Beauty products have such a special place in my heart – oh, how I get giddy with excitement when I play with them. That being said, this green mommy doesn’t mess around. I put the kabosh on anything that isn’t environmentally friendly, animal friendly, and super healthy for my skin (Basically: Can I eat it with my mouth? After all, my skin is eating it.) I like to review ingredients and products on Skin Deep to see how safe they are. Once it meets all of those criteria, I’m as happy as a kid in a candy store. 
You can imagine that I was thrilled when a rep from Miessence offered to send me products to review. I received quite the little assortment. She sent me everything from toothpaste to belly/breast balm for my pregnant body to face products to baby products to deodorant to lip balm to hand/body creams. Can anyone say “trick-or-treat?”
According to the literature that accompanied the products, Miessence products are made with cold-pressed, unrefined oils and herbs, without heat. The website reads, “The World’s first extensive range of internationally certified organic skin, hair, body, cosmetic, oral and nutritional products.” Pretty impressive, huh?
I originally had a concern about how environmental it was for me to purchase these products in the future knowing they’re from Australia. As a green mommy, I take that part of purchasing products into the equation. I emailed my contact about my concern and here is what she had to say…
Miessence is made in Australia (started by a mom in her kitchen), but the company is committed to the protection of the environment ~ the company is wind-powered, participates in Green Fleet (which plants trees to compensate for the environmental impact of shipping products), and contributes to the David Suzuki Foundation (an environmental education foundation). Narelle Chenery, the founder, also discovered in her research that the environmental impact of shipping heavier products was greater than the gains of recyling glass – many of the product containers had been glass, but she switched over to a recyclable, safe plastic (no phtalates, no BPA’s) because the carbon footprint was smaller for this type of packaging. The two current raw superfood products, In-Liven Probiotic and Berry Radical are both dry powders, so they are also lighter-weight for shipping. The packaging “peanuts” are biodegradable, made from potato and corn starch, so they can be composted! Although the company is headquartered in Australia, where Narelle lives, there is a warehouse in Nevada, USA.
Cool. So… on to the review! What did I think of the various products?
Baby Powder & Baby Bottom Mist: I am still pregnant so I haven’t had the chance to try these yet. In general though, I’ll say this, it’s my goal to not use many products on my baby. The Baby Bottom Mist scores a “0″ on Skin Deep’s website (yay!), but the powder rates a “2″ which is still low but I’d like to try things that are “0-1″ if possible.
Belly & Breast Balm: While pregnant I’ve used a number of products on my belly, breasts, butt, and legs in an effort to prevent stretch marks (see my post about that here). Therefore, there isn’t one single product I’ve stuck with through the whole 9 months. As a result, I can’t say for sure if any product worked particularly well in helping me attain that goal. That being written, I can report on what I thought of the product’s ingredients, texture, and scent. Overall, the Miessence Belly and Breast Balm was nice. It’s not very thick (I usually prefer something thicker), and the scent is pleasant.
Lip balm: Unfortunately, there is beeswax in this product so it’s a no-go for me. Learn why I don’t use bee products here.
Gentle Exfoliant: I liked this product. The little beads in it were soft on my face, not too scratchy like some exfoliators can be. It was only a trial sample, and I was able to get two uses out of it. I wish I had more to try so I could do a better review.
Deodorant: I was sent the unscented version which I appreciated. This worked well the couple of times I tried it. I’m wearing it right now in fact… just a second while I sniff my arm pits… … … Yup, it’s working. 
To be honest, I don’t wear deodorant very often. With my super clean diet, my arm pits often smell nice and sweet. However, there are a couple of days here and there, due to hormones I think, when I need a little extra, ehem, love there. This deodorant worked. I also let my husband try it. His initial report is that it seemed to work, for the one day he applied it. That being said, he will be writing a guest blog post here, as Green Daddy, and is going to go into detail about his story with deodorants. There will be a more thorough review for this particular brand at that time from him. UPDATE! My husband used the deodorant again, this time putting it under only one arm. The other arm he left bare. The result at the end of the day? WOWZA! The Miessence deodorant arm pit smelled awesome and the other arm pit, well, it was a bit over ripe! He’s loving this deodorant.
Nourishing Hand Cream and a Body Cream: The trial samples allowed for a single use pretty much, and it’s hard to say if something works with that limit. But, for what I was able to try, they were nice and emollient.
Toothpaste: These were my favorite products. I have both the lemon and the mint flavors and, right now, it’s become my favorite brand of toothpaste. They’re very simple in flavor and experience, and you can sense the baking soda in it which some people might not like as much, but there is just something about them that I LOOOOVE! They’re not cheap, but I plan on buying more when I run out. You can check out the details here.
Now! For some EXTRA AWESOME NEWS! Miessence has offered to sponsor a giveaway on Green Mommy Blog for some of their products. Check back soon for details!
