Hello Lovelies,
Welcome back! And welcome if You are new here xo
Hope life is treating You well? The sun & yellow gorse blooming everywhere are definitely putting smile on my face. Time for my usual “musings and things” post where I talk what I am doing behind the scenes at Green Life In Dublin HQ and what I am buying/ using/ saying goodbye to. Shall we start?
Musings
blooming nature
The sun, warm weather and blooms everywhere are definitely putting smile on my face, I hope the same for You. Gorse bushes You see in the main photo are colouring Ireland yellow this month and it is a joy to see. Cherry blossom trees are also blooming this week, very late into the year I have to say. Last year they were flowering early March. Does that mean we will have bad summer? If You are lucky enough to have access to the forest, wild garlic is everywhere these days. A joy for foragers! I am also container gardening this year, I have sowed lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, two types of chard, nasturtium, pansies, various herbs, fig, blueberry, black currant, echinacea, English lavender and two types of strawberries. We also repotted Christmas tree we got from Lidl this last Christmas. Turns out that was a scam – the tree had no roots whatsoever. Very disappointed. I will keep You posted on the gardening journey. As with all my products, I want my garden to be organic too. I use organic seaweed fertilizer plus various organic banana/ fruit peels./ tea infusions. My plants seem to thrive on it.
Organic groceries
I manifested organic grocery shop in my home town & I couldn’t be happier about it! Let’s just say I am leaving all my monies there right now. Fruit and veg are fantastic! I made sure to support them as much as I possibly can from the beginning. Some things like organic vegan butter are pricier than in supermarkets, but I figured I’d still shop here for my bulk groceries for a week. The supermarkets already have steady money and customers flow, small businesses don’t, at least not from the start.
Slow life & slow shopping year
I am still enjoying slow life in the country side and slow shopping year so to speak. I find I need so much less! I am doing this project with Sandra of sandra_lovesandlifestyle – we both spent far too much on beauty last year and decided to be much more mindful this year. I’ll update You on my spendings in THINGS portion of this post, so keep on reading.
Related post:
Musings & Things April 24 – intentions, essential oils, tallow soap & more
Natural hay fever relief
Pollen season is well and truly open and so many of us are struggling to breathe, myself included. Here is a good article if You want to read up on how to manage it natural ways. I myself am using Boiron Sinus Calm (homeopathic remedy) and XClear spray with xylitol to deal with sinus issues. Keeping Your health in tip top condition helps too, so be sure to eat right, plenty of organic fruit and veg if You can, vitamin C and zinc too.
Crazy prices at Amazon.ie
So Amazon.ie launched here a couple of weeks ago. I don’t shop on Amazon at all because of the principle, I just think we don’t need to make Bezos a billion richer, all while Amazon is at war with everyone – small businesses, medium sized businesses, delivery companies and their own workers. Did You know they pay no taxes and the deliveries are paid by tax payers, aka You and me?
Anyways, curiosity got better of me and I finally checked it out to see how different it is from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com. You know me and my natural ways, so first thing I checked out was Honest Beauty mascara. Lo and behold it is more than double it’s price. Two words for Amazon. Why & bye
THINGS
As off mid month, no beauty purchases. I might order from Ecco Verde soon, as I have a voucher refund from them. It’s practically free, right? I mean girl math 🙂 I desperately need a new mascara and a few other bits. I tried to find good-but-cheaper natural mascara, but everything I have tried date has been a fail after a fail. I know a few good natural mascaras, but all of them are around 30eu mark, which pains me a lot. I am ok paying that and more for the serum for example, but for a mascara it seems way too much.
What I saved on beauty, I spent at Vintage Fair and on books . Insert a bit embarrassed emoji here! I found a few pieces of silver & turquoise jewellery I couldn’t pass up. Then the other day I went down the rabbit hole of browsing books online and one finger slip later I ended up buying nine books. Totally by accident, mind You. The order is not here yet, but I will post it later.
Evolve Organic Beauty new look
If You know me for any amount of time, You know my love for Evolve Beauty! I’ve been blogging about them for years, quick search in my blog will give You eleven pages of posts, but let me simplify it for You and link to my brand overview post here:
Brand overview – Evolve Organic Beauty – Green Life In Dublin
I can honestly say they are one of the best clean beauty products around. Textures, smells and performance of the products will satisfy everyone, but all ingredients are natural and highly organic, of course. I buy most of my products myself, but they send me some PR samples from time to time, like now. I am also responsible for getting them into two of my favourite online natural beauty stores, namely The Dutch Health Store and Live In The Light. That’s how much I believe in them!
That’s it for the “things” this month. Just three beauty products so far, which pleases me a lot.
EMPTIES
Let me introduce You to a new segment of “Musings & Things” post, which used to be separate posts until this point. I believe it is important for me as a blogger to show You guys that the products I use and review are the same products. Not always the case with other bloggers, but I am not here to throw shade. Just focus on my own journey. As usual I will categorize empties into three parts, named such as “FABULOUS GREEN BEAUTY/WELLNESS PRODUCTS I WILL REPURCHASE” – let’s be dramatic for no reason, shall we?
FABULOUS GREEN BEAUTY/WELLNESS PRODUCTS I WILL REPURCHASE
Dr. Hauschka Hand Cream
GREAT NATURAL ITEMS I WON’T GET FOR NOW DUE TO THE SIZE OF MY STASH/ MINIMIZING/ OTHER
Dr. Bronner’s Spearmint toothpaste – too mild for me.
KTC Castor oil – transitioning to organic cold pressed hexane free castor oil in dark glass bottle
Living Libations Sea Buckthorn Shampoo – this is a great product, but I am pausing repurchase for now to use up hair care stash. Which is a lot.
NATURAL PRODUCTS I WON’T BE GETTING AGAIN
Terra Naturi mascaras – the quality is not there. They all are cheap, but they flake, smudge and sting. Not my vibe. There are really good natural mascaras out there. These are not it.
Check out my favourite online shops:
The Dutch Health Store
Live In The Light code GREENLIFEINDUBLIN15 saves You 15%
Living Libations This link gives You 10% off, no code needed
Pure Anada
Fushi Wellbeing GreenLifeInDublin gets You 15% off
iHerb code CDI1500 saves $£€ for the first timers
So that’s it for today, thank You for reading! I really appreciate You taking Your time of the day visiting my little corner of the internet.
Sending LOVE & LIGHT!
Renata.
