OverDressed for Life

I believe part of having great style is keeping fit and healthy. Do you agree that what we put inside our bodies and apply on top of our bodies is equally important? Yes! To that end, clean food and clean cosmetics are essential ingredients in looking our very best.

Offering a little help with that is Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, the chain of preeminent pharmacy stores located all around the Bay Area including their new site in Los Altos. Pharmaca offers healthy alternatives in beauty care, snacks, and household products, as well as advise from professionals on alternative medicine and preventative healthcare.

Although around since 2000, Pharmaca was new to me several years ago when I popped in to the Rockridge store in Oakland after an appointment with my acupuncturist. She sent me over to pick up a Borin Homeopathic Remedy. I was thrilled to find an alternative to good old CVS and since then I’ve become a regular for super healthy parabens and general junk-free cosmetics, healthy snack foods, and an array of healthier alternatives to the usual OTC medications.

Some of my favorites:

• Zuzu Luxe cosmetics. Great shades of lipsticks and glosses that moisturize and don’t smell like cheap perfume.
• W3LL People, another healthy line of cosmetics. I like Universalist, a multi-stick for cheeks and lips. Great to have in your handbag for quick touch-ups. W3LL is manufactured in the USA and uses ingredients that help our skin such as vitamin E, chamomile, olive oil, and lysine!
• Speaking of lysine, my favorite Pharmaca find is Super Lysine +. Anyone who suffers from unfashionable and painful cold sores must BUY THIS. Super Lysine Plus ointment cuts healing time in half. Better yet, catch the nastiness in time with Lysine Plus and it disappears. The best part is it does so naturally with lysine and 14 other vitamins, herbs, and minerals. I keep at tube at work, in my handbag, and my medicine cabinet.
• Pharmaca Hand Soap. Lavender is my favorite. A light natural scent, it makes washing your hands a treat not a chore.
• My Day Job requires opening and unpacking boxes of books and that really does a number on my cuticles. Dr. Hauschka Neem Nail & Cuticle Oil moisturizes and heals dry cuticles. Neem is a vegetable oil pressed from the seeds of an evergreen tree. The added ingredient chamomile gives a nice scent. I’ve used a lot of different products on my cuticles but this one by Dr. Hauschka has showed the fastest results.

Sure Pharmaca might be a bit pricey but they’re offering quality products that are hard to find elsewhere and if you join their rewards club you get a quarterly coupon. Also, check the website to order online and for sales and more savings.