New Face Soap! I hope the Orangutans will forgive me.

There are very few products to which I would consider myself "loyal". You know, the products you always buy, whether or not they are on sale and heedless of whatever new-fangled sparkly formula a competitor dreams up to tempt you away.

But I have been a very happy and very loyal Olay face products fan for several years now. Olay Regenerist products work well for my acne-prone skin that suffers from breakouts AND creeping wisps of fine lines. It is reasonably priced (around $7 per bottle), and it smells nice.

I squeeze every last bit of face wash from the tube:

After it stops being squeezable, I'll cut it open and scoop out even more.

I was reluctant to move over to a more natural face soap. Sure, I want to use less packaging and keep petroleum-based products out of the shower. And rubbing carcinogens into my face has sort of lost its appeal. But darn you, carcinogens and petroleum and magic chemicals! You work soooo well! My face is so happy to have your moisturizers and zit-zappers! Why do yo have to have it in for me?

I've been using this nifty bar of soap, found at Dominick's for $2.79, for about a month and half now:

The only packaging is the 100% recyclable cardboard box. It's crazycheap. It smells pretty nice, and has lovely lather-y foam WITHOUT the sulfates. It has just 7 ingredients, and they are all things you could buy at your favorite health-food store. My skin looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. The only major difference I've noticed is that my face is a bit drier than usual. But I'll deal with that if it means that I can have an eco-gentle face soap that does the job without the scary chemicals.

Bonus: Apparently, proceeds from the sale of the bar soap help provide educational materials to children in Africa. You can read more about the company on their website: http://outofafricashea.com/

My only hang-up about this effective, inexpensive, and minimally-packaged soap is the palm oil.

I can hear you gagging. For the love of all that is Good and Holy, what's wrong with Palm Oil?? Well, it turns out that you pretty much have to clear-cut rain forests to get palm oil... check out NPR's story about it here. Or, take a look at adorable Indonesian orangutans here whose homes are being slashed and burned for palm oil cultivation.

The Out of Africa soap's box states that their ingredients are "Natural and Sustainable", but I couldn't find anything on their website about where they source their palm oil.

So, do I have to choose between my health and the Orangs? I really do like this soap.

Where there's a Will, there's a Won't

Have you ever fished someone else's spent soda can out of the garbage so you could throw it in the recycling (usually a well-marked container resting just inches from the trash can)? Have you picked up a newspaper from the train seat next to you to toss it in the paper recycling bin so it wouldn't end up in the trash? Do you ever heave a sigh at the check out counter when everyone around you is hoisting plastic shopping bags back into their cart as you fuss with your fold-up fabric bags?

Lately I have felt like even if I and 10,000 of my neighbors decided to boycott ALL single-use disposable nonsense and packed our own fabric napkins in our work bags and car glove compartments and vowed to never buy another sulfate for as long as we lived, it still won't really make any difference.

We (and I'm including myself in this) love our stuff too much. We love plastic and all the nifty things that come in plastic. We don't think about the petroleum that goes into the manufacturing, transporting, and disposal of all that great stuff. We can't afford the space, time, or money to really grow or make our own food. Our spirits are so dulled to the impact our consuming has on the rest of the world, and even our own hearts, that we don't know where to start to make change.

Les and I were talking this weekend about tipping points, and how we expect that it will take an oil crisis or a painful food shortage or a full-out economic disaster before most of us are really forced to feel the pinch and face up to our apathy. Cute purses would have to pretty much cease to exist before I could really REALLY be inclined to shun them all together. Chocolate will have to creep up to $30 a pound or something before I would really consider giving it up or wondering WHY it has become so expensive (spoiler alert: we may be headed for a world-wide chocolate shortage caused by anything from political unrest in Africa to climate change to, humorously, Obamacare, depending on what you read... Really, google it).

My big "try not to think about it too much or your head will explode" conundrum this past week is this: Even if I don't personally buy soda in 20 oz plastic bottles any more, and I'm not the one putting the bottles into the recycling bin, SOMEONE is still going to buy that soda. The bottles are still being produced, shipped, and sold, and often trashed. MY not buying them may be better for my health and lessen my personal recycling burden, but my personal reduction does not equate an ACTUAL reduction in diet cokes in the world. If anything, I'm increasing the likelihood that more diet cokes will end up in the garbage rather than the recycling. So, how does my personal high-horse of reducing actually impact demand? It doesn't really prevent anything from being made for me. Rest assured, the soda producers are still making plenty of diet cokes for me and the rest of the world whether I actually drink them or not.

So how many canvas grocery bags, compost heaps, and farmers' markets does it take to change the world? And how do you keep your chin up when it feels like so many people don't give a hoot? What is the critical mass to start turning the tide? Are our personal efforts really benefiting anyone? I feel like this is another gray issue that could keep me up at night.

A quick and quiet rant.

I'm feeling totally overwhelmed by all the awful things in the news today. Earthquake devastation - like total apocalyptic, worst-nightmare-nuclear-Friday kind of devastation. A farm house in PA burning down with 7 children inside. A guy being sentenced to prison for lighting the family puppy on fire in front of his children. Seriously. Too much terrible news.

The handful of photos of things like a Japanese rescue worker beaming down at the 4-month-old baby he just pulled from the wreckage and the adorableness of Cuteoverload notwithstanding, I truly feel like I might start dry heaving from intolerable levels of World Wide Terrible.

I've been pondering the pros and cons of a media fast. No news, no Huff Post, not even Dogster (so sooooo many sad stories of animal cruelty, I just can't take it anymore). Technically I guess that means I should shun Facebook as well, since so many people post news stories on their wall. Is that the best solution?

Give me (healthy, live) puppies and rainbows! I can't take it anymore!

Every time I feel overwhelmed by the suffering, pollution, pain and apathy in the world, my first inclination is to pack up and move to some yet-to-be-determined idyllic place where I can grow my own veggies, run in the grass with Aug Dog, and read and cook and write with Les. From that platform of peace and calm, I will begin to recruit other community-minded peeps to come join us. Not a utopia. Not a big barn-raising self-sustained farm town per se. Just a cluster of dear ones where we could really be IN each other's lives and families. Sharing things. Celebrating. Carrying each other's burdens.

Les and I were hanging out with some dear friends this weekend and we started talking about our wedding last May. Jessie and Eric (and many others) had done an enormous amount of work to help prepare for the wedding and even more work the day of. I thanked them again for all their help, and Eric reminded me that usually the bride's family is left to scurry around and quietly make sure everything goes off without a hitch. "And, in your case, that is us". A simple, beautiful statement about what we can and should be for each other. Even when the world feels like it is coming apart.

So anyway, who's with me? Location recommendations gladly accepted.