Grocery shopping for truly organic & natural products can be difficult.  Company’s try to disguise products as better for you by marketing items as “dermatologist-tested,” “gentle” and “natural”, but these products may be no better.  The only way to really know for sure if a product is truly organic is by reading the ingredients, but there are tricks to help scan the aisles for your green merchandise.  There are particular things I look for and certain things I avoid when shopping, and now I can spot Green products like it’s my sixth sense!

Helpful Green Shopping Guide

Keywords to Look For

•USDA Certified Organic

•NON GMO

•Paraben Free

•Fragrance Free

•100% toxic Fre

•Certified Vegan

•Cruelty Free

What to Avoid

•Misleading and incomplete labeling of ingredients

•Claims like “dermatologist-tested,” “gentle” and “natural”

•Product has label warnings

*Good rule I use is the fewer ingredients the better, and I can read and am familiar with the ingredients listed. 

Look up your products’ safety ratings:

Cosmetics and personal care products: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

Household cleaners: http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners

Tips for safer products: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/top-tips-for-safer-products/

Please share your tips for shopping for Organic & Natural Products.

The post How to Shop for Organic Products appeared first on Rays of Bliss.

I never gave much thought of how natural or organic my families personal care products were. That changed after my husband found out he had Celiac, a gluten intolerance. When you have Celiac you have to pay attention to all products with gluten, not just your food.

To ensure no gluten I had to thoroughly read all ingredients on everything I bought.  This made me realize how many chemicals my family was being exposed to just from the products we used daily .  I did some research after coming to this realization, and discovered how bad some of these chemicals were for us. I decided then to do my best at converting my family to natural and organic products.

Anyone wanting to live more organic definitely needs to give their a personal care items a “green makeover.”

A good point to remember is, what you put on your body, ends up in your body. Certified organic products are made with ingredients that are free of harmful chemicals.  By using organic hair products and organic skin products you can reduce the amount of harmful toxins that our bodies are exposed to through our scalp, hair and skin.

The only issue from using organic products is they do cost more, sometimes a lot more.  I purchase most products from Amazon, but some are available in my local grocery store, usually in the Natural/Organic Section. Also, I use the Honest Company monthly family essentials bundle to save up to  35% on their products.

Deodorant:
Me – Crystal – Crystal Body Deodorant Stick
Husband – Jason Natural Cosmetics – Organic Long Lasting Tea Tree Deodorant Stick

The post Why Choose Organic Personal Care Products? appeared first on Rays of Bliss.

I am simply sharing what I use and works for my family. By no means am I suggesting this is the best way or the only way to do it. You will have to see what best fits your lifestyle and preferences.

My Cloth Diaper Collection:

We use the GroVia One-Size diapers, which consist of a shell and a snap in absorbent soaker insert. I have a mixture of the hook and loop and the snap closures. They are Super Easy and Super Cute!

At night we use bumGenius 4.0 one-size Cloth Diapers with a HempBabies liner for extra absorbency, and put a Ecoposh wool diaper cover over that.

In every diaper we put a flushable GroVia Biodegradable Diaper Liner, this helps contain the solids and from getting all over your cloth diapers.

We are using the GroVia perfect diaper pail. I like it because you can hang it anywhere (I use a command hook) and it is working so far at keeping those smells at bay.

We already had the Diaper Genie from our older boys. I’m using that to throw the Biodegradable Diaper Liners away. I figured if you can throw dirty diapers away in the Diaper Genie; why not use it to throw away dirty liners.  The only thing is you have to push the liners down into the Diaper Genie; I use the wipe that I used to push down with.  One perk of using this is not walking to the restroom to flush the liner.  I’m not sure if this will work for older babies (I will keep you posted of course) but it’s working for my 1 month old’s soiled diapers. I may get a diaper sprayer when he’s older if needed.

We opted to use cloth wipes because my son’s tush seemed sensitive to the disposable wipes. After researching cloth wipes majority said it was actually easier than using disposable wipes, and I have to agree it is! Mainly because you don’t have to worry about your natural response of putting dirty wipe inside your dirty diaper.

My cloth wipes consist of 12 GroVia cloth wipes, the 4 Prince Lionheart wipes that came with my warmer, and 18 cheap babies wash cloths from Wal-Mart.  They all do the job well, but I guess I prefer the GroVia because they are thicker.  If you are on a budget or don’t want to spend much, I would say just go with the cheap baby wash cloths. If you want to splurge on a thicker wipe then go with the GroVia cloth wipes.

We use the Prince Lionheart Wipes Warmer to hold our cloth wipes. I like it better than the other warmers out there because it came with an Antimicrobial Microspore Pillow to keep the wipes fresh and moist.  I highly recommend using a warmer if using cloth wipes.  My baby is so much happier during diaper changes, it’s actually better at cleaning up the poo, and BONUS warm wipes almost completely eliminate baby boys peeing on you or anything else within his shot!

To check out my cloth wipes solution recipe:  click here

We do use disposable diapers if we are going to be out for a long time, and when I have a babysitter uncomfortable with using cloth diapers (MY MOM!). But when I do, I want to use something as organic and natural as possible. That’s why I’m using the Honest Company’s diapers.  Not only are they a more natural option but they are Super Cute. They have a ton of adorable patterns to pick from.   They offer a trial program, but it’s intended for people who use disposable diapers only. I personally only order a pack of diapers as needed.

My personal favorite is the Comic Book pattern.

 Please Share Your Personal Cloth Diaper Collection, or your favorite cloth diaper Products!

The post Cloth Diapers: What I Personally Use appeared first on Rays of Bliss.