Naturalla Beauty

The selection of men's products in the green beauty world is nowhere near as extensive as what's out there for us ladies, but there are still a lot of great options.  For this week's gift guide, I've gathered all my favorite green beauty picks for men.  I don't know if it's just the men I know, but I've always found it's a whole lot easier to get a guy to try a product specifically marketed at his demographic, so with that in mind, all of these are either products specifically sold for men or, at the very least, are very gender neutral in appearance.
Ursa Major Daily Skin Care Kit
Ursa Major makes excellent skincare for either men or women, and both the simplicity of their line and their clean aesthetic and branding make them perfect for men.  The Daily Skin Care Set contain everything your man needs for a complete skincare routine: the company's Face Wash (my favorite!), Face Tonic, and Face Balm, as well as 20 Face Wipes.  If you're looking for something a little smaller, the Travel Skin Care Set is another great option.

Schmidt's Deodorant
If your guy has yet to switch from conventional deodorant, Schmidt's is absolutely the way to make a convert out of him.  It's one of the strongest and most effective natural deodorants out there, but it does have a high baking soda content, so sensitive pits beware.   Cedarwood + Juniper is the most typically masculine scent, but there are four other options - including unscented - as well.

Holiskin Beard Oil Sampler
A lot of companies have started offering beard oils, but what I love about Holiskin's sampler is that it lets your guy try out minis of five different ones.  The kit also includes a $10 off coupon he can redeem on the purchase of any full size beard oil, or, maybe amp the gift up even further by switching that out for your own coupon that he can redeem with you for a full size of his favorite.   

Shea Moisture for Men
Shea Moisture's men's line has a good range of products and their affordable prices and wide availability make it easy to put together a custom gift set for any man.  A number of the products in the line do contain Japanese honeysuckle extract, but the two pictured above, the Three Butters Styling Pomade and Tea Tree After Shave & Bump Preventer, among others, do not.

Lip Balm
Everyone uses lip balm, am I right?  For men, I recommend the Stark & Son Matte Lip Balms from Silk Naturals, which moisturize with a completely matte finish, and the Rebel's Refinery Skull Lip Balms, which are rounded, egg-shaped balms like EOS, but look a little more badass thanks to their skull packaging.  Both are sold in a few different flavors.

Badger Deluxe Wet Shave Set
Badger's products are always top notch and the Deluxe Wet Shave Kit is a great gift for the man who's serious about shaving.  It includes a high quality shaving brush and artisan-crafted bowl, as well as Badger's Pre-Shave Oil, Shave Soap, and After Shave Face Tonic.  

Max Green Alchemy Hair Styling Products
Max Green Alchemy products have a light, herbally smell and work great for both men and women.  Whether your guy uses hair gel, paste, or pomade, they've got you covered - with multiple options to spare!
  
Poo Pourri
If you managed to miss Poo Pourri's viral advertising campaign a couple years ago, this somewhat ridiculous product is basically an essential oil spray that gets misted into the toilet before you go number two.  The idea is that it creates a film on the surface of the water that traps odors below, so "you can go and no one else ever has to know."  Yes, you could absolutely DIY something similar, but the Poo Pourri scent names and overall branding make it such a fun gag gift.

What green beauty gifts would you suggest for men?

It's been a long time since I've done one of these posts - apparently June 2013 was my last one - so I figured it was past time I wrote about some of the products that have not been making the cut in my beauty cabinet.  I want to preface this by saying that none of these are bad products - well, with the exception of one that kinda, maybe is - but they're items that haven't worked for me.



Nubian Heritage Repair & Extend Shine Gel
If you saw my recent Best of Curly Girl Hair Products, you'll know that this gel did not make it onto that list.  I've heard a lot of good things about Nubian Heritage, but this gel was my first time trying anything from the brand.  I've ended up only using it a couple times due to how strong and perfumey it smells.  Super disappointing because it's one of the few Nubian Heritage products that's made without either Japanese honeysuckle extract or palm oil.  It also did seem to work really well, with a good hold that was neither overly crunchy or sticky.  The smell - courtesy of a "proprietary essential oil blend" - is pretty overpowering though, and it tends to hang around all day, so I'm not sure it's worth it.

