Our friend Danika Carter, an Eco-Beauty Editor at Greenwala, posted a wonderful do it yourself recipe for organic Probiotic Hand Sanitizer using the Miessence BioPure Probiotic Concentrate. SUPER innovative, proven effective, safe and inexpensive! We thought this was too good not to share!

Using probiotics (good bacteria) topically makes a lot of sense. Unlike the alcohols used in hand sanitizers (even natural ones) probiotics are extremely gentle and non-drying, truly supporting healthy skin. If you think about it, bacteria is all around us, all over our bodies inside and out all the time. Its actually been estimated that the number of bacteria living in and on the average healthy human adult outnumbers human cells 10 to 1! So the goal to eliminate bacteria is a war you will not win. The goal should really be to have more good bacteria. This concept of bacteria being a numbers game (you want the good bacteria to outnumber the bad) is quite achievable and healthy. So why not destroy bad bacteria on your skin with a super strain of good bacteria (probiotic)?

In Danika’s article, she credits her friend Dani Abrahams with creating this recipe. Dani is a biological chemist and environmental toxicologist who “looks at blood work all day and really understands the effect synthetic chemicals in personal care have on people’s health”. When Dani was having trouble finding a non-toxic hand sanitizer, she decided to make her own. With her technical expertise and testing capabilities, she created a probiotic hand sanitizer with only three simple ingredients… all provided to us straight from mother nature. To make certain her recipe was effective, she tested it against germs and bacteria under the microscope and found it worked perfectly.

Dani’s Probiotic Hand Sanitizer Recipe

1. Miessence BioPure Probiotic Concentrate (the “good” bacteria literally eats up the bad bacteria) If you are going to use a probiotic other than Miessence brand, be sure that the product does not need to be refrigerated. If the probiotic cannot survive without being refrigerated, then it will not be effective in your sanitizer.
2. Purified Water (NOT tap water as the chlorine will kill the probiotic bacteria)
3. Lemongrass Essential Oil (for scent and added anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-fungal properties)

Combine 1/2 a cap full of the BioPure Probiotic Concentrate with 1/2 cup of purified water. Add a few drops of the lemongrass essential oil. Be sure to keep it to a few drops because Lemongrass is a potent oil – its even been shown in studies to be effective at killing the MRSA virus. If you plan on using the sanitizer on a child, you may want to switch out the lemongrass for lavender essential oil (a very gentle essential oil also with antibacterial properties that is super gentle and perfect for young or sensitive skin), or just use the BioPure and water alone.

One bottle of the BioPure will make more than 16 batches of sanitizer!

Dani also shared that you should make up small batches that you can use up quickly. Once mixed with water, the sanitizer will last about two weeks at which point you will need to discard any leftover and mix up a fresh batch.

The recipe smells absolutely amazing and we love how our skin feels soft and clean. Enjoy! Please let us know if you have any questions.

Packaging with a purpose! Cleanse and exfoliate in one simple step. Narelle Chenery, the founder of Miessence products tells you why these hand crafted cleansing bars are so unique.

If you’ve never read Dr. Laura Koniver’s blog Intuition Physician, be sure to check it out. We love her take on skincare topics and today she shared her thoughts on cosmetic safety.

Check out her Intuition Physician blog

During medical school, Dr. Laura worked at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD with a research team who was investigating oncogenes.  We thought her take on cosmetic products and cancer was quite interesting.

Dr. Laura says: “I feel like I’ve gotten a little extra training in the areas of cancer research and in skin and my gut feeling says that the more you chronically irritate something, the more likely you are to develop cancer in that organ.  As straight forward as that.

Most of the over the counter anti-aging crap (um… I mean, *products*) you can buy through drugstores, department stores, and even health food stores, contain ingredients designed to chronically irritate your skin.  This is because they’ve found that by chronically irritating it (at low levels… low enough that you don’t see any skin reaction visibly) you are chronically encouraging it to slough off and turn over new cells.  This is why low but consistent doses of retinal products and hydroxy acids and other skin acids (even all naturally derived fruit acids) works to give your skin a refreshed surface… chronically forcing new cell turnover.
While this is great in the short term (you get fresher skin within a few weeks) in the long term, chronic irritation and inflammation has been shown to incite cellular damage.  Chronic inflammation is turning out to be one of the major factors in all types of disease… from coronary artery disease, to strokes, to cancer.

