laceyswartz

Been meaning to share this story for a week or so, but just hadn’t found the time.  Two Thursdays ago, after too many nights in a row of staying up late researching some very interesting stuff, I noticed that my left eye was feeling funny a bit before midnight.  And sure enough, when I headed up to bed not too much later and looked in the mirror as I washed my face, there was the pink and the goop.  Ugh.  Great.

But never fear!  I knew what to do.  If you know me well, you know that I am no movie buff (except for the Lord of the Rings movies).  But even I know the joke from My Big Fat Greek Wedding about “put some Windex on it!”

No, I did not put Windex in my eye.  I’m not sure if I even have any Windex in my house anymore at this point.  But my solution lends itself to a similarly funny sounding quote: Put some breast milk on it!

I’ll never forget when my friend Sarah, from Real Food Outlaws, first told me about this wonderful trick.  One of my munchkins had pink eye, and I had either just picked up or was about to pick up the Vigamox prescription the doc had called in for me.  She said, “Just put some breast milk in his eye.”

Really?  That works?  Yup!  I put mama milk in his eye, and it cleared up within 24 hours.  I think I gave him a few more doses just to make sure the infection was gone, but it was so much better than the ‘conventional’ alternative.  No need to prolong the trauma of dosing eye drops out 3x a day for 5 days to a cowering, crying toddler (eye drops are no fun at any age).

So, back to me a week or so ago.  I put some breast milk in my eye, went to bed, and the pink and goop were both gone by morning.  When the virus decided to try and set up shop in my husband and younger daughter’s eyes instead over the next few days – same thing.  A few doses of mama milk and no more pink eye.

Then the baby had a touch of an ear infection.  Couple drops of mama milk in the ear a few times a day for a couple days – all better.  No need to wipe out all the good bacteria in his gut with an antibiotic just to knock out something festering in his ear.  🙂

And here is an even better testimony to the amazing power of breast milk.  Last week, my older son somehow scratched his cornea.  He just randomly started crying and crying about his eye hurting.  So, we called his eye doctor to make sure it couldn’t be some sort of post surgery problem.  It had been over two months though since his strabismus surgery, so we couldn’t imagine that was it.

Anyways.  Took him in, the doc checked his eye, noted the scratched cornea, gave us a prescription for an antibiotic eye drop to prevent infection while it healed (I had another idea), said it would take 2-3 days to feel better and maybe a week to heal.  He also patched the eye and said to bring him back the next day to remove the patch and check it out.  When we got home, it wasn’t long before the bub wanted the patch off his eye, so we took it off, and I gave him his ‘special’ eye drops.  😉

The next day, the doc said my son’s eye was almost completely healed already.  Yay!  Go mama milk!  Somewhere I think I saw a bumper stick that says, “I make breast milk.  What’s your super power?”  Love it.

Then just today, a friend shared this really super thorough post on 57 uses of breast milk by Dionna over at Code Name Mama.

Check it out!

http://codenamemama.com/2012/02/20/medicinal-cosmetic-alternative-uses-breastmilk/

So, next time you have any sort of problem, maybe “Just put some breast milk on it!” (to be read with a Greek accent – and not to be taken as medical advice.  Anecdotal only.  I’m not a doctor.  If in doubt when caring for yourself or family, ask a doctor.).

Don’t have your own supply?  Find a healthy nursing mama you trust – she’d probably be happy to share.  🙂

 

Raw milk made my family sick last month.

Maybe you saw it in the news a few weeks ago.  Raw milk from a farm in PA made people in the greater Philly region ill.

When my hubby came home from work early with a fever, nausea, and ‘the poops’ (sorry, I’m a mom of preschoolers!), I thought, “Oh great, stomach bug.  Here we go.  Everyone start pumping the Fast Tract double time!”  (Love Fast Tract!)  Since we started using fermented food probiotics, we haven’t gotten stomach bugs nearly as often as we used to, but when/if we do get them, they usually plow through all six of us pretty quickly, and don’t last long.   The baby had a touch of it very soon after my hubby.  And then it seemed to stop spreading.  Strange.

Then a week after my hubby got the bug, my 7 year old got the exact same thing.  And the 5 and 3 year old each puked once, but nothing else.  I still had no symptoms.  Again, strange.  (But I was sure thankful to be well enough to take care of everyone else.)

Until we got the ‘it might have been us’ email from our farmer, the thought that it could have been the milk never even crossed my mind.  If anything, I figured the raw milk, with all its amazing probiotic benefits would be helping everyone fight the bug.

