My Wife and I were talking the other day about the rapid increase in child cancer cases. When we were kids it was almost unheard of. In the same week a news report came out about one of my favorite animals. Beluga whales are dying at a record rate. Beluga whales in the St. Lawrence sea way are dying from cancer. Beluga whales live entirely in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. There are approximately 70,000 worldwide and about 650 of these live in a small region of the St Lawrence Estuary in Quebec. Between 1983 and 1999, 263 dead whales were reported. Daniel Martineau of the University of Montreal and his team were able to conduct 100 autopsies. He found that cancer, particularly cancer of the digestive tract, was the cause of  death of 18 per cent of juvenile belugas and 27 per cent of the adults.  This procce



The Chemical found in the amazing mammals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), came from the aluminum plant dumping manufacturing waste water into the river. To their credit they have reduced the toxic outflow by 80%. The scary fact about this story is just that. Most of the great lakes have been used as a dumping ground for toxic waste since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Millions of people from Montreal, Toronto, Detroit and Buffalo drink water from the St.Lawrence and great lakes. The water is treated with chemicals to remove organic bacteria but does nothing to remove the fine molecules of toxic to chemicals. Cancer is a world wide epidemic, one cause continues to point to our use of chemicals and the way we dispose of them. PAH's can be found in everything from packaging, cosmetics, car exhaust, asphalt and many sources of drinking water. One more reason to love Victoria and the Sooke water basin. 

The Timeless Beauty Soft Face Scrub.

Click on the above picture for more info

One of our most popular face scrubs. Loaded with emollients like Seabuckthorn oils and  Rosehip seed oil. Balance with the astringent and toning qualities of green tea. This product gently removes the outer layers of dry skin while deeply cleansing, moisturizing  and protecting the new exposed layer.

Why go organic? When I first started down the organic road on 1996 I was reluctant to spend the extra money on produce. My wife and I started getting it delivered on a weekly basis. I didn't notice any grand changes in my energy levels so I was skeptical. Until I went to a peach farm in the Okanogan. I was driving by one with my dad and noticed a strange chemical odour. I stopped to get out to see where the smell was coming from. Once I had seen how much pesticides were used in one application I decided to do a bit of research. 

It seems that their are about 45 different pesticides that can be used on peaches. Peaches top the list of 12 foods that contain the most pesticides. I now only buy Organic. It would have been nice if someone would have told me what I was buying with my peaches

Below is a list better known as the dirty dozen. 12 of the most contaminated produce. Washing can help but buying organic is better:

                     

        How does this relate to skin care? It's simple. According to the European medical journal the average women will absorb 4.6 lbs of chemicals through make up, lotions, lipstick and bath products a year. Multiply that number by your age and that's a lot of chemicals in our blood stream that gets stored in our body fat.

Since Free Spirit uses botanical ingredients it is important to keep our products clean from pesticides which is why we grow more and more of our own herbs and flowers that we use in our products or we buy organic.

Gardener's Tea Tree Cream

Now made with Seabuckthorn oil   

  Seabuckthorn oils can be found in our New Gardener's Tea Tree cream.

• Topical application of seabuckthorn oil has been reported for skin therapy including sun, heat, chemical and radiation burns, eczema and poorly healing wounds. Russian cosmonauts used seabuckthorn cream for protection from cosmic radiation.

Oil from the seabuckthorn fruit is rich in vitamin E, carotenoids, phytosterols and essential fatty acids, all of which have beneficial medicinal properties for the treatment of internal and topical maladies.

Cracking skin, rashes, sunburn, boils, bed sores, all heal much faster with this cream.

This post is about small steps that we can take to live healthier and help the planet stay healthier. 

 

 The earth is made up of  a host of chemicals. These chemicals in their natural state hold a symbiotic balance with nature. It seems the industrious nature of the humans is consistently changing that balance. Lets take oil as an example, in its natural state it is found mostly underground and has taken millions of years to form. We have taken that natural substance and created thousand of new ones and spread them all over the surface of the world. The problem is that all of these new additives, extracts and chemicals do us more harm than good. On one hand they have made our lives much more convenient and on the other hand they are clogging our water ways, killing our oceans, fouling up the air and causing a wide list of damage to ourselves, including cancer.  Of course economics plays a huge roll in the direction that governments and businesses take. So why not lead with our spending habits. Demand controls and determines the growth of big chemical companies. Think about how many of your dollars go to organic farmers verses conventional farmers and industrial farms. 

This is the time of year our skin begins to show signs of the season.  We get less Vitamin D.  Heaters dehydrate the skin. The cold weather just tightens the skin and it feels like it's going to crack.

Shea Butter can help you through the winter by protecting your skin and keeping it moist. Shea butter is rich in Vit. A, and E. It also is a great|source of Vitamin F.

Essential fatty acids are sometimes referred to as Vitamin F and are composed of two fatty acids - linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linoleic acid (LNA) - with linoleic acid being the most complete fatty acid. There are two basic categories of EFA's (essential fatty acids) - omega-3 and omega-6 which include linoleic acid and gamma-linoleic acid.  

Shea butter is hard in consistency. Some of our customers use it on the face. They love the way it softens the skin. We sell just plain shea butter but also offer it in an array of products. Our She butter is Fair traded from West Africa.

  Body scrubs, Cocoa body butter, Belly Butter, Herbal Healing Rub, All of our herbal infused creams, Herbal Hydration Lotion. Timeless beauty cream