Product Rave: BioCe Repair Serum

This is a new part of my blog that I’m excited to feature!  I will be posting Product Rave’s and Product Rant’s about products that I use or come across.

For my first Product Rave I’ve decided to write a quick review on BioCe Repair Serum.  I’ve been using this product for a little over a year, there are so many reasons I love this product so let’s get started.

I never thought I needed to use “anti-aging” skin care products at 29 but boy was I wrong!  At 29 years old my skin has taken a dramatic turn this summer, it reacts to sun differently, sun spots are starting to occur, after last summer I noticed 2 lines from “squinting” in between my eyes, my skin is more sensitive to sun and I’m realizing that I have to be all around more careful!  YIKES!  30 is creeping up quick and I’m so thankful that this skin care line came along at the right time for me!

Here we are in August and I religiously have been using the repair serum on my face every single morning and night after I cleanse and before I moisturize.  It’s done so much for my skin to repair those imperfections and recently I noticed something else!  I went away for the weekend to Montauk which was so much fun minus the ridiculous sunburn I got, here I am preaching to you guys are sunscreen and I get scorched!  In my defense I did use sunscreen I just didn’t realize it wasn’t working (lol).  So on to how the Repair Serum came to my rescue (yes sometimes I tend to just keep talking), by using the Repair Serum on my skin after the sunburn it not only soothed away some of that pain but I truly felt it made the burn fade faster than it normally would and it also prevented me from peeling! Amazing!  Who want’s their skin to peel on their face? NO ONE!  That is how I fell even more in love with this product.

This product line is not available in stores, if you’re insterested to learn more you can contact me at beliefmakesthingsreal@gmail.com
To your healthy skin,

Alex

SPF, UVA & UVB: What Does It All Mean???

Well here we are almost a month into a beautiful sun filled summer and I’m sure most of you are enjoying your sun kissed tan skin like I am!!  It’s amazing what can change in a year, I was looking back in all of the sunscreens I have in my beach bag from last summer and I won’t even touch any of them this year because of how toxic they are.  I’m also more aware of what UVA and UVB actually mean and what it does to your skin.  So let’s chat about it, in layman’s terms.

SPF (sun protection factor): The amount of increased protection a sunscreen provides. If you are like most people, you will begin burning after 15 minutes without protection. An SPF helps protect against sunburn but does not “stop” the tanning process completely! 

Determine your protected sunning time by multiplying the SPF number by the amount of time it normally takes you to show signs of burning if unprotected.

For example: SPF 8: 8 x 15 = 2 hours of increased protection.

SPF 15: 15 x 15 = 3 3/4 hours protection.

If you burn in 5 minutes (usually very sensitive skin) with an SPF15: 15 x 5 = l h 15 increased protection.

The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends SPF’s of at least 15, which block 93 percent of UVB. While SPF’s higher than 30 block only 4 percent more UVB, they may be advisable for sun-sensitive individuals, skin cancer patients, and people at high risk of developing skin cancer. They also allow some margin for error if too little sunscreen is applied.

UVA (ultraviolet-A): long- wave solar rays of 320-400 nanometers (billionths of a meter). Although less likely than UVB to cause sunburn, UVA penetrates the skin more deeply, and is considered the chief culprit behind wrinkling, leathering, and other aspects of “photoaging.” The latest studies show that UVA not only increases UVB ‘s cancer-causing effects, but may directly cause some skin cancers, including melanomas and directly effects your DNA.

UVB (ultraviolet-B): short-wave solar rays of 290-320 nanometers. More potent than UVA in producing sunburn, these rays directly effect the outer layer of the skin and are also a significant cause of melanoma.

See here:

Sunblocks and sunscreens: Sunscreens chemically absorb UV rays, sunblocks physically deflect them. Sunscreen has long blocked UVB effectively, but until recently provided less UVA protection.

Take this information and apply it to what you’ve read previously about how to shop for safe, toxic free sunscreen and you will feel much better about heading out to the beach.

A few things to remember:

*Just because you are not getting a sun burn does not mean you are fully protected from the sun, remember the UVA rays penetrate below the skin where you can’t see it

*Just because you slap on some SPF does not mean you are invincible, shade, clothing, hats, etc. are still suggested to help with your sun protection, keep yourself and your family SAFE as can be this summer and still go out there and enjoy the beautiful weather!

To your health,

Alex

Not “Safe,” Not “Pure,” Not “Beneficial”

I want to preface this post by making a very clear point.  My blog is not about “bashing” other companies products it is simply about sharing information.  There is such a large knowledge gap when it comes to safe skin care.  I feel it’s important to share the information in terms that everyone can understand and people can hopefully learn something from reading these posts.