Sukin Aloe Vera Gel
The thing that I said was maybe just a bad product?  That would be this one here.  Aside from the company's fondness for phenoxyethanol, I really like Sukin products, so when I was given a spare tester from the health food store I was working in at the time, I expected good things.  It's hard to find aloe gels without a ton of fillers, and although Sukin's has only three ingredients - aloe leaf juice, alcohol, and hydroxyethylcellulose - it's awful.  Using alcohol as a preservative requires a moderately large amount, and with so few other ingredients to buffer it, the aloe gel is left smelling like straight up rubbing alcohol.  The alcohol also seems to negate any of the moisturizing properties inherent in the aloe, making the gel pretty useless.  I'm really not sure what anyone was thinking when they made this product.

Pure Anada Fresh Mandarin Pressed Mineral Cheek Color
I featured this Pure Anada blush in a roundup of new blush favorites early in the fall, but since then, it's mostly fallen out of my good books.  Pure Anada's pressed products have a weird, plastic or putty-like scent that the company attributes to the raw, unrefined jojoba oil they use to bind them, and whether or not that's what the smell is, I'm just not a fan.  I like the experience of putting makeup on to be enjoyable, and even luxurious at times, so something that makes me feel like I need to hold my breath while applying it, just isn't what I'm looking for.  It's a shame too, because the color is really pretty.  

Schmidt's Lavender-Sage Deodorant
I already let the cat out of the bag on this one when I wrote about how I transformed my Schmidt's into a deodorant that didn't sting or irritate my armpits, but I thought I'd stick it in here too, in case you missed that post.  The deodorant, in its original state, kept me stink-free, but it completely tore up my armpits.  And apparently I'm far from alone on this, as a lot of you described similar experiences with Schmidt's, both in the comments on that post and on Instagram and Twitter.  

EOS Sweet Mint Lip Balm
As one of the few all natural lip balms that's easily accessible in stores here, I'd wanted to try EOS for years, but I only actually got around to it last month when my mom bought me this one.  The ingredients are good, the egg shape is cute, and I love the Sweet Mint flavour/scent, but the balm itself is just not as hydrating as I would like.  I even sometimes feel like it has the opposite effect and actually dries out my lips.  

[EOS Fans: Do the balms vary by scent?  I also have an unopened strawberry one, but I may end up passing it on if it's going to be equally lackluster in terms of moisture.]

The All Natural Face Midas Cream Concealer 
I'm always looking for products that will conceal my dark circles, and the yellow-toned Midas has garnered a lot of positive attention.  Sadly, it doesn't work for me.  The concealer is illuminating, but it gives hardly any coverage, so instead of achieving the bright and awake under eye look I'm going for, I end up with a layer of shine that may even make my dark circles look more prominent.    Needless to say I'm not a fan.

Have you used any of these?  Are there other underwhelming products that have left you disappointed recently?

I hear time and time again how difficult deodorant is to switch over when transitioning to natural products, and I think it's very true.  First, you have to factor in that many of us come to natural products used to antiperspirants not deodorants and that no natural deodorant is going to stop you from sweating the way an antiperspirant does.  After this first hurdle, you come to the even larger problem of finding something that works without needing to be reapplied every thirty minutes AND doesn't irritate one's delicate arm pits.  

Baking soda is one of the best odor-absorbing ingredients out there, but because of how alkaline it is (a ph of 8.5, versus the 4.5-5 ph of the skin's natural acid mantle), it can cause skin reactions in a lot of people.  It really depends on the individual: some people can tolerate it fine, others not at all, and for others still - like me - it all comes down to how much is used in a given product.  

Schmidt's Deodorant is pretty popular around the blogosphere, so I was excited to get my hands on it over the summer.  It passed the smell test - all day odor protection - but it always managed to turn my armpits into an angry, red, bumpy battlefield.  Eventually I gave up and set it aside.  

