Cosmetic Pride: Cruelty-free and Pinoy!

I have said that, knowing what I know now about animal welfare, at least for my cosmetic products, I want to switch to brands that would reflect the knowledge that I've gained since becoming a PAWS volunteer.

I'll be blogging about the work bit of it tonight--woot for setting schedules!--but for now, I shall fan girl about Human Nature products.

I am a cat and I do not need these things. Thank you for not testing it on those like me.

Human Nature is a local (read: Philippine) brand that is, as stated on the site and all their paraphernalia, pro-Philippines, pro-poor, and pro-environment. I'd known about this line since 2008 or 2009 and have been using their products on and off since. Recently, I switched to using nearly purely Human Nature products because of all the fuss over "(x) may be absorbed into the body and can be harmful to your unborn baby." I said "nearly" because I do still have some opened products that are nearly all used up so I'm using them up before switching all the products I can to natural and/or organic products.

This product did not harm my fellow felines.

The journey towards dealership is one thing, but this is the reason I ultimately decided to sign up despite previous failures in that department: Human Nature has received the PETA Cruelty-Free Bunny.

I don't think I've ever expressed any kind of Filipino pride in general, save perhaps when I was really upset over the visa denial from early this year. This takes the cake, in my opinion, because I know how crazy obsessive PETA is over their screening--try reading how they come to award the Bunny to the brands that get it; it gave me a headache!--so the fact that Human Nature is the first Philippine cosmetics and skin care brand to receive it probably gives me as much pride and glee as the owners themselves. Probably. ^_~

Okay, here's where the reviewing starts. For the next entries I will blog only about my favourite Human Nature products--things that I've tried that have truly been of excellent use and produced fabulous results for me. As I do that, I ought to be able to try out the other products we picked up so I can blog about those as well.

Full disclosure: Even if I were not a distributor of Human Nature, I would still blog about the products because I am a user of Human Nature products. I actually decided to become a dealer because I love the results their products give. I am not earning extra nor am I getting freebies for this and any succeeding entries. All Human Nature products I blog about are ones that I have personally tried or am currently testing.

I first started using this either in late 2011 or very early in 2012. What I can definitely tell you is that by March 2012, I was completely hooked on the Human Nature 100% Natural Sunflower Beauty Oil.

Since I first became aware of the necessity of skin care and was encouraged by my grandmother and mother to take better care of my skin, I had been randomly trying a variety of products to help me through the colder months when my skin becomes dry and patchy in some areas while remaining very oily in others. The "whitening" version of one particular brand was a long-time favourite but it never managed to get rid of the dry patches on both sides of my nose. Still, I stuck with it considering it was my best find at the time.

I believe I may have read an article about sunflower oil before I decided to purchase the said bottle of oil.

As written on the label this:

Helps minimize dark circles and stretch marks, lighten and brighten underarms and even add healthy-looking shine to hair.

I've never tried this on my hair and I never had dark underarms to begin with so I can't say much about those. Here's everything I can say though:

1. Skin moisturising effect. As previously-blogged about, I was in Ireland in April: spring and perhaps one of the coldest springs I've ever experienced. Normally this would have turned all the nooks and crannies of my face into a white, cracked up mess, but if you go back through the Ireland 2012 tags and the few photos I've already managed to share, there were no signs of that at all. In fact, upon our return to the Philippines, one of my husband's aunts made a comment on how good my skin looked despite just having come from single-digit temperatures. (You might notice, however, that the area between my nose and upper lip was red--this was not because of skin dryness but because I caught a cold during our stay and was constantly blowing my nose!)
2. Stretch marks. Right now, I'm too big and clumsy to even check out what effect the oil has had on pre-pregnancy stretch marks (ones I've had since I was a teen; gained a lot of weight, me) on my legs and bum, but I can tell you this: my belly is currently the size of a basketball and there are no signs of stretch marks developing at all. We'll see after giving birth though.
3. Healing bonus. It doesn't say so on the label, but during my first few months of pregnancy, my skin condition was horrendous. And I mean horrendous. I was breaking out like I hadn't broken out since I was twelve; y'know, the kind of break out that, when your mother comments on it, you're actually not insulted because you do know how bad your skin looks. Daily application of the sunflower oil sped up the disappearance of the said skin abominations and despite my bad habit of popping pimples, there is nary a mark on my face!

I've since encouraged my mum who is, as mentioned, also an avid hunter of the perfect skin care products and routine. She's still finishing up her stash of grapeseed oil (yes, she jumped on that bandwagon) but she's tried a bit of the sunflower oil and has found that she likes the way sunflower oil feels on her skin much better.

I have used this during  both cold weather and warm weather. The only difference is that I feel lazier about my skin care when it's warm since heat doesn't damage my skin texture as much as cold does. (I may regret that later though...) But I do try to apply the oil at least twice daily--more times for areas that are most problematic, namely my nose and elbows. And always, always, always with clean fingers, please. ^_~

Of course the caveat here is that, as with any product natural or otherwise, one must always mind possible allergic reactions and differences in body chemistry. But if you're like me and you have the tendency to keep testing things until you find the right product for you, I say go for it! It may just prove to be as worth it for you as it has been for me. ^_^