#45 Aphorism of the week: Life

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. 

Friedrich Nietzsche  

Agnya: the Sixth Chakra

 

Agnya, the sixth chakra, is located between the eyes. It rules our intuition and imagination, inner visions and sleeping dreams. This chakra represents the self-realized adults, those who live in harmony with themselves and others because they feel everything is a UNITY and consider problems as opportunities, not obstacles. Talking about the time era, it represents the hopeful near future: if we manage to survive the challanges of the present, we will move into a Golden Age, when we'll be able to live on a multidimensional level, feeling the ONENESS. 

COLOR: indigo. 

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS:  Sagittarius, with its holistic vision of life; 

                                    Aquarius, with its intuition and divinely inspired thoughts; 

                                    Pisces, with its access to inner truths through devotion. 

SENSE: telepathy, empathy, and other higher senses that remain latent within the portion of our brain that we don't normally use.   

NOTE: high A. 

MANTRA: 'aum' 'om' 'mmm'. 

NUMBER: 96. 

ELEMENT: metaphysical, it rules inner sound and spiritual vision. 

GLAND: pituitary gland, the main control center, it stimulates the proper growth of glands and organs and regulates sexual development. 

When Agnya is clear, we have enhanced intellectual and physic abilities, we are able to amplify the information gained by our five physical senses, our imagination is expanded and we are able to project our visions into the outer world. 

When Agnya is unclear, we don't manage to be focused in life, we suffer from intellectual stagnation, headaches, vision and hearing problems. 

Kali 

Skin's bad reaction to moisturizers: causes!

Has your skin ever reacted badly to moisturizers? Which ones could be the causes? Here I'll share with you my thoughts and my experience. 
In my childhood I often suffered from dermatitis, without really knowing the real causes. As I said many times my skin is a touchy child, 'she' is incredibly reactive to whatever I try to give 'her'. That's why lately I have been increasingly cutting down my skincare routine, to understand which ingredients could be the 'enemies' of my skin. I think the first step should be having a skin's allergies test, to know if there are evident allergy factors. In my case I have a slight reaction to Kathon CG (Isothiazolinone) which is a widely used preservative in cosmetics, almost never displayed in the INCI list, because of the tiny amount used in products. This is an awful discover because I theoretically should avoid nearly every commercial cosmetic, to make sure I don't get in contact with it. Despite of this allergy, I don't think this ingredient is the only one that makes my skin react badly. 

Here is a list of the potential comedogenic/irritating ingredients found in most cosmetics (if you want a complete list click here): 

- Paraffin and silicons (in my case they have been among the principal causes of breakouts even if they are not necessarily classified as bad comedogenic ingredients) 
- Shea butter and vegetal butters in general (when I use creams with a big quantity of shea butter on my face/body skin, I get covered by tiny pimples)  
- Almond oil (I personally can't use it even as a make up remover because the next day I'll be covered by tiny underskin pimples)
- Emulsifiers (it took a while to realize that they are often the cause of my face skin's reactions. But being sensitive to emulsifiers means that you are not able to use any kind of moisturizers, because they necessarily contain them to bind hydro and lipo ingredients together. Right now I am in a phase of skin detoxication, I am not using moisturizers, I just apply on my face my homemade superfasteasy lotion:) 
- Preservatives (since they have to be added in every product, you should monitor if there is any correlation between one of them and your reactions)
- All that you already know causes you allergies (for example I am allergic to pineapple and kiwi, so it wouldn't be even a good idea to apply them on my skin) 

What I've learnt in these years is that often dermatologists don't really know how to deal with breakouts problems since it is considered one of the more marginal skin issues, indeed I have never got a real support or useful advices by them. This is one of the reasons why I started to study by my own cosmetic ingredients and formulation in order to create my own beauty allies. 
Last but not least, one of the greatest discoveries I made is: 

'The less you apply on your skin, the better she will be'

Love, 

Kali  

#44 Aphorism of the week: Life

A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use. 

Washington Irving 

Vishuddhi: the Fifth Chakra

Vishuddhi, the fifth chakra, si located in our throat. It rules creativity, speech, communication, grace and listening to the Higher Self. This chakra represents the 'adulthood' stage of life and the 'New Age' time era, when we are urged to expand our consciousness from a limited level to a planetary one. 

COLOR: pale/greenish blue 

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini, which represents a dual nature, creative and analytical, gregarious and reclusive, extroverted and introvert. 

SENSE: hearing, the capability of listening to both our inner self and others. 

NOTE: G# 

MANTRA: 'ham' or 'u' 

NUMBER: 16, which in numerology reduces to 7, the number of analysis, knowledge, meditation, it leads to an inner awareness that's essential for creativity to rise and communicate our real true Self. 

ELEMENT: Ether, hence it's the first chakra ruled by our higher senses. 

GLAND: Thyroid Gland, which communicates with our entire body and regulates our overall health by affecting heart rate, body weight, energy level, memory, cholesterol rates, skin condition, menstrual regularity, etc. 

