Why I Chose to Join Beautycounter as a Consultant.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

I've been wanting to share my "why" for a while, but the right words just haven't come to me. Not because I don't know what I want to say or why I joined the mission, because I DO, but because I am not always the best at expressing the way I feel. I had wanted to do a video to share this information, but to be honest, doing a live video scares me and I'm just no good at editing on a regular video, so here we are.



HOW I LEARNED ABOUT BEAUTYCOUNTER.

I want to start off by saying that it was NOT my intention to join Beautycounter as a consultant. I had been wanting to try the products for months now and finally pulled the trigger this January. The main item I wanted to try was the peppermint lip conditioner. Yes, a lip balm. I know what you're thinking... doesn't Target carry 100,000 different kinds of those? Yes. But I'd tried what I felt like was all of them and my lips were still SO. DRY. I heard Beautycounter's lip conditioner was amazing, so that was one of my first purchases. Again, this was a few short months ago, back in January.

I placed my first order in January, joined their Band of Beauty rewards membership program, was blown away at how fast my order shipped, and received my order in the mail a few days later. I immediately ripped into it because I was SO excited to finally have my first items to try. I barely had the chance to look at everything when I grabbed my lip conditioner and put it on. I didn't notice a huge difference at first, but after a few days of consistent use, my lips were finally getting better! I don't want to go in to the details, but they were basically as CHAPPED as chapped could be. I had just gotten done working outside all weekend in the cold and rain and my lips were wrecked. I've tried every chapstick I could think of, chapsticks infused with essential oils, drinking more water for fear that I was dehydrated, you name it, I tried it. Nothing worked until I got this lip conditioner.

At this point, I didn't really know too much about the company except for the fact that I knew that they were a company that focused on safer products... and that they had a product that cured my chapped lips. In February I ordered some more stuff and loved every single thing.

Come March, my friend Christine asked me if I wanted to host a social on Facebook. A social is basically an online party where you set up a Facebook group, invite your friends, teach them about the company and the products, and as a host, you could get free stuff. Free stuff from a company I love? Sign me up. So I told her yes and, to be 100% honest, figured that I'd invite some friends, hope even just a handful came, let her educate them on her amazing company, maybe a few would buy stuff, and I'd get some free products. I literally had no expectations.




CAN I DO THIS TOO?

And then I started to think about it - becoming a consultant myself. Christine had mentioned it before, but I was like "oh no, I couldn't do that, that's not me." I can't do sales. I can't even sell ice to eskimos. I don't know enough people who want to buy these products, I'd be sure to fail. I get insanely nervous in front of a group of people. I hate public speaking. I am not "crunchy". I don't eat all natural and organic. Nobody is going to take me seriously. I came up with every single thing to talk myself out of joining Beautycounter.

I am NOT a salesperson. When I worked at Barnes and Noble, I would ask people of they had a member card and if they said no, I'd move on. I hated being "that person". And I think we all know who "that person is". Direct sales/MLMs get a bad wrap. When someone hears you work for that type of company, they want to run for the hills and get away from you as fast as they can. They all seem to have a hidden agenda and just want to push their products, no matter how much or how little they believe in them or believe they work. They just want to make money. It's all about sell, sell, sell. Grow a team, get people under you who sell, sell, sell to make you more money. They become so wrapped up in the sale that you just become another order number to them. Once you hand over the money, they're gone. Until you want to buy something else. And you know what? I HATE those people too. There's nothing worse than feeling like you're just another sale.

But you know what? Honestly, if you're reading this, then you know, I am NOT that person. I do not push products. I do not blog about anything and everything just to make a buck. I share items that I believe in, use myself, and love. I could do this. I could educate people. I sat down and I thought some more... I LOVE Beautycounter's mission of getting safer products (whatever they might be) in to the hands of everyone. I loved how effective their safe products were. I thought... I want to tell everyone about these products and this company and tell them how so many skin care products have so many bad ingredients in them that we don't even know about. There are known carcinogens in certain products like diaper creams and shampoos. There are known hormone disruptors in certain products like moisturizers. There are known chemicals in things like mascara, foundation, and sunscreen that inhibit fetal brain development.

