Scrubby Soaps & Heavenly Honey

I don't know where all you ladies are from, but if you live in Illinois you will know that today was so stinkin' gorgeous that it actually felt. Like. Spring. Yes. Amazing. Too bad I had to be stuck in an office all day! Luckily I had last Friday off to prepare for family coming over this past weekend, and Friday was also gloriously spring-like. I was actually walking around outside without a coat on. Geez, you'd think we'd been in a deep freeze for months—oh wait, we have. So it's about bloody time. :)

Anyhow, on to more important things. I needed to share a couple of wonderful little items I've come across in the past couple of weeks. First of all, we have to start with charcoal. Yes, charcoal. I've been reading a lot about how activated charcoal can help suck out dirt, oil and other impurities from your skin. It sounds weird, but it's all the rage right now, so I decided to try it. I couldn't find a reasonably-priced charcoal face product online, and I was a little wary about some of the products that claimed to perform miracle-like skin rejuvenation. I mean, nothing is that perfect, right??

What ended up happening was that I found myself at a trunk show. It wasn't even a beauty trunk show; it was for these amazing purses (by MoJo Re-Creations... so cute!) at this cute little boutique in Lemont, Aurora Rose. And I came across this beauty.

Photo from ButterduckFarms.com

Butter Duck Farms is a well-known brand 'round these parts, seeing as they're from Bolingbrook, IL. I've seen them several times at farmer's markets and summer festivals, but never got around to purchasing anything. When I saw this activated charcoal soap at Aurora Rose (oh, and a delicious-smelling alpine cedar soap), I grabbed it up, took it home, and immediately washed my face.

AND. I. LOVE. IT. For real, I can honestly say it's the best facial soap I've ever used. My skin feels soft, smooth and bump-free. After using it for about three days, a cheeky bump that was about to flourish into a not-so-cheeky pimple shriveled up into oblivion. It's a wonderful product, smells great, and keeps my combination skin in check.

All right, on to my second find. In case you weren't already aware, I have something of a honey addiction. Okay, so I have about ten bottles of raw honey in my cupboard and you know what? I'm not ashamed! Eh hem. Basically, I love anything having to do with local, raw honey. I just love tasting seasonal honeys one after the other and noticing the subtle flavor differences. That's what brought me to Honeyrun Farm.

Photo from Honeyrun Farm's Etsy Shop

I ordered the sampler above ("sampler" being a light term, since these are nicely-sized 8-ounce bottles) plus the Spring Black Locus, Lemon Verbena- and Lavender-infused sampler. The floral notes in the seasonal honeys are so wonderfully different from one another, that having six bottles is totally okay. The flavors are so subtly different, especially to a honey-happy gal like myself. The lavender-infused honey is INCREDIBLE in chamomile tea, by the by.

The owners, Jayne and Isaac Barnes, make this awesome raw honey and cold-process soaps on their family-owned bee farm in Ohio with chemical-free practices (which I love, of course!). I also ordered the soap sampler gift package and found myself with six luscious, great-smelling handmade soaps that I've been having fun trying out every day. I also ordered fresh bee pollen, which is loaded with protein, B-complex vitamins and free amino acids. It's great for your skin, gives you energy, and actually helps boost your immune system! (source) I love sprinkling it on greek yogurt and granola (with a drizzle of honey, of course!). If you're a honey hound like yours truly, I highly recommend checking them out!

That's all for now, cookies. Enjoy the weather while it lasts! Hopefully we'll see some spring blossoms soon!

xo

It's Almost Spring ... Kind Of!

By Just2shutter at freedigitalphotos.net

The first day of Spring is Thursday, March 20; so you know what that means, right? Hopefully no more bouts of unforgiving snowstorms, nasty droughts and bizarre polar vortexes. I've had about enough, and I'm sure you have too. I long for the days of warm, fresh breezes filled with the scent of blooming lilacs and honeysuckle; the days of high sun, cool drinks and the seemingly never-ending aroma of barbecues and freshly-cut grass.

Okay, I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. It's spring, not summer, for crying out loud. I'm not necessarily one to have the most optimistic attitude, but I am just so done with this freakish winter I've turned into a positive-touting guru. It's kind of disgusting, actually, but it's getting me through slopping around in slushy snow and ruining unsaid numbers of great shoes.

