I recently started modeling.  I know, it’s laughable at my age, especially when I look around at the 20 year olds and realize I could be their mother.  But we’ll save that discussion for another time.

Normally I do my own make-up for a shoot.  But for some reason, I decided to let a make-up artist have her way with me at a shoot I did in Philly this past Sunday.  My mistake.  Don’t get me wrong, the girl was lovely, and certainly did her best given the limitations of the palette she had to work with.  But WOW, my skin was not ready for the onslaught of chemicals which had been bestowed upon it. 

“You have beautiful skin,” she started out saying. “ You must get spa facials pretty often.”

“Um, actually, no….I don’t even remember the last time I had a facial,” I replied, thinking about how sensitive my skin is, and being terrified about how my skin would react to the products they use at most salons. 

“Oh, so what system do you use on your skin?”  System?  Does my skin require a ‘system’?  Geez that sounds like an awful lot of work and expense.  “Uh, no…” I go on to explain.  “I wash my face with a natural bar soap and water once a day.”

With a stunned and skeptical expression on her face, she says, “that’s IT?!”

“Yep,” I replied.  “Well, plus I exercise, eat organic foods, try to keep anything processed out of my body..” thinking to myself, and if I actually got enough sleep and found a way to stop stressing about every little thing in my life I would probably look five years younger. 

Throughout our friendly little conversation, I started to notice my skin feeling smothered.  Now she wasn’t heavy or cake-y with her make-up application, but I could actually feel my pores being blocked and irritated.  She was using regular department store brands: Chanel, MAC, NARS, etc.  Products people probably use every day.  When she was done, I looked in the mirror smiling but thinking to myself ‘OMG I look like Alice Cooper’.  I snuck off to the bathroom to tone down the look and noticed my left eye was watering.  I continued my shoot for the next hour and during that time I could actually feel my skin reacting to the foreign chemicals.  It itched.  It burned.  It actually hurt.  Not just the foundation powder, but even the eye shadow and areas where she put blush felt irritated.  My left eye continued to water non-stop. 

Finally the shoot was over, and I could not WAIT to get home and get this junk off my face.  I’m still amazed at how quickly and harshly my body reacted to non-natural cosmetics.  I likened it to my recent fast food experience.  I don’t eat fast food.  Period.  No McDonalds, no Burger King.  I just don’t.  Well, it seems that after a long time of NOT having food like that, when you finally DO have food like that…let’s just say it’s not pretty.  I ate a burger recently from one of the burger chains and became violently ill for the rest of the afternoon.  When you cleanse your body and rid it of chemicals, toxins and stuff that isn’t good for it, it gets used to running clean.  Kind of like a car.  You constantly give it the high grade of gasoline, then one day fill you tank with the low grade, and then listen to your car ping and sputter.  Same hold true with make-up, apparently.  Your skin gets used to thriving without being bombarded by chemicals, fillers and harsh preservatives.  It’s now 24 hours later, my skin has been thoroughly cleansed using my favorite natural bar soap, and I still look blotchy and feel irritated.  NOT fun.  I wonder how long it will take for my skin to detox?

As for me, if I use a make- up artist again, I will be providing the make up!

Sometimes life has a way of hitting the reset button.

The other day I was in my car and attempting to do three things at once, including drive (not a good idea, by the way).  My cell phone charger plugs into my cigarette lighter.  Being rather OCD, seeing the little lighter rolling around on my console was driving me crazy, and I didn’t need to have my charger plugged in at the moment.  So I decided to stick the lighter back in its place.  A few moments later, I heard it pop out.  Now the blonde in me kicked in.  I reached over to pull it out, and examine why it would have popped out like that.  As I did (keep in mind, I’m still driving, but thankfully pulling into a parking space at this moment), I dropped the scalding hot lighter onto my lap.  I was wearing shorts.  Short shorts.  The hot metal instantly scorched my tender skin.  I throw the car into park and attempt to retrieve the burning lighter, while being careful not to burn my car seats (yes I was stupid enough to be concerned about my car seats at this point).  By the time I opened the car door and threw the little bugger out onto the ground to cool off, my skin was already blistered.  As I drove home in pain, wondering how I was going to explain this one to my husband, all I could think of was lavender essential oil.

