Pacifica 20% off deal

For a limited time, Pacifica is offering 20% off its Tahitian Gardenia scent.

See this link. The deal is no longer offered on the Vietnamese Ylang Ylang.

Review: Juice Organics Brightening Cleanser

I want to like Juice Organics more than I actually do. I mean, what's not to love? Their sister range, Juice Beauty, which is available at places like Sephora, is three times the price, so with Juice Organics it always feels like you're getting away with something. Their products are made with certified organic ingredients, no animal testing, 100% vegetarian products. All of the products have a minimum of 70% organic ingredients. Like I said, what's not to love?

The problem is, I think, the organic juice base that all the products are made out of. Sometimes (well, a lot of the time), it just feels like you've put orange juice on your skin. And as you know, orange juice is kind of sticky and not exactly the sort of thing you want on your face (as opposed to in your face). I haven't had much luck with the Juice Organics moisturizers, as they have a bit too much of the orange juice-like thing going on. The Juice Beauty range suffers much less from this little flaw, and their moisturizers suit me much better.

Having said all that, I think the Juice Organics Brightening Cleanser might be a winner. It's $9.99 for 6 fl oz at Target. My local CVS used to carry Juice Organics, but doesn't these days for some reason. It's a little bit runny, but not too bad - at least it doesn't run through your fingers like some organic cleansers. One pump does your whole face, so it should last quite a long time. It doesn't lather much, but actually feels quite creamy while you're using it. The cleanser smells lightly citrusy if you sniff it hard, but it's a very mild scent. And it does make your face feel nice and clean, and seems to remove make up well. It contains glycolic acid, so you know you're getting some good wrinkle-fighting effects along with all the organic goodness, and it is definitely leaving my skin feeling smooth. I do find it slightly drying, though, and I find that I need to put on some moisturizer fairly quickly, so if you have more mature skin it might not be the best thing for you. It's probably best for twenties or early- to mid-thirties type ages, unless you have oily skin, then you can probably use it well into your forties without too many problems. They have a Nourishing Cleanser that is probably more suitable for mature skin, although I haven't tried that one yet (yes, I'm still feebly trying to hang on to my youth but perhaps I'll own up to mature skin with my next bottle).

Three stars.

Review: Giovanni Organics Smooth As Silk Shampoo

I have a love/hate relationship with organic/green haircare products. I have dry, frizzy hair so it needs a lot of tender loving care otherwise it looks like a giant frizzy nightmare, somewhat like I just stuck my fingers in the electrical socket. Which means that many of the natural products just don't work for me very well at all. Or that I have to spend a lot of money. One line that does work for me and isn't super expensive is the Giovanni Organics Smooth As Silk range.

The shampoo is nice and creamy, and slightly pearlescent. It has a pleasant smell, though of what I couldn't really say - it's a generic shampooey/floral/herby sort of a smell. It lathers fairly well - not so much that you're covered in bubbles but not so little like some other organic shampoos that you feel like you're working oil through your hair. It cleans my hair well, and leaves it nice and soft.

The two things that bug me about this shampoo are the price and the bottle. The bottle is 8.5 fl oz, which is quite small really, and the shape of it makes getting the last of the shampoo out of the bottle a tricky proposition. That top cap is quite difficult to pull off! I wish larger bottles and/or refills were available. The price varies locally from $5.95 to $7.99, depending on the store, so it requires some shopping around. I have seen it online for as low as $5.22 but that's about as low as it seems to go. I often go off and buy a cheaper shampoo, because it bugs me to spend that much, but eventually keep coming back to this one because it just works.

Lately I've been economizing by only shampooing my hair every other day, which seems to be working pretty well. This isn't going to help if you have oily hair, but for dry hair you really don't need to shampoo every time - you can put the conditioner straight on your hair, skipping the shampoo step. Or I guess, just not wash it as often at all, and save water while you're at it. But doing this means I use the shampoo half as often as I used to, which saves me some cash right there.