THIS. This is what drew me in. A few years ago, I actually changed the shampoo and body wash I used on Mason after finding out about some of these things. Yet I didn't make a change for myself until recently. I'm stubborn and know what products I like. But not anymore. I can't knowingly put these toxic chemicals on to my body anymore.

Did you know that the US only bans 30 harmful ingredients from being used in the manufacturing of beauty products? Canada bans 600 and the European Union bans 1,400. 30 vs 600 vs 1,400! That's HUGE. And you know what? Our number wasn't even that high until a few years ago when Beautycounter urged Congress to pass some stricter laws.


CHECK OUT THESE STATS.
Not to overwhelm you, but let me give you some statistics to think about. Statistics that I didn't even know until I started learning more about Beautycounter. Taken from the Beautycounter website...

"Decades of studies indicate that serious health issues (including but not limited to asthma, cancer, and infertility) are on the rise and are due in some part to our ongoing exposure to toxic chemicals—whether it’s in the shower, on our commute, while we eat lunch at a local restaurant, or when we clean our kitchens at home.

There are more than 80,000 chemicals on the market today. Many don’t have any safety data. This is particularly true of those used in the skin care and beauty industry.

What’s worse is that the Food and Drug Administration (the agency that regulates cosmetics in the United States) allows companies to use chemicals known to be extremely harmful in the products we put on our bodies and on our kids’ bodies every single day, day after day, and to make their own judgments about safety.


The United States has not passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of ingredients used in personal care products since 1938. [That's 80 years!]

Over the past two decades, the European Union has banned more than 1,300 chemicals in the product formulas of personal care products and restricted the levels of over 250 more in such products. The United States has only partially banned 30 to date.


We deserve better, and we're doing something about it. At Beautycounter, we’re committed to a health and safety standard that goes well beyond what’s required by U.S. law: We’ve banned the use of more than 1,500 questionable or harmful chemicals through our "Never List”—all while ensuring our products perform and that they’re as indulgent as any other luxe shampoo, lipstick, or oil in the market. IT’S NOT EASY WORK, BUT IT’S WELL WORTH IT. This is about progress—not perfection. Because every little bit counts."

I CAN DO THIS!

I wanted to be a part of this movement to educate people on making better decisions. So, I took a giant leap of faith and signed up to be a Beautycounter consultant. This is HUGE for me and VERY out of my comfort zone, but this is a company that I believe in, a mission I stand behind 100%, and products that I love. For those of you who know me well, or for those of you who I hope will get to know me better, I could never and will never recommend anything that I haven’t used and tried and love myself.

And this isn't about makeup for me. I've never really been into makeup before now. I wore my foundation, eye shadow, mascara, and a few other things and called it a day. Sure I used a face wash, but who knew about facial masks, night cream, under eye cream, and toner pads? Surely not me. I liked wearing makeup and looking nice, but that was the extent of it. So I definitely didn't join this company to learn about all the options for beauty products. This is about learning, implementing, and doing better. Sure I get to play with fun new products and makeup now. Yes, that is a perk. But it's not everything.

WHY BEAUTYCOUNTER?
This is getting long and I haven't even really explain my real reason "why" I joined Beautycounter and am so passionate about this mission. For those of you who have known me or followed my blog for a while, know that my mom passed away in 2003, when I was just 18 and my brother was 15, from breast cancer. I was a freshman in college at the time and my brother was in high school. She battled her first time when my brother and I were 11 and 8 with breast cancer. A few years later it came back in her lymph nodes. And a few years later, it finally came back in her lungs. There was nothing they could do but make her comfortable as we waited. She never got to see me graduate college. She never got to see my brother graduate high school. She never met Seth. She wasn't at our wedding. And she wasn't able to experience the joys of being a grandmother. This photo collage is the closest thing that Mason has to knowing and seeing his grandmother.


