The Magic Is Gone

It happens. A product I formerly endorsed has been replaced. Hey, I'm Sagittarius. We are a fickle lot anyway. 

Egyptian Magic really is, always will be a great product. But I found it wasn't hard to jump off its bandwagon. After all, even though I went through it so slowly, it's a little pricey. And I just can't get past that plastic jar packaging. I can't. I reuse them, of course, but maybe other people don't. So when I happened to catch this tiny little product in a weird place in CVS, I kind of jumped at it.

"All Natural. The Petroleum Jelly Alternative." Well, I don't use petroleum jelly - the name alone sends me into paroxysms of horror - PETROLEUM... Eww. No thanks. What have we been slathering on ourselves? And this had a really cute bee on it. I looked closer. A glass jar!!! Cool! Ingredients... Organic Soybean Oil, Natural Beeswax, Vitamin E Oil, Organic Rosemary Oil. Well those all sound great. "Waxelene is the petroleum jelly alternative. NO petroleum. Only natural & organic ingredients. Moisturize, protect, and soothe skin all in one!" So far so good!


I went to research it when I got home. Um... I could NOT remember the name to save my life. I tried to search, no avail. I had to wait til I got to CVS again to look for it. Shoot, where was it? Some obscure area. Not with the other moisturizers. Ugh, it must've taken me 3 trips before I got the name to stick in my head! 

I contacted them. They actually sent a jar right out to me. The price point is around 7 bucks for a 2oz jar. Not bad at all. I would have bought it myself, but if they were going to be nice enough to send... well sure! Now I have been told over and again by a few loud people that I shouldn't be using beeswax moisturizers on my face. Generally I ignore this advice because I'm going on over 2 years now using Egyptian Magic, which is all about bee products. My skin loves it. It might clog pores for some people, but not me. I tried Waxelene, have been using it for over a month now, and I'm sticking with it. Actually, I went on a trip and was without it for 4 days, and THAT'S when I had a little break-out. Trip zits. Now, the only thing that would make me change is if someday I made my own. Don't see that happening all too soon. 

So, wait. Soybean?? Isn't that GMO crap? And where is the bee stuff coming from? I asked. Here's what they replied: 

"We buy only non-GMO organic soy. It costs MUCH more than GMO soy - we pay for quality. We source mostly beeswax from the US, but some of it does come from other countries - there is not enough available in the US that is high enough quality."

I'm down with that. And that rosemary oil... JUST enough for a nice pleasant fragrance. And while I loved the ingredients in Egyptian Magic, I totally love that this one has vitamin E in it. 

They are based in San Rafael, CA. And oh - 100% wind-powered facility.

Yeah. The magic is gone. There's a new bee in my home. 

https://waxelene.com/






 

Help with This One...

I love candles. Love love love them. I have some burning a really soft glow at my desk right now. Eco-friendly? Depends upon what they are made from, I guess. Some say soy candles are great. I say no, soy is very GMO. Beeswax works for me, but the vegans will say no to that one. I just buy candles. Good-smelling, inexpensive candles. I love the gentle smell and the soft glow.

The latest trend lately has been flameless candles. I'm a fire sign, so burning candles with actual fire is fine by me. I don't have kids to eff with them, and I place them out of range of my cats.

I'm not sure about flameless candles. They are pretty. I guess they have plastic parts, which is not great. When they are done being useful or stop working, they got to Ever Ever Land. Regular candles at least mostly get consumed. These... just stick around. And here's the part that gets me more: they can take 2 AA batteries or 4 AAA batteries. And while they are usually LED and take very little energy and do not actually burn through batteries quickly (pun intended), they are still using batteries. Which also stay in Ever Ever Land. And I don't know a whole lot of people using rechargeable. Oh, and some come with remotes. Gimme a break on that one. Remotes for candles.

In researching these, they seem very nice. They do last a long time, they take very little energy, and many are made of actual wax and emit a soft aroma. Actually, I had to laugh at a complaint I saw... apparently sometimes they flicker, then they'll go really bright for a few seconds, then resume flickering. THIS is your gripe?? Sigh. But anyway, I thought with the battery use they were a big bad idea, but now I am not so sure. Might they be better than candles? Candles have soot... candles can be made from bad stuff... I really just don't know on this one.

Those little fake plastic votives they use in restaurants now? Ick. Always hate those. Those really are just chunks of useless plastic and I cannot condone.