All right, let's get to the point. As you all may be aware, I had a full-time job in the real world which recently turned into another full-time job in the real world... thirty miles away from my apartment. Yeah. So, needless to say, I've been giving Piękny Cookie about five percent of what little time I have during the day. Um, last blog post was? Yeah, it's been awhile. One good thing about driving upwards of two hours to work every day (Chicago traffic + snow + ice + overly-careful drivers = NIGHTMARE) is that I get plenty of time to think and formulate new ideas. Which is why I came back to this blog and decided to get a little more disciplined about its upkeep.

The other reason I'm back is because I will be introducing my new Spring collection of perfumes (squee!) on March 20. I have four fantastic new scents that I just know you will all love (I know I love them, anyway). Plus, I will be re-vamping my shop just a tad and begin offering perfumes in collections. I don't really have a great collection area in my shop, and I'd love to be able to offer you guys packs of goodies for a discounted price. So, keep on the lookout for some new yummy scents coming your way in Spring!

Also, you may have noticed that my shop is lacking in the lip balm department as of late. Late last year I decided that it was in my best interests (financially) to discontinue lip balms and tints. The demand for them was minuscule in comparison to my perfumes, so I decided to focus all of my energy on fragrances. Sad news for lip balm addicts, but great news for anyone who loves great-smelling, moisturizing perfumes

Along with my new Spring collection, there may be a teensy little surprise for all you Facebook fans out there, so pay attention to your newsfeed mid-March for updates! I hope you all have a great rest-of-the-crappy-winter; don't worry, ladies, Spring is almost here!

xo

Summertime Blues -- I mean, Hues!

I REALLY need to start getting on the ball with keeping this blog updated. I find that I get so insanely busy at home, I end up neglecting something really important to me; namely, this blog and all those who read it!

Now that that's out of the way, we can get down to business. I've got a wonderful product to review! It's been quite some time since I've given a product review, so here goes.

Logona Herbal Hair Color

Yes, I went back and tried henna once again. You think I would have learned from the first time, but you know what? You fall off a horse and yadda yadda yadda. So I decided to try this brand I found online called Logona, a German-based cosmetics company that specializes in all things natural. It's a smaller company that only has about 150 employees, which really only helps things in my view. Sometimes the smaller the company, the more involved personnel are in the making of products; not to mention all that extra attention to detail!

Not only does Logona have a ginormous selection of products in general, it also has a superb selection of henna. Brown Umber, Flame Red and Golden Blonde are just to name a few. The other neat thing is that they actually have a super helpful color chart that gives you direction on the best shade for your natural hair color. Naturally, I decided to go with Flame Red, but when I consulted the color chart, it wasn't exactly recommended for my hair color. The regular Henna Red, however, was. So I went ahead and purchased it.

Yeah, it was the same smelly pile as before. On the other hand, I was prepared this time. Let me tell you a little secret about applying henna to your hair: use Vaseline around your hairline and cotton piping. Last time I only used the Vaseline, and boy, what a disaster. The cotton piping makes a huge difference. If you don't have cotton piping lying around, simple unroll a few regular cotton balls and stick them on top of the Vaseline.

I will say that the Logona seemed to have a less pungent odor than the Light Mountain Natural henna that I used last time. It was still green and it still had a slight manure-ish smell to it, but it was not nearly as strong. One of the other qualms I had with LMN was that it left very little color in my hair; meaning, practically none at all. Logona, on the other hand, left quite a nice red hue and left my hair shining. I was really happy with the results, and I even have enough left over for another application when the color begins to fade.

Logona Liquid Foundation

One thing I thought I'd show you are the liquid foundations Logona offers. I myself use my tried and true mineral foundation from Noella Beauty Works, since liquid foundation has been putting me off for years with my oily skin. But for all you dry-skinned gals out there who are looking for natural liquid foundation, Logona gets pretty good reviews online (from what I've seen) and it might be something to try out. It's kind of pricey, but you can find deals on Amazon that will shave off a few bucks here and there.

That's all for now, cookies. Have a great weekend!

xo

Piękny Cookie

Time For a Vacation

That's right, cookies. VACATION TIME for yours truly. On Sunday, I'm leaving for Florida to visit my mom for her combination birthday/Mother's Day gift. Plus, my birthday was on Cinco de Mayo, so it's sort of a dual celebration! Anyway, the shop will be CLOSED from Sunday, June 3 to Sunday, June 10th. I'll have it back up and running by Monday. If you'd like to make a purchase while I'm away, I will be checking my emails occasionally, so feel free to send me a convo on Etsy shop or a message through my Facebook page.