All of these opportunities in life were ripped away from her because of cancer. I don't want this to happen to me. I don't want this to happen to anyone. Though the pain of losing my mom so early in life has lessened as time has gone on (it's been 15 years now), there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. That I don't miss her. That I don't wish I could pick up the phone and call her. I know she is smiling down on me from heaven, so proud of the woman and mother I have become, but it's not the same. Every decision I make, every thing I can do to positively impact my life and someone else's life, I do for her. I've been diligent about making sure I get early detection screenings and all the blood tests I need and my blood tests came back negative for BRACA1 and BRACA2. I still don't believe it, but I've taken the tests twice and both times they came back negative. But just because genetically, I seem "low risk", I am not just going about my life in a happy, naive land. I am making changes to make sure I lower my risk as much as possible. I've even thought about having a preventative mastectomy, but thankfully it hasn't come down to that.

 
Beautycounter partners with several non-profit companies in this fight to make products safer for everyone. The first one is the Environmental Working Group, or EWG. EWG uses the power of research and information to protect public health and the environment. Their database allows you to search the safety ratings of more than 73,000 products. (I find it easiest to google "company/product name EWG" and the product rating will pop up.) Their second partner is Healthy Child Healthy World. This company empowers parents and caregivers to protect children from harmful chemicals. Their easy actions and tips help families create safer environments for children to flourish. And the partner that struck me the hardest... the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (formally known as the Breast Cancer Fund). I've been supporting breast cancer research foundations for years (I've even done three breast cancer 3-day walks and countless Race for the Cures). BCPP strives to prevent breast cancer by eliminating our exposure to toxic chemicals and radiation linked to the disease. They are a founding member and national coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a broad-based coalition working to eliminate dangerous chemicals from cosmetics and personal care products.
These days everyone is so concerned with what they put IN their bodies, how come more people aren't concerned with what they're putting ON their bodies? 

And I'm guilt of this too. Am I perfect on this mission to use safer products and be healthier? Heck no. And I will never pretend to be. Sure I’ve made better choices for myself and my family in some ways, but just this morning I knowingly rubbed serum in my hair before I straightened it because I like the way it looks with the product in it versus without it. I ate Chick-fil-a last week for dinner and shared a milkshake with Mason. I can tell you that it’s a balance. I used to think that if I put better things in my body, I was treating it well. I was feeding my insides good food and good fuel to help them run at their best. But what I didn't realize is that my skin is my biggest organ. Things I put on it or spray on it get absorbed almost immediately into my body and my blood stream. So the aluminum in my deodorant, the chemicals hidden in the "fragrance" in my perfume, and the toxins that were loaded in my old shampoo and conditioner, I rubbed right into my skin, absorbed immediately into my blood stream, and were massaged right in to my scalp. Scary when you think about it.

I know it’s a big change to switch to cleaner products and can be a bit overwhelming at times. It doesn't all have to happen over night, it can be gradual (that's what I'm doing), but I can tell you that it’s worth it. And that you have me to help you! If you're interested in learning more, click here to join my Facebook groupI promise to teach you all I know, teach you everything I've learned and am still learning about, and help you make better, smarter, more educated decisions about what products you use on yourself, your kids, and in your home. I promise you I will not try to sell you anything. I have tons of recommendations, and they aren't all Beautycounter. It’s all about education - when you know more, you can make more informed choices.

I do this for my mom. I do this for my son. I do this so (hopefully) our kids generation won't have to read the ingredients on every product they buy when they're older like we do. I’m excited to begin this journey with you! Thank you for supporting me!

[Mailman Mason Monday] #postofficeadventuresofmasonb #part17 #specialedition

Monday, February 19, 2018

When I last left you, we had gotten through January 5, 2018. While we have gone to the post office at least once since then, today's post is a little different... a special edition post, if you will. Today I want to share some Hawaiian post offices with you!

