Toting a beer into the shower may not be on everyone’s agenda, but perhaps it should be.  Not to drink necessarily, but to cleanse and nourish the skin.  We love our Guinness soap, called Irish Stout Oatmeal Soap. Not only is it great as a body and face soap, but it also serves well as a shampoo for the hair.  Beer and especially Guinness, contains natural anti-oxidants*, making the hair softer and more voluminous.  When we make our beer soap, it is necessary to allow the beer to become flat before mixing.  Same idea, if you wish to rinse your hair with the pure…

A most disturbing experience occurred about eight years ago at the CNN exhibition in Toronto. We presented our Earth to Body Skin Care booth in the Arts, Crafts and Hobbies building, excited for the 18-day adventure. This indoor setting included vendors, like us, who hand make their own products. We have sold there for close to 17 years, until, sadly, Covid closed us down.  A mother came by with her young teenage son, who reluctantly plunked himself down in our customer chair, looking totally like he wished to be anywhere but where he was. His mother barely said hello…

"Having no intention of following the cohort inside, she generously held open the entrance door and said, “Please, go ahead. You first.”   One job of disodium EDTA is to open doors. It does it well. While entry for others is encouraged, following is not necessarily on its agenda. Disodium EDTA is used in skin care (and food*) and while it is not easily absorbed into the skin, it’s the door opener. If the entry is a toxin, this enabler is encouraging a destruction.   Disodium EDTA does not discriminate as to what it lets in. The good, the bad and the ugly. Our concern…

1915: Hotel Alexandria, Los Angeles, California Sitting comfortably in green velvet chairs in Hotel Alexandria’s plush hotel lobby, an industrious group of American farmers gathered to discuss the prospect of marketing a newly discovered fruit. The pebbly skinned, pear shaped fruit, called ahuacate. Beneath the high gold leaf ceiling and exquisite chandeliers, a waiter graciously serves the men tasty bits of the topic of their discussion.  A fly on the wall was listening in “$12.00 a dozen*? A pretty profit impending, gentlemen. This fruit is delicious, seductive. The people will love it…

Thank god for eyebrows. This little ridge of hair above the eye socket does a great job in saving our eyes. Excess sweat, moisture, rain are diverted sideways, away from our precious orbs. Eyebrows are a much appreciated and useful appendage.   Cosmetically, eyebrows have been altered over the centuries. Hair added or removed. The shape changed. Lots of options to attain the desired goal. Some people do mega eyebrow maintenance, others do nil. Whether or not you are into your eyebrows, we can’t help but observe them in others. From bushy to plain we gain clues to one’s…

If you are thinking about getting a fake tan this winter because your southern Vay Cay was put on hold, you might want to do a rethink. Let’s not get into whether or not you plan to sneak away on the ‘cheapest vacation ever’. Let us assume that for the remainder of the winter months, we are all in a northern lockdown. There is something about a tan, hopefully achieved with caution, that makes most of us light skinned people feel glowing, healthy and spry. Sun baking is ill advised, but natural sunlight is life sustaining. The sun’s therapy comforts us, mentally and physically. When the sun is…

In 2016, Toronto’s CTV news posted a story about a local boutique and customer Tara Lawless. The following scenario is a fictitious recall of the event, based on the facts.  “Hi, Marcie” Tara piped into the phone. “Have you ever heard of Prop 65?”  “No. Should I have?” Marcie queried. “Maybe. The other day, I went to Zee Zee boutique and I bought a cute toque … one with the faux fur pom poms on top. A pre-wash meant cutting off the tags. That’s when I noticed a Prop 65 alert. I was curious…an alert on a toque? It turns out Prop 65 is a warning about chemicals in a product…

A newborn baby delicately bathed in oil is a ritual in many countries: a welcome to enlightenment, protection, peace, light. Emu oil in Australia, Shea Butter in Africa, Kukui in Hawaii. It is kukui we wish to honour here. Now the state tree of Hawaii, Kukui is known as the candlenut tree, the flammable oil to be used as a candle. It is the nut and the oil that are cherished, as the raw fruit itself is best not consumed.  The soot from the burned nuts can be used as black ink for tattoos. Fishermen spit the oil from a chewed nut onto the water to create a lens to remove…