Thanks, ladies, and enjoy your week! I know I will!

xo
Piękny Cookie

Spring Craft Fair

I have some more exciting springtime news! Piękny Cookie will be sold at the Spring Craft and Vendor Show hosted by Aurora Rose. I'm so excited to be a part of this show! There are so many amazing vendors at Aurora Rose and I can't wait to meet everyone. I will be offering an array of items (some not even in my Etsy shop yet!), so come on over and buy some stuff without worrying about shipping fees. Also, be sure to check out all the other great vendors. Oh, and if you're interested, there will also be a tarot card reader there! How fun. Hope to see you all there!

xo
Piękny Cookie

April Showers Bring SALES!

Okay, so I know it's mid-April, and not like, a milestone day or anything. But I decided to give my little cookies a present and offer some tasty SALE items, some up to 50% off!

Lately I've been craving citrus, whether it be in my food, perfume or body products, and I've decided that I absolutely looooove LEMON! Lemon is such a tart-sweet, invigorating scent that everyone should be able to enjoy this spring, which is why all of my lemony-delicious items are on sale -- including the popular CITRUSH Dry Shampoo!

CITRUSH Dry Shampoo

Sale items also include the Lemonade Stand 5-gram lip balm tub, Lemony Lassie Refreshing Facial Spray (um, a NEW item, so grab it while it's hot!) and Lemony Lavenderp Brown Sugar Scrub.

Lemony Lavenderp Sugar Scrub

So if you would like to prance around this spring with the light, sweet aroma of sugary lemon, take a gander at my SALE ITEMS available until the end of April. Thanks, darlings!

xo

Piękny

Oh, We Love Moisture!

 Lemony Lassie Refreshing Facial Spray

As much as cookies love milk. I've added five new moisturizing facial sprays to my shop; Lavenderp, Lemony Lassie, Chamomile, Geranium and Jazzmin. For a quick moisture fix in the morning, just close your eyes and spray it on your freshly washed face, then let it air dry. My skin is combination/oily, so I find this stuff perfect. It's light and great for summertime, especially when it's super humid outside. I live in Illinois, and there are times when I swear to jeeves it's a damn rainforest here. At least, the mosquitoes make me feel like it, anyhow. Ugh.

Zit Zappa Acne Spot Treatment

So, I got myself a pimple the other day and decided to take it out with my own acne spot treatment creation. With concentrated tea tree oil and witch hazel -- a great astringent -- I made my own blemish blaster I like to call Zit Zappa! I love it. Tea tree oil is great for zits, but I find that when you dab it on full force it gets a little too burny and stinky for my liking. Pair this with the Geranium facial spray (awesome for oily skin) and you've got your acne issues sussed.

Bare Naked Flavor-Free Beeswax Lip Balm

Also, for all you au naturale gals out there, I decided to offer a flavor-free version of my beeswax lip balm. Just the bare necessities in this baby, without the sweetness. Well, there's sweetness of course, but a different KIND of sweetness -- soft, moisturized lips! Enjoy all the new products, cookies, and have a great week.

xo

Piękny

NEW Lip Balms & Toners

 Strawberry Nilla Beeswax Lip Balm

So the other day I busted my butt and posted a whole bunch of new lip balms to my Etsy! I've added delicious flavors like strawberry vanilla, pear, peach, mango and chocolate ... mmm, CHOCOLATE! I mean, really, who doesn't want to have the taste of sweet chocolate clinging to their lips all day long?

 

Very Cherry Beeswax Lip Balm

I've also added a new toner - in honor of St. Patrick's Day, of course - called Green Tease. It's totally awesome. Okay, so I might just be saying that because I made it, but no -- seriously, it's awesome. The combination of green tea extract and tea tree and geranium essential oils are not only great for oily skin, but will also help keep acne-prone skin clear. PLUS don't forget that any item that comes in a glass bottle (um, toners!) can be sent back to me to be refilled. Hey, I love to recycle. Why should I make you pay more money for another bottle when you have a perfectly good one right in your hand?

 

Green Tease Facial Toner

I will also be adding a few more toners in the very near future, most likely this weekend, so stay tuned.