A little back story... we went on vacation to Kauai back in October 2017. I have yet to blog our Kauai adventures, but I did want to share the post offices that we found while we were there. I did share them all on Instagram, so I'll share the caption I shared as well as where they are located. It might seem kind of funny to visit post offices while on vacation, but since we just seemed to stumble upon most of them and post offices are kind of our "thing", I went with it. Luckily Seth was a good sport about it too!


When the shave ice shop is next to the post office. 😍🍧✉️📮📬

Waimea, Kauai, Hawaii
Shared on 10.28.17











Happy Mailman Mason Monday! ✉️📮📬 It’s no secret that we are a little obsessed with post offices around here, so when we were in Kauai, I might have made it my mission to stop by as many as possible. 🙊 Over the course of the next few Mondays, I wanted to share a few of the ones we found since they were all so unique and different than what we see here in California. I thought I’d start with this one because it’s my favorite and the most unique! (Scroll through to check out all the angles and to see a behind the scenes photo from Seth who was waiting in the car. 😂)

Makaweli, Kauai, Hawaii
Shared on 11.13.17




Mailman Mason Monday... on a Tuesday because life. This post office is one that I actually wanted to skip because 1. I thought it was kind of ugly (🙊) and 2. It was in a shopping center and I had no clue how I’d take a picture (and was a little embarrassed to try). So we drove past. And then one day, Sunday in fact, when most things in the shopping center were closed (convenient for picture taking), Seth convinced me to stop because I’d be sad if I missed it. And you know what? He was right. (Don’t tell him that. 😜) I actually kind of love the uniqueness of the color. I mean, have you ever seen a green post office? ✉️📮📬

Eleele, Kauai, Hawaii
Shared on 11.28.17








Happy (throwback) Mailman Mason Monday! I’ve been meaning to post this last installment of my Hawaii post offices for a while but... life. So instead a little throwback to October 2017 on this Monday morning! All PO’s in Kauai — (1) Hanalei (2+3) Kalaheo (4) Kapaa (5) Lawai.

Locations noted above.
Shared 01.15.18

***

A little back story... When we stopped doing the Picture Perfect Project last year, I stopped sharing Mason's post office pictures on the blog. I had deemed it my "photo project of the year" through the PPP and when it ended, I didn't stop taking pictures of him at the post office, but I forgot to share them here too. I was thinking about it the other day and I want to continue to share them here even though I don't technically "have a reason" to each month. So instead of sharing per month, I'm going to share per event cycle (for my work - essentially why we go to the post office so often). We have seven events per year and as the events approach, we go to the post office more often and as they pass, we go less often.

You can find more of our post office adventures on Instagram here.

[Mailman Mason Monday] #postofficeadventuresofmasonb #part16

Monday, February 12, 2018

When I last left you, we had gotten through September 29, 2017. We had an event for work on October 15th, December 3rd, and again on January 14th, so today I wanted to share all of our post office adventures between the three events. Unfortunately post office trips with my little sidekick happen less and less frequently due to him being in school in the morning, but we try to sneak them in whenever we can!

So, without further ado, here are the pictures that I've shared on Instagram as well as the captions (+ the emojis!) that I've shared from November 6, 2017 to January 5, 2018.

11.06.17 // Happy Mailman Mason Monday! 📬 I put our mail on a vacation hold while we were gone. Not gonna lie.... I miiiiight have said that I’d pick it up at the post office instead of having the mail man deliver it just so my cute little assistant could help me carry all the (junk 🙄) mail that we got while we were gone. ✉️📮📬

12.02.17 // I always have the goal of sending out my Christmas cards on December 1st and this year... I finally made it! Sent with love by Mason yesterday morning on the way to school. 📬🎄❤️

12.12.17 // Yesterday I opened my door at 7:40am to a surprise package delivery and this morning when we were walking to school and were surprised to see the actual mail truck! ✉️📮📬 The post office workers sure are working hard to get these packages all delivered each day by getting such an early start. I feel like I should probably start leaving some cookies out or something because probably 90% of the time they’re here, it’s for me 😂🙈


