Why Glass Instead of Plastic

By TatteredTiques

What is it about glass? Plastic manufacturers have gone out of their way to make plastic safe. We now have the BPA-free tags popping up everywhere. This is all good stuff. When I was young, my Dad would take us to Pizza Hut on some friday nights and they would give us our soft drinks in these plastic cups with monsters on them (dracula, wolfman etc.) and he would keep them, take them home and wash them 1,000,000 times. We re-used those filthy cups until I was well into my teen years. I didn't realize his mistake until I had a conversation with one of my friends who does body piercings and he explained to me why the "gun" they use at the mall to pierce ears is atrocious and unsanitary. Legally, this "gun" has only been approved to tag animal ears and that's only because they were going to die soon anyways. These devices are plastic and plastic is porous! Thats right, like a sponge. So BPA-free or not, plastic absorbs. It absorbs food and bacteria and the dishwasher only gets rid of so much- ever noticed how your plastic gets discolored over time? Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like- gross!

Glass is 100% non-porous! It also cleans much easier and is super easy to recycle into something else. Recycling doesn’t compromise glass’ quality or structure and no toxins are produced in the process. Glass’ safe, glossy surface repels food odors and residual flavors. And food reheated in glass—whether in a conventional oven or microwave—tastes superior to victuals nuked in plastic. Also, glass is much prettier. I would take a pantry and fridge full of sparkling clear any day! The glass containers are super versatile- I use the same kind of glass jar to hold preserves, cuddle my toothbrush & put beautiful wild flowers in.

Okay, so since we're rational people trying to make better choices obviously we dont want to throw out all of our tupperware and rubbermaid containers. Unless of course you look at how discolored they are and cant bring yourself to use them again. Bring in the glass storage at your own pace. If you're still shopping at Walmart or Target check in the food storage section and you should find a box of 12 Ball Jars for somewhere between $7 and $10 dollars! That's 12 containers for less than $1 per jar. Also, because of its non-absorbency powers, you can safely buy them from thrift stores- but make sure you're getting them for well under a buck. You can always order them on Amazon and they even have the Classic Blue Ball Jars for sale right now!

Caprock Vintage for Pyrex

Have you ever heard of Pyrex? It's heaven-sent. If you're into vintage cookware these are an absolute staple in your kitchen. Pyrex is super high-quality storage and cookware and its getting harder and harder to find for cheap. Whenever I'm scouring thrift stores the first thing I look for is 100% authentic Pyrex. When I find it, I do a little gleeful dance- kind of a like a jig in the aisle with lots of people glaring at me. But I don't care, it's Pyrex!

I personally don't do my own preserves (yet). But obviously a good collection of glass storage and tight lids is going to be beneficial in that process as well. You'd be amazed how quickly your collection grows if you kinda just pick some up while you're there. I've got a whole shelf in my pantry of various, clean, glass storage.

X O X O    M

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My Daily Beaty Routine

Let me just start by saying that I am flattered by how many people compliment my skin. Sometimes this is just because I am wearing enough makeup to cover up what's under there efficiently & sometimes it's because it's in the middle of summer and my natural oils are hydrating my skin. Sometimes it's because I've been drinking a ton of water. For whatever reason, I get complimented often and that thrills me to no end. I did not have great skin in school. When puberty kicked in, I had the very limited resources of my Mom (who I JUST finally got to start washing her face daily) and neutrogena commercials (I'm not even going to go into how horrible that crap is for your skin). I slathered on the "oil control" everything because I had no idea what was wrong with my skin and everyone kept telling me it was the oil's fault. This of course made things worse and eventually I'd give up and find cover girl makeup and literally cover every inch of my face with thick pancake-batter-like, oil free foundation. This of course made my skin worse and didn't cover anything.

Like everything else in this life it simply took some understanding of biology and trusting my instincts. I went to school for  2 years as a makeup artist and 2 years as an esthetician and learned all I could about the skin. It's ironic that I did all of this and came to several contradicting conclusions: first off, most "skin care" is crap. It's full of toxins that enter your body and just make things worse. Sodium laurel sulfate is found in 99% of face wash/cleanser and it's also found in laundry detergent, dish soap and pretty much anything that bubbles. It's harsh and strips your skin of the oils that it needs to properly hydrate and promote cell regeneration. Secondly, hydration is ALWAYS key. This doesn't mean just put on moisturizer. It means drink water! Properly hydrate your body which leads me to my next conclusion: beauty starts on the inside and works its way out. If your skin is beautiful with very little makeup- you're eating well, exercising, laughing and your insides are healthy.

People who juice on a daily basis usually have incredible skin. They're getting really high doses of vitamins and minerals and it goes to the middle and works its way out. Or, in other words, your skin is the last organ to benefit from good health so if you've got good skin its a good indicator that you've got a healthy body. So, my daily beauty routine doesn't include a toner, cleanser, moisturizer etc. It's actually kind of different: I wake up and brush my teeth with homemade vegan toothpaste, I use a scrub daily that also doubles as a moisturizer. I got the recipe from The Vegan Housewives and before that I made something very similar (minus the essential oils). This scrub exfoliates manually with the raw sugar crystals and moisturizes with the coconut oil. After I scrub with it, I pat my face dry. My face feels greasy for maybe 5 minutes at most because the oil immediately starts soaking into my skin.  I drink 16oz of water within an hour of waking up & I juice 1 cucumber, 4 celery stalks, one bunch of kale, one bunch of spinach, 1 lemon, and a tiny bit of ginger root. I don't eat animals or their bi-products. That's basically it. If I feel like my skin is feeling dry after a couple of hours I add a little bit more 6:1 coconut oil and peppermint essential oil.

I don't wear foundation anymore, I do use a concealer under my eyes and mascara. I love, love, love lip balms. Rule of thumb- I always wear something emollient based (formulated without: Parabens ● Sulfates ● Petrolatum ● Synthetic Fragrances ●Colors ● Mineral Oil ● PABA ● Animal testing or animal ingredients). Wax and petroluem based balms just sit on the lips- I want something that will soak in! Look for ingredients like ultra refined organically grown shea butter fruit, beeswax (not as a base), alpha tocopherol USP (Vitamin E), sesame seed oil, aloe vera oil, borage oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, wheat Germ Oil, grape seed oil, ascorbyl palmitate (Vitamin C). I have personally tried every single La Natura lip balm and can confidently say they rule. I put a little bit of brown shadow to fill in where hair wont grow anymore in my brows and I'm ready to go!

I've truly learned the benefits of less is more! My skin is not perfect but for the most part it's healthy and that's all I can ask for.

What do you do inside and out to promote healthy skin? 

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