One other note: I've been a photographer for several years and, until this year, I hadn't had a professional SLR camera to shoot with. Well, thanks to my gorgeous new Canon Rebel T3i (whoo whoo!) I can now upload awesome, great resolution photos of my products with little to no color correction. So that, darlings, saves me editing time, which in turn gives me more time to make more products! 

Everyone have a wonderful and safe St. Paddy's Day weekend!

xo

Piękny

Perfume Oil Ingredient Change

Monkey Farts Perfume Oil

I just wanted to let all my cookies know that perfume oils will now be made with fractionated coconut oil rather than grapeseed oil. Fractionated coconut oil is not only an excellent carrier oil when used with essential oils, it is also lighter, less greasy and penetrates the skin deeper. It's also super stable, which means it has a longer shelf life than most other carrier oils ... and who doesn't want their tasty-smelling perfumes to last as long as possible? Enjoy!

xo
Piękny

Big News!

First off I'd like to apologize for the lax in posts. I've been busy, busy, busy! Besides my full-time job, I've been busting my patootie making Piękny Cookie products to stock at a store! Yes, that's right. An honest-to-peanut-butter, real live store.

The store is called Aurora Rose and it's located in Willow Springs, IL, right next to this adorable little coffee shop. The store is fab. Called simply a "unique boutique," Aurora Rose carries handmade products ranging from tutus to glassware to parasols to meatball mix to -- well, I could go on and on. I'm very excited to be a part of this group of creative vendors and I can't wait to see where this goes!

 

I even added a few new special items that you can only get at Aurora Rose for the time being! Those include two delicious-smelling moisturizing body sprays (great for after showering!), Lavenderp facial spray (with moisturizing aloe and jojoba!) and Aphrodisiac Attack perfume oil, a special concoction of my own that will instill much staring and perhaps even drooling by the opposite sex. (These claims are not substantiated, teehee)

So here's the store. Awesome, right? Totally cute, but totally spacious and full of amazing stuff. If you need a skull and crossbones baby romper or some super-cute handmade greeting cards, Aurora Rose is the place to go. Oh, yeah, and if you want to buy Piękny Cookie products, of course!

Please check out my stuff if you're in the Willow Springs area! I'd really appreciate it, cookies.

Aurora Rose

8695 Archer Ave, Suite 4

Willow Springs, IL 60480
708-330-5085
LoveAuroraRose@gmail.com

xo

Piękny

New Yummy Perfumes Up on Etsy!

I just posted a bunch of new perfumes and colognes on my Etsy shop, plus a delicious-smelling sparkle body powder. Check them out!

ORANGE NILLA Perfume Oil

MANLY NILLA Cologne Oil

CUKES & MELON Perfume Oil

BERRY, BERRY WILD Perfume Oil

LITTLE BLACK DRESS Perfume Oil

CUKES & MELON Shimmer Dusting Powder

xo
Piękny

It's Makeup Time

Photo Source

So, I'm excited and I just wanted to let you all know that I've just tagged off one of my New Year's resolutions: finding a natural mascara to replace my Covergirl Lash Blast, which I love, but is loaded with crap I can't believe I put so close to my eyes. I found a mascara through Erzulie Cosmetics in intense black that I can't wait to try. If I've never told you about my absolute obsession with Etsy, I'm telling you now. Etsy is brilliant, especially when it comes to finding natural beauty products (um, hello, Piekny Cookie is on Etsy). Most stores list their ingredients in full, which is a really nice little perk. Plus, you'll find some great sales and unique product; Erzulie Cosmetics, for example, has Black Cherry mascara on sale right now for $7. Sounds so yummy I could eat it.

Black Cherry Natural Mascara by Erzulie Cosmetics

I also went all out and purchased some more makeup from Noella Beauty Works. Eyeshadows in Snowflake and Sugared Plum, both weekly steals. I also went ahead and bought a deep espresso eyebrow powder, which triples as a matte eyeshadow AND eyeliner. How can you go wrong?

Sugared Plum Mineral Eyeshadow by Noella Beauty Works

I'll let you all know how it goes when I get my goodies. I can't wait!

xo
Piękny

New Year's Resolutions

Photo Source

Happy 2012, cookies! I'm sure you all had a wonderful weekend bringing in the New Year. I myself watched movies, ate some delicious pizza from Palermo's and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; a perfect film to celebrate new beginnings.

