Interview with Dr. Cristine Thorpe, founder of www.Crissimone.com.

Describe what your site is about.

Cris Simone is an online beauty and health resource targeting busy women of color. We want to inspire women to enjoy the best of health, wellness and beauty in their lives each day.  We interview experts and feature women who share insight on how they are living life to the fullest.  We also keep our readers in-the-know by highlighting some effective products and services.

How is beauty and health important to you?

Beauty and health is extremely important because I believe that the two go hand in hand.  If we are not taking care of ourselves, it comes out in our appearance and in our behavior.  Beauty is just a reflection of what is going on within. If you love your life, your smile is brighter and your walk exudes confidence.  If you eat properly, your skin has a glow and your hair is radiant. If you have an active lifestyle, you body rewards you with a great figure and tons of energy.  With so many health issues disproportionately affecting women of color, I believe it is important that we become a voice of encouragement for each other to live a life of self-care and self-love.

Cris Simone beauty and health recommendation: Aromandina aromatherapy oils for their healing properties, and meditate for 5 minutes daily to center your hearts and minds.

Aromandina Aromatherapy Seven Solutions

Lanolips

I tend to be a lip gloss rather than lipstick kind of girl, so I was excited to try Lanolips’ Lip Ointment with Coulour (“Rose”) and SPF 15. I tend to be pretty good about using lotion with sunscreen on my face and body—and I am frequently reminded to protect myself from the sun due to the copious amounts I experience in Southern California—but I tend to forget about protecting my lips. This product is helpful without being medicinal despite containing “medical grade lanolin.” Plus it doesn’t have any sort of noxious smell…or any smell at all, really. The lanolin comes from wool, which is sheared from sheep in a cruelty-free manner. However, if you are vegan and/or avoiding all animal-derived products (honey, milk, beeswax, etc.), this is not for you.

The ointment is much thicker than a normal gloss, so the description of “ointment” seems somewhat appropriate. It hasn’t been especially cold here, but nonetheless, it still requires a little effort to squeeze the product out of the tube.  It’s soft, though, and not tacky at all upon the lips. After application, I generally forgot I had it on.  It claims it is “nature’s wonder moisturiser,” and moisturize it did.

The color is a nice, subtle pink, and is one probably more appropriate for daytime use—I see it as more of a daytime outing, cute, pick-up-a-man-at-the-farmers-market color rather than a going-out-at-night-to-pick-up-a-man-at-the-local-watering-hole color.  It’s a flat color without any sort of sparkle or flash. The only thing of which I’d recommend being careful is with regard to application. Initially I put it on in front of a mirror just to see the color of the product and how much the color showed up on my lips, but I noticed that due to its thickness the product did want to lump a bit upon my lips and leave small blobs of color, which wouldn’t have been so cute in a public setting—so consider asking a friend if the color’s even post-application if you’re lacking a mirror. Overall, though, I would definitely recommend Lanolips to a friend due to its smoothness, its offered protection, and its hint of my favorite color: girly pink.

Guest review by Morgan McCann, a lifelong girly-girl who was introduced to beauty products at an early age by her mother. Her hair was always done up right, whether it was crimped all over or just her bangs froofed with a curling iron and gobs of hair spray.  Over the years Morgan has grown more concerned with and interested in knowing from where her consumer products come, whether these things are food or beauty-related, and she loves discovering new cruelty-free products (particularly those with fun packaging). She also loves bright colors, music, and dogs, and is currently working in post-production while working toward an MBA.

Check it out you guys – I told you this sea buckthorn stuff was good!