Narelle Chenery's Green Smoothie

Narelle Chenery

Narelle Chenery is the founder and creative director of research and development for Miessence, the worlds first extensive range of internationally certified organic skin, hair, body, cosmetic, oral and nutritional products. 

Like myself, Narelle is a huge fan of green smoothies and this is her nutrition packed version that serves 2.

1 x baby green coconut (juice and flesh)
1⁄2 cup of fruit of the season (paw paw, mango, peaches, pears, berries)
1 x banana
1 x handful of goji berries
1 x tsp bee pollen granules
1 x tsp maca root powder
2 x tsp In-Liven
2 x tsp Berry Radical
2 x tsp DeepGreen
2 x tbs soaked chia seeds
1 x big handful of spinach (or other leafy greens)
1 x tbs flax oil (or evening primrose or hemp, or good EFA blend)
4 x tbs hemp protein (or protein powder of choice)

Narelle's Green Smoothie

"This is a variation of a summer morning smoothie meal that keeps us going until lunchtime. It's got everything you need it in.  Loads of phyto-nutrition! Greens, antioxidants, probiotics.  Plus the macro-nutrients (protein, oils, fibre).  Plus it's delicious"    Narelle Chenery

More about Narelle and Miessence

The Miessence story began almost 20 years ago when Narelle Chenery, at home with two young children and pregnant with her third, started to question the ingredients in her personal care products. Her quest to find a truly natural product range failed, so she started her mission to create her own. After numerous mould growing and exploding experiments in her kitchen, Narelle developed a range of products she sold at markets and by mail order.

Her products were discovered by a pioneer on the organics industry, Alf Orpin. He challenged her with his help, to make her products certified organic. In February 2003, Miessence was born as the world’s first extensive range of certified organic personal care products to food standards. Miessence produces products for skin, hair, mouth, body, men and baby as well as perfumes, essential oils and nutritional products.

Organic products are well known to be better for the environment, safer and more nutritious. However Miessence is more than a company producing and selling certified organic products. Their vision is ‘to be an outstanding enterprise of inspiration, conviction, and integrity that is a force for change towards ethical and ecological business practice’. Cool huh?

For more info about Miessence please visit:

www.onlinesales.miessence.com

For more info about green smoothies please visit:

www.greensmoothiecommunity.com

What is Greenwashing?

Green-wash (green’wash’, -wôsh’) verb:
The act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

1: Sin of the Hidden Trade-off
A claim suggesting that a product is ‘green’ based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other  important environmental issues. Paper, for example, is not necessarily environmentally preferable just because it comes from a sustainably harvested forest. Other important environmental issues in the paper-making process, such as greenhouse gas emissions, or chlorine use in bleaching may be equally important.

2: Sin of No Proof
An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by a reliable third-party
certification. Common examples are facial tissues or toilet tissue products that claim various percentages of post-consumer recycled content without providing evidence.

3: Sin of Vagueness
A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. ‘All-natural’ is an example; Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. ‘All natural’ isn’t necessarily ‘green’.

4: Sin of Worshipping False Labels
A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.

5: Sin of Irrelevance
An environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable
products. ‘CFC-free’ is a common example, since it is a frequent claim despite the fact that CFCs are banned by law.

6: Lesser of Two Evils
A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. Organic cigarettes could be an example of this sin, as might the fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle.

7: Sin of Fibbing
Environmental claims that are simply false. The most common examples were products falsely claiming to be Energy Star certified or registered.
Some Notable Findings from the 2009 Report…98% of products committed at least one of the Sins of Greenwashing. Greenwashing is so rampant that a Seventh Sin has emerged.  The Sin of Worshiping False Labels is committed by a product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement actually exists.

Source:
http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/findings/the-seven-sins/#fibbing


For products without green washing click here

Cosmetic Environmental Responsibility

I am a fan of voting with my dollar and not buying into the hype of mainstream marketing and advertising. Because I value my health and the environment, I am willing to pay a bit extra for certified organic products given the real cost of the alternative is so much more. If buying with your dollar is important and you like to lead a low impact lifestyle then Miessence ticks all the right boxes. Miessence has set the gold standard worldwide for certified organic to food standards in the cosmetic industry, is totally transparent as a company and is incredibly environmentally responsible.

Narelle Chenery

The Miessence story began almost 20 years ago when Narelle Chenery, at home with two young children and pregnant with her third, started to question the ingredients in her personal care products. Her quest to find a truly natural product range failed, so she started her mission to create her own. After numerous mould growing and exploding experiments in her kitchen, Narelle developed a range of products she sold at markets and by mail order. Her products were discovered by a pioneer on the organics industry, Alf Orpin. He challenged her with his help to make her products certified organic. In Feb 2003, Miessence was born as the world’s first extensive range of certified organic personal care products to food standards. Miessence produces products for skin, hair, mouth, body, men and baby as well as perfumes, cosmetics, essential oils and nutritional products.