Every year, I hear tons of people announcing their New Year's resolutions. Some will keep them, and others will forget them after a few weeks (let's not forget the age-old "I'm gonna lose 20 pounds" resolution!). One of the things I'm striving for this year is to work on filtering out icky chemical products and replacing them with wonderful, natural, non-harmful products. I've already started over the past couple of years. Here are some of the products I love to make my life healthier:

Renpure Organics shampoo, conditioner and hairspray; Piekny Cookie (that's me!) facial toner & moisturizer, lip balms, hand salve, body oil; Noella Beauty Works foundation, eyeshadow and blush; Burt's Bees lip balm (I'm obsessed with lip balm and have TONS of different brands); LUSH bath bombs; and soaps by Heavenly Scent Soaps by local Spring Grove, IL crafter Erin Whalen.

Kiss Me Klimt Bath Bomb by LUSH

That's not to say I don't have higher goals! What I'd like to achieve in 2012 is total natural beauty; a removal of all beauty products harmful for my skin and bodily health. There are things that I use every single day that I need to make adjustments to, including: mascara, hand soap, nail polish (Willow Tree Minerals actually makes non-toxic mail polish, which means I can finally start painting my nails again!), concealer and of course, the dreaded HAIR DYE. I'm still on a quest to find the perfect non-toxic dye, so stay tuned for that.

Caterpillar Non-Toxic Nail Polish by Willow Tree Minerals

And here's the big, big, BIG one: incorporate my love of natural beauty products into my diet! Don't get me wrong, I might still want a few slices of pizza every now and then, but you know what -- I want my entire body to be nourished and feeling sassy my not only changing what I slather on my skin, but also what I put into my belly! About a year ago I purchased The Diet Solution by nutritionist Isabel de los Rios. The website looks a little scammy, but I can assure you, the information you get from her book is excellent. When I started eating organic, natural and healthy foods (and she provies recipes, too; yum!) I started losing the weight. Of course, I fell off the wagon, but my goal is to start again and make a total lifestyle change. We'll see how that works out ... no, no, no ... must. Stay. Optimistic. !

What are your New Year's resolutions? Do you strive to make your life more natural and healthy? Or maybe you want to incorporate the natural life into your diet as well? Lemme know!

xo
Piękny

New Perfume Oils!

Stay tuned for several new perfume oils making it to my Etsy shop. Expect to see the new yummy fragrances: Cukes & Melon (cucumber melon), Berry, Berry Wild (wild berry), Orange Nilla (orange & vanilla) and Little Black Dress. Also expect to see a couple other surprises as well! Hopefully I'll have these babies up as soon as mid-next week.

Oh, and a quick reminder. I'm going to start using coconut oil in most of my perfume oils from now on, but there are a few (including the newer ones) that will still have a grapeseed oil base. Send me a convo on Etsy if you would like to purchase a perfume oil, but would prefer a coconut oil base rather than grapeseed. Both are beneficial to the skin, but I like coconut oil because it's a little lighter than the grapeseed. If you'd rather have the coconut, I want to let you know to expect at least a week delay before I'm able to ship because I'm waiting on supplies from my wholesaler. Once I get the goodies I need, I'll be sending those bad boys out directly to you! Cheers all, and have a HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

xo
Piękny

Manic Panic

Just a little side note.

I found some really great information about Manic Panic hair color at Bonzai Aphrodite on my quest for finding a safer hair dye. One of the user comments even claims that her daughter ate a bunch of Manic Panic hair color and was fine! Now, I've used Manic Panic in the past, and yes, it is very mild and pretty safe. However, it contains methylparaben and propylene glycol, both of which aren't exactly good for you.

I must admit, I was pretty bummed out when I saw that it contained methylparaben, a food preservative. But anyway, check out the article. It's really informative and tells you the what's up with Manic Panic.

xo
Piękny

My Horrendous Henna Experience

Okay, so I needed to talk about this because, well, I've been trying to turn a lot of people away from chemical hair dyes. And so you should. One alternative I was excited to try was henna. Light Mountain has a suprisingly long list of henna hair colors you can choose from (and they also have amazing box art) and I was looking forward to trying. So I went online, ordered myself a box of Red henna, and waited impatiently for it to arrive.