12.20.17 // The mailman was out early again today dropping off packages and Mr. Peeping Tom had to take a look at what goodies were inside the truck. “Are these all for me, Mommy?” I told him no, but let’s be real, at least one probably is with the amount of online shopping I’ve been doing lately. 😂😂🙈


12.28.17 // It’s officially been one week since we moved in to our new house and we... finally checked the mail. 🙈 In my defense, our mail forwarding has gotten kind of screwed up so I didn’t really expect there to be any mail, but we had to find the mail box anyway. And to my surprise? LOOK at that cool outgoing mail box on the left!😍 All the heart eyes. Expect to see many more pictures of Mason at these mailboxes! ✉️📮📬


01.05.18 // He finally got to use our cool ‘outgoing’ mailbox this afternoon to mail a few cards that I had to send out. Truth be told, I think I was more excited than he was. 😂✉️📮📬 (Also, don’t be fooled. It wasn’t THAT hot today. We stopped by the mailbox on our way to swim lessons.)

***

A little back story... When we stopped doing the Picture Perfect Project last year, I stopped sharing Mason's post office pictures on the blog. I had deemed it my "photo project of the year" through the PPP and when it ended, I didn't stop taking pictures of him at the post office, but I forgot to share them here too. I was thinking about it the other day and I want to continue to share them here even though I don't technically "have a reason" to each month. So instead of sharing per month, I'm going to share per event cycle (for my work - essentially why we go to the post office so often). We have seven events per year and as the events approach, we go to the post office more often and as they pass, we go less often.

You can find more of our post office adventures on Instagram here.



[New House] Mason's Room Decor with Minted.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Disclosure: a couple of products in this post were sponsored by Minted. However, all options are 100% my own.

As I mentioned in the post yesterday, most of the things in Mason's room just transitioned from his old room in our old house and our apartment, but I did get a few new functional items as well as decor items to spruce up his room a bit. Today I wanted to share a few of the decor items that I didn't really have a chance to fully explain yesterday.

The folks at Minted were gracious enough to let me choose a few products of theirs for Mason's new room and I was super excited to add a few new pieces to what we already had. Of course their site is overflowing with amazing things (like seriously, I wanted them ALL), but when I came upon these two items, I knew they had to be a part of Mason's room - the art shelf and the alphabet print.






Minted calls this shelf "The Little Artist Shelf" and you can easily see why - you get to display your artwork for all to see! For those of you who have followed my blog or my Instagram for a while know that I am BIG on sharing kid's art work. In fact, we had an art gallery wall in our living room for the longest time (that I actually moved to Mason's room in our new house - on the opposite wall). I was super excited when I found this shelf because not only can I display Mason's artwork on it, but I can also showcase some professional artwork and quotes that I love above on the ledge. I love how sturdy the shelf is, Seth loved how easy it was to install, and I love how it has tons of hooks for me to be able to display bigger or smaller artwork (or to switch out with printed pictures if I choose to change things up a bit). The items I wanted to hang now happened to be bigger, so I just skipped a few hooks and left them empty, but as you can tell, you could totally hang a lot of art/pictures from this shelf.

The Little Artist Shelf comes in four different colors to choose from - white, natural, soft gray, and whitewash. I chose soft gray for Mason's room. It also comes in three different sizes to choose from - two feet, three feet, and four feet. I chose the three foot shelf for Mason's room. How did I come to this decision? Randomly choosing. Ha! No, but seriously. The two foot one just seemed too small to really showcase that artwork that I wanted to showcase and the four foot one just seemed too big for the space that I had. So, I went with the three footer and it fits perfectly.





In addition to the new art shelf, I chose this alphabet print to frame and put in Mason's room. It came with the option to frame it, but I chose just to get the print. I love that it's the alphabet, which makes it more "kid-ish", but it's also not too "little kid", if that makes sense. They had a ton of amazing alphabet designs to choose from, but I wanted one that could go in his room now, but also grow with him.

