Ladies. If you're currently pregnant The MAP offers medication abortion from $5, it's $250 for future use.
Just remember, seeing the stuff done to women and our rights, if you feel discouraged, misanthropic, depressed, grief, hopeless, lacking energy, confused or listless: it means nothing about our situation. Your feelings are a natural reaction to terrorism.
Terrorism works. It is meant to make you feel that way.
You are not doomed. You are a victim of terrorism.
You will be okay.
Take time to properly check out and reconnect with what makes you love life. Read a fiction book. Go to the ocean. Look up and out. The world is still here and so are you.
Image Description: White background with serif text stating "The energy for 2025 is: Remembering that being healthy is much more than what you eat and how much you exercise. It's also about being around good people, giving love to others, having joy, being your authentic self, embracing gratitude, and maintaining your growth.
something you can do today is donate to an abortion fund in florida and to an abortion fund in south dakota since abortion rights measures failed there. you can find one to donate to in one of those states here: https://abortionfunds.org/find-a-fund/
Ladies and Gentlemen, now is an excellent time to study up on historic Class struggles, the Pinkertons, and Mining Uprisings in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Haymarket affair is a great starting point. They'll bring this back in full force. It's also time for the left to start carrying again.
There was a time when rough sex meant some hair pulling, mutual scratching (nails down backs or w.e.) and biting kisses, maybe a spank or two to a butt cheek and was more about the quality of the thrusts involved than it was the rest of the actions. Rough sex was desperate, hurried, rushed, and a bit animalistic, but it was more often than not a mutual level of roughness. The fact that BDSM has gone incredibly mainstream has taken what used to be, in my mind, an acceptable level of roughness to something considered "vanillas" by most people and instead introduced things that at the time I was discovering sex were considered hard core -> gore into the every day lexicon and sexual expectations of the porn addicted adult is incredibly concerning. Even those within the scene are growing increasingly alarmed at what is going on in the new scene where the "rights of passage" aren't being upheld. Where people are doing these incredibly hardcore scenes without any kind of education on the safety backups integrated into them, where they aren't checking in on their partners, where they're either unable or unwilling to read their partner's non-verbal cues. I was talking to an older professional leather butch a few months ago about this, about how there's been this shift away from safe & sane to an attitude that as long as it's consensual in the beginning it's fine for a growing number of faux-doms who got all of their education on BDSM from the kink castle's pornos and have never been a sub under someone else. These faux-doms can not manage to maintain arousal outside of a scene and that the focus has shifted from the subs' needs and desires to those of the dom/domme. Face hits were taboo, even in the scene for a long time, especially closed fist ones. Now we have doms openly bragging about punching subs in the face. BDSM has expanded so rapidly and warped so much darker than it was even 10-15 years ago in comparison to what it's become now.
whenever someone says kink is unethical they’re not talking about how you’re into feet or whatever, they’re talking about men who beat, choke, and pretend to rape their girlfriends during sex and play it off like it’s #progressive
You can literally feel what makes you sicker and you can keep choosing it out of obligation and familiarity or you can slow down and ask yourself if you truly think you can survive it and if surviving is all you wanted to do
And then you start to understand what people meant when they say you can't help anyone else if you can't help yourself
I'll be doing a video version of this soon! Stay tuned! February! Next week's post will be about pantry staples and stable shelf goods for paleo diets & dirty paleo diets (includes fermented dairy, oats, wild rice, and ancient grains, this is my personal diet)
Before we begin, let's talk about the basic tennants before I explain the swaps I made and the products I love:
Less is More: The biggest part of the Primal Chic beauty routine is it's simplicity and minimalism. I don't want you to read this post, dump all of your current skincare and makeup into the garbage just to go out and buy the things I talk about here. Use up what you already have and make the switch gradual.
Clean Clean Clean: We want to be utilizing products without harsh chemicals & unethically sourced components. The easiest way to tell if something is on or off the list is their ingredient transparency. Especially with cosmetics. Avoid unneccessary fragrances, dyes, colorants, and preservatives, and aim for things like Cruelty Free, Paraben Free, Sulfate Free, and Triclosan free. Aim for companies that are transparent about their supply chains, both for the labor in creating them, and in their ingredient sourcing. I also prefer women owned and family owned brands rather than the "clean" lines of bigger companies.