Thoughts? What say you? Fan of the flameless, just for certain areas, feel safer with them around? Maybe that's it. Maybe for just certain spots, and keep the other ones around too. Maybe it's a world where we have both. Let me know what you think...

Still can't quite take the FOUR AAA batteries per candle....

You Are Still Using Bees

And again.

Bee keeping... I always think of it as one of the best things you can do. Any beekeeper I ever met CARED about their bees, each and every hive, and looked after them with such great care. You have to. Healthy happy bees are the key. And oh do we need bees. Honeybees bother no one in their daily lives, really... only defend their hives. I stepped on them regularly as a child, as they collected among the clover flowers. Ouch. But I also would park myself right outside their hive in the wall of our garage and they simply flew around me with no concern. I just watched them. But, bee keeping is apparently another one of those anti-vegan things. Even though... well, let me get into it.

I'll say up front I am NOT an expert. Most of my knowledge is gathered along the way and some of it is, I am sure, anecdotal. For instance, all bees you see out and flying about are female. They do all the work. Thus: worker bees. The men stay at home and service the queen. Drones. Bees are great. We cannot exist without them. They are the main pollinators of everything we eat. Try as we might, we as humans cannot possibly duplicate what bees do for our food supply. Here's the hardline from the vegan perspective: "In common with other animals kept to produce food products bees are farmed and manipulated, and the honey they produce for themselves is taken from them. Vegans do not eat products taken from any animal, including bees, because it is neither desirable nor necessary to exploit animals in order to obtain food for humans."

Exploit? Aren't you exploiting bees by simply eating ANYTHING? After all, they worked for it. They worked hard. I just want to know where the line is drawn. If you give bees a home on your property, is that expecting something from them in return, even if you aren't taking their honey? Keeping bees is a wonderful thing. I don't eat a lot of honey  myself, but I would keep bees just to pollinate my garden. This, apparently, is not correct. I would be enslaving them. Again, I fail to see how providing creatures with a good place to live and benefiting from their labor is such a bad thing. It's symbiotic.

 Honey and bee pollen is amazing for our health. Mother Nature provides something that is so good for us, but because commercial practices are bad, the whole thing is bad? I go back to the beekeepers I have known. They won't take more than they should, and they are very careful about everything. And I feel they know more about Nature and the ways of things than most "gimme processed soy product" vegangelicals. What if you are NOT exploiting them? What if you have that symbiotic relationship with them? Why is it still wrong? Commercial ANYTHING is pretty much bad, so can we take things case by case and quit overreacting to everything??

Bees need our help. They have problems. How many people know about Colony Collapse Disorder? I do. Beekeepers do. And they try to protect their hives. Isn't that a good thing? Or must all bees be free-range because of that whole expecting something from them thing? Wild bees are in trouble and keeping hives might help. So if it is said that no bees should be kept, yet they all dies because no bees were kept and protected, well then...

Say goodbye to your food. When the cannibalism hits because all plants are dead, certain people will go first.

Just sayin'. :)

You can tell me I'm full of crap and to quit picking on non-omnivores. Fine. I just want answers. Because this defies logic to me, and I want logic. Be logical and I will leave you alone. But right now, I just want answers. Anyone?

Green Gifts: Day 6

Candles! We love candles, and they make great gifts, BUT....

Not all candles are created equal. Some are "greener" than others. For instance, candles made from soy will last longer that paraffin candles, and they are made from... well, SOY instead of paraffin, which is petroleum-based. I cannot say soy candles are healthier for YOU than regular paraffin, as some will claim, but they hold a scent better, and avoiding petroleum products is always preferable. That IS healthier for everything and everyone, I think. Plus, soy comes from the US. It's grown right here. So there's that. Plus, my good friend Michelle "Green Coach" Carroll says that you can use the melted wax as a moisturizer for your hands! She has some very nice gifts and suggestions on her site: http://emaginegreen.myvoffice.com/michellecarroll/ Please check her out!

Pure beeswax candles are also a nice choice. I've seen claims that 100% beeswax candles actually help the air around feel better and cleaner. I'll let you decided for yourself on that one. They might seem pricey, but they last MUCH longer than paraffin candles, and besides, these are gifts! There are some truly beautiful beeswax candles out there. Beeswax is a by-product of honey, so it's not like your harming bees to get a candle. Also, this is a good way to spread the appreciation of honeybees. They are in trouble, and awareness is always a good thing in my book.

There you have it: some good suggestions for the candle-afficianado on your list, or for that host/hostess gift. Green gifts are so easy that you barely need to think about it!