About 6 months ago my eyes started to itch. I bought drops, I went without make up- nothing helped. They were red, they hurt, and felt really dry. It made me wonder if gluten and other chemicals in my cosmetics hurt me even without eating it. So, first things first, I switched to a gluten-free face lotion. That worked! But as soon as I began putting on makeup, my eyes began to bother me again.

I couldn’t tell if my mascara had gluten in it, and I had no luck when I looked online. Have you ever read the ingredients to your own tube of mascara?!! What the hell is in it anyway?!?! There are so many chemicals, so many things that I can’t even pronounce, it began to worry me as to what I was really stroking onto my eyelashes everyday.

I also began to look online and found a lot of articles that said most mascara companies use tiny doses of dangerous ingredients- including mercury!!!! YIKES.

Since going gluten-free with my foods, and even eating 90% organic and all-natural, I feel better and I look better too. It made me curious if using organic/all-natural makeup would make my skin look better in the long-run and keep it looking younger and healthier. We’ll see, but for now, I found a mascara sent from heaven: It’s called Pure Soul Mascara by Afterglow.

This mascara comes in black or mink and is alcohol free, paraben free, synthetic dye free, perfume free, mercury free, phthalate free, mineral oil free, tar free, petrochemical free,  and last but not least, gluten-free. I don’t think you can get better than that. I mean, with all the harsh chemicals in regular mascaras, what if that eventually leads to eye problems- as simple as slowly losing your eye sight? I don’t wear glasses or contacts right now, and it just seems like it would make sense that if I kept putting tiny bits of mecury on or around my eye every single day that eventually it would damage my eye sight little by little… right?

Pure Soul Mascara Pros: It’s the best all-natural (and gluten-free) mascara I’ve ever tried. It goes on easily, doesn’t clump, looks pretty and natural. It has a light feel about it, and has never made my eyes itch or hurt. Truthfully, I feel really beautiful when I wear this mascara because not only does work well, but I know it doesn’t have scary ingredients that could hurt my eyes in the long run. I like to use the black mascara and I bump the look up a notch by using an eyelash curler before I apply.

Pure Soul Mascara Cons: Like anything worth buying, it comes with a high price. It costs $21 a tube, but I still think it’s worth it. Instead of investing in high-priced, designer make up (the ones that have pretty names in pretty bottles… but still filled with dangerous, beauty-diminishing ingredients), I think that investing in a high quality mascara that might help me stay looking younger and feeling better is worth $21. Another con, it does have a slightly different consistency than regular, grocery store or department store mascaras. Not necessarily worse, but different. Again, I think it’s worth it to embrace a little bit of change if you know that you’ll be keeping your eyes healthier and happier in the long run.

I am so glad that I found this mascara! I threw away all my other tubes and use this one only. My eyes are a lot happier.

Afterglow Cosmetics also has several gluten-free lipsticks that I now use- I’ll review them soon.

XOXO,
Scarlett

While there’s many topics to talk about, and I could spend years venting about me, my life, and my history, my first blog ever will focus on one subject: my gluten free diet. Going gluten-free (GF) was the best thing that ever happened to me. 

The gluten free diet is essentially an intolerance to a protein (called gluten) that’s found within wheat (including kamut & spelt), barley, rye, and tritcale. That means I can’t eat anything with those ingredients, though our American culture seems to be obsessed with it. Eating GF is much more than just avoiding the bread basket and skipping pasta, gluten can be hidden in salad dressings, gravies, candies, spices, flavorings, you name it.

I had been relatively healthy all my life. No serious problems, injuries, or diseases. The only thing that now stands out was how common I had gas as a teen. I used to fart all the time. I of course would hide it- I was a lady and would hold it in at all costs if I had to… but it was hard! It was not something I talked about; I mean, let’s be honest here, it’s embarrassing and gross. And how often are you that’s normal to fart? I just thought that farting 30+ times a day was normal.

