Events: NaturallyNancy's Holiday Giveaway#2

Oh come all ye lovelies,

 for a bit of... 

H O  L  I  D  A  Y   C  H  E  E  R !!

I'm back with another sponsored  "Green Holiday Giveaway"  brought to you by the good people at


keeki


pure & simple

keekipure&simple started after mothers-turned-entrepreneurs Natalie Bauss and Katy Scheffler noticed a lack of fun, non-toxic products out in the market for their children. Since children's skin is 30 percent thinner than adults (which made toxic chemicals absorb faster), they created a line of fun and colorful nail polish, nail polish removers, lip balms and  lip shimmers that were non-toxic and organic. 


Check out my review of keeki pure & simple's lip shimmer by clicking here.

But wait! 




There's more!

keekipure&simple will be giving away




not  one






or  two








but  THREE




Lip Shimmers to one (1) very lucky winner!!!

pinkish/shimmery hue

My favorite! :) a shimmery light plum hue - flatters most skin tones

shimmery pale hue - great on top of lipstick or use as a highlighter :)

Great idea as a stocking stuffer for friends and family, or keep them for yourself  to enjoy :)

Pucker up buttercup! ;)

Here's how you can win these sweet lip shimmers!!

* You must be a follower of my blog

*If you are under 18, please follow Terms and Conditions below

Contest will end 12/21/11 @ 12:01 EST

GOOD LUCK!! :) xox

Product Review: Poofy Organics

Poofy Organics

 During our last family visit to the East Coast, I decided to find out first hand about a family-owned, hand-crafted, certified organic skin-care/hair-care line in New Jersey named, Poofy Organics. 

Come and take a peek. :)


Taken directly from their site:

Poof's Closet began with a specific goal in mind. To provide healthy and toxic free bath & beauty products at reasonable prices. After my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, my family was determined to stop using products laden with toxic chemicals. We made it our mission to find the safest and most effective ingredients for our products. We are a small family-run business and proud to offer alternative products nationwide. Poof's Closet is dedicated to providing HEALTHY alternative beauty products free of toxins and unhealthy ingredients!



One of the many reasons why I admire Poofy's Organics is, not only have they kept their USDA certifiers busy with paperwork due to their commitment to deliver products that are truly organic and natural, they document everything from beginning to end which holds them accountable to themselves and the USDA system, which is an excellent form of checks and balance.


BRILLIANT!


As I was walking around their store asking questions, chatting it up with the customers, while checking out what they had, I decided to pick up a few hair and body items.




Prior to purchasing their hair products, I wasn't well versed in the technical language of hair. Upon further questioning Kristina (owner) I found out a bit about curly hair texture and type. 


Thanks to the University of Google, I found a heap of information about hair texture, color, type, style, hair-cut that flatters facial shapes, most copied hair-cut, "Facial hair: Itch much?", "hair today, gone tomorrow!"...


Whoa!


I swear, if you don't keep focus on what you're looking for, Google and YouTube will take you to places you had no intentions of going. hahaha!


So,  back to hair texture...


 If you're not familiar with the technical terms for the types and textures of curly hair, pull up a chair let me take you on a brief hair terminology class in:


 Hair Texture


" S    h    o    w   a n d   T    e    l    l " 


(read in the tone of... "Pigs in Space!")


(If you're not familiar with this "Muppet minute", please utilize the Google or YouTube bar and type in "Pigs in Space")




So, let's start off with my curly hair.




 My hair texture varies between a 2a/2c based on the type of products I use to either straightened or curl them. The texture is typically straight at the crown and becomes thick and wavy/curly at the ends.

 My husband's hair texture is a 4b/4c.
Typical of most African-American hair texture which is kinky when dry, with a looser curl pattern when wet, with very little visible curl definition.

 Smack dab in between my husband's hair texture and mine is my son's hair texture.
 It's within the range of a 3b/4b based on the length of his hair and products used. Currently, he's rocking an afro, which you'll see in a bit. 

Pretty basic right? Now that you've learned a thing or two about curly hair, we move on to the review.

Curl It Curling & Braiding Butter 


This product does an excellent job in texturizing and defining coarse,curly hair without leaving that "crunchy hair syndrome" (Ya, I totally made that up - haha! But you get the idea with the crunchy hair effect).
You'll get soft defined curls with a slight sheen that lasts all day. 


 Reading the ingredients on the back of this product, I found out that coconut oil, argan oil, wheat germ oil are wonderful humectants which help rejuvenate, hydrate, thick, coarse, curly, kinky, dry or damaged hair because of it's moisture binding capacity  preventing breakage and frizz. 


I'll tell you now, curly hair will happily drink this stuff.


He received a lot of compliments of how it smelled which is  faint nutty and sweet coconut scent. The texture had a custard-like and creamy feel, so you don't need very much. 
Just be mindful of the amount you use based on the texture and length of your hair.

Check out my son's super-fly soul afro! Can ya dig it? 
I LOVE IT! 


It's wild, hip and clever - a slight reflection of his personality, I think. He's fascinated with Will Smith's son, Jaden but, we'll see how he feels about having an afro when the weather gets warmer ;)




Before school

After school

As you can see, there wasn't that much of a difference. His hair for the most part, remained in tact. Pliable, soft, and smelled oh so nice.