When I finally got it, I couldn't wait to slap it on my head. It had been months since I'd dyed my hair with chemical color, and my roots were looking a bit ... well, we'll say "shabby," but that's being nice. I had heard from reviews and other websites that henna isn't exactly the easiest way to color your hair, with one of the keywords being "messy." Well, "messy" didn't even begin to cover it.

The directions had me dump a bag of this greenish powder into a bowl with 12 oz. of boiling water. Easy enough. Until the smell hit me. No one ever told me that henna has a very similar to smell to ... uh ... cow manure. Yes. Cow manure. I suppose it makes sense, being botanical and all, but I suppose I wasn't prepared for that.

So, after completing the recommended strand test and carefully following the rest of the directions, I started slapping the stuff onto my head. Let me tell you, not only did the stuff smell of cow manure, but it also had the same unfortunate texture. Kind of like lumpy, green yogurt. So basically, the stuff kept sliding off my head and plopping onto my sink, giving me more disturbing visions of a cattle ranch. I had put a ring of Vaseline around my hairline to keep the henna from dyeing my skin, but that didn't seem to help too much. The second that stuff touches your skin, it's dyed, even if it's only very lightly. Luckily, I have a mass of freckles, so a little splotch here and there wasn't as noticeable.

One other note: I have very short hair. Pretty much a pixie cut. And I had to use nearly the entire box on my head. So ladies, if you have long hair, you might want to buy a few boxes of henna dye for full coverage.

Once I finished putting the stuff in my hair (which took about 20 minutes), I wrapped my hair in plastic as recommended and waited for 45 minutes. Just enough time for my hair to completely absorb the smell of it, even after I rinsed it out (which was also a feat in its own). It had also leaked all over my scalp and my skin was a lovely shade of pizza-sauce orange. However, the color in my hair was nearly non-existent. Just a very small hint of orange-ish highlights and that was about it. At least it dyed my roots, though. Beggars can't be choosers.

Now, I'm sure lots of people use henna to dye their hair. Cleopatra used it, for crying out loud. And I'm sure many of those people have had much better experiences than yours truly. But I think I will be staying away from henna for awhile and just let my hair do its own thing. Smelling like manure for two days isn't exactly my cup 'o tea.

xo
Piękny

Happy Holidays, All

So Christmas has passed and everyone (including myself) is a little ho-ho-ho'ed out. But you know, I love Christmas and I really enjoyed handing out homemade Piekny Cookie gift bags to my friends and family. Hopefully they can get some good use out of their sugar scrubs, perfume oils and lotions!

Speaking of making products, I have a whole bunch of new items I'm about to add to my Etsy shop. Just a couple of days ago I added some yummy-tasting Very Cherry and Skinnamon Spice lip balm, my new line of eight ounce bags of bath salt, shimmery Orange Nilla body oil (AWESOME for after baths) and Monkey Farts (yeah, that's right) perfume oil. Please check them out if you get a chance.

Oh, and ALSO .... in honor of the cold, dry weather we're about to get into, I've put my CITRUSH and LAVENDERP dry shampoos on sale for $4, plus discounted shipping, until midnight on January 1st! Dry shampoo is ideal for the winter months because the more you use wet shampoo, the drier and more static-prone your hair gets. And don't even get me started on the damage it will do to the ends. Ugh. With dry shampoo, all you have to do is rub a little bit of the powder into your scalp and roots, let it sit for a few seconds, then brush out. The cornstarch and baking soda in the shampoo sucks up all the grease and keeps nasty smells away. Not that I think any of you lovely cookies smell, mind you. ;)

Anyway, I hope you all have a great New Year! I'm planning on taking at least 20 pounds off my ass this year (my New Year's resolution), but I'm also going to work on keeping my skin and hair healthy and away from icky chemicals.

xo
Piękny

Cyber Monday!

So all weekend I've had a 20% off sale on Piękny Cookie products on Etsy for Black Friday weekend. Well, I'm also going to extend that sale into Monday!

Plus, if you purchase an item, be prepared to receive another full-sized surprise item in honor of Cyber Monday! Obviously, only my cookies who subscribe to my blog will see this, so make sure to tell your friends, family, mothers, aunts, sisters, uncles (hey, some dudes might be into it) and anyone else you can think of! I'm just a small-town girl livin' in a small-town world and -- okay, so that might be too much. Eh hem.