And then we found out that it WAS the milk.

But you know what?!

We still love our farmers and will continue to buy raw milk from them.  The Shanks handled the whole situation with such grace and humility (click here to read their letters), and I have no doubt that they have taken the necessary steps to correct the problem.

And, while I do not mean to downplay the awful experience of some folks with this bug… honestly?  To our family, this bug was not scary enough to outweigh the HUGE benefits of raw milk.  Any food can make you sick.  Germs are everywhere.  And I believe that the long term benefits of the raw milk are one key part of what helped my family kick the bug faster than ‘normal.’  Apparently, this bug can last 8-10 days; for us it was 3.  (What are the other keys that I think helped kick the bug faster?  Eating real food, using InLiven and Fast Tract probiotic products, and resting.)

I’d love to write a huge post about the benefits of raw milk, and even more so about the media bias against it.  But, Jen at Real Food Freaks already wrote that post, so I’ll just send you there and say a big DITTO!  🙂

www.realfoodfreaks.com/2012/02/03/i-still-believe-in-raw-milk/

To the Shank Family and their farm team (including the cows!) at YourFamilyCow.com …  We love you and appreciate you SO much.  Thank you for all you do!  🙂

Did you know that the average US household spends around $600 per year on personal care products?  Do you think it could be about the same per year on nutritional and digestive supplements?

What about you?  How much money would you save per month if you didn’t have to take funds from your budget for the products you use in your routines?  Skin care, hair care, body care, oral care, baby care, cosmetics, deodorant, supplements…  Whether you’re a high maintenance or low maintenance person, whether you buy your stuff from a larger company or an indie artisan, or even if you ‘DIY’ and make your own products, you put some amount of money toward your health and hygiene every month.

And what if you are trying to live a more mindful life – being more careful to avoid toxic ingredients, packaging, or business practices that are harmful to people and the planet?  Do you ever get disheartened by the fact that, no matter what type of product, the truly safe and sustainable options tend to be pricier?  Perhaps you want to live more simply and spend less in general, but you know that most things that are cheap are cheap for a reason – whether it’s the synthetic chemicals in the product, the child or slave labor behind the product, or any number of other social ills.  You understand how quality and social, economic, and environmental factors impact the total value equation, but maybe your budget, like most people’s,  remains limited nonetheless.

Let’s face it, when it comes to truly safe and sustainable personal care and nutritional supplement products, very few companies offer you the option to get discounts all the time on every order of any size.  And virtually none offers you the option to get products free every month.

But Miessence offers both – and it’s just one of the things that I love about them.  They have all the charm and heart of a small, family-owned company, and a clear and intentional focus on benefiting local and regional economies across the globe, but with a business plan that also benefits customers in ways far greater than a traditional retail model ever could.

Now, we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch, right?  Miessence is obviously not just giving away free products for nothing.  But for some people it almost feels like nothing because it’s either so natural, or so fun and rewarding, or both.

If you haven’t seen my video series on sustainability yet, take a quick few minutes to check out the “On Our Wallets” video and then read on.

OK, so as I mentioned in this video and in my post last week on Miessence’s free superfoods offer this month, there are many reasons why people become members of the Miessence community, whether as Customers (pay full retail price), Lifestyle members (get 20% off all the time), or Representative members (get 20-40% off all the time, free shipping, and more).  Representative members are often people who want to build an ethical home based business income to help support their families, but many more people become Rep members just to get a big discount on their own safe and sustainable products – or maybe even to get their products for free.

This is the post I promised earlier this month for those who are interested in knowing the answer to the question… How can I get Miessence products for free every month?

If you order monthly and refer just 3 other folks to the company who also want to order monthly as a Rep for the great savings and free shipping, then you get a thank you bonus from Miessence every month that basically pays for your monthly order.

Now, Lord help me if any of you think for even a second that I’m suggesting that you pester friends and family to buy these products just so you can get your stuff for free – far from it!  I hope you all know me well enough by now to know that I am all about doing things professionally, ethically, and naturally – always preserving relationships and respect.  🙂

There are two very viable options here that many people love:

1) If you love and use the products yourself and are happy to order monthly, and you naturally share it with others who want to do the same, then hey, the thank you bonus from Miessence that pays for your own products is a great little perk that can save you money each month and essentially take the personal care and nutritional supplement spending categories out of your monthly budget – or give you back the time you were using to make your own products so you can tackle the other 50 projects on your ‘want to do’ list.  You are genuinely ‘representing’ Miessence to others – including the caring, ethical, educational, and totally not pushy vibe of the company – and the company thanks you for it by paying for your monthly order.

