Celtic Naturals » environmentally friendly

The Transparency of Snowfall

admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:42:10 +0000

Checking the Status of Your Insulation

Well, it’s too late to expect Santa or reindeer on your rooftop for Winter 2010-2011, but a glance at your roof just after a recent snow can tell a quick story about the state of the insulation in your attic. It’s fairly transparent for all to see, if you know what to look for. If you see any of the following characteristics, you are losing money right out your roof. It’ll only take a few minutes to know if you need to spring into action.

Does the snow melt in parallel lines running up the roof?
Is there one section of the roof that melts before the others?
Does the snow on your roof melt sooner than all the others in your neighborhood?
Look at the corners as well, next to gables and chimneys. These areas are particularly difficult for contractors to reach. Has the snow in these areas melted sooner than the others?

When comparing your roof to neighbors’ homes or along your own rooftop, remember that darker shingled roofs or roofs facing the sun will melt sooner than the shaded sides or lighter roofs. Be certain to make a fair comparison.

Parallel lines of melted snow indicate that the rolls of insulation have shifted apart, usually at the beams. If only a few lines are apparent, perhaps getting into the attic and shifting the insulation back into place is enough, but if your entire rooftop shows lines, you may be in need of some extra insulation. If you don’t go into your attic but have easy access, consider blowin as an excellent, environmentally friendly insulation option. For a nominal fee you can rent the equipment at your local equipment rental or home improvement store. They typically carry the blowin as well.

If you have one section that is melting prematurely, perhaps the insulation was shifted during attic work. The most common cause for local melting in newer homes is the running of electrical wiring or cables after the home was built. The 15 – 30 minutes you spend climbing into your attic to readjust the insulation can be well worth it in your next energy bill.

As you green your home, consider installing cellulose blowin insulation. In my opinion it is the most environmentally friendly option. Cellulose blowin typically consists of recycled newspapers treated with a non-toxic boric compound as a flame and mold retardant. Cellulose blowin does not have any chemical off-gassing associated with some foam blowin options.

In some cases, your energy savings can be so significant, that you recoup your costs in the next winter month. The return on your investment will depend on the extremity of weather, the state of insulation at the start of the project and how much cellulose you installed.

Have a great time saving money, and know you’re doing a good thing for the environment, too!

Sweet Complexion for Valentine’s Day

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:15:30 +0000

Author: Angela J. Buckley

What better time of the year to use the antioxidant rich ingredients of chocolate and coffee in your skin care than Valentine’s Day? Capture the power of these rich ingredients to exfoliate and protect your skin with antioxidants. The darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants it has, so when choosing cocoa powder, darker is better. Multiple research studies have shown coffee to be the leading source of antioxidants in most American and European diets.It is full of polyphenols, a powerful type of antioxidant. When selecting coffee for your skin care, choose organically grown, locally roasted, unflavored coffee.

The following scrub and mask contain chocolate and coffee as their source of antioxidants. Following these recipes and the instructions will leave you with a sweet and glowing face. I recommend you prepare the scrub and mask before beginning your wash.

Wash

Begin with a natural bar of soap to wash your face. Lather the soap and rub your face gently using circular motions that are upward and away from the mouth. Rinse with warm water and pat dry using a clean towel.

Scrub

Apply the scrub to damp skin using gentle upward circling motions. Avoid such delicate areas as the eye. Focus on problem areas such as the T-zone. Feel free to use this gentle scrub on the neck and chest area as well. Rinse well using warm water and pat dry.

Mask

While your face is still warm from the scrub, apply the mask. Using your fingertips, apply the mask liberally to face and neck area. Wait while the mask begins to dry. When you begin to feel the tightening of the mask, it’s time to rinse again with warm water. Pat dry and follow up with your preferred toner and moisturizer.

Coffee Scrub

2 T. finely ground organic coffee beans (espresso level grinding is best so as not to scratch)

1 T. organic sugar or fine sea salt

2 T. organic almond oil

Mix ingredients together in a bowl, let sit for 5 – 10 minutes to allow the beans to seep into the oil.

Chocolate Mask

¼ cup organic yogurt

2 T. honey

1 T. organic chocolate powder, dark.

2 T oat flour (using blender to ground oats)

1 vitamin E capsule

Crush the capsule so the Vit. E is added to the yogurt. Discard the capsule. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and let it rest for 15 minutes. If the yogurt is very runny, add up to 1 T more chocolate powder and 1-2 T oat flour to absorb moisture and ease application.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/skin-care-articles/sweet-complexion-for-valentines-day-4031819.html

About the Author

Angela is the founder and Chief Sustainability Officer of Celtic Naturals. As a mother, trained engineer and environmental enthusiast, she believes it is possible to be green and glam. She specializes in teaching others how to live toxin-free. Her blog topics range from green living to healthy cooking, from gardening to organic self-beauty tips. Please visit www.celticnaturals.com for toxic free skin care tips and products.

