World's CUTEST Shoes:

-Completely unrelated-
I'm on the no shampoo bandwagon, and so far I like it pretty well. I've been using baking soda to wash, and very diluted apple cider vinegar to rinse, folowed by plain water (then a little essential oil rubbed in after it's dry just for pretty scent). It takes a bit longer, but works fine. I have very thick, coarse, long, wavy hair which I blowdry straight. I know, blowdrying sucks up a lot of energy, but it's seriously the only way I can seem to live with it, and I only do it every 3 days -which saves the water of having to wash it every day to re-set the waves. It's really difficult hair -each strand goes in a different direction. I've also stopped coloring it with anything other than occasional light brown henna. I used to go drop a cool $120 at the Aveda natural, cruelty-free salon in Lake Placid twice a year, but now that I'm no longer involved in architecture ($$) my neighbor trims my hair for me which suits me just fine. Actually, I kinda can't believe I used to care enough to spend that much. Maybe it's different when you have to go to an office every day and the expectations are more...I dunno. So anyway, it's definitely different. I don't get the easy detangling of my lovely old natural conditioner, but it's also not as bad as I thought it would be. My hair feels heavier at first after drying, and has more oil left in it, but I used to spend half the day sticking down little frizzies around my hairline and along my part. Now that doesn't seem to be as much of a problem. I've only done it twice, but I'll let you guys know how it is in a few weeks. My hair is more lusterous, and my husband mentioned it without me telling him anything about it, so that tells me lots.

I hope this trend continues across blogland. I'd love to hear what you all are doing in your own lives to reduce packaging and other forms of consumption. I am also still somewhat acne proned these days, although it is much better than it used to be. I cancelled my subscription to Proactive Solution many months ago in favor of a concoction of my own making which consists of olive oil, table salt, and tea tree oil. You mix it in a small wide jar until it forms sort of a dry paste, and then add 12 drops of tea tree oil for its antibacterial properties. It's a nice invigorating scrub which avoids the dryness and itching/redness I would sometimes have with Proactive. My skin is softer, and happier, and acne is really minimal. If you have really REALLY oily skin I don't know how well this would work for you, but it doesn't leave mine feeling greasy at all. I think preparations that strip too much end up causing a rebound reaction anyway. So now I'm free of little plastic bottles with no recycling stamps to be found anywhere on them (duh, Proactive people), and $90/year, and packaging waste from the shipping box it came in. Plus, that stuff is probably tested on animals. Anyone else have a favorite homemade substitution for anything?