Mother-Daughter Beauty Day

One of the most amazing things of being the mother of a little girl is having the opportunity to do “girly” bonding things. My daughter is at the age now where she’s developing her own little personality and she’s starting to mimic the things she sees me do—especially when I’m getting ready for work in the morning. Everything is fair game, from hair and make-up right on down to the shoes I wear and the purse I carry.

When I look through my Facebook newsfeed, I look on somewhat enviously at the posts by my not-so-natural friends who are taking their little girls for these fun spa days. I use the word “enviously” quite loosely. I’m only envious of their special time. I’m certainly not envious of all of the chemicals they are subjecting themselves to. Most of us have been in a nail salon at some point in our lives. Did you ever notice that a lot of the nail technicians wear masks over their faces? Everyday Health published an article about the risks associated with salon treatments, and one of those was the dangers associated with the exposure to nail polish fumes. According to the article, which sites the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, there are three toxic ingredients in nail polishes and hardeners—formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate. The effects of breathing in these fumes include, eye, nose and skin irritation, headaches, nausea, nerve damage that affects site, and even reproductive problems (including miscarriage). This is not something I want to expose myself to, much less my little girl’s developing body.

Rather than forego having a funs “spa-day” with my daughter, I’ve opted to make up our own at-home spa. We pick a day when the boys will be out of the house, ensuring we get our proper alone time to bond. We have plenty of bowls to soak our hands in, and I have a big tub where we can soak our feet, before giving ourselves the royal treatment. For adding a little color to our nails, I found this great set from Luna Star. It’s actually a full make-up kit for little girls (for playing of course!), and it comes with nail polish. The ingredients in the nail polish include: Water, polyurethane, acrylic copolymerm and according to the company, the colored nail polishes may also contain mica, iron dioxide, titanium dioxide and carmine. Besides the fact that this nail polish geared toward little girls does not contain any of the three aforementioned toxins, I also like that you can simply peel it off your little one’s nails, so there’s no need for nail polish remover.

If you really want to go all out with your mother/daughter beauty day, you can also utilize the organic make-up that comes with nail polish in the Luna Star kit. My recommendation is to use the same make-up as your daughter for your special beauty day, because most little girls will want to use the exact same thing that mom is using. The make-up is all mineral-based and is free of artificial dyes which can help minimize the likelihood of an allergic reaction. In addition, according to the company, the minerals are too large “penetrate the skin.”  As a mom, I like the idea of things not being absorbed into my daughter’s developing system.

I’m a big fan of the Luna Star products because they’ve taken a step to level the playing field for the natural-minded moms who still want to do a lot of the same things that the other moms are doing with their kids. Since my daughter is a real girly-girl and loves to play dress-up, this was a huge hit with her.