When Vishuddhi is clear, we feel physically and psychologically strong, our communication is effective and we have positive relations and interactions with others. 

When Vishuddhi is unclear, we feel uninspired and unfulfilled creatively, we might have metabolism imbalance, hearing and voice problems, finally we may be bored and boring for lack of effective communication. 

Kali  

#43 Aphorism of the week: Wisdom

Science is organized knowledge.
Wisdom is organized life. 

Immanuel Kant

Sophyto Tocotrienol Super Skin Concentrate

Months ago I purchased a sample of this serum on Naturisimo, actually we are talking about a Deluxe sample (9.50£ for 10ml) -.-' 
Since I read impressive reviews on this oil I told myself 'You gotta try it, if what they say is real you'll be glad to have spent that money, if not you'll be able to stop people from buying it, blinded by the hope of a hypothetical miracle product'. 
Let me first write down the list of ingredients: 

prunus armeniaca (apricot) seed oil, punica granatum (pomegranate) seed oil, rubus idaeus (raspberry) seed oil, vaccinum oxycoccos (cranberry) seed oil, rosa canina (rosehip) seed oil, tocopherol, ubiquinone (Coenzyme Q10), rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract   

I think the INCI talks by itself, there are 8 well chosen ingredients, mixed for protecting and smoothing skin's surface and delivering more radiant looking skin. This is all true, we are not talking about a miracle, we are dealing with the powerful properties of natural ingredients. This serum features a bunch of vegetal oils known for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, illuminating properties, no surprise then if it works, it would have been actually if it didn't! 
What I want to discuss in here is if it's worth to spend 35£ for 30ml of serum. It is if you are a lazy-give-me-everything-ready type of person, since this bottle will last you several months, you just need a drop per application. 
But if you like preparing your beauty products, here you have a list of the ingredients and their related costs on Aroma-zone, my reliable natural beauty supplier: 

- Apricot seed oil  9.20€ (250ml) 
- Pomegranate seed oil (CO2 extract) 4.50€ (10ml) 
- Cranberry seed oil 5.50€ (30ml) 
- Rosehip seed oil (rosa rubiginosa) 11.50€ (100ml) 
- Tocopherol 2.50€ (5ml) 
- Coenzyme Q10 4.20€ (5ml) 
- Rosemary leaf extract 4.50€ (10ml) 
Usually Pomegranate seed oil is used at a low percentage, around 5%. This means that probably 90% of the serum is abricot oil, the cheapest of the list. The other ingredients will be in increasingly smaller amounts until the rosemary extract, usually used at 0.2%. 
After these considerations, I might gladly tell you that the total cost of 30ml of Tocotrienol is less than 5€, if you wanna be more precise, just add 1€ for pouring it in a nice bottle. That's all.  
I hope this was helpful. 

Cheers, 

Kali 

#42 Aphorism of the week: Life

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed. 

Jung Carl Gustav 

Eccoverde!

I've decided to dedicate a post to one of my favorite Green Beauty Stores, Eccoverde. Why do I like it so much? There are several reasons, actually. They offer a variety of famous Cruelty Free Brands at fair prices and with low shipping charges, moreover if you spend more than 40€ latter are free! 
In this page I can find my true Loves: Everyday Minerals and Badger Balm, plus I've discovered many other natural brands I didn't know yet. Actually what I really enjoy about this Online Store is that they really care about nature and animals issues, since all the brands they sell are certified of being cruelty free, this is a huge plus for me! :) One more thing that has made me a returning and loyal customer is that the guys working there are so kind and careful, the delivery is so fast and when they can they also add some samples to your order... Lovely! 
In these days there is an offer of 8% on the entire website, I know it's not so much but... I'll take advantage of it since I have been getting ready for my new order, more precisely my 4th one, for some days now! 

Bisous, 

Kali :) 

Lily Lolo Natural Lipstick: Desire!

Good morning everyone! Everytime I find myself intrigued by a lipstick, I surf the web searching for precise and reliable swatches and I compare them trying to get an idea of what the color will really look like... that's why I've decided to make this post, in order to let you get the exact shade of a pretty famous natural lipstick: Lily Lolo's Desire! 
But first let me spend two words on the quality of these lipsticks in general: they cost 7.99£ for 4 grams of product (so for 1 or 2 years of use ;) and they are composed by a bunch of vegetal oils, waxes, vitamin E, A and rosemary extract, so nothing bad to say about the formula (except for that bloody lanolin, but why do you use it, damn?! :| ) 
What about the overall performance? If you look for an exceptionally pigmented and lasting product, stay away from it! This is a very good moisturising and shiny lipstick that will last a few hours because of its nature (it is some kind of a glosstick -gloss+lipstick-). So do I like it? Yes, definetely, even if I was expecting a deeper color, as many of you did maybe!  

 

 

Anyway the shade could be defined as a cool glossy red! 

And the packaging is elegant and chic ;) 

Stay tuned! 

Kali   

 

#41 Aphorism of the week: Life

The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. 

Henry Louis Mencken