Spa Night: Sharing and Caring

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:21:04 +0000

Winter has arrived in all it’s glory in the North East and Midwest: snow, low humidity homes and offices, cold winds. During the holiday season, strong skin can become a challenge. Not only is the weather a problem, but holiday eating and tight schedules can stress out an otherwise healthy complexion. This year, why not combine an activity that is sure to help your skin and ease your schedule?

Gather the girls for an in-home facial party. Celtic Naturals provides themed, customized products tailored to your skin, teaches you the steps and gives you the recipes. After an evening of camaraderie, you leave feeling refreshed and sporting glowing complexions.

Care

This spa workshop empowers you to remove the synthetics and preservatives from your skincare. While sharing your time, you’re caring for each other, and your surrounding environment. By removing synthetics and preservatives from your skin care products, you are providing the healthiest ingredients for your skin. Not only are you helping yourself and your friends, you are helping the environment as well. Where do those chemicals go when you wash them off your body? Down the drain.

Celtic Naturals is committed to helping you reduce the chemicals that are washed down the drain. That’s why we are helping the environment one shower at a time.

Show them you care.

Please contact Angela to schedule your party.

Suggested Themes, Winter 2010-2011

Peppermint Twist

Silk and Honey

Winter Ginger

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Personal Environmental Activism

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:04:37 +0000

Do you think the environment is important, but don’t have a spare moment to volunteer? Do you want to pass along strong environmental values to your children? Become a Personal Environmental Activist.

What’s involved?

Make a commitment to the environment.

Find an area of your life you can improve environmentally, ideas incude:

Reduce your use of harsh and toxic cleaning chemicals.
Reduce your personal exposure to toxins by using all natural skin care products.
Increase your recycling efforts.
Eliminate dryer sheets by using dryer balls.
Choose alternative transportation once a week: carpool, bike or walk.

Take action personally.

Share your experience with others.

The list of options above is by no means an extensive list, however, these are excellent first steps. Taking these first initial steps are simple and achievable improvements in your life. Fit these actions into your current life. When they become second nature, reconsider your actions and make improvements accordingly. It’s a reiterative process. We all learn as we go, and the environment will thank us for our efforts.

Congratulations! By becoming a Personal Environmental Activist, you have exhibited two very important characteristics: stewardship and leadership. You have begun the journey of stewardship, showing that you are caring, cleaning, supporting and maintaining the environment. Leadership by example is a very powerful tool. Children and neighbors will see your actions.

Please post your comments below. Take the pledge today. What will you do to become an PEA?

Caprese Salad Supercharged

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:33:54 +0000

The traditional caprese salad consists solely of tomato, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil, with a dressing of salt, pepper, olive oil and vinegar. However, if ”count color” or have an abundance of basil your herb garden, it may be tasty and beneficial to upgrade your salad.

To start, I use far more than the normal ratio of 1 basil leaf to 1 tomato slice. Instead, I cut/tear 20-40 basil leaves recently harvested from the herb garden outside our door and add them to a bowl with 1 medium chopped tomato. Add to this one cup of torn fresh spinach and 1/4 cup chopped onion. Toss these elements before adding the sauce. I then cut 1 cup fresh mozzarella into 1/4 inch cubes and add this to the mix.

For dressing, I use a combination of Braggs Amino Acids and Flax Seed Oil. Between 1 -2T of each. This dressing is significantly different from that of the vinegar and olive oil found in traditional caprese salad. The natural salty flavor, yet low sodium content, of the Braggs eliminates any need for further spices.

Why make these changes to an already tasty salad? Flax seed oil is one of the highest in Omega 3 and fatty acids. The fatty acids are critical to whole body health as well as skin health. Keep your largest organ functioning and glowing by supporting it with the nutrition it needs. Bragg’s Amino Acids boosts the “protein” content of the salad and eliminates the need for further sodium.

Enjoy and eat for healthy skin!

Last Minute Pampering

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:50:56 +0000

Yesterday I woke up at my father-in-law’s with a mild concussion, a swollen nose, slightly dark eyes and the realization that it was my wedding anniversary. We came to visit my father-in-law this week because it coincided with the Utica Boilermaker, a 15k road race. While packing, I prepared for the race, not an anniversary dinner (oops.) Poor planning in addition to a blow to the face / nose the day before meant that I was ill-prepared for a nice evening with my husband. Here’s what I did to get ready, without synthetics, much money or time.

In classic movie scene style, I dumped the makeup bag I had with me on the counter to survey its contents. A brown eyeliner, a pink blush, mascara, lip balm and a burgundy mineral eye shadow I might wear at Christmas. Absolutely nothing else, not even earrings. Certainly not enough to hide the oncoming bruising or put me into a romantic frame of mind!

Local Shopping: A quick walk to the drugstore with our toddler in tow resulted in some budget friendly upgrades. Finger nail polish remover, a clear polish and a white pen for a French manicure, some random brand of mineral based eye shadow called Mermaid’s Tail (light blue and highlighting pink) and a blue eyeliner called denim. Total cost: $25. Despite my toddler’s best efforts, I did not buy neon orange, yellow or iridescent green finger nail polish!