Personally I’ve never tried Arbonne products BUT I’ve heard great things about them, they have a very large following.  I praise anyone that is involved in a network marketing company and is passionate about what they do because that’s who I am as well!  What I don’t praise is false information.  A lot of people have asked me time and time again to compare our products with Arbonne and I just won’t do it.  I don’t want my blog to turn into this place where people feel offended, what I do want is for it to be a place where people open their eyes a little wider and think again about the products they use.  With that I’d like to link an article that I just read.  This is a very informative article about ingredients in a very popular network marketing company that claims all of their products are Safe, Pure and Beneficial.  Now, mind you some of them MAY BE, but definitely not all.

Click here for the article and please pass on to anyone you know that uses these products:

http://www.greenwala.com/channels/eco-beauty/blog/15895-Arbonne-Not-Safe-Not-Pure-Not-Beneficial

 

To Your Health,

Alex

 

 

The Sunscreen Results!

OK it’s time for my results!  I know you have all  been anxious for these results because that sun is out and strong!!!! What an amazing weekend we had here in NY, I had many people contacting me asking what sunscreen to slap on their skin and I promised Tuesday so here it is!

Now let me preface this by saying I am not an expert, I’m just someone who enjoys doing hours of research on safe skin care and these are my results.  You need to find products that work for you and you feel good about using.

Here is how the rating of the sunscreens work.  I’ve gotten all of my data from http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ and this is how their rating system works:

Sunscreen rating system — Summary

Our sunscreen rating system is based on a product-by-product analysis of safety and effectiveness. In our analysis of a product’s effectiveness we weigh four factors: UVA and UVB protection, balance, and the stability of active ingredient combinations. We combine these factors to derive a product effectiveness (sun hazard) rating. In our analysis of product safety we assess the potential for skin absorption and health hazards for all active ingredients (FDA-approved sunscreens) and all inactive ingredients to derive a product safety (health hazard) rating. We combine these two product ratings, effectiveness and safety, to derive an overall product rating using the following algorithm:

The sunscreen efficacy is calculated by taking 28% of the UVB protection + 28% of the UVA protection score + 28% of the UVA/UVB balance score + 16% of the sunscreen stability score. This is then combined with the health hazard score using at a variable ratio. For high hazard (health hazard score of 7 and higher), the efficacy score and health hazard score are combined at a 1:1 ratio. Using a linear regression, the efficacy score ratio is increased to 2:1 when the health hazard score reaches 0. This combined score is rounded to the nearest integer between 0 and 10.

We also flag sunscreen-specific hazards. Recent data suggest that sunscreens should not contain oxybenzone or vitamin A; not be aerosolized or powder; nor list SPF values over “50+”. Products with 1 of these hazards can not have a final score <3, products with 2 of more of these concerns cannot score better than 7. Powdered sunscreens cannot be scored better than 7 due to intense concerns about inhalation toxicity.

We include a score to account for UVA-UVB balance in sunscreens. There is growing awareness of ideal sunscreens offer reasonably similar protection across the UV spectrum. The growth of ultra high SPF sunscreens further exacerbates this problem, as UVA protection currently maxes out at about 20 in U.S. sunscreens (BASF 2011)

I’ll start with the bad.  I had about 15 comments left by people telling me what sunscreen they use and wanting to know if it’s safe or not.  First of all THANK YOU!!! Without your feedback I wouldn’t know where to begin!

Keep in mind when reading the results you really want to use a sunscreen that has a rating of 3 or lower, anything that rates a 5-10 in my opinion is way too toxic!

Here are those results in no particular order (bottom line-throw these out they are filled with toxic ingredients):

Coppertone Continuous Spray
Score: 7
UVB protection (SPF): Good
UVA protection: poor
Health concern: HIGH

Australian Gold Spray with bronzer (SPF 8)
Score: 7
UVB protection (SPF): moderate
UVA protection: poor
Health concern: HIGH
Overall hazar is HIGH
Cancer risk: low
Developmental * reporidtive toxicty: moderate
Allergies & immunotoxicity: high

Banana Boat Oil
Score: 7
UVB protection (SPF): moderate
UVA protection: moderate
Health concern: HIGH
Overall hazard is moderate to high
Cancer risk: low to moderate
Developmental * reporidtive toxicty: high
Allergies & immunotoxicity: moderate to high
Toxic Ingredients: Fragrance, Retinyl palimate, mineral oil

