My beauty routine for dates

What's your typical beauty routine before going on a date? It's funny how loyal people are to their routines; I've had mine since college! The only thing that has changed is that I now use more natural products and pay more attention to ingredients. When I go to dinner with Alex these days, I start...
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Natural place to shop: Vine.com

This post is sponsored by Vine.com. I'm proud to be working with them, and we love and use their site for our family. Their all-natural products are a huge step in the right direction!


When shopping for your family, the farmer's market is fantastic, but outside that, I get nervous. When we go to the supermarket, I suddenly get suspicious of all the packaged goods. After watching Food, Inc., and hearing reports about unsafe beauty and baby products, I walk down the aisles and wonder: Is this dish soap safe for my baby? Is this body lotion full of chemicals? Do these crackers have unnatural ingredients?

So, I literally cheered when I discovered Vine.com, a new site that carries ALL natural products. They refuse to carry anything with questionable ingredients, so you can trust that everything you buy will be top-notch. They carry household cleaning, beauty, shower and baby products, as well as organic snacks and groceries. And they deliver in two days. What a godsend!

We try to live a healthy, natural lifestyle, as I'm sure everyone does, and Vine.com is going make that so much easier. I'm so excited to introduce them to you guys, if you haven't heard of them already. xoxo

Above are a few of my favorite Vine products so far, including dried strawberries (Toby's new favorite snack), natural household cleaning products, and shampoo for washing your favorite wool sweaters in the sink.

Bonus for all readers: Get 20% off your first Vine.com order with the code 20CUPJO. Good for the next seven days. Find everything here.
(Photos by Sarina Cass for Cup of Jo. This post is sponsored by Vine.com, whose mission I adore. Thank you so much for supporting the sponsors that make Cup of Jo possible.)

Motherhood Mondays: Natural baby products

Like most parents, we're trying to raise our child in a natural way (even in New York City), and we’re still figuring out what that means. We give Toby lots of outdoor time, even on cold days. Strawberries. Jokes. Songs. Running around. His beloved wooden bus.

As a new mom, I also read somewhere that it's great for kids to spend time gloriously naked:) So I’ll strip him down around bedtime, and he runs around and does his thing. The sofa may or may not have been peed on.

But when it comes to products, we've found it confusing to figure out which brands are best. One popular diaper brand apparently dyes their diapers brown to make them seem more natural. Doesn’t that seem strange and misleading?

So, when The Honest Company reached out to me, I was THRILLED to discover them. They create all natural products—for children, adults and household cleaning. We immediately got their hand soap, dish soap, bug spray, sunscreen, wipes…and how cute are their patterned diapers?!! Now we’re hooked, and I love their mission to provide affordable, beautiful and unquestionably safe products for families. And it’s reassuring that their website says, “Go ahead, ask us anything. We'll tell all.”

"Parents get a lot of advice about what to feed their children and how to baby-proof their home," says their co-founder Christopher Gavigan, "but many are still completely unaware of the toxic risks posed by everyday basics, like diapers, home cleaners, body washes and laundry soaps."

So I'd love to recommend The Honest Company, and also they're offering free shipping to new customers for the next two weeks with the code "JoFreeShip"—thank you so much, Honest!

What natural products do you like? What does it mean to you to raise your child in a natural way? I'd love to hear any tips and thoughts. xoxo
(Photos by Sarina Cass for Cup of Jo. Thanks, Sarina! This post is sponsored by The Honest Company, whose mission I adore. Thank you so much for supporting the sponsors that make Cup of Jo possible.)