But anyway, don't forget to enter the code BLACKFRIDAY20 at checkout to receive your 20% off any of the items in my store! And look forward to your holiday surprise ....

Piękny Cookie Etsy Shop

xo
Piękny

The Horrors of Hair Color

Okay, so I admit it ... I'm a hair color addict. My hair hasn't been it's natural color -- a delightful shade which I like to call "poopy brown" -- since I was about 17. I've tried pretty much every boxed color known to man, and have had my hair colored professionally once (and it will be the last time, too ... UGH). My hair has gone from long to short to mid-length back to short again to asymmetrical and has been a rainbow of colors. It's great fun coloring your hair; until you start to suffer the consequences.

When I was growing my hair out -- before I chopped it all off Spring 2011 -- I noticed something awful: no matter what I did, no matter how much deep conditioner I applied to my hair, I couldn't get rid of split ends. I found a few products that worked well, namely Renpure Amazing Miracle. But guess what, ladies? Split ends aren't something you can just "cure" with conditioner. Once the hair is split, that's it. The only way to get rid of it is to cut it off. Hence why my hair is now only about four inches long.

My concerns started to get a little more serious when I started making my own beauty products. I picked up the book "The Green Beauty Guide" by Julie Gabriel and let me tell you, it opened my eyes. I just so happened to open the book to the area about hair color. According to the book, researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York found that hair dyes increase the risk of breast cancer. Not only that, in 2005 another study concluded that coloring your hair for 20 years or more increases the risk of glioma, a type of brain tumor. Uh, I don't know about you, but risking a tumor just to look good isn't exactly ... let's say, practical.

What Gabriel suggests in her book is to avoid hair color altogether. What causes awful things to happen to your body are the main ingredients in many hair dyes. Those ingredients include:

Phenylenediamine
Aminophenol
Ethanolamine
Hydroquinone
2,4 - Diaminophenoxyethanol

If you think those are hard to pronounce, you should read about what they can do to your hair and body. These are all cancer-causing ingredients found in home hair color kits. Besides this horrifying shit list, you can also expect a plethora of ingredients that cause breathing difficulties and dermatitis.

So the real question is ... what do you do if you want to keep coloring your hair? Lucky you! There is an alternative, albeit a messier alternative: henna. Henna has been approved by the FDA as a safe hair colorant, which is always a nice thing to hear. Cleopatra used henna thousands of years ago to make herself look gorgeous. So why shouldn't you feel like a queen, too? You can choose from three different types of henna (there aren't many color options, unfortunately): red, natural and black. Both red and black henna will dye your hair, while natural henna will nourish your hair without coloring it. You know those glossing kits you can buy at the store that are chock full of chemicals? Natural henna is kind of like that, but without the irritants. It can increase the volume of your hair, relieve scalp irritation and make your hair more manageable overall, according to Gabriel.

Of course, there are some downsides. Henna is kind of messy to use and you have a very limited color palette. You should also wait a couple of months for the chemicals from your previous hair dye experience wash out before using henna, since this can mess with the color and leave you with a splotchy head. And of course, of course, of course, ALWAYS do a strand test before splashing the stuff all over your hair. It may be natural, but that doesn't mean some people can't be allergic to it.

Gabriel recommends Aubrey Organics Color Me Natural™  hair color or Light Mountain Natural hair color. I love Light Mountain Natural products because of the artwork on their boxes, as well. So artistic. Rainbow Research also has a line of products for relatively cheap.

So if you can't let go of the bottle, but want to live a healthier lifestyle, ditch your Revlon or L'Oreal and go for something that doesn't contain cancer-causing ingredients. Even if those store-bought boxed dyes use words like "natural" or "herbal," don't fall for it. Leave your hair shiny, manageable and your body healthy with all-natural henna dyes.

xo
Piękny

Affair of the Arts

Besides creating beauty products, I'm also an illustrator. I'll be attending Affair of the Arts in Spring Grove, IL on November 13th, 2011 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. And guess what ... Piekny Cookie lip balm will also be there being handed out at super discounted prices! Here's another kicker: if you buy a print of mine, you'll get your lip balm for FREE. Oh, yes. I said it. So if you like free snacks, great art and a really nice environment (with wine, of course!), check out Affair of the Arts.

xo
Piękny