SCORE!


Dynamite De-tangler and Leave in Conditioner


hhmmmm, you can smell the lavender and orange flower from the initial spritz, but quickly dissipates. 
 I used this all over his head just enough to moisten the hair to pick or run my fingers through and help release the curls and kinks a bit. No buildup or greasy residue. A great compliment to the Curling Braiding Butter

Hand and Body Lotion in Orange Sweetness

Since Clorox bought Burt's Bees sometime in the Fall of 2007, I unfortunately had to make the painful decision to switch products to avoid the effects of "greenwashing". 

With a sad and heavy heart, off I went...

I tried out various body balms, lotions and body butters only to find them sticky, watery or it had a weird plastic-y scent. Ick!

 Who would have thought that I would end my search in New Jersey?

Poofy's Hand and Body Lotion in Orange Sweetness absorbed quickly, left the skin hydrated and smelled deee-licious!  I would liken the texture and consistency of this lotion to the old formulation of Burt's Bee's Milk and Honey lotion sans the chemicals and ingredients I can't pronounce.

Apparently, it worked so well that my son and husband decided to claim this lotion for their own use. heehee!

 Oh well, pick and choose your battles...right? 

The charming shop

The beautiful and super helpful owner, Kristina 

Overall, I really love this line of high quality and high performing certified organic products. I hope they continue to produce clean, non-toxic products for families to enjoy.


Thanks for stopping by lovelies! :)

If you have any questions about this review or any other product review I've conducted, feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Until next time, 

Laugh, Love, Live Positive

Product Review: December Conscious Box

Product Review: December Conscious Box




Since I've given a brief overview of what Conscious Box is from last month's introductory post, I figured from this post on, I'll introduce you to the cool contents in the box and talk about the stuff I enjoyed. But if you missed my Conscious Box overview, you can click here.  




With that said, here are the contents of December's Conscious box, lovelies! Enjoy! :)

Items I enjoyed:

Coupon codes and discount flyers - YES!!

Yummy Earth Lollipop -  Organic lollipops and candies sans all the artificial flavoring, artificial sweeteners and artificial coloring? FINALLY! If you're the type of person who is concerned with the type of treats you consume or give out to your children, then this will be the product to try. The color was inviting, the flavor had a hint of sugary sweet with a slightly sour bite that kind of reminded me of sour apple candies. It didn't shock my taste-buds nor gave me a sugar overload which would have me bouncing off the walls only to crash a few minutes later. haha! It had a nice mellow flavor similar to fruit juice. YUM!

Justin's Almond Nut Butter - My gold star item! 

oooohh! creamy, nutty, sweet delicious almond butter. I can immediately tell the difference between the conventional nut butter spreads to Justin's Nut Butters. The consistency is light and creamy but packed with nutty goodness!  I may have to try Justin's Chocolate Hazel Nut Butters which I'm guessing is their version of Nutella. I'll let you know about it once I've tried it. Another bit of important information that caught my attention: Justin Gold (founder and CEO of Justin's Nut Butter) teamed up with a college student named Justin Baker who founded Conscious Alliance . Conscious Alliance began as Justin Baker's vision and drive to help 

others. His vision led him to host campus-wide food drives with the hopes of not only collecting and distributing food to impoverished Native American Reservations in the Western United States, but also to raise awareness about the extreme economic poverty that still exists on many reservations today.

To know more about Conscious Alliance, click here

Yogi Tea - I'm already a fan of their Berry Detox, Detox and Chamomile teas but, I've never their Kombucha flavor. Kombucha tea had a light fruity flavor with a hint of mint. Very nice..

22 Days Enlightened Pumpkin Seed Nutrition Bar- This protein bar takes my honorable mention product. 

I'm a fan of seeds and nuts, especially almonds, cashews and pumpkin seeds. This protein bar is the perfect balance of crunchy and chewy without the chalky artificial taste typical of protein bars. Since it's high in protein, it satisfied my appetite for a few hours, which is great when you're always on the go.  

Still unsure? Check out the health benefits of Pumpkin seeds. According to healthdiaries.com, Pumpkin seeds:

Promotes overall prostate health

Improved bladder function

Contains L-tryptophan, a compound naturally effective against depression.

Contain Zinc which prevents osteoporosis

Natural Anti-Inflammatory

Lowers Bad Cholesterol

Great source of Magnesium (Magnesium treats migraines, insomnia, diabetes and depression)

Sacred Mountain Herbals Lavender Natural Soap-

 ooooh, the scent! I love lavender scented ANYTHING and this soap did not disappoint. The best part was the packaging wrapped around it which had wildflower seeds in it! There are written instructions on how to plant the wrapping paper which will then grow into wildflowers.  How cool is that?

Dropwise Essentials AromaTherapy Mister Room & Body Spray (Refresh)- This little guy packed a punch! It was a sample size spritz no larger than an inch or two but with just a few pumps in the air, my entire kitchen smelled of fresh spearmint:) 

According the their website, this multi-product spray is safe enough to spray on your face/body and gentle enough to scent your hair.

Horray for multi-product items! :)

I hope you've enjoyed my December's Conscious Box review. Feel free to ask me any questions about the contents of this months box by leaving a comment below. I'd love to hear from you! :)

Until next time, 

Laugh, Love, Live Positive