Another thing was in 9th grade I had serious, serious acne. I actually have had to go on Acutane (the most hardcore of all prescription acne drugs) three times. I spent most of my high school life with a pizza face because my acne was so bad. But again, how often are you told that acne is normal? Yes, I had severe acne, but what? You’re told to take prescription drugs and that’s it. I avoided chocolate, I avoided fried foods, I used every different facial cleanser, lotion, pimple cream, and skin care regimen under the sun- none of that never helped.

Oh, and I was tired all the time. In highschool, I used to go to bed around 9 pm and wake up at 6 am- completely exhausted. I would have to drink 3+ diet cokes to barely stay awake in class (I would have given ANYTHING to sleep!), and would come home and pass out. After my afternoon nap, 6 pm would roll around, and I would be super-tired. I always felt sluggish, tired, and like I had a fog over my eyes and brain. But what? I got tested for mono, it came back negative, and my doctor just sent me home. I felt depressed all the time and even began having eating disorders. Even though I would binge eat, throw up, and on occasion starve myself, I became about 20 pounds overweight. But despite all of this, I was just a teenager that was “growing,” right? Umm, no.

So, about six years ago, my stomach started hurting really bad all the time. It just always ached. It felt like someone had stabbed me with a knife and I was just bleeding.. it hurt all the time. Some days it was worse than others. About a year before, I had had a stomach ulcer and was told to stop “stressing,” and to avoid caffeine, spicy foods, etc. I did- but it didn’t help. I had moved out of my parents house for the first time and thought my stress may have been because I was living on my own and trying to make a living for myself, but I couldn’t imagine that my stress could be out of the norm for any young adult. I tried to stop “stressing,” but I always feared that I had stomach cancer because of all my abdominal pain! There were many nights I would cry myself to sleep worrying about why I felt so sick and hurt so bad. On top of that, I was always constipated and was now having 60+ farts a day and I had had two recent yeast infections although I was dieting and avoiding sugar. It was hard to just function like a normal human being and have a regular life.

I kept going to the doctor with no luck. I told them about my gas and they told me to take Gas-X (like I hadn’t tried that before?!). I told them about my stomach pain; the fact that I had eaten diary-free, caffeine, sugar, & spicy food-free, tried a low-carb diet and then an all-bran diet… that I had tried everything and still felt sick and in pain. Oh, I also told them (I say “them” because I saw several doctors and emergency physicians since I felt sick all the time) that my sister had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, so maybe I had the same thing? I didn’t have ANY of the symptoms she had (her symptoms were completely different) but I thought it was worth mentioning.

The doctor practically rolled her eyes when I mentioned that I thought I should get tested for Celiac Disease. She said that she didn’t think I had Celiac Disease, and I practically had to beg her to take the blood test. The blood test came back negative and she diagnosed me with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

A few weeks later: I was in so much pain, that I finally cave into my sisters insistent pleas that I try the gluten-free diet even though I tested negative for having Celiac Disease.

I kid you not, after ONE DAY of trying it, I felt instantly better.

Flash forward six years later: I do not have bad acne, I am not depressed for no reason, I don’t have eating disorders, I have gas maybe once or twice a day, I have not had a yeast infection since, I am not constipated, I am not tired 24-7, I do not have stomach pain, I do not have to take any kind of medication, I do not have irritable bowel syndrome, and I have lost about 25 lbs without additional dieting or exercising.

Celiac Disease is one of the most common undiagnosed diseases in America. It is said that 1 in every 5 Americans have Celiac Disease- whether they know it or not. And the symptoms drastically vary from person to person. My sister had diarrhea all day long and was as thin as a rail when she was eating gluten, and I was 20 lbs overweight and not able to take a shit if my life depended on it while eating gluten… Many people do not have any symptoms at all, but go on to have cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, etc. later in their life when they continue to eat gluten…

It was such a simple fix and so incredibly worth the tiny sacrifice. And learning that something so commonly found in so many foods that could have such a negative impact on my health and beauty, was a huge eye opener on how so many other things may affect my personal beauty- on both the inside and out.

More about this tomorrow.

-Scarlett