Health News: Under Your Arm

I've known for years about the link between breast cancer and commerical anti-perspirants/deodorants, my introduction to it via the then-fringe "granola"  world, coming at me during art school, when I willingly elected to live in a house with some touchy-feely vegetarian types, who remain my friends to this day. Back then there were no harder core levels like the vegan, the gluten-free allergist, or the macrobiotic, because just being a vegetarian was weird enough, though my housemates did introduce me to levels like the "lacto ovo" vegetarians and "pescatarian"; those who eat dairy items, like eggs and cheese, and those who also integrate some fish into their diets. I grew accustomed to eating a lot of pasta with vegetable tomato sauce, brightened with hot sauce and Muenster cheese, to make up for the lack of animal protein in my diet. It didn't work for me, because I'm genetically an omnivore, but I learned some very useful items during my time with the Peta-supporting vegetarian crowd, namely that most of our cosmetics and toiletries are made with really unhealthy shit. I had no idea that toothpaste had sugar in it, until my friend told me companies added it so kids would get hooked on the taste to use more product, which is the exact opposite of a dentist's advice about avoiding sugary foods that promote tooth decay. Oh, the irony. My sensitive friend also left out the latest Peta pamphlet she picked up from the local hippie food store with a dramatic picture of the poor rabbit who developed pink eye while forced to submit to eye makeup testing; the only granola grocery store in Providence, RI at the time, with sparsely stocked shelves holding expensively priced items aimed at that "Trustarfarian" near you (a rich kid who wears really expensive hemp clothes, like the shit Gwenyth Paltrow posts on her Goop blog). Yeah, that type of rich kid: really annoying, but kinda right. Anywho, their focus also extended to cosmetic items. 
 

Irritated...by baking soda!

There was Dr. Bonner's soap in the bathroom, printed with his folksy End of the World scenarios about our collective scary future, which was used for hair, skin, and tub cleaning, along with the Moosewood cookbook in our vegetarian kitchen, all rigorously correct items for any self-respecting do-gooder going to a college so expensive, that the few middle-class kids I knew in my classes had parents who took out a second mortgage to gamble on their RISD kids future successes. Yeah, like that kind of pressure. So I went with it, and folded it into my current lexicon. Years later, at a recording studio in Denver, I worked with a guy who lost his Mom suddenly, with no real answers about her death at the time our employment histories overlapped, except for one finding from the doctor who performed the autopsy: an overdose to her system from Mercury poisoning. I never forgot his story, nor the fact that he completely refrained from any kind of under the arm treatment, except for the occasional use of those salt crystals you find in the hardest core hippy store. I can't go with that crystal thing, (it's just so friggin' hippy crazy), but I do supplement my health care routine with under arm baking soda, so effective at controlling bacteria, that there is no under arm funk AT ALL, but the stringent salt does cause a red, itchy reaction with me. So, it's back to expensive organic lavender roll-on, which I can't really afford, but I try to look at it this way: how can I afford not to? It'll last a lot longer than the cheap $.99 stuff now marked down for quick sale (thanks to those pesky ingredient baddies we know about), but you take a gamble on your future health and the risks involved by ignoring your doctor's sage advice. Huh...death, or food stamps? For now, I know what my choice is, but I really hate being in this position. Take it on as an issue, folks, before you really have no choice. à bientôt!

http://www.mamavation.com/2014/06/armpit-cleanse-reduce-breast-cancer-risk.html

Beauty: Make-Up Free Marie

Tired, make up free me looks OK (with help from cleavage).

I was surfing Twitter last week, and I noticed a story about celebrity women without make up that freaked me out. They're not new stories, and of course, the shots were by paparazzi in a quest to catch these particular celebs at their worst, (women famed for their beauty), either in poor lighting, or very early in the morning, or just leaving the gym, or when they weren't dieting for a role. Jesus. The "with" makeup and "without" shots were gruesomely different, with the exception of one or two woman, most notably Kim Kardashian, who looks great naturally. I've written about my public stance on cosmetics before: I'm not against them at all, I just don't want to get caught out looking like a circus clown in plain clothes, or a drag queen on her day off. I blame overzealous Photoshopping production artists pushed by ad execs as much as I do the photographers, though. You have to be complicit with sort of thing to airbrushwoman into all irrelevance with regards to her day to day life.