Neutrogena Mineral Sheers Powder Foundation, SPF 20
Score: 7
UVB protection (SPF): moderate
UVA protection: moderate
Health concern: HIGH
Overall hazard is high
Cancer risk: low to moderate
Developmental * reporidtive toxicty: high
Allergies & immunotoxicity: moderate
Toxic Ingredients:RETINYL PALMITATE (VITAMIN A PALMITATE), Alumina, Methylparaben, propylparaben

Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer, Designed for Medium Skin Tones
Score: 6
Health concern: moderate
Overall hazard moderate to high
Cancer risk: low
Developmental * reporidtive toxicty: low to moderate
Allergies & immunotoxicity: moderate to high
Toxic Ingredients: Fragrance, DMDM Hydantoin, methylparaben, propylparaben, BHT, mineral oil

Neutrogena Build-A-Tan for Faces Sunless Tanning, SPF 15
Score: 8
Health Concern: high
Overall Hazard: high
cancer: low
developmental and reproductive toxicity: low to moderate
Allergies and immunotoxicity: high
Toxic Ingredients: fragrance, oxybenzone, PEG-100 stearate, methylparaben, butylparaben, BHT, isbutylparaben, ispropylparaben

Hawaiian Tropic hawaiian tropic spf 45 plus sheer touch sunscreen
Score: 7
UVB protection (SPF): excellent
UVA protection: moderate
Health concern: HIGH
Overall hazard is moderate to high
Cancer risk: low to moderate
Developmental * reporidtive toxicty: very high
Allergies & immunotoxicity: high
Toxic Ingredients: fragrance, retinyl palmitate, oxybenzone, PEG’s, parabens

And a few others to stay away from that are popular:

• Neutrogena Baby Pure & Free Sunblock Lotion, Lotion, SPF 60+: Score: 7
• Neutrogena Healthy Defense Sunblock Lotion, Oil-Free, SPF 45: Score 7
  
• Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist Sunblock Lotion, SPF 70: Score 7

OK now for what you’ve been waiting for!  The  good stuff!!!  Give your body what it deserves and apply one of these safe sunscreens this summer.  Please remember reapply, reapply, reapply.  You are not safe by just putting sunscreen on once for the day, just because it’s free of chemicals doesn’t mean it has super powers it needs to be reapplied as often as every half hour when you’re out baking in the sun.

My top 3 picks..in no particular order:

1. California Baby No Fragrance Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 30+

Score: 1

Price: $39.99

You can purchase here: http://www.californiababy.com/no-fragrance-spf-30-sunscreen-lotion-6-oz.htm

Here is the EWG report: http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/about-the-sunscreens/323373/California_Baby_No_Fragrance_Sunscreen_Lotion%2C_SPF_30%2B/

Notes: Most of California Baby sunscreens are great, use these for you and your kids!

2. Badger Sunscreen, Lightly Scented Lavender, SPF 30+

Score: 1

Price: $16

Purchase here: http://www.badgerbalm.com/p-372-spf-30-for-face-body.aspx

Here is the EWG report: http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/about-the-sunscreens/375118/Badger_Sunscreen%2C_Lightly_Scented_Lavender%2C_SPF_30%2B/

Notes: That little lavendar scent gives you a yummy smell if you don’t want to use unscented.

3. Aubrey Organics Natural Sun Unscented Sensitive Skin/Children Sunscreen, SPF 30+

Score: 1

Price: $14.99

Purchase here: http://www.allvitaminsplus.com/749985002639.html?utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=googlebase&cvsfa=2348&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=373439393835303032363339

Here is the EWG report: http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/about-the-sunscreens/369501/Aubrey_Organics_Natural_Sun_Unscented_Sensitive_Skin%3B%3BChildren_Sunscreen%2C_SPF_30%2B/

For the kiddies:

Aveeno Baby Natural Protection Mineral Block Face Stick, SPF 50

Score: 1

Price: $8

Available at most stores

Here is the EWG report: http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/about-the-sunscreens/388527/Aveeno_Baby_Natural_Protection_Mineral_Block_Face_Stick%2C_SPF_50/

 

Now my research is not complete,  I have not tested these out in the sun myself yet.  We all know how great things can look on paper but once you use a product sometimes it’s a different story.  I have placed orders for all 3 sunscreens and will be testing them on myself out in the sun.  Stay tuned for that entry later next month.
I’m not done with this topic, this is just the beginning, like I mentioned I will also be writing a post about makeup with SPF and lotions with SPF, etc. in the upcoming weeks.

Few closing notes:

*Coconut oil-that’s a new one and I’m going to do a little research and try it! I have heard about it blocking UV rays, worst comes to worse I’ll smell yummy!

*Jenna-you’re Neutrogena Light Sesame Oil is not as great as it seems! Dump it!

