteromorpha Compressa (Algae), Laminaria Digitata (Kelp), Macrocystic Pyrifera (Kelp), Spirulina Maxima (Algae), Ulva Lactuca (Sea Lettuce), Organic Oat (Beta Glucan), Vegetable Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, L-Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Certified Organic Green Tea Extract (Camellia Sinensis), Silica, Certified Organic Jojoba Oil (Simmondsia Chinensis), Sorbitol, Vegetable Emulsifying Wax, Phenoxyethanol, Methyl/Propylparaben, Grape Fruit Extract (Citrus Grandis), Botanical Fragrance