Now I don’t mean to sound like a pampered poodle but it’s just a flaw that I cannot help myself with. I should know better than to have anything painted on when I’ll be away for such an extended period but still I  do anyway which means finding myself in the situation where my nail lacquer is chipped and peeling off without me having any nail polish remover to save my modesty is an always. If you question why I don’t just carry around removers, well it’s because I just refuse to.

Which means I’ve frantically tried practically every “homemade nail polish remover” around and I’m here today to share my experience:

The stubborn dilemma: OPI in Bubble Bath under a layer of top coat

The trial: Citrus/Vinegar concoction

The result: Fail! Lemon does wonders to whiten the nail but nothing to remove the lacquer. Vinegar just smelled.

The trial: Perfume

The result: Fail! I could not even get past trying it on more than one nail. Honestly who can stand so much perfume.

The trial: Hot water

The result: Semi-fail. Immersing your hand in hot water (not boiling of course) sort of makes the nail polish detach from the nail by lifting it but it’s not a clean come –off. So it just makes it even worse looking.

The trial: Surgical Spirit

The result: Pass! The one and only solution that worked.

The trial: Toothpaste

The result: Fail. The minty freshness of toothpaste did nothing to the polish. This stuff may be a great substitute for wall fillers but it’s just useless at removing nail polish.

So that’s the result of my experiment. I do believe that it’s probably the layer of top coat that makes it more impossible for these homemade remedies to work, but at least you know what does.

But the real problem with that question is how it makes you evaluate yourself -kind of like those ridicules questions you get asked at interviews: “Tell me your worse traits or Tell me why I should hire you.” So really once you acknowledge the facts about yourself you can’t quite turn back.
And therein lies the problem. I acknowledge that my hair is beautiful…but with age everything falls to pieces – not a choice but really just a question of at what rate. Lately my hair’s been dropping/shedding like crazy- likely due to the lack of sleep but in my vain attempts to salvage more time for my ‘best feature’, I’ve done a lot of research and found an interesting product worth mentioning.

You’ve all heard about the benefits of bamboo…well then why not applaud at the idea of bamboo shampoo?
Now I’m not sure if everyone here has observed the bamboo but we’ve got those in the garden and believe me those plants are hardy and boy do they grow fast. The bamboo really has the ideal characteristics that I would love for my hair to have – regenerates fast and stays hardy.
And scientifically bamboo is good for your crowning glory because bamboo extract has the richest known source of natural silica which is essential for hair growth and proven to prevent hair loss. Sold by the idea yet? Well maybe knowing the fact that even ALTERNA has a bamboo hair care range might help persuade you it’s not all unfounded theories.

Have I tried it myself? Well…no not quite. I’m still a faithful patron of my dog’s shampoo – Earthbath and my new year resolution to stop buying products (even if it is eco-friendly) before I finish the current bottle is preventing me from it. However if you’ve tried a bamboo hair product, we’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Beauty is always on a woman’s mind and part of that obsession with beauty is the desire to hold back the clock – retaining youth is synonymous with retaining ones beauty. So if we opt for green lifestyle then cosmetic surgeries and interventions would be out of the question, but deciding on a natural alternative isn’t always necessarily a better option.

I’d like to bring to your attention something I saw on a documentary – about how people were doing the tango with death by eating poisonous toads, all in the name of beauty and health. They were careful about how they prepared the toads for meals as it was a delicate process to not poison the toad. Personally I think it’s a little too much for me and I’m not prepared to trade wrinkles for a meal of toads, but the woman they showed in the documentary who subscribed to this natural remedy looked 10 years younger than her true age!
I wasn’t too convinced about this “natural remedy” until I found an article about how extracts from frog and toad skin could help treat more than 70 diseases was discovered by researchers from Queen’s University in Belfast.

It goes on to explain about how the secretions from the skins of these amphibians – the same ones they produce to protect themselves from predators are also able to control the growth of blood vessels – a process known as angiogenesis, which could be a great progress in the fight against cancer!

Well all this sounds great, but it didn’t quite explain how they extract the secretions from the animals. If we eat them and then kill them also for the secretions – very soon we’ll have an extinction issue and that always tips the balance on the food chain – a huge green no no.

