A Beauty-Blogger Style Post: The Search to Avoid the "Dirty Dozen"

A while ago my mother showed me a list from the David Suzuki Foundation of the 'Dirty Dozen' cosmetic chemicals to avoid. (Cliff notes: it it's made from a petrochemical, releases formaldehyde, has a name you can't pronounce, or is listed on the ingredients as a symbol and number combo, it's probably bad!) This list is admittedly a little scary, and also frustrating, because it can sometimes take a long time to find an eyeshadow palette or a shampoo that really works for you, right? And also, this kind of stuff tends to cost an arm and a leg to buy as well.

The first switch was easy - my mother had already discovered Live Clean, a line of shampoo, conditioner, soap and body wash that meets all of the "free-from" criteria. Their shampoo, conditioner and body wash have all made it into my rotation. They are not that much different price-wise from your average not-basic-brand drugstore purchase (especially when they are on sale!) and they seem to work just as well as something containing sodium-laureth-sulfate or some other unpronounceable chemicals. They also have a line of baby products which I will be using in a few months, and a new line of face care products which I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Another product I stumbled upon almost by accident. After having for a massage at Cascades Day Spa on Valentine's Day with my husband, I used their shower facilities and really liked the body wash they provided (it smelled yummy, like oranges!). I then discovered that they had it for sale at the spa, and brought home a bottle of NBW Marigold Magic body wash. It's a tad on the expensive side but you don't have to use that much. It has lasted me a while and so probably works out not that expensive on a per-wash basis. And - bonus - it's Canadian!

Those two switches were easy. The challenging part for me has been to find cosmetics that are free from the 12 evils. I'm a shimmery eyeshadow devotee, and of course the ones I have found and liked have all had at least one of the bad ingredients. I had also found a mascara I really liked. I wasn't sure if I would ever find a product I actually liked and wanted to use that also met the criteria.

The other day at the drugstore I was waiting for a prescription to be filled, and so was wandering the store. Remembering that my mascara was basically empty, I headed to the makeup aisle to pick up a new one. While browsing the aisle, mascara in hand, to look at all the other pretty things, I spotted a package that simultaneously piqued my interest and also made me say "yeah sure - probably just greenwashing." The product in question? Mascara, with the word "Organic" prominently featured. So I picked up the package to read further, to see if it held up to scrutiny or was just trying to make me pay more for it because it said "organic" on the box.

Turns out - this one actually holds up to scrutiny! The product in question is Physicians Formula Organic Wear mascara. Not only does it come in a pretty package (the cover of the tube is in the shape of a leaf!) it also is free from the long list of bad ingredients that, sure enough, were in the mascara I was going to buy (like about 10 different coal-tar-derived dyes to make that pretty brown-black colour!) Other mascara: synthetic beeswax (what? why?). This one: ACTUAL beeswax! What a novel concept! The only drawback was that it does not come in my usual brown-black, just in "organic black" but hey - I was willing to give it a try.

This one is more expensive than the traditional brands by quite a lot, but miracle or miracles it was on sale for the same price as mascara #1! I bought one tube and got a rain check for a second since thy only had one on the shelf. And when I got it home and tried it, I quite liked it - no clumps, felt good swiping it onto my lashes, and as it turns out the black doesn't look so harsh anyway!

So I am slowly but surely building up my better-for-me beauty arsenal (I also found a lip balm made from all natural ingredients including beeswax that I quite like). Still on the list: toothpaste (I'm picky - it can't taste gross!), deodorant (has to actually work!), and the ever-elusive eye shadow (has to shimmer and stay on!).

Caped Crusader of TV Sports.

Rogers Sportsnet One recently launched as a "national" channel and moved a number of Toronto Blue Jays baseball and Ottawa Senators hockey games to the new channel. The only problem? Currently, the channel is ONLY available on (funnily enough) Rogers Cable. Which is NOT available in Nova Scotia. Which means this is NOT a national channel and I have now lost access to previously watchable Jays and Sens games. I am not impressed. So I started writing:

To Bell TV in their online contact form:

Under "Your question" I asked, "Hello - I am looking for information on when/whether Bell will be carrying Rogers Sportsnet One. Thanks!" and under "Additional Comments" I added "I have heard that only Rogers cable will be carrying Rogers Sportsnet One. Since I live in Nova Scotia and therefore am unable to get Rogers Cable, I would really appreciate it if Bell TV could carry this network so I can watch the Blue Jays and Senators games which will now be unavailable to me. Please let me know any information you may have. Thanks!"