2) If you want or need to earn your products for free asap, it requires some actual work.  Feel free to contact me for additional information on training and support available to you through our team on how to build a Miessence business professionally and ethically, without ever feeling like a pest to anyone.  If you’re only looking to build a business big (or small) enough to pay for your own monthly products, finding 3 monthly customers does not have to be a huge effort, but it is does require more focused and intentional effort than just casually referring friends to the company.

Again, no free lunch here.  But Miessence will pay for your monthly products if you casually and naturally refer 3 customers who also order monthly, or if you do just enough real honest-to-goodness work with the company to find 3 monthly customers in a way that is consistent with the ethical, educational, and missional focus of the company.

If you would like to open a Rep account for the great savings and/or potential to earn free products every month, check out this post from last week on the “Birthday Blast” offers this month and the different options for opening a Rep account.

Any questions, feel free to contact me.  Cheers!  🙂

February 2012 marks Miessence’s 9th anniversary, and they are celebrating with a $9 “Birthday Blast” offer that could also get you $200+ worth of their superfoods products for free.   I like free.  Do you?  🙂

And I do love their superfoods products.  Have you tried them yet?  The Berry Radical, the Deep Green, and the InLiven products are all part of the routine here in our home.  (If you’re not familiar with Miessence or with these particular products, I’ll put some resources at the bottom of this post for you.  And for those who are budget conscious out there, like I am, ask me how to make the 30-day supply last 90 days.)

So here’s the “Birthday Blast” scoop and how you can get $200+ worth of superfoods free…

Until midnight on February 28th (yes, I know there are 29 days this year, but the deadline is the 28th in the US), you can become a Miessence Representative member for just $9.  It’s normally $40.

Now wait a minute.  I know some of you may be thinking, “But I do not want to build a home based business.  I don’t want to be a Rep.”

No worries.  That’s fine.  A Miessence Rep account is available to people for lots of different purposes.  A growing number of folks are becoming Reps to build an ethical home based business in line with their core values, but many more people become Reps just to support their own safe and sustainable product usage.  Here are a couple examples – which one would better suite you?

“I became a Rep just to serve myself with a discount.  I am my only customer.”

“I became a Miessence Rep just to earn my own products for free every month.”
———————–                       (more on that option in another post later this month)

Representative members receive on-going savings on orders, are given exclusive access to Miessence specials at 40% off the recommended retail price, and can qualify for free shipping – and possibly even free products every month (again, watch for a post on that).

So, if you love the idea of using truly safe and sustainable, certified organic products on a regular basis, becoming a Miessence Rep might be a great option for you.  And in February only, you can open a Rep account for just $9, regardless of the size of an accompanying order…

You can even open the account without an order if you want, but by far the most popular options are to place either a ‘Fast Start’ or ‘Super Fast Start’ product order when opening your Rep account.  These are by far the best deals, money savings wise, and again – they are not just for Reps who want to build a business.  These packs are also totally applicable to people who just want to becomes Reps in order to get a “Fast” or “Super Fast” start on using certified organic products in their own homes at the best price.  Some people use these ordering options just to stock up on the superfoods products (usually folks who make their own personal care products), and others use these options to also stock up on external personal care products (for those who aren’t into DIY – do it yourself – recipes).

And what about the $200+ in free organic superfoods?

I’ve never seen Miessence offer this before and don’t know if they ever will again, but as part of the Birthday Blast, Miessence will send a free Vitality Pack – which includes Berry Radical, Deep Green, and InLiven and is over a $200 value – along with every Fast and Super Fast start order placed on a new Rep account by February 28th.

You could think of it as a ‘Buy Two, Get the Third Free’ deal.  Buy two Vitality Packs (plus 38 points of other products you might need) and get the third Vitality Pack free.  🙂

That added value brings the total savings on Fast and Super Fast start orders to roughly 50% off the retail prices.  And more importantly, gets your home outfitted with truly safe and sustainable product choices for both inside and outside your body.

When it comes to the inside – many health experts, including Dr. Mercola, are stressing the importance of using real food to supplement our diets, instead of all the synthetic vitamin pills we’ve been using for years.

