Let's talk about: (less wasteful and less scary) Skin Care

So I've been sick for like a week, it's crazy.  Lately, I was under the self righteous opinion that I didn't get sick anymore...  Well, I get sick, so sick that I've been robo tripping for three days straight and haven't been able to make it into work.  That being said, lucky for you, I ran out of face scrub and it seemed like the perfect time to take a minute and write a post about skin care!

I'm not only a Sephora "VIB" member, but I am a "VIB Rouge" member.  Which means, that in my life, I have spent such an unreasonable amount of money at Sephora that they send me birthday presents, gift cards, and 20% off everything in the store for an entire week, use it as many times as you want to, seriously bring all your friends, we don't give a fuck coupons!  My bathroom was over flowing with products promising to minimize my pores, smooth my split ends, exfoliate every inch of my body and leave me with the glowing skin of a fifteen year old swedish runway model.  And up until about a two months ago, I was really okay with that, then I started thinking about my skin care and make up the way I think about my food: if I don't understand the ingredients, I don't eat it, so why was I willing to slap a bunch of mystery serums and creams on my skin?  Did you know that in the US manufacturers aren't required to list the entire ingredients of your health and beauty products?  There is a whole lot to hide including preservatives and ingredients that have been banned in other countries and are shown to cause birth defects, infertility, cancer, and behavioral and developmental delays in babies and toddlers.  And that's not even getting into things like household cleaners and pest control products.  

My pared down medicine cabinet.

Since I don't like to waste things, it's been sort of a long process to switch over to this new way of doing things: as I run out of a product I move onto a new one that fits into the direction I'm heading.  The first thing I ran out of was face wash (Peter Thomas Roth Anti Aging Cleansing Gel, incase you were wondering), and after a particularly dry winter, I decided to give coconut oil a try.  I use Dr. Bronner's Extra Virgin coconut oil, I scoop out about a dime sized amount and smear it all over my face, then I scrub it off with a washcloth and hot water.  It's awesome, it makes my skin super soft, removes all of my makeup, and I haven't had a break out or any excess oiliness from it, which was a huge concern of mine before trying it (seriously, I had visions of waking up looking disgusting and covered in giant zits, but so far that hasn't happened).  Actually, since using this new skin care routine, I no longer use my nightly retin-a cream (although I might start again because the thought of wrinkles scares me), or any acne spot treatments like persagel or clearasil (not to mention the various peels, serums, and masks I've been coerced into trying over the years).

The next thing to go was my face scrub.  Normally I rinse my face in the morning and then use Kiehl's Micro-dermabrasion Scrub when I'm in the shower.  With my new found love of coconut oil, I decided to take a little jar and mix some (about 2 tablespoons) with some baking soda (around a 1/4 cup or less depending on how gritty you want it).  It's taken the Kiehl's scrub's place pretty seamlessly, and doesn't cost $40 for 2oz which is great.  This lasts me a little over a month for one jar.

Yes, I absolutely have cute little jars for everything.

Body-wash was up next.  I used to buy unscented body-wash from a store in my hometown called Scentsational, which set me back about $22 for 16oz and add Le Labo's Santal 33 perfume oil to it (I'm pretty set on having all of my products smell exactly the same).  Now I use: (you guessed it!) coconut oil!  Except, I put it on before I get in the shower, and then scrub the shit out of myself with one of these.  My skin = baby's ass (better even), but beware, that thing will scrub the tan right off you.  Also, I cut my scrubby towel things into four because they're humongous, so, four for the price of one! Yay!

I know a lot of people like to use coconut oil as a moisturizer, but unless I'm on the beach, I really don't like smelling like a coconut, so for my face I've been using Gabriel Organics Seaweed moisturizer.  And as I said before, I like all of my products to smell the same, so I replaced Scentsational's unscented shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion, mixed with my Le Labo oil, with unscented organic bases from bulk apothecary, which are way cheaper ($25 for an entire gallon as opposed to the $16-$22 for 16oz I was paying before, that's like $150 less per gallon!) and since I just refill the same bottle every time, I get to pat myself on the back for using less packaging.

