My mother, my self

Mother's Day is a huge retail thing. Seriously. It's second only to Christmas -- which is now considered 'Holiday' to encompass a full six-week period off spending like there's no tomorrow -- and we never hear from fine cosmetic and fragrance lines as much as we do in the weeks before Mother's Day. Make her beautiful! Make her smell good! Pamper her with toxic products for facials and poisonous nail polish!

I know, I know, I'm getting acerbic in my old age. But if there's one thing I want to accomplish here, it's challenging the status quo. Which, if we're to believe the marketing, asserts that women in their motherhood years get this over-abundance of special attention on the given day in the form of beauty and personal products. Also, if you buy in to the hype, there seems to be a correlation between the amount you spend and the amount you love your mother. ???

So ya, I'm going to be acerbic. Even though I myself love a good pedicure as much as the next lady. I had mani/pedis regularly through chemo treatment, and it was the perfect indulgence to keep me from feeling like myself.

Back to Mother's Day. And some options. I mean, hammering down the mainstream, traditional product lines is worthless if I haven't shown you how to get safer, non-toxic alternatives, right?

Well+Good NYC has a roundup of fragrances here. YouBeauty.com has its guide to non-toxic fragrance here, including a gallery of different products. The Chalkboard Mag gives its take on safer perfumes here, with a link to their 5 favorite natural perfumes here.

We'll keep talking about fragrance, the industry and finding perfumes that aren't endangering your health. It's one point in the larger discussion as to why women are made to feel like they need products like cosmetics and perfumes in the first place.

Smell nice but stay healthy,
Jazzy