When it comes to the outside – many consumer advocate organizations, including the Breast Cancer Fund, are recommending that we use truly natural personal care products, instead of the toxic soup of synthetic chemical products we’ve been using for years.

In either case, have you made the switch yet?  Maybe you’ve tried and know how hard it is to find nutritional supplement products that contain only real food or truly natural personal care products…

With food-grade organic certifications, Miessence makes it easy in both cases.  And with great options like the Representative membership, they make it easier to save money than buying from a retail store.  Not to mention the time saved by ordering online instead and having it shipped right to your door (carbon negative, by the way).

I know I risk sounding pitchy in this post, and of course, as a Rep who is building a home based business with Miessence to help support my family, I do have a financial interest in sharing all this with you.  But, I love Miessence first and foremost as a customer myself and would use these products even if there were no business potential for my family.  And, if I ever find a company that offers a better, safer, more sustainable product line – when all factors are considered as a whole total package – I would change companies…  Many of you know I had five years invested in working with another company before giving that up to work with Miessence – because the products are truly natural and effective.  🙂

If you would like to take advantage of this month’s Birthday Blast offer to become a Miessence Representative member, click here to view and select the option that best suites you.  Note: If you are building your own pack, it is helpful to browse the online catalog and jot down your product selections ahead of time to avoid being timed out and having to start all over again.  You will also be given a free website with your account – even if you do not intend to do business with your account – and should think of what name you’d like to use on your site ahead of time.  For example, mine is kvorganics.miessence.com.

If you are not familiar with Miessence, click here for a good intro.  If you wanted any of the additional resources on the superfoods products in the Vitality Pack…  Click here for a very informative webinar that is long (about an hour) but includes a ton of general information and research in addition to product specific information; here for a short video on InLiven; here for a short video on Deep Green; or here for a fact sheet on Berry Radical.

Below is an article from a recent Miessence company newsletter.  Thought I’d share it here as it discusses the benefits of chlorella, blue-green algae, spirulina, and other deep green superfoods…  Dr. Mercola talks a lot about these ingredients on his site as well.  We use all three of Miessence’s supplemental superfood blends in our house and love them.
—————————————————————————————–

Give Your Health The Green Light

Exciting new formula change for DeepGreen features improved benefits.

DeepGreen, Miessence’s popular Alkalising superfood supplement has just gotten better with the introduction of two potent new ingredients.

In addition to spirulina, which is rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, Alphanizomenon Flos Aquae (AFA) Klamath Lake Blue-Green Algae and Chlorella have been added to DeepGreen to offer even greater health benefits.

AFA Blue-Green Algae, sourced from the pristine mountain lakes of Oregon, contains more protein, B12 and chlorophyll than any other food source.

Chlorella is an excellent detoxifier associated with its ability to bind with mercury, lead and cadmium and eliminate them from our system. It is also renowned for its anti-tumour properties.

These algae join DeepGreen‘s powerful combination of organic freeze-dried grass juice powders (wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa grass, oat grass and kamut grass) and dark green leafy vegetables (nettle, collard, kale and parsley) powders.

Research has shown that increasing the amount of greens in your diet helps prevent cancer, detoxifies and alkalizes your cells, boosts your immune system, and gives you more energy.

As part of a balanced health program, Miessence DeepGreen helps keep the correct pH balance in your body, neutralizes the toxic acids in your body, encourages remineralization of bones, and helps boost immunity.  Our unique combination of alkalizing greens harnesses the very best of nature to promote benefits for the brain, bones and heart.

Miessence DeepGreen is available in single tubs, as part of our popular Vitality Pack which also contains BerryRadical Antioxidant and InLiven Probiotic, or in an economical DeepGreen triple pack.

Not sure if your ‘natural’ product is really as natural as you hoped?  Tired of buying a ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ product only to find it has toxins in it?  Wish you could find something truly all natural?  You’ll need to learn all the labeling tricks in the industry so you know how to see through the half-truths and find what you really want.

Our label reading webinar launched off this past week with over 40 registrants.  Very fun!

If you missed it, there is a recording available here.  You will need a code to access it.

If you are already a newsletter subscriber, watch for the code in my next newsletter (coming soon).

If you are not already a newsletter subscriber, you will get the code in your welcome email when you subscribe.  Click here to subscribe.

Cheers!  🙂

After months of preparation, I’m excited to announce that we are ready to launch our free online webinar on Wednesday evening, February 1st.

“What’s in YOUR Personal Care?  A Label Reading Workshop.”