Be Smart About Animal Products: Personally, as someone with a soy allergy, I'm a big fan of certain animal products in my skin and beauty rituals, Goat's Milk Soaps, Beef Tallow hair masks, Honey & Yogurt face masks, etc. However, while I am a proponent of using the entire animal, make sure you're checking the sourcing of these products as some companies are more ethical than others. I'm lucky in that I live fairly close to the Amish and therefore have access to a certain amount of local agriculture that others may not have access to. If you're buying from an unknown company or farm, drop them a line to see where they're sourcing their animal products from. The more ethical companies rarely have an issue explaining (and bragging) about the welfare of their source animals. Things we definately want to avoid though are things like Shark Liver Oil (certain Squalene), Ambergis (whale stomach lining), and Castoreum (artificial vanilla flavor/scent produced from the castor sacs of beavers located near the anal glands). If you want to save yourself the hassle, Vegan skincare is an option, just be sure to keep an eye out for allergens like Soy or Mushroom Enzymes.
Now, let's talk about some of the Primal Chic changes in my own beauty routine:
Old Face Routine:
Oil Cleanser
Regular Cleanser
Scrub
Toner
Oil
Eye Cream
Targeted Treatments
retnoids
Moisturizer
Neck and Chest Cream
Sunscreen
Foundation
Concealer
Blush
Highlight
Contour
Bronzer
Eyeshadow
Eyebrow Gel
Eyeliner Pen & Pencil
Mascara
finishing powder
finishing spray
New Face Routine:
Castile Soap
Miracle Balm
Almond Oil as needed for dry-flaky patches
Sunscreen
Pink Color Balm/ Multistick (Eyes, Cheeks, Lips)
Mascara
Eyeliner Pencil if I'm feeling fancy
That's it. The really crazy thing about it too? I had more acne, dryness, irritation, and inflamation with the old routine. I did have about 2 weeks of acne after making the switch as my skin adjusted but I haven't struggled with major skin issues since. Part of it was cutting back on the amount of makeup I was wearing, as a full beat vs a little blush and eyemakeup with a lip is a lot less product on the skin. Part of it was not creating new issues for myself by trying to treat the old issues with harsh chemicals. I also cut out a lot of fragrances from my skincare, with my only scented skincare product left being my sunscreen since I don't seem to have any reactions to Sun Bum's products. My used up makeup containers I take to my local health foods store to be recycled by Terracycle.
Old Shower Routine:
Pre-wash oil
Shampoo
Scalp Scrub
Conditioning Mask
Conditioner
Soap on the body
Body Gel
Body Scrub
Body Oil
Shaving cream
Lotion
Body Mist
Perfume
Deoderant
New Shower Routine:
Castile Soap for hair, body, & shaving
Occassional Home Made Sugar Scrub
Almond Oil (2 drops worked through the ends of my hair, then worked across the body)
Occassional use of cocoa butter on knees, hands, feet, & ankles
Deoderant (I still use a conventional Dove deoderant)
I save so much time, my showers are maybe 10 minutes long if I'm not shaving that day, and 20 minutes tops when I do a little trimming. I also switched from disposable heads to an old-school single blade safety razor. Also, rather than investing in chemical exfoliants I switched to dry brushing and body scrapers/ gua shas to exfoliate and massage.
Most of the products I use I can buy in bulk from my local low/zero waste store and simply store in mason jars rather than continually add to plastic production and disposal which is hard on the environment. Dr Bronner's soaps come in paper refill cartons as well for your original plastic bottle, or, if you have a dry shelf in your shower, you can simply buy the paper carton and skip most of the plastic all together.
We're also in an era where there are more resources than ever on creating your own, at home, grooming and hygiene products where you have complete control over the ingredients that go into them. I used to be super into soap making however as I went back into school and started my full time job, I found I didn't have time for all of my hobbies and it became one of the ones on the chopping block. You could also use shampoo & conditioner bars packaged in paper. A growing number of regular grocery stores such as Giant, Wegmans, or Shoprite have a natural hygiene care section near their pharmacies or other hygiene sections, and there's usually atleast one soap maker at arts fairs and farmers markets in more metropolitian areas.
I think, as part of our respect for Earth & our environment it's worth asking what we can do to limit our harm to the planet in pursuit of vanity.