How to choose the best toxin-free cosmetics

I’ve done several toxin-free cosmetics lists over the years, each with several updates…resulting in a bit of a jumble. So I’ve pulled them apart and rejigged them all with updated information.

Picture 5
Image via Pinterest

And before I go on… I really want to emphasise that making the switch to safer and cleaner shouldn’t be about buying more stuff. It’s about making a slow, gradual, informed switch as your current products run out.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people about how you and I can best act on the very real fears we have that our foundations and hair dyes and deodorants are not good for us. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Use less stuff

Reduce the chemical load where you can. It takes some getting used to – wearing less makeup and less products – but it’s doable. It makes sense at all levels. I don’t wear foundation (where possible) any more. I wear a bit of powder, mascara and eyebrow pencil. No hair product. No nail polish. Less is more.

2. Read the labels and avoid these ingredients:

  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. This is a really good starting point. Anything with SLS… high-tail from it – it’s a common

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Is Sarah Wilson anti-vaccination?

The short answer is NO. So is the longer one.

Consider this An Open Letter to Journalists Who Find Themselves A Little Confused. I’ll do this little “cheat sheet” in bullets because, frankly, I don’t have the patience for pleasantries. And I figure I need to get to the point clearly. It seems many journalists are very confused.

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Photograph by Sheena Jibson

1. I have never said I’m anti-vaccination. Dozens of journalists have claimed that I am, regurgitating each others’ incorrect stories. None have bothered to contact me for comment. Or bothered to Google the topic. If they did, they’d find this.

2. I am pro-vaccination. And have written as such.

3. This is something journalists need to know:

When journalists claim I’m anti-vax they are “creating” a poster girl for the movement.

This is incredibly irresponsible and gives power to the very movement they’re railing against.

4. I have had enough of being put up as that poster girl and will be taking action to have stories corrected when it does happen. I have requested the Herald Sun pull down their latest effort by Susie O’Brien (who also, curiously, refers to “raw milk-drinking vegans”). For instance.

5. Context is king. References to me voicing the anti-vax argument were made in the context of having being asked on Sunrise back in early 2013 to explain the reasons that parents from a wealthy suburb in Sydney were giving for not vaccinating their children. I explained what their reasoning was, drawing on the news link in question, as well as

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Solastalgia, a new type of unease

My interest in words that sum up melancholia or human yearning (in a way that standard English just can’t) continues. A Twitter friend (Dr Daz) sent me this read about “solastalgia”, a word invented by (retired) Murdoch University professor of sustainability and environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht.

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At home outdoors

Solastalgia describes “the homesickness you have when you are still at home”.

By the late 1990s open-cut coal mining had drastically changed the landscape of the Upper Hunter region of NSW – for the worse. As a result, the people of the region were suffering from a form of chronic distress that saw their previously positive sense of place (“topophilia”) and love of their home and landscape, turn bad. Albrecht realised that there was no concept in the English language that adequately described this distressed state. And so he invented the term to describe the existential melancholia experienced with the negative transformation (desolation) of a loved home environment.

But it soon took off around the world as A Word that summed up succinctly A Thing we’re collectively feeling about the planet. That is, bad stuff is happening and we feel ill-at-ease about it.

Says Albrecht:

“One of the reasons for international interest in the concept of solastalgia is that we are in the middle of a pandemic of earth-related distress that will only get worse. Everything that was once familiar and trusted in our environment will be

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The Ayurvedic reason you might be craving sugar

I’ve shared on oodles of occasions how Ayurvedic healing is, in my opinion, the most grounded wellness approach around. You can catch up on my previous posts here and find out which dosha you are here. And if you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know my dosha is, yeah, vata. I’m a poster child for the category!

If you’re not vata yourself read on anyway, because vata energy actually controls all the doshas – if your vata is out of whack, all the doshas become unbalanced.

