Alternative medicine may not always works as effectively as traditional western medicine, but they can't harm you, right? Not true. Recent studies recently found that one in five Ayruvedic medicines contains poisonous metallics like lead, arsenic and mercury.

Of hundreds of Ayurvedic remedies purchased from 25 different websites in the USA and India, 21% contained detectable levels of at least one of these metals, and of that 21%, half had higher levels than would be considered healthy.

Ayurvedic medicine is an ancient practice that promotes overall health using a balance of medicine, meditation, exercise and diet, and while it can be part of a healthy lifestyle, it's always a good idea to talk to your doctor first before taking any kind of remedy, natural or not.

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Let's just say I'm at that thirtysomething age where creases have gotten comfortable in the corners of my face.

These tiny life lines certainly have their specific beauty -- they mark the many times I've smiled adoringly at my husband, laughed at my toddler's antics, grinned and giggled with my girlfriends, squinted to read a great book late into the night, winked at funny kid sitting across from me.

As beautiful as the accumulation of those moments is, I am still reaching for the creams to smoothe out, hydrate and fill in whatever I can.

My grandmothers were both devoted to Oil of Olay and I remember fondly the pink bottle on each of their vanities and the fresh smell as they circled it over their faces and dotted it around their eyes and and smoothed it up their arms faithfully every morning and before bed.

While both my grandmothers still have beautiful skin and have aged quite gracefully in their combined 187 years, I feel the need to meet my creases with a moisturizer made more for my own sensitive skin.

That's why I was delighted to find a sweet little tube of Apricot Eye Care cream by Better Botanicals. Although I bought mine in the beauty aisle, it smells like it was plucked from a produce bin (seriously). It is creamy without being greasy and in one use, made my winter-dry eyelids feel moisturized again. I haven't taken a magnifying glass to my crinkles but I do feel like the area around my eyes looks refreshed and I know it feels better.

Like all Better Botanical skin care, facial and bath products, the eye care cream is centered in Ayurveda, and made with vegetarian, food-grade ingredients. You won't find animal products, petroleum derivatives, synthetic colors or fragrances on the ingredients list.

Given all this natural goodness, I anticipated spending a lot for this eye cream. Because I am pretty picky about my products and pretty price-conscious, I was delighted that it rang in right at $15, much less than many drugstore eye creams that are loaded with the dreaded ingredients ending in "yl."

As I try other Better Botanical products -- and you can be sure I will --- I will let you know if they all feel and smell as good as the eye cream. Until then, I have to say, with all these creases drowning in all this apricotlicious cream, I like what I'm seeing.

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I'm fascinated with the idea of the detox, as it seems a concept rooted deeply in the human psyche. My four-year-old, Everett, has been periodically detoxing since he could reach the carrots at our local organic produce store. When he's feeling badly, he'll eat nothing but oranges, bananas, carrots and water -- a sharp detour from his usual diet of toast, hot dogs, ketchup and potato chips.

So I was thrilled when I saw a friend, Jessica Ashley, was delving deep into an Ayurveda detox on her ParentsConnect blog. She's just completed a two-week cleanse; avoiding caffeine, alcohol, refined flour, refined sugar, animal products, raw vegetables, fermented foods, and vinegar. While at first she could only mourn her "creamy, sweet coffee" and insist that she did not eat beans!, by six days in, she was feeling good but overwhelmed by the concept of a liquid diet. "I drank tea and more tea and more tea until water sounded like an extra dirty gin and tonic on a hot summer night," she writes.

It's really fun to accompany Jessica on the detox; I especially laughed out loud at her accidental trip to a raw foods restaurant with her family. ("Raw foods, according to Ayurveda, are hard to digest and leave behind a lot in the intestines.") Way to go Jessica! I can't wait to try that Carrot Subji.

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