Get the knowledge you need to spot the toxic ingredients in personal care products and vitamin supplements.

Don’t be fooled by misleading labels.

Come learn how to cut through all the marketing lingo and find out what’s really in the products and why you might want to be concerned.

And sadly, yes, there are many toxins even in ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ products.

This webinar is brought to you by our Miessence community team, but there’s nothing to buy.  It’s educational info only and the content will be of a general nature – you can apply this information to reading the labels on any brand of products.

Those who are interested will have the option to stay on for an extra 5-10 minutes if they’d like to learn more about Miessence at the end.  Those who aren’t, can sign off.

Use the link below to register for the webinar, and use the code KV0212.

And please spread the word – thanks!

Frustrated by ‘greenwashing’ in the personal care industry?

Ready to take the next healthy living step and tackle their toxic personal care products?

Didn’t even realize yet that there are toxins in these products?

This webinar is for you!

https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/950901614   (use the code KV0212)

See you there!  🙂

Can’t attend live?  Register anyway and receive a recording of the webinar after the fact.

This is just a quick post to share with you something fun and simple from my past week.

Remember Vicks Vapor Rub?  I have fond childhood memories of that product.  I’m pretty sure my mom still uses it nightly (though I could be lying – not sure really).

But, nowadays I’m not sure I’d be too keen on some of the ingredients in that product (haven’t looked at it’s ingredients lately, but just guessing).

So, my kids have had a cough since Christmas, and last week it got pretty bad.  That isn’t the fun part of this story.  The school actually told my 5 year old not to come back until she was tested or treated for pertussis – the long story short on how bad her ‘cough’ was (though in her case it wasn’t actually much of a cough, but… long story).  Anyway.  They had had a confirmed case there the week before, so of course the nurse, who is a lovely woman, is on high alert for any possible sign of pertussis.  And so you don’t worry… the test came back negative.  Yay!

Anyways, when the cough got bad, I thought, “Hmmm, I bet I could make some homemade ‘vicks’ rub.”

And sure enough – it was easy.  I just took some of the herbal salve that my friends and I made from the Learning Herbs kit this past fall and added a few drops of Miessence’s eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils.  Rubbed it all together and then rubbed it on her chest, neck, and back.  Simple.  I’m sure I could have used coconut oil as the carrier oil too, but the thicker salve was probably better anyway.

It definitely seemed to help relieve the night coughs, and it was super simple to make.  🙂

When our electric stove began to die a couple months ago, we were really torn about how to replace it.  We went back and forth – mostly because of the concerns over ‘fracking’ for natural gas.  If you don’t know about hydraulic fracturing, give it a google search.

Here’s a brief overview of what I understand about its controversy at the moment.  There have been some very destructive mistakes made while ‘fracking’ for natural gas.  But supposedly, it can be done safely.  Sort of like drilling for oil.  It can run smoothly much of the time, but when accidents happen, or when it is done poorly from the get go, the result is a really bad situation.  And, of course, it’s not a renewable energy source, and therefore not a long-term sustainable solution.  But it is cleaner than oil or coal, and it’s a domestic source of energy and abundant at the moment, but…  On we go, back and forth.  Ugh.

We have natural gas in our home already (heating, hot water, etc), but of course have no real control over where that gas is coming from or how it is extracted from the earth.  We had signed up with an alternate gas supplier a couple years ago, but they had no expressed concerns for responsible drilling and even their promise of money savings did not pan out (that story here).

But now comes a little glimmer of hope with regard to responsible natural gas choices…

We had signed up with Viridian as electric customers a year ago because of their greener energy content label, which was 3x greener than our utility company for roughly the same price.  In fact, over this past year, our electricity service from Viridian has only cost us, averaged out, about $0.50 more per month than what we were paying the utility anyway.  50 cents a month for 3x more renewable energy?!  I’m good with that.  Love it.

And now Viridian is offering natural gas service, with a strong commitment to be a voice for sustainability and stewardship in the area of safe and responsible drilling and extraction.  While there is no really great natural gas solution right now, going with Viridian is the best possible option for our family at the moment.  We appreciate knowing that they are committed to the same sort of values we are, and are working toward similar goals.