Photo by Ceppas Photography
Photo by Ceppas Photography

The thing is, Vatas need “sweet” foods

Vata energy actually needs sweetness to balance and pacify. This is because the energy in vata comes in bursts, so calls for energy stabilisation after a burst. Which is why vata types crave sugar. Because it’s sweet, yes, but also because it’s a stimulant. And for vata types – which sees energy move through our bodies and minds like wind through a tunnel – we feel we need those stimulants to replace the lost energy.

Where does this leave things? We need “sweet” foods, but sugar is surely an issue? I asked Ayurvedic consultant Nadia Marshall to share some of her tips and tricks on the topic. Nadia is director of The Mudita Institute near Byron Bay. She lives and breathes this stuff. 

So what does Ayurveda have to say about sugar?

Nadia deals it straight: From an Ayurvedic perspective, refined sugars are considered both stale and over-stimulating. They are difficult to digest so can create disturbance and waste in the body (known as “Ama” in Ayurveda and considered to be the root cause of all disease). Refined sugars actually aggravate vata but also kapha, leading to fluid retention, weight gain, mental agitation or dullness (or both… swinging between the two) and physical exhaustion. They also weaken the pancreas and the liver, which in turn can aggravate pitta in the body.

Refined sugars produce the disease-causing agents in the body and mind, simultaneously weakening the immune system.

So what to eat to pacify vata if you don’t eat sugar?

Set us straight Nadia:

1. Go for warm and slightly oily foods. Eating foods cooked with warming spices (turmeric,

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18 of my favourite microadventures you might like to try

Last week I shared why a microadventure will make your life better. Lovely-ishly, some of you were prompted to give one a crack that day. Some of you, however, asked for some inspiration, to get you going… so I figured I should give you a few adventure starters…

Image via treasuresandtravelsblog.com
Image via treasuresandtravelsblog.com

1. Do a train-hike-train on the outskirts of town. In Sydney I sometimes catch the train out to Mt Ku-Ring-Gai station, hike down to Berowra Waters and back up again to Cowan station, before catching the train home. In Melbourne I catch a train down to the Mornington Peninsula, and then hike the cliffs above Sorrento, finish up with a swim in the ocean before heading back to the city. It’s an easy day trip.

Here’s how I plan my hikes, if you’re keen to know.

2. Take a foodie road trip to a regional area. I’ve done one from Canberra to Byron Bay and one from Melbourne to Daylesford. Mudgee really knows how to showcase their local food and wines, too.  Hobart is totally do-able from much of Australia, as a weekend jaunt. You can find my other foodie trips here.

3. Close your eyes, spin around and point at a map. It’s what my Dad did with us as kids. We had a map of NSW; wherever my little brother or sister (it was always the youngest used for such fun) pointed, that’s where we went camping for

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The joy of catching others in a vulnerable, unaware moment

I derive very happy jolts from glimpsing someone in the middle of a moment. An unawares moment.

Image via ladyslider.com
Image via ladyslider.com

Some examples: A bike courier singing as he rides through traffic; the woman in the pencil skirt who does a little excited skip to herself as she walks down the street; the power walker at the beach who has to tap the end of the promenade three times before turning around and heading back.

Then there are the more subtle moments. The flickers in the eyes. Glimpsing a thought flicker across a stranger’s face, like a floater across your eye. Apparently there’s a word for this:

Fata organa n. a flash of real emotion glimpsed in someone sitting across the room…

…idly locked in the middle of some group conversation, their eyes glinting with vulnerability or quiet anticipation or cosmic boredom.

I experienced this the other day. I was staring at a table of old ladies opposite me in a café. One of them had tuned out from the chatter. You could tell. And then a mischievous look came over her face and she looked like she was 15, not 70 or so. And I

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Diet doesn’t cure disease. And it’s irresponsible to say otherwise.

The past fortnight has seen two young women who’ve treated their chronic disease with very particular diets hit mainstream headlines. It’s been astonishing stuff.