So some refrain from surgery and opt for the “safer” option – weight loss or weight management supplements. To be even safer they opt for the all natural varieties, but here’s the problem – just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it is safe.
Take fat blockers for example. The natural options are made from cactus powder which has the ability to slow down the absorption of fat in the body. Sounds good? Yes we think so too but not when you abuse the use of it.

You see fat blockers slow down the absorption of fat but it does not distinguish between the types of fat it works against. Our body like it or not needs some good fats and these are all blocked out by the fat blockers if we take them irresponsibly.

We need to appreciate that there are no short cuts to success and the same for weight loss. If you are serious about losing weight, you’ve got to sweat and suffer a little for it. You can’t expect to keep downing buckets of greasy fried food then swallowing tablets of fat blockers in hope that it will reverse the negative impacts of those foods. This is no different from people who binge and take laxatives.

It’s worth reading this short article about the specific effects over-consuming fat blockers will have on you by a Naturopathic Physician.

Yes, for some a new year is synonymous with the gift of another body part reaching its best sell by date and this revelation sends many into a great depression and sets about the disillusion that we need cosmetic fixing. I think if you did a study you’ll find that sales of youth enhancing products probably triple during this season.

But here’s the thing, your body’s best sell by date is not a defined date and you don’t set back the clocks by going under the knife or swallowing commercial pills or slapping on layers of potent toxic creams. They might look like they work but did you ever stop to think why you can’t for a day stop using those products or how even surgery needs rework? Most of the products sold to treat wrinkles, sags, fine lines, etc are just maskers/fillers – meaning they are an artificial layer that goes on top of your ‘faults’ to hide them, once they wear off…your lines wear back in.

Of course I don’t have the ultimate green solution to it, but here’s the thing – prevention is always better than a cure so if you’re 20 going on 21, now’s a good time to embrace a sustainable green lifestyle because while we may not have the cure for ageing, we do have the fail proof way for you to age well beyond your years – live precariously and fuel your body with synthetics.

But back to fillers – I don’t deny that for some of us the lines are very bad and seeking some help for them is not always a question of vanity. Natural dermal fillers are usually either made from collagen or hyaluronic acid – both natural occurring chemicals in the body; that sadly decreases with age. However don’t be pre-obsessed about wearing everything on the surface and nurture from within. Use a natural filler facial product but at the same time replenish your body by consuming food sources of these fillers.

Most of all be happy and embrace ageing with grace.

The fact is the period after Christmas and before New Years is an absolute nightmare because we’re all trying to look our best in 6 days just to be perfect for New Years Day and worst for wear on the second day of it. It’s hard to imagine how 2 days of wreckless dining can cause our body so much havoc but it does…God bless those tasty sweet Christmas treats….

So what can you do in 6 days? I would suggest aside from pray for the Christmas miracle…we all try the following:

Step 1: Cut out the sweets and pack away that minced pie – even if it is a mini one. Forget about alcohol because you’re staying sober until the last day of the year.

Step 2: Drink up on water, add a little lemon in it for flavor and to kick start that hibernating metabolism.

Step 3: If you’re serious about waking up your sleeping energy burning abilities, you’ve got to do some exercise. You may say I’m mad for suggesting a run in winter, but hey if the French can sustain their runs on snow laced mountain tracks then surely we can manage 30mins on the treadmill in the warmth of our homes.

Step 4: Cleaning diet only please…so for the coming few days you’ll have to suck it up and take some blend “organic” food.

Step 5: Come 3 days before new year’s, be realistic about what you can achieve and whip out that Eco Friendly DuMi Shapers for that shape support you need.

Good luck and have fun…

Here’s my two cents on this. Achieving that ideal sized body is only a small step in ‘mastering’ the laws of attraction. Getting into that size 6 dress is great but it’s not very useful when you did not pay attention to the details of it – i.e. you look great dressed but undressed you’ve got another thing coming.

With this I’d like to bring to your attention a condition that plagues even the best of us – spots and I’m not talking about the ones on our face because we’re quite attentive to those. I’m talking about every perky bum’s nightmare – a spotty behind.

For various reasons, even the nicest bum gets haunted by spots and when those spots leave scars – it’s just nasty. So what can we do about it?