From Viridian’s pamphlet on natural gas:  “Every form of energy generation has some degree of undesirable environmental impact. Although natural gas is a cleaner-burning resource, that’s not the whole picture. The negative environmental, and social impacts related to production and extraction methods for drilling and hydraulic fracturing must be considered for natural gas to play a credible role in the future of our energy mix. Unfortunately, legislation and environmental protection guidelines have not kept up with recent technological advances and new methods of extraction. As a supplier or customer hoping to support a responsible and credible solution, today’s options are limited. Without clear research to define what is and what is not harmful, without innovation to perfect an extraction process, without transparency and regulation that makes sense for all stakeholders, the future of natural gas is unclear. Viridian is committed to taking an industry lead in driving demand, education and solution-focused discussion to increase transparency and responsibility in natural gas production.” 

For Viridian’s full, 3-page pamphlet on their position, mission, and vision for natural gas, click here.

We’ve been very happy with Viridian for our electric service, and we are switching to them for our natural gas service as well – to add to the collective voice “driving demand for responsible solutions.”

Will you join our family in adding to that collective voice as an electric, natural gas, or ‘combo’ customer with Viridian?  If so, would you please consider enrolling by phone instead of online and giving them my referring ID#?  Just grab your utility bill and give them a call at 866-663-2508 to enroll or ask additional questions.  My referring ID# is 11636.  Disclosure – As I mentioned in my post a year ago about their electric service, I am not actively growing a business with Viridian, but yes, I will get a small commission for referring you.  Thanks! 

Here are the rate sheets for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.  Some nice savings there, too, on top of the sustainability commitments.  Always a plus!  🙂

 

Intro – Using a truly natural product can be a strange transition for some, because we are so used to ‘normal’ or conventional (chemical ridden) products – how they feel, smell, taste (if applicable), and work.  Throughout this series, I’m sharing my experiences with some of the products that were the most noticeably different for me when I first made the switch to truly natural products, and how the results are stacking up against their conventional counterparts.

In this installment of my little series on ‘transitioning to natural products,’ let’s talk about smells…

When I first switched to using truly natural personal care products, I was instantly aware of the different smell.  When I had switched 5 years prior to semi-natural products from conventional drug store stuff (which are basically all synthetic chemicals and which I’d been using all my life up until that point in time), I didn’t really notice much of a difference.  Perhaps the smell was a little less intense than the artificially fragrant drug store products, but it was still a familiar sort of smell.  (Side note – although that particular semi-natural line did not use artificial fragrances, I later learned that there were quite a few other questionable synthetic chemicals in the formulations, as is the case with most ‘natural’ and even many ‘organic’ products out there).

Then I started using Miessence’s certified organic personal care products (click here for a great little video overview).  At first I thought, “Oh, that smells… different.  Hmm, not bad, just… really different.  Hmm….”  And then I tried the Probiotic Skin Brightener, and I thought, “Pee-eew!  That stinks to high heaven, like vinegar!”  I hadn’t learned much at all at that point about the amazing benefits of fermentation.  All I knew was the product stunk like vinegar.  BUT!  Boy, did it work well!

Here’s the description of the product from the Miessence website:  “Probiotic bacteria ferment organic whole grains and legumes to release nutrients and create a naturally occuring, extremely mild, lactic liquid which is known to restore and protect the skin’s acid mantle, lighten and brighten the complexion, improve photodamaged skin, exfoliate dead skin cells for a smoother, less-wrinkled appearance, help break down impurities, whilst bringing moisture, clarity and vitality to the skin.”

I had a similar, though less pronounced, experience with the Ambrosia Essence Skin Perfector.  It smells, ummm, woody maybe?  I’m honestly still not sure how to describe it.  Although my reaction wasn’t as emphatic as it was with the skin brightener, I definitely didn’t care for the smell at first.  But again, I found it worked really well.  And now I truly enjoy the smell – it has really grown on me.  Because it has such valuable oils and is pricier, I use it very sparingly around the eyes and occasionally, as a treat around the whole face (using the rejuvenessence serum around the whole face more regularly).

I can’t speak for every brand of truly organic products out there on the market with regard to smells, but in the end, here’s what I have discovered about the smells of all the Miessence certified organic products in general:

Each product smells as unique and lovely as its particular ingredients, and the smells don’t linger at all.  With the exception of the botanical perfumes, whose scents are supposed to linger, you can really only smell the products when applying them, and then the smells quickly dissipate.  The results, both in terms of product efficacy and improving your health by ditching all the synthetic chemicals, are well worth the effort of getting used to the ‘different,’ non-chemical, earthier smells.  And honestly, now I love the smell of all the products – including the most unusual two, the probiotic skin brightener and the ambrosia essence skin perfector.