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Image via FoodWear

News of wellness blogger Jess Ainscough’s tragic death tore through the media two weeks ago. Jess had a rare cancer (epithelioid sarcoma) and after undergoing chemotherapy, had declined the only treatment her doctors could offer her (amputation of her arm at the shoulder blade), instead deciding to treat herself with the controversial Gerson Therapy. This therapy – when applied to cancer patients – is based on a fully plant-based diet and involves drinking one glass of fresh raw juice every hour for 13 hours and taking up to 5 coffee enemas a day.

Then this week The Australian newspaper did an expose of mega-blogger and cult Instagrammer Belle Gibson who has claimed to be healing her own brain cancer (and more recently, liver, uterus, spleen and blood cancers, too) via alternative therapies and a healthy diet. The report claimed there is no proof Belle has ever had any form of cancer. Belle apparently admits she may have been misdiagnosed and subsequent news stories reveal a history of unusual and contradictory claims of terminal illness (and identities).

I’m not going to wade in on the ins and outs of the various reports (except to say I’m left very concerned about Belle’s welfare,

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Why a microadventure will make your life better

I believe that doing many small things make life better. Like having a morning routine and exercising every day. Less, more often is my mantra, as it’s all about building a muscle, little by little.

Image via lordskate
Image via Lordskate

I recently came across National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Alistair Humphreys. He pioneered the concept of microadventures in an effort to encourage people to get outside and out of their comfort zone and has set up a business travelling and speaking about adventuring. Bravo to him. Here’s why I reckon you should seriously give one a crack…

A microadventure is an adventure close to home, cheap and short. It’s simple. When they’re simple, they happen. You don’t procrastinate.

Me, I do flanneries.

Or I do simple weekend excursions. I catch a train, do a hike, stay somewhere overnight and then train back to work the following morning. I also like doing short mini-breaks to regional areas where I can do a few hikes and check out local food.

* Try this: Sleep in your garden. On a work night.

It’s about stretching yourself, mentally, physically or culturally. It is about doing what you don’t normally do, pushing yourself hard and doing it to the best of your ability, says Alistair. I’ve written about the benefit of simply doing what

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The best advice to creatives ever: you have to go through a volume of work

When I lived in Byron (writing my first book) I used to drive to my friend Annie’s house in the hills for dinner on Sundays. I timed it to listen to Ira Glass on This American Life. I’d time it so I could pull over in the really mind-expanding, precipace-thinking bits. Not listened to one of Ira’s meandering, whimsical interviews about life? You should.

Image via Skipholt.
Image via Skipholt.

I love Ira. And I don’t think I’ve come across better advice than this for anyone who hurts, frets, doubts doing creative work. Which is most of us, really.

The gist is this:

1. Creatives know they have taste. They know they have a vision, an idea that could be special. It burns in them.

2. But when they start out in their respective realms, their output doesn’t match up to their vision. There’s a gap. They know their work isn’t special enough… and so…

3. Creatives hurt, fret and doubt… and then often quit.

But Ira shares:

4. This is normal.

5. The most important thing you can do is… more work. The only way to close the gap is to “go through a volume of work”.

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Sonder

The best words are the ones with no English equivalent. They invariably describe moments in the human experience that we find exotically ungraspable. Unpindownable. Fleeting. Ephemeral. Often they’re concepts that Anglo culture has – simply – failed to grasp. Some of my favourites include hygge, haimish, mamihlapinatapai and suadade.

Image via tumblr
Image via tumblr

Today I present you with sonder.

sonder, n. the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

This is a translation that comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and appears to derive from some very old French word.

My new e-mate Hazel alerted me to such a dictionary. She gets my affinity with melancholy. Thanks Hazel.

So, to experience sonder…it happens when you’re in a crowd and people are streaming toward you (perhaps in a train station), or perhaps you’re on a plane and have the opportunity to stare up close at the people sitting nearby (as I am just now as I write this on a plane to Melbourne).

This stream of faces, or opportunity to pause intimately and be with humanity, drags you from your own myopic, clustery thinking

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