1.    Prevent/Avoid
You’ll need to find a way to not get the spottys to begin with. Usually it’s an issue that can be avoided with proper fitting clothes that come with good aeration. I recommend investing in good fitted bamboo cotton undies. Your tush will thank you for it.
2.    Control
You can control the condition by keeping good hygiene. For a natural antiseptic wash, I recommend the use of tea tree oil. Just add that to your soap and use it each time in the shower.
3.    Damage repair
Preventing and curing the spottys is one thing. Dealing with the scars is another. The most you can do is work hard at fading them and that involves exfoliating. You can use loofahs or invest in a good organic sea bath salt to exfoliate with.

Now I can’t say I follow fashion trends. One I don’t make enough money to do that and two, frankly I don’t think fashion trends suit everyone. But this one fashion trend I was recently introduced to intrigues me. It takes recycling or repurposing to a whole new level…but still not something for everyone, especially the faint hearted.

Today if you have spare change that’s between $150 to $300 and you don’t mind dropping it off at a nail salon, then you can give a new purpose or should I say new life to snake skin – the shedded variety of course.

For a good $300 you can have your nails custom designed to be the texture and look akin to a snake or maybe better said as one of those fancy Italian leather shoes or bags. The process would begin as with any normal manicure. The cleaning and shaping of your nails to the desired shape. Next comes the gel polish application which you’ll need to cure under UV light and after that, the fun bit. The manual labor of fitting the snake skin to your nail by cutting it, shaping it and trimming it to the perfect fit. The snake skin is then applied to your nails like wallpaper and a top coat is lacquered over it to seal it.
The manicure lasts for up to 3 weeks, if you take good care of it.
I think it’s a pretty ingenious idea to use dead skin – again a bit unconventional but the only concern that springs to my mind is if any animals are harmed in the process because as you and I both know – when a trend kicks off, it can cause all kinds of havoc.
So would you fork out $300 this Christmas for a serpentine look?

Red
Red’s a pretty easy colour to get from nature. But the classic rainbow’s red is a bright one so that helps us narrow down the search to the Madder Root which gives a deep, rich red hue. The root of the madder plant itself is not red, but contains alizarin, which can be made to produce red lakes of several shades.

Orange
Orange is another colour that you can find various options for. But I’m looking for a cheery orange to match the madder red. So either paprika, turmeric or safflower petals would do just fine.  The intensity of the orange you get varies between these 3 herbs, but I would stick with safflower because it gives a rich orange-yellow colour.

Yellow
Anatto seeds give a lovely light yellow to yellow-orange colour.  Alternatively a good yellow can be achieved by using the petals of the calendula flower.

Green
Kelp/seaweed gives the most amazing green, but they do tend to have a bluish tinge. So if we want a more grass green colour then the extract of wheatgrass would be perfect!

Blue
Woad (first year leaves), the miracle Isatis tinctoria used in the treatment of breast cancer, colds and throat infections will give our soap a beautiful sky blue colour.

Indigo
Well the obvious choice is indigo! But this colour is really strong so a little goes a long way and the Japanese Indigo flower will give the perfect shade.

Violet
Alkanet root will give the soap a beautiful pinkish purple colour if we keep the soap white.

And there we have it! Natural colours to make a rainbow of soap!

I’m sure it isn’t just me who notices how dry skin, puffy eyes and dark circles are just so much more amplified during winter. On some days I’m even convinced that we age overnight during the freezing season. And the experts confirm this observation as they give their scientific reasons for it – lower level of vitamin D in the body during the colder months.

Vitamin D is something we can get naturally from the sun, along with serotonin which is that feel good chemical your body produces. So to beat the winter eye bags here’s what we need to do.

1.    Get sufficient sleep with naps in between during the day (15 mins is good enough)

2. Watch the diet – if you ever wondered why you’re always hungry when it’s cold, well it’s got to do with the fact that the lack of sunlight reduces the effectiveness of the hormone leptin. Leptin is what tells us we’re full. Also, cut down on the salt!

3. Increase the vitamin D in the body through supplements but bear in mind that  vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in very few foods, so your choices may come limited. Known rich sources are salmon, sardines, cow’s milk, goat’s milk, shiitake mushrooms, and eggs.
So there you have it…the winter eye bag mystery solved! Let’s just see if the solutions work.