Oscars nominee Lupita Nyong'o talks natural beauty

This year's Oscar it girl Lupita Nyong'o talked about discovering her natural beauty at a recent Essence video shoot.

The 31-year-old actress is nominated for her supporting role as Patsey in 12 Years A Slave. Born in Mexico and raised in Kenya, Nyong'o earned her award-winning role a few weeks shy of graduating from the Yale School of Drama.

On her natural hair:

"At the age of 19, I just got really fed up of always going to the salon, and it taking so much effort to look presentable before you leave the house," she said. "I just one day decided to cut it off. And I cut it all off."

On her skin:

"I don't wear makeup when I'm not working on the red carpet," she said, "except for a night out here and there."

Mary J. Blige likes eco-beauty products

While flipping through my June 2012 issue of Essence, I noticed this month's cover girl, songstress Mary J. Blige, recommended eco-beauty products, some I even used and know are relatively affordable. 

I use my Dr. Bronner's castile soap every day to wash my face. It's the natural acne and blemish cleanser. Carol's Daughter products have done wonders for my hair because it's all-natural and comes in so many varieties. If I want brightening white teeth, I use Tom's of Maine to get the look and feel of an eco-friendly toothpaste. And with summer upon us, every complexion should use SPF 30 products. 

Check out her beauty must-haves below:

Harmless chemicals vs. natural ingredients

For the past week, there has been a major media blitz surrounding the Simple natural skin care line with digital billboards across news websites and a commercial throwing harsh paint at a rose. But after looking at the ingredients, there were still so many chemicals, though many virtually harmless, inside the products.

So the question lurks in all our products: Would we rather like the harmless chemicals or real natural ingredients that we could actually pronounce?

The skin care line carries facial cleansers, beauty wipes, and moisturizing creams and has built quite a reputation in the U.K. There are recognizable ingredients like algae extract, glycerin, and xanthum gum---all relatively harmless in beauty products---but some of the items include methylparaben, methylsothiazolinone, and cocamidopropyl betaine that have good to fair ratings in ratio to its toxic properties on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. Parabens are considered to be bad for natural beauty products even when there's a small dose. 

The chemical names on the labels of our products are mostly used to preserve the product for a long shelf life.

Unfortunately, very few of my products are all-natural like my chapsticks and soaps. The ingredients in my lavender hemp Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap are water, organic coconut, jojoba, lavender and olive oils, lavender extract, citric acid, and Vitamin E. The bottle is even made from post-consumer recycled plastic. 

All-natural products seem to be a dime a dozen, but other products advertising natural beauty care when it's not 100% seem to get the attention. With sensitive skin, try to find the products with limited ingredients that have natural property names involving fruits, oils, and extracts.

Neutrogena, Garnier release eco-friendly lines

Today, I started noticing commercials for Neutrogena's new eco-friendly line of facial cleansers sans sulfates, parabens, and phthalates. 

Neutrogena Naturals has more vitamins and minerals, amino and fatty acids, and antioxidants. Even the folding cartons are made from 100% recycled paper and  65% post-consumer recyclable content. 

Last week, while doing research for my eco-beauty salon article, I found Garnier recently released its "greenest" line of products with shampoos and conditioners without silicone, parabens, and dyes and infused with acerola berry antioxidant. 

The bottle also uses 50% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. And their commercials are coming to a television near you soon.

These new lines add to the number of widely available and relatively affordable products that use natural ingredients and show environmental support.

Rise of eco-beauty salons in rural town

Image: redding.com. Hairstylist Stephanie Davis gives
Brianna Griffith of Palo Cedro low- and highlights
with ammonia-free, hypoallergenic hair color at
the "O" All Organic Salon & Spa in Palo Cedro, Calif.

This week, I freelanced a story for the Redding Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif., so I was glad to be able to produce an eco-beauty story on the rise of salons wanting to use more natural, organic products and trying to reduce their carbon footprints. 

They use soy-based waxes for waxing instead of petroleum-based waxes because it derives from a non-renewable resource. One recycles cut hair to oil spill cleanups. One only uses products from the United States. 

Check out the story here.

Oil cleansing method: natural skin remedy

From Coco and Creme:
Oil Cleansing Method: Natural Skin Remedy

Curing dry skin in the winter

From Mother Nature Network: How can I get through the winter without getting dry skin? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Natural skin care: cocoa butter

Cocoa butter is the essentially the fat extracted from cocoa beans and used to add flavor, scent, and a creamy texture to chocolate, ointments, and cosmetics.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter products, $4-$10,
available at drugstores

Though it has a faint chocolaty aroma and a soft cream color, cocoa butter is mostly known for its moisturizing properties that helps give our skin a healthy glow. 

At room temperature, it may be hard, but once on the skin, it melts at body temperature and easily absorbs into the skin.

Naturally, it contains Vitamin E, which is known for balancing and hydrating the skin by adding collagen. With the vitamin, cocoa butter can lighten the appearance of scars, blemishes, and wrinkles. 

Cocoa butter also helps restore skin overexposed to the sun or wind, meaning it's a good resource to have during the sweltering hot days as well as the bitter cold days.

Pure cocoa butter is generally found in the cream version, but there are also moisturizing sticks for people who want to use it for spot treatment.

Natural skin care: beta-carotene

Sometimes we get blemishes and scars that we hope will disappear as fast as they appeared. But how do you go about that? Buy products promising results that you'll probably never see?

Well, the answer is to try natural beauty products that proved throughout history to deliver results. One of those products is beta-carotene that can help reduce the visibility of blemishes and scars and improve overall skin care. 

Beta-carotene is classified as a carotenoid, which is a group of highly pigmented red, orange, or yellow, fat-soluble compounds naturally present in many fruits, vegetables, oils, and grains. 

Beta-carotene is a provitamin since it can be converted to active vitamin A, which helps improve and maintain skin. 

To make a beta-carotene facial mask or spot treatment, you must first purchase a bottle of the vitamin available at any drugstore. 

Then by using a needle or pin, prick one vitamin until the thick red substance trickles out. 

Glide the pierced vitamin onto your face until the desired area is covered. You may have to pierce a few more vitamins to cover the entire face. 

Since they are soft gel capsules, ingesting them according to the directions on the bottle will lead to the same results.

Beta carotene can be another homemade alternative to brightening and strengthening your skin.

Natural facial cleanser: castile soap

Once upon a time, I used to wash my face with cleansers containing cocamidopropyl betaine and glycol distearate. Of course, I can barely pronounce these chemical names that supposedly zap zits and give you that fresh face look in the morning. But then the unthinkable happened to me.

I used ProActiv. I never had bad acne, but, in the summer, my skin fell victim to hair product sweat and created mountains on my face. So when I saw those celebrity-endorsed ads, I just had to have it. I used the so-called acne miracle medication and, instead of clear skin, I got an infection. My face burned like a million little volcanoes erupted on my face. To get the chemical-ridden stuff off my face, I had to use something natural.

I found Dr. Bronner's castile soap (~$13.99 at your local pharmacy; I bought a bottle for $4 bucks once at a farmers market). It's literally all natural. The ingredients: water; organic coconut, olive, hemp, and jojoba oils; natural rose fragrance (they come in different flavors), and vitamin E. And I know how to pronounce all those words! 


Well, long story short: my skin cleared up, and I wash my face with the castile soap every morning, and sometimes I wash my hair with it; it's so versatile!) Also, you still get that pleasant sting like you feel like it's doing its job. It's definitely a must-have  natural beauty product.