Me, the morning of this piece, minutes after waking up, make up free.

As it so often does, pop culture lead me back to myself, to take a good hard look. I know I look great at 43, I know I look great without make up, I know I'm photogenic, and I know I 'm an exception to most rules, but I'm also a woman, vulnerable to the same harshness of society's gaze as any other woman walking the streets, and I've heard it all: "She's plain" to "She has, like, these little bumps all over her face that you can see if you talk to her up close" overheard by me as a bridesmaid to my soon-to-be sister-in-law. Yay! She ignores me mostly or takes weird passive-aggressive snipes under her breath when she leaves the room. For the record, my skin DOES have bumps, and pores, and some fine lines, and sometimes blemishes, just like all human skin does. It doesn't not have the excessive skin damage of say, a sister-in-law who thinks that tanning cures all her ills. Sorry, girl. I'm pale and I know it. But by knowing who we are really well, it prevents other  people's insecurities from getting under are skin, and that's the most valuable advice I can give any girls out there struggling with the crap thrown at them when they dare to look through a fashion mag: to thine own self be true, and the rest are just haters.

Me in natural light, with pores, bumps, blemishes, and some fine lines.
I'm wearing cover up set with powder, mascara, cream blush, & lip balm. 

So, in the interest of honesty, I shot myself in different lighting conditions, with makeup and without, while still trying to get a nice looking pic with good color, clarity, good composition, etc. And it really is true, I honestly prefer myself without make up because my dark eyes pop out against my skin tone, which gives me what I think is a unique appearance, one that holds the key to my ethnicity and cultural make up. I also train fairly regularly in gyms or dojos, and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: if you have even a bit of oily skin, the quickest way to ugly break outs is sweating profusely in make up. It's just so gross, plus it gets on my gi, and that stresses me out more. I may leave cover up on a raging blemish out of deference to my sparring partner, but even that I dislike. I wash it ALL off before I train, and I wash my face again afterwards, going home with a clean face. 

Diffuse light gives a warm glow to the skin that's favorable.

 It's one of the times when I feel most like myself. In professional settings, I prefer to wear make up because it helps me either blend in or knock 'em dead (like war paint), depending upon whichever effect I need to perform for that day. I famously took the summer off from cosmetics at one publishing house early in my career; it gives my skin a chance to air out, plus I get freckles, a little color that I find appealing, and my hair lightens up in the sun. Instead of saying kudos, the art director looked at me and noted I looked "surprisingly well". He's not exactly my biggest fan, but like I wrote, because I actually like myself, I can withstand just about any barb someone throws my way. Wanna-be photogs be warned: not only can I shoot better pics than you armed with just my iPhone (and ruthlessly critique said shots like an art historian in print), I fight, too. Let that sink in, and don't let me catch you behind a bush. When the lights go dim at the end of the day, who are you? Do you like what you see? Do you wake up looking at a stranger in the mirror, or simply like yourself?

Overexposed (highlights are blown out, losing some detail), though still showing some fine lines on the skin that make it realistic as a portrait.

Curly-haired, and you've accepted it? Same: http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/curls/.

Go Organic....if you can!

Everyone who reads me regularly knows that I prefer organics; in food, in clothing, in cosmetics, in life. This layering on of chemicals, ones that feed into the petrochemical system we have in place that needs to be dismantled, is an extremely toxic way of life, and totally unnecessary to our collective health and hygiene.

But you also know that I realize organics are still much more expensive than cheap, mass-produced goods. So, I do what any other person living in challenging economic times does: I buy stuff on sale.

This week, Duane Reade's are carrying the most excellent product line, Avalon Organics Vitamin C, at a high discount, at savings of 75%. If you can't find them for that steep a reduction, buy them at a reduced price, and if you can afford full retail, go for it.

Their clean citrus scent, organic packaging, and natural ingredients work just as well as those pricey snake oils available at a much higher mark up, and they come at a much better price for your health and for our society. Enjoy :)