The essential oil of lavender is one of the only essential oils that can safely be applied to the skin without diluting it in a carrier oil.  Applying antiseptic lavender oil will take the sting out of the burn, and heal it quickly. It’s calming aromatherapy properties will help to ease the emotional upset of a painful burn. 

I’ve been applying lavender to one side of the burn twice a day (it burned both my thighs).  Since I often use myself as a guinea pig, I wanted to see the difference between using the lavender oil versus not using it.  The side I’m applying it to (which has the more severe burn) is healing rapidly, with no signs of potential scarring.  The other side is healing, but at a slower rate. 

My point in relaying this story (other to publicly admit I do really stupid things sometimes) is to illustrate how important plants and botanicals are to the health of our bodies.  Sure, it’s easy to go out there and buy cheap, chemically-laden cosmetics.  Or products with unproven artificial ingredients which your body may or may not react positively to.  But here at Honeybee it’s our core belief to stay as close to nature as possible.  We use REAL plants to make our Herbal Aftershave and Facial Toner.  Sure extracts would be easier, but there’s some kind of magic in the holistic properties of the entire plant.  We as a species survived for a long time before the invention of chemicals.  There’s a reason for that.  Petroleum-based antiseptic ointment, or the sweet smell of a pure plant oil?  You already know my choice.

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for make-up.

I’ve got to check out the latest and greatest. So on a recent trip to the drug store, I was lured to the cosmetic aisle like a fish to shiny objects.

They put all the new stuff on an endcap. Brightly colored displays featuring images of too perfect women adorn the shelves and scream, “try this product and you’ll look like ME!”

The blonde in me kicks in…… Okay….

Mascara seems to be the one to get me. It’s easy for me to overlook anything foundation related. My skin is way too sensitive and I know what will happen if I go there. I love eye shadow, so sometimes the bright new shades will captivate me. And I’m pretty loyal to my lip products (Honeybee Perfection Lip Liner and Seduction Lipstick) so that’s not the best bait either. But mascara intrigues me. I want to have the BEST. And I’m always comparing mine to other brands.

Nine bucks later, I’m walking out of the store with yet another tube of black mascara. This one has a huge super new technology brush which includes both brush and comb bristles. “Finally,” I think, “a mascara that won’t clump. I mean, how could it with this brush that has TWO KINDS of bristles?”

The next morning as I apply my make-up, I’m anxious to try my new purchase. I open up the tube to find the brush is HUGE – about the size of my eye ball. I’m wondering how I’m going to keep from poking an eye out with this thing (especially since my kitten Falon is walking back and forth across the vanity in front of my face, begging for attention…if her tail goes up my nose one more time I’m tempted to bite it to send her packing). With the precision of an artist I began sweeping the bulbous object across my lashes. Clump. Clump. Dang. I get out my single applicator brush that I swiped from Sephora, and begin sweeping away about half the product which is caked on my lashes. It’s about 6:30 in the morning and I’m not the brighest bulb at that hour, so I think to myself that possibly things will go better with the other eye. Several tissues, gobs of mascara and one upset cat later, I reach for my own brand of mascara and start over. Nine bucks down the tube. Rats.

Will I repeat this process again? Probably. Will I be lured by vibrating mascara wands, colored mascara that promises to make my green eyes even greener, and super techno advanced mascara brushes that will make me have lashes like a Victoria’s Secret model? No doubt. And they’ll all end up in my vanity drawer. At least they make fun cat toys.

One of my (younger) friends suggested I check out Facebook. “Yeah, right” I thought to myself. That’s a communication tool for kids in high school. Like I have time for that! A few months later, and I’m on the darn thing ever day…okay several times a day.

It is a good communication tool. Yeah, I like the voyeur aspect of seeing what my friends are doing and checking out old classmates, but I think it can be so much more. I’ve created both a “Group” and a “Fan Page” for Honeybee Gardens. What better way to communicate with my customers in real time than to be able to upload a note or comment with a few key strokes? And as you can tell from looking over this blog, I’m not very good at keeping up with it! But Facebook is different. It compels you to update it and keep it current. Instead of my personal page where I post stupid stuff like “Melissa is eating a sandwich”, I can post useful information on my Honeybee Facebook page like “Honeybee Gardens was featured in this month’s issue of Real Simple Magazine – check it out!”

Maybe I’m justifying my obsession with Facebook. Or maybe it really is a smart and effective communications tool. Oh, and did I mention it’s free?