Part I: Shea Terra Organics Review with a giveaway to come!

Moms need a break and a little time to be pampered, right? Mother’s day is coming up and frankly, I’d love a spa treatment. The problem being it costs a fortune, the products aren’t natural or organic and I asked for a clothesline! Lucky me, I have my very own spa in my bathroom right now! Shea Terra Organics offers natural body and skin care products that utilize healing African oils, botanical and butters for nearly a decade! I just turn on my shower and wahla, I have my own spa. When I first decided to give these products a try, I was reluctant. I’ve been trying to go more “green” with personal care products but many of the lotions and potions are kind of smelly. I have one lotion that my hubby calls the “sex repellent”! I wear this everyday now…just kidding! The very first time I put on my Miombo Mango body lotion I think my hubby came sniffing around the corner winking at me. It smells that good!!! Apparently my natural body odor and other natural products don’t give off such a good aroma. The smell is a just a bonus, the lotion is 20% Shea butter but happens to be wonderful for rashes, eczema, and stretch marks.

After trying the lotion I couldn’t wait to give all of the other products a try so quickly door was shut and the shower turned on. The hubby just had to deal with the kids because Mom had some products to review and needed a spa treatment! Unfortunately, I wasn’t so “green” when it came to my water conservation but I promise to make up for it or at least try. I tried Lavender of the Khoisan shower elixir, made of indigenous silk and Shea butter. Let me just tell you that not all Shea butter is created equal or use fair trade and not all silk is cruelty free. I did my research with this one and many companies don’t use fair trade and they raise the price considerably! With Shea Terra Organics, you know you’re getting the best and the silk is cruelty free. I’ve been using this for a few weeks now and it is not drying, my son requests it because it smells so nice. I had a nasty paper cut when I gave the Pink Guava Pomegranate indigenous Shea butter Dead Sea salt scrub. It hurt bad, I would have really liked one of those Pomegranate cocktails Oprah makes to make it feel better. So I waited to try this product until I was free of cuts and what I love, beside the blissful smell, would be that it wasn’t greasy. I’ve used tons of these scrubs and they feel greasy like I’m wearing baby oil. My skin felt very smooth after scrubbing down with. A great treatment for those rough and dry spots but the spa treatment didn’t end there…I have to tell you about my favorite product still!

African Lemongrass black soap elixir that also is made with 10% Shea butter and pure black soap for a clear complexion. BLACK SOAP? That’s what I thought when I read the bottle and poured the soap onto my hand. It is black like the night and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to put it on my face. I’m open minded though and black soap has been used for ages in Africa to solve all sorts of skin problems. This now happens to be my favorite product. I love, love, love this stuff. My face feels so tight and smooth. It is completely non-drying and I had some ugly spots that are smooth and clear. A Green & Clean Mom thumbs up! What is black soap you might wonder? It’s actually paw paw fruit, plantain leave, cocoa pods, coconut and herbs and its burned into an ash where oils of palm, sesame, coconut and Shea butter are added. This is the process that makes the soap naturally black.

The last two products I’ve been giving a whirl is the Bourbon Vanilla Shea butter that’s made from 40% Shea butter and the Shea Nilotica. I use these every night for the rough spots like the knees, feet and hands. Great for right before bed and my nail cuticles look so nice and they’re all healed from the rough dry winter air. I have so much more to tell you about Shea Terra Organics and can’t wait to introduce you to the woman behind the products in my next post. A woman who cares so much she formulates 100% of the products herself and contributes a portion of all her sales to a number of self-empowerment projects throughout Africa, and has created her own Ethiopian Goat Project. A woman with 11 kids should need every penny she can get to feed and cloth them but she’s the most giving and kind hearted person I’ve spoken with. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss meeting her or the giveaway!!!

Oh, and I personally ordered there sets for mother's day gifts (shhhhh) because I like these products so much AND Shea Terra Organics is committed to ecologically responsible production, with all its products made by hand to off-set carbon waste. Product packaging is recyclable. Packing materials are made from recycled paper and pulp. Promotional material is printed on recycled paper with soy ink. Yeah!!!

An abundance of "green"

Lots of fun stuff going on here at Green & Clean Mom, a contest to win a Healthy Home Pack™ , a chance to win two BPA free sippy cups (Foogo and Boon) and an opportunity to design a Kroger reusable bag and win some grocery money from Kroger and from G&CM! Plus there are some great green giveaways over at Nature Moms Blog ,Mamanista and The Crunchy Domestic Goddess. Gotta love the "green" giveaways!

Earth Day is over but everyday should celebrate Mother Earth! I’ve discovered a really neat "green" tee shirt companies for you to check out that help remind others to recycle, do their part and be earth friendly. Miss Witt has some “sustainable Bamboo Fiber, and 100% Organic Cotton Climate Neutral, manufactured from Wind Powered Energy printed Tees!” I love the baby onsie! When you sport tees that say what you think and feel but that are as eco-savvy as the Miss Witt tees…you’re for sure being a sexy and sassy green mom!