You might know - if you've ever seen my empties posts - just how much I hate to waste products, so months later, I decided to try my hand at transforming this deodorant into something I could more comfortably use.  



Based off several different variations of homemade deodorant I've made, I combined:

7/8 of a jar of Schmidt's Lavender Sage Deodorant
An equal amount of Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
Sprinkle of Ora's Amazing Herbal Clay/Arrowroot-based Body Powder (arrowroot powder, cornstarch, or kaolin clay would work fine too)
5 drops Young Living Eucalyptus Radiata Essential Oil

I melted the Schmidt's and coconut oil together over a double boiler, then removed it from the heat and stirred in the last two ingredients.  After that, it's just a matter of pouring it into jars and waiting for it to cool.

The Results?

Today was my first day using it, but so far it's everything I was hoping for!  It hasn't burned or irritated my pits, and it still works well to keep any stink at bay.  As an added bonus, it's also a perfect creamy, buttery consistency now, where the Schmidt's was always very solid and required a lot more effort to work into the skin.  

I'll keep you guys updated once I've used it for longer, but so far, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

P.S. Check out my favorite, super simple DIY Deodorant recipe here.

I was super impressed by Petit Vour's June box, so was really happy to be sent the July one as well.  If you aren't already familiar with it, Petit Vour is a monthly vegan and cruelty free beauty box subscription.  For July's box*, they teamed up with Tashina from Logical Harmony, a vegan lifestyle and beauty blog, to curate a selection of ultimate summer must-haves.  I don't read a lot of vegan blogs, but I actually do read Tashina's, so I was excited to see what goodies she would choose!


LVX Nail Lacquer in Lolli ($16)
I haven't tried these 5-free nail polishes before, but I've heard good things.  Lolli is a pretty pastel pink that, again, is unlike anything else in my small nail polish collection.  I still have the NCLA polish from last month's Petit Vour on my toes, but I'll be swapping it out for this one some time over the weekend.

Pelle Beauty Luxe Face Oil (Sample Value ±$8.50)
Pelle Beauty is actually a local company for me, so it was nice to see their oil included in a US subscription box!  Again, it's a brand I'm familiar with but one I haven't used before.  I believe subscribers received one of a few different oils from Pelle's line and my box included Luxe, an anti-aging oil recommended for all skin types.  The blend contains new-to-me cucumber seed and babassu oils, as well as meadowfoam, ricebran, and fractionated coconut oils, and essential oils of neroli, jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, and sandalwood.  I love testing out new face oils, so I'm happy to see this included in the box.

Modern Minerals Eye Shadow in Cherish ($12.50)
I love mineral eye shadows!  Boxes contained one of a few different shades and I received Cherish, which is a pretty neutral shade, falling somewhere between a shimmery copper and a rose gold.  Modern Minerals leaves out unnecessary fillers like bismuth oxychloride, but this particular color does contain aluminum powder, which I'm a little iffy on.  It's definitely not the worst ingredient out there, but it is one I usually steer clear of.  Tashina posted an eye look using Cherish in the crease, if you'd like a better look at the color.   

Schmidt's Natural Deodorant in Lavender + Sage (Sample Value ±$2.25)
I've used Schmidt's deodorant before and it works really well.  The formula relies on baking soda and arrowroot powder for odor protection and moisture absorption and uses a gentle base of shea and cocoa butters.   I actually already have a full size of the Lavender + Sage, so am planning to pass this sample on to a friend.



Another great box from Petit Vour!  

Boxes retail for  $15 (US) / $23 (Canada) / $30 (International) and with an approximate value of $39.25, you're more than getting your money's worth, wherever you're purchasing from.  I'm really happy to see that Petit Vour is choosing to focus not only on vegan and cruelty free products, but also on natural ones.  Both boxes I've received have been really well curated, with a good mix of skincare, body care, and makeup and a combination of full size and sample items.  I also love that they include both well known and smaller brands.  

Have you tried Petit Vour yet?