*Not all natural sunscreens are SAFE…be sure to do your research.  Some of them have ratings as high as 9 or 10!!

For those of you that want to do some research yourself or just want some reading material…

*Best sunscreens

*Sunscreen hall of shame

*Sunscreens exposed

To be continued…

 

Sunscreen~I need your help on this one!

It’s just about that time…the sun is starting to make an appearance and it feels glorious! People are actually smiling, walking, running, biking outside, eating lunch on a park bench and just soaking in the amazing feeling the sun brings us.  With that comes time to purchase your sunscreen for the summer and that’s where I need your help.  I am going to be doing some research until the end of May on sunscreen, I’ve made it my goal to find 3 SAFE natural sunscreens to suggest people purchase for this summer. I’m going to make a confression here, I don’t use a lot of sunscreen, I was blessed with that Italian skin that just tans very, very well .  I use sunscreen, just not religiously on a daily basis, only if I’m actually “laying out” at the beach, etc. I know there are many of you out there that use sunscreen on a daily basis, even for driving to work because you need it, so I want to give you a safe option.

Did you know that most sunscreens have many chemicals that can actually be causing you more harm than good?

Check this out…

Chemical Sunscreens Include:

Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)

PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB,  glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid, padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA)

Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate)

Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate)

Digalloyl trioleate

Menthyl anthranilate

Avobenzone [butyl-methyoxydibenzoylmethane; Parsol 1789] – This is the only chemical sunscreen currently allowed by the European Community. However, its safety is still questionable since it easily penetrates the skin and is a strong free radical generator.

Now I know what you’re thinking….”Alex, you’re giving me more work! How am I supposed to know what sunscreen to purchase?”.  That’s where I say, that I will by the end of May give you 3 safe options for your sunscreen this summer.

Now what I need from you…

Please leave a comment on this post stating your GO-TO sunscreen, I’m going to research it for you and tell you

if you should stick with it or scrap it.

I’m going to leave you with 2 closing points which I’ll write about in my posts next week:

1. Don’t be fooled if your sunscreen says “natural” on the bottle…I’d bet money that they have 1 or 2 natural ingredients but still have many of those toxins listed above.  In the United States there are no rules and regulations in regards to using “natural” on a product bottle.

2. You’re not in the clear if your daily makeup has SPF 15/30 in it….by putting SPF in makeup you’re putting more chemicals on your skin AND I’ll explain how the SPF isn’t even effective.
Stay tuned and thanks for the help!

Alex

5 Natural Beauty Tips

I read this article recently Cosmetics can produce a toxic cocktail and really appreciated the 5 simple examples they gave us on how we can incorporate natural beauty into our routine. There is one thing I always hear over and over from people when speaking to them about safe skin care it’s “I don’t even know where to begin!”  In one of my previous posts from last year I gave the top 10 toxins list, I always say that’s a great place to start and now here is another option.

Five natural beauty tips

1. Get rid of your conventional nail polish and opt for a water-based solution.

2. Include mineral makeup with your beauty regimen. Don’t use products with colour additives. Earth Beauty mineral makeup is a favourite of Cianciullo.

3. Drop petroleum-based lip balm in favour of natural options. Badger and Eco Lips are top picks.

4. Natural facial oils such as argan oil are an ideal way of hydrating the skin. You can put a few drops in bath water, face and on your hair to control frizz.

5. Baking soda can be used to whiten your teeth and sprinkled on the palm of your hands, patted onto your armpits for protection against sweating.

I can honestly say I’ve done all of these…so I felt good after reading this article Pass this on to the ones you love and give them the advice to start incorporating  natural beauty tips into their lives.  You can simply hit “share” on this post.

To Your Health,

Alex

Toxins + Products= BAD! BAD! BAD!

You already know (if you read my blog) how passionate I am about safe products.  It’s one of my goals to continually educate as many people as I can on how harmful 90% of the products out there really are! I had the pleasure of being a special guest on Dr. Mac’s Tuesday night product call a couple of months back. You can see the original post with the audio here: http://heydrmac.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/great-new-audios/.

In this post Dr. Mac writes:

We all know that BioCé products are pure, clean and nourishing, and we know that most others are NOT. In this great audio, Health Activist and Diamond Director, Alex Izzo discusses how most skin care companies pay scant attention to the health of their ingredients, and she provides some shocking statistics that will be sure to encourage your friends and family to change their habits and start using BioCé. Click here to listen: www.idealhealthhosting.com/drmacblog/alexizzo.mp3

Enjoy the audio and pass it along!  It’s a great way to get a quick and easy overview of safe skin care!

To your health,

Alex