My Absolutely Favorite Place to Buy Supplements and Personal Care Products

I used to peruse the vitamin aisles of Whole Foods and my local co-op, and would long for all of the supplements. I even cashiered at a chain health food store, and I must admit, I envied those who could easily shell out $100 on 4 bottles of supplements. I did the generic supplements at CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, and then I got smart about label reading: most of their stuff is nothing but fillers! Why plague my body with those? No wonder I kept taking those and never saw improvements in my health! I wanted to have superb skin, I wanted to have better digestion, I wanted my nails to stop breaking, I wanted my hair to look better, I wanted to feel better. But not at the price of contaminating myself with inferior products. So as my tastes got more refined (and of course, more costly), the prospect of meeting my supplemental needs seemed farther and farther away. How on earth could I afford what was at the stores?

Usually, I don't really espouse online shopping, because first of all, it's addicting, and secondly, who needs to spend more time on the internet? Between reading e-mails and surfing the web, to researching for papers, I think I spend about four hours easily per day in the morning, and then search for jobs and other things for another two hours at night. Six hours a day? Thank god I don't add to that with TV-watching. But still!

Yet the point is, I fell in love with a website (the website is iherb.com), and that's regardless of the new free shipping policy (after you spend sixty bucks), or the kick-ass rewards program (my mom ordered, and I got credited 13 bucks to spend at the website! How awesome!) It's honestly the prices. Never have I been able to find products that have 30 to even 70% knocked off their retail prices (the store prices of the merchandise). The 25 dollar bottle of vitamin C I've been envying at Whole Foods I can now get for 12-something at iherb.com. And I guess it's appropriate now to state that in no way do I work for iherb.com. I just honestly like it that much. Just look at my order history! Since I've been ordering from there, I have cut costs at all the chain stores where I'd occasionally splurge (and usually regret it), and just use that money to get more of what I'd like. I now have an extensive regimen of an organic liquid multivitamin, probiotics, zinc, food-based vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, beta-carotene, HCL, digestive enzymes, aloe to regulate my bowels, psyllium to also regulate my bowels and many many more. I've been experimenting with amino acids, like 5-HTP and GABA, and my moods are so much better. This is someone who comes from a family of extensive mood disorders. I would never be able to afford these products at regular prices.

Also, I have stopped all products from drugstores that I used to get: shampoos with sodium lauryl sulfates, conditioners loaded with dyes and silicones (although watch out for "natural" ones that contain silicones), moisturizers with silicones, butylenes glycol, parabens and other awful ingredients, self-tanners with lord-knows-what, and sunscreens! Never settle for cheap sunscreen! The chemicals in them have been proven to cause cancer! I use sunscreen with titanium dioxide now, my skin is better and doesn't feel irritated-and of course, I bought that at iherb.com. Since I replaced my skin care and hair care and body wash products with natural and/or organic ones (still, I am very very careful with labels, and am not satisfied with some "certified organic" or "natural" brands-be very very wary), I have noticed my health has improved. My skin has improved-my skin tone is so great, I can get away with not wearing heavy foundation, which I always relied on to cover up my less than glowing complexion. Though it took a while to find the right products for my hair, I feel much better about not using chemicals on my hair-we absorb so much through our skin-and that includes the scalp! Deodorant-that's something I still don't pay much for-I just used baking soda (aluminum-free of course).

The reason why I'm recommending iherb.com in particular is because, well, after trying out other online vitamin stores (vitaminshoppe.com anyone?), I came to the conclusion that they're not all the same. The ones I had tried were still expensive, and the customer service wasn't so great. Iherb.com has the perfect combination of low prices with quick shipping and helpful customer service clerks. I'm just saying, it's pretty awesome. You could try it at least. If you use the code RAC005, you'll get 5 dollars off your first order, be convinced that yes, this website is indeed awesome, and even help out the author of this article with a reward. Pretty awesome, huh?