Alf Orpin

Organic products are well known to be better for the environment, safer and more nutritious. However Miessence is more than a company producing and selling certified organic products. Their vision is ‘to be an outstanding enterprise of inspiration, conviction, and integrity that is a force for change towards ethical and ecological business practice’. Miessence takes environmental responsibility very seriously and includes the following initiatives.

Electricity offset 100% by renewable wind energy with GreenPower

With Greenflet, Miessence is carbon negative, meaning its offsets more than its current transportation usage to plant trees. Green fleet has planted 7 million native trees in over 400 locations since 2007 and has a goal to plant 2 million this year.

Miessence is one of few companies to be Gold certified with GreenBizCheck. GreenBizCheck is a global, technology based environmental certification programme for any company with an office. Their programme helps companies implement sustainable practices to save money, conserve energy, water, resources and minimize waste. Their criteria are rigorous and audited annually. You can visit GreenBizCheck at www.greenbizcheck.com

Coming back to the concept or organics, it’s important to clarify what organic means to the cosmetic industry. Organic and natural are terms that are unregulated and as a result they are abused in the form of greenwashing. In the chemical industry, natural refers to anything derived or synthesised from nature and organic will refer to anything containing carbon. Petrochemical based preservatives such as the paraben group, that have been found intact in breast cancer tissue, are sometime referred to as ‘organic preservatives’. Natural really means ‘existing in or formed by nature’. Organic really means an ecological and sustainable farm management system that is synthetic chemical free.

Certified organic is a third party guarantee of an organic claim. Certified organic to food standards means at least 95% organic ingredients excluding water and salt, and the rest is natural and approved ingredients. All seven certifying bodies in Australia have the same regulated food standard for organics.

Unfortunately there is no such standard for the cosmetic industry. Instead each body makes up their own standard and self regulates. The problem is that the standards are not the same and they are not as high as food standards, allowing less than 95% organic ingredients and allowing some synthetic ingredients in varying degrees. Therefore a certified organic logo on cosmetics does not necessarily mean the same thing as on food. For this reason Miessence is certified organic to food standards and not to a made up cosmetic organic standard. 

If you are wondering about the quality of ingredients in your products at home, here are some guidelines to help: Split the ingredient list in to thirds. As a rule of thumb the top third will have 90-95% if the listed ingredients. The middle third will have 5-8% and the bottom third 1-3%. Some products will contain mostly chemicals and a small amount of natural listed at the bottom. Some may have mostly natural ingredients with a few chemicals listed at the bottom, usually a synthetic preservative.



You should also be aware of a method of greenwashing a product which is to say ingredients are ‘derived from’ something in nature, or putting the original natural ingredient in brackets. E.g cocamide DEA (di-ethyl-amine) is DEA added to coconut oil to create a synthetic foaming agent for products like shampoo. The amine in DEA has the potential to form carcinogenic compounds when mixed with other chemicals. These toxic by-products are estimated to be in 10-20% of cosmetic products and they increase once the product is opened.

Another labeling trick is to list first an ‘aqueous infusion of botanical extracts’ which is just water with weak addition of herbs and essentials oils. When listed first with the water, the natural ingredients infused in the water may give the impression the dominant ingredients are natural when in fact the water should be listed first, then chemicals, then the small amount of natural ingredients last. If your labels list the natural ingredients without saying ‘derived from’, list natural ingredients in the top two thirds, they are not making organic claims without  a logo, then they are a step in the right direction and are not greenwashing and misleading consumers.

For more information visit www.onlinesales.miessence.com

Chocolate Face Mask Challenge

It is said that masks should be done about weekly. It is tough to do so. We do go through stages don't we? I may go months without and then have the urge to slap some goo on my face. I have been caught at the front door with a mask on, thankfully it was a girl trying to sell me something so it was not too embarrassing and an easy one to palm off!

Masks are good for deep cleansing and if they are mineral based and great for re-mineralising the skin. Cleansers, exfoliants/scrubs and masks are all part of the cleansing step of skin care. Cleansers help remove makeup, dirt, pollution, sweat etc. Exfoliants help keep our skin bright by removing the top dead skin layer that can make our skin look dull. Masks are great for pulling out deep impurities.

Miessence masks are based on clay and come in four different types to suit your skin. Balancing for normal to combination is a pink clay, soothing for sensitive skin is an red clay, rejuvenating is a white clay for mature/dry skin and purifying is green for oily/blemished skin. These masks come as a powder that you mix with water.

