BotanicGal

Put to the Test – Round 2

March 20, 2018 No Comments

I’m back with another round of samples/single items from my stash. I say single items because I’m prone to picking up items at the store (any store really) that come in a single form (like the Larabar below) to try out – I’m a sucker for products I’ve never tried before! Then, because I only have one, I forget to try it (or put off trying it) so I’m lumping things like that in with my sample stash because it feels like a sample to me even though I didn’t get it as freebie or an intended sample. Anyway, with […]

General, The Sunday Scoop

The Sunday Scoop 4

March 18, 2018 No Comments

Did everyone have a safe and happy St Patrick’s day yesterday? The city of Chicago is always bustling on St Pat’s weekend as residents here take the holiday pretty seriously. I’ve been-there-done-that with the parade and river dying so I stayed away this year and went to the Chicago Flower & Garden Show instead. Did you do anything festive? Now that the holiday is over we can focus on the most important note of the week, Tuesday is spring equinox and marks the official start of spring! I am just so excited. No more snow after that point, right Mother […]

Beauty, Cosmetics, General

Pixi Large Lash Mascara

March 14, 2018 No Comments

Mascara is my green beauty nemesis. I just can’t find one that agrees with my eyes. It’s not that I don’t like what they do for my lashes (most of them perform great), it’s more what they do to my eyeballs that I can’t live with. I have some sort of allergy to an ingredient that appears to be in each clean mascara that I’ve tried that leaves my eyes unbearably itchy, puffy and red. Now I haven’t done any sort of hard research or comparison of ingredients to figure out what that pesky allergy-causer is so there might be […]

General, Personal Care, The Sunday Scoop

The Sunday Scoop 3

March 11, 2018 No Comments

BotanicGal here with your weekly round up of readings and ramblings. It’s March 11 today and if you’re the rounding up type (that’s me) then we’re basically halfway through March! And today is the first day of daylight savings so we’re finally getting more glorious sunlight too. Has anyone else started seeing the crocus flowers reaching up through the winter sludge and almost getting ready to bloom? I’m waiting with baited breath! I think spring is really right around the corner. Hooray! I have to start by asking how everyone thought the Bachelor Finale went this week. My hugest complaint was […]

Body Care, General, Personal Care

Winter Favorites

March 9, 2018 No Comments

It’s starting to warm up a little bit here in Chicago but I have a feeling winter is going to drag it’s butt all the way to June, teasing us with warmer weather along the way. That means the arrival of humidity is a ways off so my skin is going to stay in winter mode until then too. Due to that I’m sure I’m going to need to keep my favorite winter products handy until June rolls around. Since some of you might still be in dry skin mode too I thought I’d share what my favorite products […]

Beauty, Body Care, Cosmetics, General, Personal Care, Skincare

Put to the test – Round 1

March 6, 2018 No Comments

Samples you guys! They are like candy to me. Like if Halloween was just trick-or-treating for skincare samples you couldn’t stop me. I’d be all over that. I’m not joking about my love for samples, I even had a dream last night that I was at a parade and they were throwing skincare samples instead of candy. Can you imagine?! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE candy too, but I love trying new products even more (ok, maybe it’s a tie). I love sample so much that I will order from companies who sell them or include them […]

General, The Sunday Scoop

The Sunday Scoop 2

March 4, 2018 No Comments

And somehow here we are at Sunday again. Who else is mentally gearing up to head back to work tomorrow? I will admit, work is not my favorite thing…so I get the Sunday grumps a lot. But I’ve been determined lately to not let work interfere with my weekend free time and I try not to think about it until Monday AM (Monday grumps are totally ok). I think it’s important to try and compartmentalize work time from home time and keep my mind on the present when I’m not there so that I can enjoy that minimal freedom time […]

Beauty, Cosmetics, General, Other, Spiritual

Goddess Provisions Box: February

March 1, 2018 No Comments

We’re here in midst of the back half of winter and just about now is when the grumpiness over the season sets in. The holidays are long gone, the snow you were hoping would never come came in twice as hard, you’re bundled up so much you can hardly move, everything is dry and creaky and you’ve just about had it. This is when you need reminding of what’s to come. It’s hard to remember that mother nature will wake up in the spring, but she does, like magic! The February Goddess Provisions box is that reminder with the theme […]

General, The Sunday Scoop

The Scoop

February 26, 2018 No Comments

Happy Monday friends! Did you think “scoop” was in reference to ice cream? I wish! But it’s not. I’m sadly trying to avoid ice cream right now, or sugar in general actually. So what it’s really referencing is my weekly conglomeration of readings that I thought you might like to read too. Since I know it can be hard to get back in the swing of things on Mondays I thought maybe having a picture of pretty flowers and some entertaining reads could be useful. Especially now that the olympics are done. Is anyone else bummed over that? And also […]

Body Care, General, Personal Care

Deodorant Faves – Part 1

February 22, 2018 No Comments

In the past I put up post on why I made the switch to natural deodorants, which you can read here. In case you didn’t read my post, the in-a-nutshell of it is that I switched over because many conventional deodorants are fully of nasty chemicals that can disrupt normal hormone function and affect ones fertility factor, among other things. Also, sweating is completely natural and is the body’s way of eliminating those toxins that can wreak havoc. I know the switch can be a hesitant one because, you know- smelly BO, but some of them really work!! Since it […]