In his old room I had a bunch of quotes up in little frames on a couple picture ledge shelves. I couldn't figure out where to put them in his new room, so I chose to take a couple of my favorite ones, pair them with our new print, and add a dinosaur themed print to tie in the dinosaur theme I had going for his room. I love how they look together and how the different size and shape frames give it some dimension.

While I only got these two things to add to Mason's room from Minted, they offer a TON more products than just these. Need last minute Valentine's Day cards for your littles for school? They've got that. Need some gorgeous (and I mean gorgeous!) business cards to hand out to clients? They've got that. Need personalized thank you cards to send after your kid's birthday party? They've got those too! Seriously Minted can be your one stop shop for decorating your whole house - master bedrooms to kids rooms to nurseries - sending out moving announcements and then inviting everyone to your housewarming party. Minted has got you covered.

A huge thank you to Minted for helping me decorate Mason's room and really making our house feel like home!

[New House] Mason's Little Man Cave.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

I'm super excited to share some photos with you today of Mason's room at our new house. His room was the first that I started decorating after we moved and is one of the first that we have fully finished. I did this purposely because we wanted him to feel at home right away. Sometimes kids with autism do well with change... and sometimes they don't, so we wanted to be prepared in case the latter happened. Thankfully for us, Mason has done well with both of our moves. I made sure to make sure his room was the first one complete at our apartment when we moved at the end of May last year and I even bought a little "welcome home" gift for him. That transition went well, so I had high hopes for this one too, but being the second move in 6 months, I was worried he would be confused on where "home" was and that this would throw him off. I talked it up for DAYS and luckily he went to school the morning we moved, daycare after school, and then ABA therapy after that, so we kept things normal for him, and when he came home, we really talked up how exciting it was that he had this cool new room. If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember how excited he was when he came home and he even said "thank you, mommy, thank you!" to me when I showed him his room. While I didn't feel like I did anything special, I was super happy that he was so excited about his room, enough so to thank me, completely unprompted.

All that being said, Mason is still in love with his room (and our new house) and I often find him playing in there by himself because he's so excited about everything he has in there. We finally finished his room this weekend (last minute decorating), so I thought I'd share it with you today. It's far from Pinterest worthy, but it's cute and functional and I love how it turned out!

Side note: sorry for the bad lighting. It's either super bright or not bright at all. Opening the blinds made it too bright, the lamp made it awkward colored light, and well, I just went with what I had ;)

Welcome!

from the hallway, looking in.

on his wall right when you walk in.
welcome to his little man cave!

if you walk straight in, this is what you'll see, his bookshelf of sorts.
bookself is the old EXPEDIT from IKEA (I don't know what they call them now?)

the rug is a new addition and from IKEA.
we updated the bins in the bookshelf to green for a pop of color from the black that they used to be.


the DIY art gallery wall moved from the living room to Mason's room and is decorated for Valentine's Day right now.

as you turn, you see his little reading nook.

picture ledges are from IKEA.
M-A-S-O-N letters are from Anthropologie.


next to his reading nook is his bed.

bedding is from PBK.
AWESOME pillow is from PBK.
dinosaur pillow is from Land of Nod.

dinosaur picture is from Target.

next to his bed is his dresser.


next to his dresser is his closet.

next to the closet, we hung his M hook.
he keeps his backpack for school here.
backpack is from PBK.
M hook is from Pottery Barn.


view to the rest of the house.

And there you have it! It's pretty simple yet functional. I don't know if this is how it will stay forever, I'm sure we will change things as he grows up (like add a desk for school work), but for now it has somewhat of a dinosaur theme (with some decor and his bedding), but is just kind of all around "boy" themed mainly, if that can be a theme. He also has some stuff stored in his closet, like board games and such, that don't fit on the bookshelf and we have more toys out in the living room on another EXPEDIT that the TV sits on (seriously, toys EVERYWHERE).

I tried to reference where we got most things, in case anyone was interested, but if you'd like a direct link or have a question about where we got anything that I didn't mention, leave a comment below and I'll be sure to tell you!




DESIGNED BY ECLAIR DESIGNS