I'll give this 3 and a half stars. I would have given it more if the bottle didn't annoy me so much.

Review: Guayaki Yerba Mate - Mate Chocolatte Tea

A couple of my friends are ga-ga over this Mate Chocolatté tea. After all, it's organic, it's robustly flavored and it gives you a nice kick of energy.

But I just can't get into it. I'm not quite sure what it's trying to be. Is it trying to be a coffee substitute? A hot chocolate substitute? Or a drink with its own personality? It smells like Mate tea with a hint of cinnamon and cocoa. And if you haven't smelled Mate tea and want me to describe it further, I would say there's an undertone of bark, soil and damp leaves. It's an earthy, vegetal smell. The taste is more chocolatey when you take that first sip. It's like a diluted (very diluted) hot chocolate with some cumin and cinnamon thrown in for good measure. Not that there's any cumin in it, but that's the impression that comes to mind. It's certainly not a sweet hot chocolate, but a spicy one, with an earthy aftertaste. The ingredients are Yerba Mate leaf, cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, stevia and clove.

I suppose if you were just giving up coffee or coke, or even hot chocolate, and wanted something to make you feel like you're kind of getting a hit of your favorite beverage while being healthier than the thing you just gave up, this is probably something to go for. If you're more of a tea drinker to start with, like I am, it may not entirely hit the spot. I feel like it's trying to be too many things to too many people rather than being itself.

Sorry girls, I don't love it. It is apparently at Whole Foods for $4.99 (I didn't buy it), but for that price for 16 bags of tea, it's got to be swoon-worthy for me. And this isn't.

Two stars.

Review: Pacifica French Lilac Soap

I adore Pacifica. There, I've said it. I wondered if, in the interests of not boring you rigid with my love of all things Pacifica-related, I should limit my reviews to one soap, one perfume and one candle, because I assume that the formulations are the same. But that would just deny me the opportunity to gush.

Pacifica soaps are made with Pacifica's own biodegradable, vegan, vegetable oil and glycerin soap base, herbs and their signature fragrance blends with natural and essential oils. They are available from Whole Foods and other fine retailers for $6.95 (I think I read somewhere that Anthropologie has them also). You can also buy direct from their website and various other online stores. Now, you may be wondering what on earth is frugal about a seven dollar soap, but here's the deal - this soap is so creamy smooth, so luxurious, so nicely lathering and, importantly, doesn't dry my skin out at all. So it was Pacifica that enabled me to ditch my shower gel habit and thus stop polluting the earth with yet more needless plastic bottles to throw away. These days I only use bar soap in the shower and at the sink. Besides, I really do think that there are some things that we should allow ourselves to splurge on, if it's a reasonable splurge. After all, there must be some enjoyment in life! If it helps any, though, Pacifica regularly discounts one of its scent lines by 20%. The current discount is on Vietnamese Ylang Ylang, but it changes regularly - all the products in the discounted scent are marked down, whether that is candles, soap, perfume, or body lotion. So if you have a favorite, or want to only buy when they're on sale, this brings the price down to $5.55. I snap up random fragrances of the soap and perfume when they're reduced because I just love to try the different varieties.

The French lilac scent is a very rich, full lilac scent, if that makes sense. It's like you are suddenly transported to a beautiful house on a spring morning, and there is a large lilac bush blooming just outside the window you've just opened. Yet, it's not cloying or overpoweringly sweet because there is just a hint of other fragrences there - there's a hint of nectarine that seems to cut the floral scent just when it might get a bit too overbearing. It's beautiful, and scents the whole bathroom for days when you first unwrap the soap. It's not too strong on the body, though, which is where the perfume comes in for those days when you want to waft a fragrance behind you. If you don't want to do that, it is still possible to just pick up the fragrance for a while after you shower, so it does give you a delicate veil of fragrance on its own.