However, at the toddler’s insistence, we walked through a child’s clothing boutique, where I scored a pair of earrings that matched my intended top for $2 made by the boutique owner’s daughter. (She was so excited to sell a pair of earrings, I heard her whisper to her mom about the sale as we left.) Awesome deal on local art by youthful artists.

Local Haircuts: On a our walk home, we stopped past a Hair Salon. The wonderful lady accommodated us, letting my son play nearby while she gave me a great cut. My father in law lives in small town America, so my cut only cost $13. I was so surprised, I had to tip well! In fact, they don’t accept credit cards, so I had to run home and get cash to pay her.

Homemade Facial: Once at home, I raided the kitchen of a widower to create a quick facial for myself. Luckily, there was baking soda, lemons, olive oil and sugar. I started by washing my face, then created a facial steam by placing a wet facecloth in the microwave for two minutes. I followed the steam with a baking soda paste scrub, which always helps clean out my pours. I usually make a more complete paste that is more effective, but I was time and ingredient limited today. I followed the scrub with a light application of olive oil and water, simply mixed in the palm of my hand. After this, my skin looked healthy, and ready for the makeup later.

Sweet Hands: Naturally, I started with removing the chipped fingernail polish. A quick round of the emery board shaped my tips and then I was ready for the smoothing scrub. If you have ever attended any of our facials evenings, you will remember the lemon and sugar scrub that leaves fingers and palms refreshed and smooth. A palm full of sugar and a few drops of lemon juice from the lemon coupled with vigorous rubbing creates a glaze that softens and refreshes callouses and skin. With smooth hands and shaped nails, my fingernails were ready for the self-applied French Manicure.

Sugar Scrub: It probably wasn’t necessary, but *was* my anniversary, so I created a quick sugar scrub with just olive oil and sugar, approximately 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and 1/4 cup sugar. Into the shower for some pampering and relaxing. Besides, shouldn’t sweet, smooth hands be attached to recently exfoliated arms? Aaah.

Make Up: I am by no means a make up artist, but years of staring at the same face in the mirror has at least led me to be able to put make up on my face acceptably. For real hints and tips, visit Make You Special. However, this is what worked for me today in light of what I had available for my now very short blonde hair, blue eyes.

Eyes: The light pink from the Mermaid Tail mineral eyeshadow lightened my undereyes considerably. Not typically what I would do, but I had no base or foundation, and I was still fighting some light bruising. It also became the base for my eyes. I used the blue from this package as the base on the lids as well. I intended to use the Denim colored eye liner, but it turned out to be some electric blue shade reminiscent of the 80s, so I instead used it as a base, to cover some of the red still around my eyes, then went over the top with the brown eyeliner. The result was surprisingly acceptable. Follow that up with mascara, I was pretty happy.

Cheeks: I seldom use a straight pink blush because my coloring doesn’t lend itself well without blending in an apricot to make it look natural. However today, this pink helped lighten the effects of the bruising. A light dusting over the bridge of my nose and under my eyes was surprisingly effective. As a result, I think the pink on my cheeks worked out better than usual. Granted, this was not a heavily made up look, but I was happy to look pretty and unbruised!

Lips: The wonderful fact of mineral makeup is that it is so versatile. I could hardly go to my anniversary dinner with lips unadorned! So I used a combination of the Christmas burgundy, the blush and the pink from the eyeshadow for highlights over the top of the lip balm. I was happy.

Overcoming a series of challenges, I now felt relaxed, pretty and prepared for a wonderful dinner alone with my husband, a luxury we seldom get to enjoy.

Spring Cleaning

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:00:50 +0000

Have we all survived the winter? Spring is in the air and Celtic Naturals has many changes to announce.

We are excited to announce another local retailer in Central Ohio. Welcome, Clintonville Outfitters! They are retailing hand sanitizers, bar soaps, stainless steel water bottles and lip balms. All of them are good for you and for the environment. Check them out. You can smell great on your next camping trip.

Celtic Naturals is also announcing a new web address in coming weeks. We have officially secured the domain www.celticnaturals.com. Yes, that’s right, without the hyphen. We are very thankful that we can provide you simple communications. Our Twitter, Facebook and web addresses will now be consistent. Stay tuned for progress.

We will also be launching a new store. We have heard your requests. In an attempt to make your shopping experience more pleasurable, we will begin using a new online store system. You will still be able to find all of your favorite products, but hopefully, you will find them more quickly and easily. We really are looking forward to hearing your feedback on this. More information as we move forward.

Organic Lip Balms Are Available!

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:16:29 +0000

Celtic Naturals is excited to announce another environmentally friendly skin care product is now available. Continuing our efforts to bring you products that make you feel good, and are good for the environment, we are offering lip balms.

The three lip balms offer targeted protection:

Sun Out offers a SPF 15
Sprint Mint offers a caffeine kick
Re-Cycle Mint is medicated, offering advanced healing for weather-exposed lips.

Please check them out at our retailers or online. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!