This is my "debrief" on my first attempts at playing around with my version of Face of the Week or Shop My Stash or Makeup Bag of the Week. (Here's the video that shows the original plan: www.youtube.com ) In a nutshell, I chose the eyeshadow Earthly by ELF to experiment with. I'm also trying out 100%Pure's line of organic cosmetics. At the very least, I try to use almost exclusively paraben-free and phenoxyethanol-free product, although one or two of my products still contain one of the P-words, especially since I'm trying to work my way through my backlog (!) of mascara. A word about me: I'm in my 50s, and I work at a research university by day. I play "makeup professor" as a hobby. I am not an expert; I'm a cosmetic user, a customer. These reviews express my reasoned opinions, based on my personal criteria and preferences. I respect that others will have different criteria and different preferences. Life isn't uniform or simple, but in its diversity and complexities, it's! beautiful. Twitter @wheatenbeauty My New Year's Resolution was to use products that (a) are relatively healthy, (b) have anti-aging ingredients if possible, and (c) are paraben-free. It's been a work in progress & a learning experience. Currently, I'm focusing on what I think of as "faux parabens," those products that have been used in lieu of parabens. It turns out that ingredients like phenoxylethanol are no better than parabens; they are arguably even worse. At best, phenoxyethanol is an
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