My secret weapon is to combine the mask with chocolate. I mix 1 tsp of Miessence mask with 1tsp of raw cacao powder. (You can buy raw cacao in good health food stores, however if you can't use normal cocoa powder and  preferably organic). Cacao is rich in magnesium and extremely high in antioxidants. Magnesium is an important mineral for relaxation of muscles so I figure it may work like botox without the extreme loss of facial expression. Antioxidants fight free radicals which are known to lead to chronic diseases and the aging process. So  my anti-aging, re-mineralising and facial relaxing mask was applied today. I should put my feet up for 15mins and relax while it is on but as a typical busy woman, I did 50 million other household activities while it was on! At least 30 mins later I figured it was time to have a shower. The effects of the cacao in the mask significantly raise circulation so my skin was red after the removal of the mask. The redness faded in less then an hour and would likely have been less if i had left it on for a smaller time frame! Today my skin has felt fabulous and I know when I mask every week my skin is in better condition.

This increase in circulation will be particularly helpful to skin that is blemished or dry/aged. The increased circulation will assist healing and it can help to plump up the skin. Miessence purifying and rejuvenating masks already have this quality and the addition of the cacao supercharges this effect.

To be even more decadent, a tsp of Miessence Berry Radical Superfood can be used with the mask. Berry Radical is an antioxidant superfood powder containing cacao powder with freeze dried berry powders of coffee berry, acai, goji and more.

Take the mask challenge with me and do a chocolate clay mask twice  a week for the next 6 weeks and see what the result is.

Why use a three step skin care system?

Three step systems are common with many skin care brands and involve a cleanser and mosituriser to start and finish, and a step in the middle which may be called a toner, conditioner, re-balancer or other name.

Miessence has a three step system which involves the following:

Step 1: Cleanse
Cleansing removes the top layer of dead cells, oil, perspiration and pollution. If your skin is not cleansed properly it becomes dull, flaky and the oil glands block up with dirt and cellular waste, causing breakouts and congestion. Miessence cleansers are a world first because they use yucca juice to cleanse, not soaps or detergents. Yucca juice contains natural plant saponins that gently remove dirt and oils on your skin. Miessence cleansers contain organic cold pressed, unrefined plant oils to soothe and nourish your skin, and organic herbal extracts and essential oils to suit your skin type.

You will need:
• Cleansing cloths or face washer
• Cotton pads
• A bowl of warm water (ceramic or glass)
• Cleanser (balancing, rejuvenating, purifying or soothing)

Gently press the face with a warm (never hot), soft cleansing cloth to open pores and soften the surface of the
skin cells. Apply 2 pumps of cleanser to the palm of your hand and massage gently into the face and neck. Remove gently with water and cotton pads. If wearing make-up, a second cleanse is necessary. (First one to
remove makeup, the second to cleanse the skin).


Step 2: Skin Conditioner
Skin conditioning is a vital step in the Miessence skin care regime. Conditioning has a two fold purpose; firstly to feed the skin with nutrients in the water soluble botanicals, organic herbs and essential oils, and secondly, to provide a hydration base for the moisturiser to lock in. Miessence skin conditioners contain organic herbal extracts and essential oils to suit your skin type.

You will need:
• Skin Conditioner (balancing, rejuvenating, purifying or soothing)

On clean moist skin, massage 1-2 pumps of conditioner gently onto face, throat and décolleté. Leave for a few seconds to absorb into skin before moisturising.

Step 3: Moisturise
This step creates a protective barrier against free radicals and moisture loss (one of the main causes of wrinkles). The special ingredients in our unique organic base have demonstrated significant and lasting effects on skin hydration and smoothness, and have shown to actively restore and strengthen damaged skin. Miessence moisturisers contain organic cold pressed unrefined seed oils and butters to soften the skin and increase elasticity. Our unique anti-wrinkle olive extract protects from free radical damage and aids in the formation of healthy new skin cells, while neutralising the effect of environmental pollutants and toxins. Organic herbals extracts and essential oils are incorporated for each individual skin type.

You will need:
• Moisturiser (balancing, rejuvenating, purifying or soothing)

Apply 1 pump of your moisturiser to the palm of your hand and warm to skin temperature. Pat and press gently onto your face, throat and décolleté.

Miessence has four skin care systems to suit all the different skin types out there including:

Balancing - Normal/combination profile 
Even skin tone, fine to average pore size, some enlarged pores , some T-zone oiliness occasional breakouts, some blackheads.

Rejuvenating - dry mature profile
Loss of elasticity, varying pore size, some dry patches, no sheen/dull complexion, can feel tight and dry, may have surface capillaries

Purifying - oily problem profile
oily sheen, breakouts/blemishes, congestion/clogging, open pores, blackheads, redness

Soothing - sensitive profile
May have surface capillaries, can feel irritated, itchy and hot, can appear blotchy, may have flaky patches, allergic reactions common, flushed and red easily

Miessence products are designed around four different skin profiles. You may find you’ll want to mix-and-match different products from different profiles to perfectly suit your skin, which is fine. By browsing through the profiles you can ascertain which one you feel is most compatible with your skin right now.