Awesome Customer Feedback for Astrida Naturals Oil Perfume

Today I received some great feedback from one of my customers and had to share!

"I'm totally crazy about this roll on oil. I'm pregnant right now, and all my normal perfumes smell too much like alcohol, but your oil is just right! I may be a big ol' pregnant lady, but I wanna be a pretty smelling one.Lol. Thank you! I will surely be back!"

 - Alexis in California

Awesome! I'm so happy that my products are being enjoyed.

Best Food For Healthy Skin

Want healthy skin? Well, what you eat can have a lot to do with a good complexion.

Dr. David Bank, President of the New York State Society for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, shares the 10 best foods for your skin. Most of these foods are rich in vitamins, antioxidants, and good fats. In addition to these foods I would also add water as an important food. OK, so water isn't really a food group, but adding an adequate amount of water daily to your diet will also help in keeping your skin at its healthiest.

No. 1: Avocados: The creamy, green fruit is abundant in essential oils and B-complex vitamins that nourish your skin inside and out. Avocados also contain a lot of Niacin (vitamin B3), which is important for healthy skin since it acts as an anti-inflammatory and soothes irritated or red/blotchy skin.

No. 2: Mangoes: Mangoes contain more than 80 percent of your daily vitamin A requirements, which is essential for maintaining and repairing skin cells. A deficiency in vitamin A will result in a dry, flaky complexion. Mangoes also contain antioxidants, which fight free-radical damage that can prematurely age skin.

No. 3: Almonds: Almonds contain 150 percent of your daily vitamin E needs and are rich in oils that moisturize your skin. They also contain antioxidants.

No. 4: Cottage Cheese: The selenium in cottage cheese teams up with vitamin E as a powerful free-radical-fighting antioxidant team. Selenium also protects against skin cancer and dandruff.

No. 5: Acerola Cherries: Different from average cherries, Acerolas supply 100 percent of your daily vitamin C intake. As an antioxidant, vitamin C fights skin damage and wrinkles and plays a central role in the production of collagen, the structural protein in your skin.

No. 6: Oysters: Oysters fight pimples because they’re rich in zinc. The mineral affects sebum production, which is a deficiency that contributes to acne.

No. 7: Baked Potatoes: Trade French Fries for a steaming baked potato. One baked potato (with the skin) provides 75 percent of your daily copper needs. Copper when combined with vitamin C and zinc produce elastin fibers that support skin structure. Copper deficiency in your diet can reduce skin’s ability to heal and cause it to become rigid and lifeless.

No. 8: Mushrooms: Essential to your skin, riboflavin is found in mushrooms and is involved in tissue maintenance, repair and improves skin blemishes caused by rosacea. The body uses large amounts after sustaining a burn or wound, or when undergoing surgery.

No. 9: Flaxseed Oil: Flaxseed oil is one of the best sources of essential fatty acid. One teaspoon of flaxseed oil provides 2.5 grams of omega 3s, which hydrate the skin. Essential fatty acids also dilute sebum and unclog pores.

No. 10: Wheat Germ: Super nutritious, wheat germ is the embryo within a grain of wheat. It is a good source of biotin, a vitamin C that’s crucial to skin health. A mild biotin deficiency can cause dermatitis, a condition characterized by itchy, scaly skin.

50 Best Skincare Tips - By InStyle

InStyle has created an extremely comprehensive photo gallery list of skin care tips covering everything from the best ways to remove make-up to the best essential oils to nourish your skin. Check it out.

Mist Moisturizer, Not Water - 50 Best Skin-Care Tips of All Time - Summer Skincare 2010 - Beauty - InStyle

Because we can all stand to take a little better care of our skin!

A Natural Preservative?

Ah, yes here we go again. More talk about preservatives. There are so many different views on the subject the more I research the more it makes my head spin! So, for today let's just talk about natural preservatives. Do they really exist? I recently came across a website the debunked a lot of the natural preservative myths, including one in particular, grapefruit seed extract.

News Flash - This is not really natural!

"Grapefruit seed extract is not grapefruit juice. It is not simply ground up grapefruit seeds. It is not grapefruit essential oil. Chemical manufacturers take the leftover grapefruit pulp, a waste by-product from grapefruit juice production, and in an intensive, multi-step industrial chemical process, change the natural phenolic compounds into synthetic quaternary ammonium compounds... Grapefruit Seed Extract is not “natural”. It’s a chemically altered form of grapefruit seed. If you’re going to call it “Grapefruit Seed Extract”, you could by the same reasoning call Sodium Laurel Sulfate “Coconut Oil Extract”."

-Treasured Locks

Yikes. Okay so what is the conclusion? Extract is one of those funky words that can be thrown around to make people think something is really something it isn't. If we all knew Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLES) as "Coconut Oil Extract" then people would probably think it was good for your skin. Instead we know SLES as a chemical detergent and surfactant that might be a possible carcinogen. Names are important, choosing preservatives or any other cosmetic ingredients be sure you know the meaning of the name that you are looking at. It may not really be what you think it is.