The only downside to Pacifica soaps is that they are not as long lasting as most other bar soaps. I seem to go through a bar quite quickly which is a disappointment, and upsets my frugal nature. The part of me that loves luxury, however, usually just ends up rejoicing that I get to open a new bar of a different scent and will enjoy that one for a while.

Four stars, only marked down because of the disappointment at how long the bar lasts for the money, otherwise it would be a clear 5-star product.

Physician's Formula Organic Wear Eye Shadow Duo

It may seem like I'm obsessed with Physician's Formula, but I kind of am. It's the first drug store range of organic/green makeup. I like some of the things better than others, and I hope they either improve the line or that another drug store range comes out. But for now, I think it's a great start. I mean, it's all very well that other organic lines are lovely, but $80 for a foundation (or whatever) is too steep for me.

The eye shadow duo is 15.9% organic, and is formulated with Organic Jojoba Seed Oil to moisturize the eye area, Organic Corn Starch, and Mica. According to their website, it is 100% free of harsh chemicals, synthetic preservatives, parabens, GMO's, synthetic colors, synthetic fragrances, and is 100% cruelty free. There are four color ranges - green eyes, which is two complementary shades of green and is pictured here. Blue eyes, which is two shades of blue, brown eyes which is a brown and cream, and hazel eyes which is two mauve shades. I have the hazel eyes version. Personally, as someone who doesn't want to spend too long agonizing over the right shade of eye shadow, I like this system as it takes the guesswork over what colors to pick. The product comes in mostly cardboard packaging, so it's good that they've cut down on the amount of plastic involved. It doesn't include a brush. It is retailing for $7.95 - $9.95.

I love this stuff! It goes on easily, the two colors blend very well together, and it lasts for a very long time without dissolving into creases on my eyelids. It hasn't irritated my eyes at all, nor do I find myself rubbing it off later in the day. The colors aren't garish (at least, not the mauves that I've tried), and I've been complimented on how pretty my eyes look twice since I've started using this. That might be because I wasn't regularly wearing eye shadow before, but I think it also shows that it's hard to go wrong with this, otherwise people would have just commented on the fact of me wearing eye shadow rather than that it looks nice.

Five stars!

The Target Report

In the interests of big-box retailer fairness, I visited Target today to check out what green options they have available. It was a much bigger selection than Walmart. There was a large choice of Burt's Bees products, Dr. Bronner's Castille soap, a few Juice Organics items (the cheaper sister range to Juice Beauty), some Giovanni Organics shampoos (but at a fairly high price point) and some other odds and ends. What annoyed me was that these items were in the cosmetics section, and were not by the general personal care section. If Joe and Jane Public are going to be tempted to try the organic products, in my view they shouldn't have to go looking for them. Sorry, ranting. A small selection of Physician's Formula Organicwear was also available, with the Tinted Moisturizer at $9.94 (compared to $9.93 at Walmart and $11.99 at CVS).

Over in the cleaning and laundry aisles, there was a large selection of Method products, but I'm afraid they are a bit spendy for my budget these days. A couple of Seventh Generation items were also there - again, alas a bit spendy for me. Besides, I've already tried the Seventh Generation laundry detergent and didn't like it because it didn't really get my clothes clean. They did have a bottle of Arm & Hammer Essentials detergent for $2.84 for 26 loads, so I picked up a bottle to try. There seems to be some confusion over whether the Arm & Hammer is completely green because it supposedly contains optical brighteners, but I'm willing to give it a go. It supposedly is based on plant based soaps so at least it's a lot greener than your average detergent, and at that price point it's got to be worth a shot. I got the Mountain Rain scent, as that was the only one on the shelf. I wish they'd had unscented, as it smells like pine toilet cleaner, but we'll see what the clothes come out smelling like. Review to come!

They had two varieties of Tom's of Maine deodorant (apricot and unscented). And three varieties of Tom's of Maine toothpaste, which were on sale for $3.69. They are normally $4.19 (compared to $4.18 at Walmart), so I snapped up a tube.