It told me: "Thank you for visiting bell.ca. We have received your request and a customer service representative will respond within the next 2 business days." Then I got an automated email, 36 hours later, saying "AUTOMATED RESPONSE - PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. Dear Valued Customer, Thank you for visiting the Bell Canada web site, and for your Bell TV inquiry. Please be assured that we have received your request and we strive to respond to all e-mail inquiries within 24-48 business hours. We will respond to your e-mail in priority sequence. (...) Thank you for e-mailing Bell TV. - Electronic Customer Care Centre"

50-some hours after I submitted by letter, I did get a response (not that it really says much): "We thank you for your time to inquire about Bell TV programming, and we are pleased to assist you. We certainly get your point and we truly appreciate your time to check the latest update about the availability of Sportsnet One in Bell TV. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot announce if we will carry the Sportsnet One channel. Rogers Media has exclusive rights to these Blue Jays games so they are not available on channels beyond what Rogers Media provides them on. Please bear with us for the meantime and rest assured that we will do everything in our power to provide the content and value our customers desire. You will be delighted to know that we will continue to make the remaining 21 games available for Sports 1 or 2 theme pack (Rogers Sportsnet) subscribers. When it comes to choosing which sports packages we should offer, Bell TV makes the final decision based on numerous factors including anticipated appeal, cost, bandwidth and whether or not the product compliments current programming. At this time, there are no firm plans to bring Sportsnet One to Bell TV. We assure you that your feedback is noted and has been forwarded to the Marketing Department for further review and consideration. We thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you for choosing Bell TV as your satellite provider, Ms. Hopper. Have a great day."

I am pleased to report that I am in fact delighted that I will continue to receive the programming I'm paying for! Yay!

Sent to Rogers via customer.service@rci.rogers.com:

"To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to you regarding Rogers' new channel, Sportsnet One. According to your website, Sportsnet One will be a "national sports digital channel." However, I understand that the only way you can currently subscribe to Sportsnet One is if you are a Rogers Cable subscriber. Since Rogers Cable is not available in Nova Scotia (or Alberta, BC, Manitoba, Quebec, PEI or the Territories according to your website) this is FAR from being a national channel. Therefore, I am now unable to watch any of the Toronto Blue Jays games which have now been moved to this exclusive channel, nor will I be able to watch the Ottawa Senators games which have likewise been moved. As a fan of both these teams, even though I already pay for both the regular and high definition feeds of not one but four other Rogers channels, I would have been willing but annoyed to shell out yet more money for another Rogers station - but now I can't even do that. I am sure you are getting many comments in this vein and therefore your customer service reps are likely very busy, but a response and explanation would be greatly appreciated."

To date (60 hours after submitting my letter) I have received no response.

On the Ottawa Senators contact form, under the category Broadcasting, I wrote:

"To Whom It May Concern: I am writing regarding the new Rogers Sportsnet One channel, which I understand will be carrying a number of Ottawa Senators games this season. This channel is apparently currently only available to Rogers cable subscribers - which I am not, nor do I have the option to be as it is not available in Nova Scotia. Therefore I am upset that I will be unable to watch a number of Senators games this season. As a dedicated fan in Nova Scotia it is already hard enough to be a fan - games are not always available in HD even though I pay for the channel and are sometimes blacked out - so this new development only makes it worse. Any explanation you could provide would be appreciated."

It said: "Thank you for your feedback. Your question or feedback was successfully sent to the appropriate department."

UPDATE: If you want attention paid to you, go to Facebook! Today I posted on the Ottawa Senators fan page: "Love my Sens but their customer service sucks... submitted a question on their contact us for a week ago and no reply, not even an automated one... BOO."

A mere two hours later, they replied: "Hi Jennifer, What was your issue? Our "contact us" form doesn't always direct the questions to the right people so too often things get lost in the shuffle. It's something we are looking into fixing going into next season."

I posted in reply that " I submitted a question under the "broadcasting" category regarding coverage of the Sens on Sportsnet One, which I can't access..."

They wrote: "I know some people in that department so I'll talk to them tomorrow and will post my findings here. Did you have anything specific questions in mind?"

So I said: " Just wondering what the Senators have to say about a number of their games being broadcast on Sportsnet One which is only available to Rogers subscribers (seems to only be available in ON and NB) - I live in NS and have no option to subscribe to this channel as Rogers does not offer cable here so therefore will not be able to watch those games." Kj Baker added, "How many games is Rogers sportsnet one holding?"

The Sens replied: "Up to 15 games on Sportsnet One but that's on top of the 40 games that will be shown on Sportsnet East. At the moment this doesn't help out of market fans like Jennifer but it sounds like the wheels are in motion to fix that. Rob Brodie wrote a pretty good article a few weeks ago about the impact of Sportsnet One if you are interested, here's the link..."

I added, "I contacted Bell and they basically told me "no comment" as to whether they would be offering Sportsnet One. Thanks for looking into this for me!" and got a friendly "No problem...hopefully everything works out for you" in reply. Thanks to the anonymous Ottawa Senators facebooker that actually replied to me!