Now, what about makeup?  I've always been the skin care over makeup girl.  Some light foundation, where needed, and some mascara, and I'm good to go.  My go to's were Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation, which is basically a fancy tinted moisturizer, Benefit's High Beam highlighter, Nars Laguna bronzer and Blinc mascara.  My switch ups are: RMS Organic uncoverup, living luminizer, and volumizing mascara.  And since my skin is on the brown side, instead of translucent powder, I set it with Two Faced Chocolate Soleil bronzer, which, according to my three year old nephew, smells like cookies, because it's tinted with cocoa powder.  I have to say that organic or not, the RMS products are the best I've used so far, they're super natural looking, long lasting, and best of all, I can understand all of the ingredients.  That being said, there are some things I haven't been able to part with just yet, for example, I can't do a cat eye without the Marc Jacobs Magic Marc'er Pen (which is almost impossible to remove and probably full of scary things, but it's the only eyeliner I've found that doesn't end up in the crease of my eyelid halfway through the day), and I own about 300 shades of Nars, Tom Ford, and Mac lipsticks, but I've decided that these are my cheat meals of makeup: a little Taco Bell every now and then is good for the soul.. right?

So there you have it, that's how I saved money, and made more room in my cabinets on my daily beauty routine!  I'll share some more of my skin care recipes soon!

Let's Talk About: meal prepping and what a week's worth of food might look like..

Okay, so maybe not a week's worth, but almost!

Sunday nights for me are pretty centered around making my week go as smoothly as possible.  Part of this means cleaning my apartment so I feel like I'm getting a fresh start on Monday, and the other part (very important) is food prep.

So, one of the negative things about living in Bushwick is that I don't have a big organic super market where I can get everything I need for the week in one stop, but what my neighborhood lacks in Wholefood's convenience, it makes up for in the fact that we have some pretty great butcher shops and an awesome food co-op.  So my Sunday afternoons usually include a short bike ride to The Meat Hook where they de-bone and skin three or four chicken breasts for me (around a pound and a half will yield five 4oz servings when cooked), and then a trip to the Bushwick Food Co-op to buy pretty much everything else.  And when all else fails, I can usually go to our little grocery store Brooklyn Natural and pay a little more if I really need something.

Here's what a typical week looks like for me:

I tend to buy the same thing every week when it comes to breakfasts and lunches, and then change it up depending on how I'm feeling for dinner.  My entire food haul today was $55, however, nearly a third of that is for the chicken.  At $15 a pound it's a high price to pay, but oh man, it is the best damn chicken you will ever have.  That being said, if I have time to stop on my ride home from work, or I'm visiting my parents and have access to a market that sells less expensive chicken, I stock up.  It might not be the best chicken ever, but $6.99 a pound for some Murray's chicken cutlets hurts a little less.  Also, you probably can't tell from my photo but some of my produce isn't as pristine as what you might buy at your local market.  This is one of the great things about shopping at the food co-op: produce that is a little less than pretty can be found in the half off bin.  I'll usually turn to the half off bin for things that I know I'm going to use right away, for example, the onion and the peppers I bought today were probably on their way out, but I didn't mind since they were going straight into tonight's dinner as soon as I got home.  I'll definitely be going more in depth about food co-op shopping in a few weeks because it really is a money saver when you eat organic (not to mention more environmentally friendly), and most co-ops have so much more than just produce (like cleaning supplies, grains, nuts, flours, etc, from the bulk bins that you can bring your own jars and shop for a way discounted price by not needing fancy packaging).

My day usually goes something like this:

Breakfast = meusli (not pictured because I keep it at the office) with almond milk and berries
Lunch = salad: romaine lettuce, green onion, cherry tomatoes, feta, grilled chicken, and Annie's Light Goddess dressing
Snacks = two hard boiled eggs, an apple, and then something sweet after dinner like a few pieces of dark chocolate.  There's a chocolate company called Fine & Raw a few blocks from my apartment who have been my go for when I want something sweet but don't feel like making anything (bonus points for the fact that you get to see them making it all right there, and it smells like heaven).
Dinner = some kind of protein and roasted or sauteed vegetables.  Lately, there's been a whole lot of kale and sweet potatoes going on.  Tonight was shrimp fajitas (shrimp, onions, poblano and sweet yellow peppers, sauteed with some butter and salt and pepper) with pico de gallo.
Also not pictured: my morning latte, and my afternoon coffee.. or two.
Also also not pictured: the various snacks the people at my office bring in in an attempt at derailing this lovely healthy food train I'm on.

Okay, so there you have it.  Like I said in the beginning of the post, it's not quite a weeks worth, I do end up stopping at the store here and there during the week for things I end up needing for specific recipes.  Also this does not include the things I already have in my pantry and freezer that go into my weekly meals, but it should give you a decent idea of what to buy!