So, my goal as a physician is to decrease the levels of inflammation and irritation in and on the body as much as possible.  It is routine practice now to try and decrease the level of inflammation inside our bodies… for example, decreasing the level of inflammation in our guts by avoiding certain foods (like avoiding gluten if you have celiac disease) or using prescription medications to decrease inflammation (like statin drugs for heart disease)  But it is not generally addressed when it comes to skin care.

Yes, everyone understands that inflaming your skin to the point of sunburn is a serious no-no… that UV exposure can cause skin cancers… but what about the chronic irritation of the toxic chemicals in daily use of chemical sunblock?  This is starting to get more recent press and consumers are switching to physical sunblocks over chemical ones, for good reason.

The same goes for your facial care products.  Infrequent use may be fine, but daily (and sometimes twice daily, morning and night!) slathering on of anti-wrinkle, anti-aging, anti-this-and-that products intended to stir up your skin and cause enough low levels of irritation that it forces your skin to make new skin faster… 40 years of applying this to your face doesn’t seem right to me.

If you had a chemical irritant would you smear it morning and night on the inside walls of your heart?  Or along the surface of your kidney?  Why does it seem so much more benign when we slather it onto our skin?  I’m not sure why.

I do agree it seems less *invasive*.  But skin cancers are no small concern… and with the advent of the newer delivery methods (micronized particles and nanosphere delivery systems) the ingredients do not stay superficial at all anymore, but rather are internally delivered.  On top of that, and this is just my gut feeling, I truly believe that the chronic inflammation and irritation of the skin, while creating the immediate effect of quicker skin turnover, in the long term (decades later) this very chronic irritation can cause faster skin aging… as your skin reacts to being chronically irritated with visible signs of stress… uneven pigmentation, broken capillaries, seborrheic keratosis, actinic keratosis, and other age related changes.

So that is the platform upon which I recommend this very simple skin plan.  Do no harm.  Allow your body to do what it does best… cover you in sheets of beautiful, healthy skin, replacing it as needed… and support this process with moisture and occasional exfoliation.”

Well said Dr. Laura!!!

We aren’t surprised….. customers who say they have tried every natural deodorant out there tell us Miessence is the best!

Check out the article from The Daily Green

Does “effective” and “natural deodorant” sound like an impossible combination? Well, then you must not have tried Miessence! Our customers say again and again that “they have tried everything out there and this deodorant is the best”.

I just read a 5 Star user rating review today from Green Options that confirms the performance of this best selling product. Check it out!

User Rating

Overall

Best natural deodorant ever

hibiscus reviewed February 1, 2009 at 10:28 am

This is probably the only natural deodorant that really works.  It comes in three scents, Ancient Spice, Tahitian Breeze and Aroma Free. The Ancient Spice (more masculine) and Tahitian Breeze (more  feminine) are a bit herbal smelling at first, but the aroma doesn’t linger.  Aroma Free is just as effective, without any scent.  I have tried just about every natural deodorant on the market (even some you’ve never heard of), and this is the only one that is at all effective, and it has a great safety rating on EWG Cosmetics Safety Database.

Overall

Keeps My Pits Smelling Breezey.

organicgal007 reviewed May 1, 2008 at 6:23 am

I used to work a 5 hour shift in the HOT FLORIDA HUMID outdoors at a botanical gardens, planting plants. Dirty, HOT, work, did I mention HOT? Though this product will not stop you from sweating (which is actually good, healthfully speaking) it did stop odor. I never felt like I stunk after my icky, dirty, shift.
Me lovey the tahitian breeze.

Overall

The Best!

cinci8876 reviewed December 9, 2009 at 5:51 pm

I had almost given up on natural deoderant until i tried Miessence. Goes on wet, so you have to let it dry for about 30 seconds before getting dressed, but after that, I never once felt sticky, smelly or wet. Great scent too (I tried Tahitian Breeze) that is very mild and not perfumy or overpowering. I’m so happy to have found this brand! All their products are wonderful.

Overall

It works!

katiehmn reviewed March 20, 2009 at 1:21 pm

I finally found the deodorant I’ve been looking for – one that works all day, is safe, and is aluminum-free. I bought the Tahitian Breeze scent, and it’s quite pleasant — more woodsy-smelling than citrus-y, but I like it. And the scent dissipates quickly, so you don’t smell it all day (unless you stick your nose in your armpit and inhale). Regular deodorants give me a headache if I can smell them still at lunchtime! I’ve had only to apply it once in the morning; it dries quickly and I’m comfortable all day long.

For more review details you can check out Green Options Miessence Roll-On Deodorant Review

http://www.greenoptions.com/products/miessence-roll-on-deodorant