Speaking of being sassy, how about not just using reusable bags but using reusable produce bags? I started thinking about this yesterday when I went grocery shopping and had to load a plastic bag up with oranges. It’s easy to take the reusable bag idea one step further and bring your own produce bags. I love the one’s over at Bag Green because they aren’t only 100% natural cotton and biodegradable, they also ship green. I can’t stand ordering a “green” product from a company and having it come wrapped in tons of bubble wrap or packing peanuts!

Hope all of you moms had a great Earth Day and can continue to remember Mother Earth everday! Register for all the contests and spread and listen to my new Best Friends today!!!

Get the low down for Earth Day 2008

Earth Day is April 22nd and the clock is ticking away. Do you know what is going on in your city or state? Are you making an effort to do something if there isn’t something going on near you? Let me take a minute and give you some ideas and resources to help get you involved or give you something to do to celebrate this day.

If you live near Universal Studios Hollywood ,then the happening event would be the "Eco-Fair", Saturday, April 26th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can even get free parking if you drive your hybrid and the City and County of Los Angeles will be sponsoring a hazardous waste disposal. Don't have a hybrid? You can still get free parking if you donate something to the hazardous waste disposal, which shouldn't be hard to do! While your getting rid of your toxins, celebrities such as, Melora Hardin, from "The Office" will be autographing eco-bags. There will be over 30 going green displays and interactive exhibits. A must do event if you want to be groovy green and you live in the L.A. area! I only wish I was near by but if you go, send me pictures!

Don't forget the Green Scene event in Chicago if you're near the windy city! If you're like me and the bigger city is hours away and not possible, don't fret. You can still do "something" green but you might not get free parking and a celebrity probably won't sign a eco-bag for you. No need to pout, here are some Earth Day events and links to cheer you up...

http://ww2.earthday.net/
http://earthday.envirolink.org/
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/events.htm
http://www.earthdayny.org/
http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday2008/

How about getting the kids involved and making this day as special as any other holiday? Have those kids be groovy green kids! EcoKids has some great activities, facts and quizzes. It’s more for older kids though. Kaboose, has some great crafts and activities for all age groups. The tin can herb pots are adorable and my four year old would love this! Kaboose, also has some great ways that a family can go green together and a fun quiz. The greatest resource comes from kids themselves on how to learn about Earth day. I personally loved the pledge to Mother Earth!
Lots of good ideas and resources, which gives you know excuse for not celebrating Earth Day! Post here and let me know what your plans are and if you are hosting an event or know of one!

Green It

There’s a GREEN IT carnival going on and you don’t have to eat bad for you food and unsafe rides! It’s a blogging carnival and if you haven’t heard of one then I recommend you surf on over and check it out. Blogging carnivals have a theme and this one is obviously green. You can submit a blog post/article to the blogging carnival administrator who then decides if your post/article will be part of the carnival. What’s great about a blogging carnival is that you get to read about many different topics in one forum. This is usually a great way to find blogs that pertain to topics you enjoy. As a blog author and owner, it’s also a great way to increase traffic and get your name out there. So go and enjoy the GREEN IT carnival and be sure to tell other bloggers about this! The more the merrier!

Win a BPA Free Eating Set!!!

Alicia, over at The Soft Landing (the blog that all green moms have to subscribe to) is giving away two BPA FREE eating sets! One set for the little tyke who is just starting to eat solids and another set for the pro. She’s given you lots of ways to enter and you can pick which set you would love to win. Personally, either would be great. I’m putting together a bucket of all organic, natural, BPA free items for my sister’s baby shower and this would go perfect in her “reusable” bucket. I’ll be sure to list all of the items I’m including and take a photo for you. I’m very excited about this shower gift because it’s the perfect way to help my not so green and clean sister become a green and clean mom!

So cruise on over and try winning one of those eating sets and check out all of the other informative and fun stuff Alicia blogs about. Oh, and if you haven't tried to win a CamelBak, BPA FREE water bottle with me then do so now!!! Contests for BPA free stuff, it couldn't get any better OR could it??? Check back because I have a huge green cleaning giveaway in honor of Earth Day but to also stop you and your family from breathing in nasty toxins!

Do the green thing!

Do the green thing! I stumbled onto this fun, wacky, unique site that gives you one thing to do monthly to help the environment. Only 177 days old but has already saved 1650.98 tons of Co2 and has 6,091 people signed up from over 51 countries to help make a difference! The site is fun to explore and has some hilarious videos to help spread the message of going green and doing the green thing!

This months green thing is to go easy on th meat. So maybe you’re a meat eater but you just give some green veggies a try this month. Why is this so darn green you might wonder? Watch one of their videos to learn more but the U.N. has reported that meat production is one of the top 3 producers of green house gases. The cows are also responsible for a large portion of methane production, which is much worse than C02 (nasty)! It’s just a one-month pledge and then next month you find out what you can do to help. This is a great way to take baby steps towards helping the environment and learning about global warming and environmental issues. Besides, it’s fun, hip and bound to make you laugh or at least smile. They have one creative green team!