Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, fashion, green, organic, sustainable | Tags: beauty, chemical, cosmetics, diy, eco, green, home, mask, paraben, scrub, sustainable
It’s not like I’m some crazy Birkenstock wearing woman who uses The Rock on her underarms. I like lipstick as much as the next girl—I just like to know mine’s lead-free. Think I’m kidding? Go to the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetics Safety Database and search your brand of lipstick. More than 60% contain lead, which is a neurotoxin. And most women eat about nine pounds of the stuff over their lifetimes. But seriously, there are so many awesome beauty products that are totally chemical free these days, why would you want to use anything else?
At www.EcoStiletto.com, I feature beauty options that just might get you off chemicals altogether. But for the DIYers among us (read: me), I whipped up a facial scrub/mask recipe that you can make in minutes and delivers a serious glow.
How? Go to the kitchen and grab sugar, eggs, honey and instant oatmeal. Go on, I’ll wait!
A little background: I love scrubs but don’t like that most of them contain oil. I like things that can be used on my face, hair and body—and oil isn’t one of them, no matter how pure, it still gives me zits and always ends up in my hair. So I created this Essential DIY Scrub & Mask that I’m totally addicted to—used it for three days straight (okay I’m a little obsessive) and seriously my skin was NEVER better. My blackheads were gone, my giant pores were smaller and my skin felt super soft and clean. Try it!
Essential DIY Scrub & Mask:
Six tablespoons raw organic sugar
One free range organic egg white
One tablespoon organic honey
One packet plain instant organic oatmeal
Strain the egg white into a bowl (or mortar, if you’ve got one), then blend in the sugar with a fork (or pestle). Blend in the honey, and then the oatmeal (leave it uncooked). Now rub the mask into your skin in small circles.
Some people think that sugar can be too harsh for the face, so if your skin is sensitive, please be gentle. I, on the other hand, have alligator skin. I like to put some muscle into it.
Once you’ve thoroughly exfoliated your face, just clump some more of the scrub onto it and let it dry for 10 to 20 minutes. (Make sure you’re wearing not-so-nice clothes, as it sometimes does fall off a bit.) Wash off, and presto, glow-o!
You can also use the scrub in the bath or shower—because it lacks oil, you don’t have to worry about slippage. Make sure your pipes can handle the small amount of oatmeal involved. And keep any excess in the fridge—it’ll keep for a few days, but after that, toss it. (If you use it straight outta the fridge you might need to dilute with a little water for better spreadability, just fyi.)
The secret ingredient to this recipe is honey. Honey is a natural emollient, which means it helps the skin trap moisture. When I visit my family in Santa Fe, I always stick a bunch of organic honey sticks in my carry on. At night, I crack open one of those sticks and slather the stuff on my face. I leave it on for 10 minutes or so and wash it off. (It helps if I haven’t already had dessert. Yum.) It leaves my skin super dewy and soft, minus pore-clogging oil.
Sugar is a natural exfoliant, as is oatmeal, which also has colloidal—or soothing—properties. I’ve used whipped egg whites on my skin for years to cleanse and minimize pores—recently I heard that egg whites also increase the production of collagen, which is something I didn’t care about as a tweenager. I’m not a beauty scientists so I can’t tell you exactly how it breaks down. But for those of you who are trying this right now, tell me how you look in 20 minutes. It works, right?
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, fashion, green, organic, sustainable | Tags: california, eco, ecostiletto, fashion, fur, green, los angeles, peta, sarnoff, sustainable, vegan
“There’s always a way to wear fur”
–Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief, American Vogue
“Anna is the most powerful woman in the U.S.”
–Andre Leon Talley, Editor-at-Large, American Vogue
“Nobody was wearing fur until Anna put it on the cover in the ‘90s.”
–Tom Florio, Publisher, American Vogue
Are you sensing a pattern here?
Yesterday, I saw a matinee of “The September Issue.” I ditched my life for 90 minutes of escapism, hoping to understand a little better what makes this fashion industry tick.
But five minutes in, the escape was over. I grabbed my notebook and pen and started scratching out notes in the dark. I was appalled. Appalled. What started out as a lighthearted look at fashion’s bible quickly degraded to a revelation of the industry’s dark side.
I’ve been a journalist for more than a decade. I have a master’s degree in the subject. I spend hours agonizing over how to honestly present Ecostiletto’s sponsored newsletters and dedicated emails. And, as a result, I’ve spent a year wondering when my little start-up will actually start.
Yet at Vogue, where last year’s September issue weighed in at record 644 pages of ads (versus 196 of editorial) there is clearly zero separation of church and state. No wonder Tom Florio is happy.
Anna Wintour is filmed as she interacts with retailers and manufacturers—Nieman Marcus, the Gap, Mango—which are an obvious influence on her editorial choices. Anna’s resident jester, Andre Leon Talley, takes his tennis lesson wearing a Louis Vuitton scarf and Piaget watch—both perennial Vogue advertisers. And after the first 10 minutes of watching her flamboyant outfits, you have to wonder if Wintour’s salary is subsidized by the Fur Commission.
Apparently, back in the wonder years of 2007, the demand had even outstripped the supply for luxury fashion—but fashion desired product placement, as well, which “The September Issue” was happy to supply. About midway through the movie, even Wintour’s instruction to her driver to take her to Starbuck’s seems like an obvious plant.
This is a magazine that has clearly been bought and sold by the commerce it supports—with no question of the consequences. Beknighted designer Thakoon is photographed threading up a dress for the Gap, but there’s no mention of what third-world hands will stitch the thousands of copies to be sold in Gap stores. Florio nods to Wintour’s support of fur without a hint of irony. And $50,000 in editorial is scrapped because it doesn’t show enough of the clothes.
I can image that, for some, “The September Issue” is an exciting, insider’s view of a glamorous industry. For me, it was a testament to how far we’ve come in a year. This September, I celebrate the eco-friendly shows of designers like Mr. Larkin at New York Fashion Week. I look forward to Portland’s forthcoming all-sustainable fashion week. And I toy with the idea of joining The Great American Apparel Diet, in which participants pledge to buy no clothing or accessories for an entire year.
We’ve come a long way, baby.
Image from “The September Issue.”
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, fashion, green, organic, parenting, sustainable | Tags: animal, cooking, eating, eco, fashion, food, green, meals, meat, pescatarian, peta, sustainable, vegan, vegetarian
A friend of mine forwarded me a recent pic of Alicia Silverstone* the other day. The subject line was simple: Body by vegan. And yes, it got my attention. Because even though I try to work out two or three times a week, there remains that stubborn five pounds of fat that took hold right around my belly button while I was pregnant with The Barnacle (read: baby) and never came off. Now I know that I’m active and healthy, and I knock wood daily for that. But there is a vain teenager inside of every woman. And on the day that my friend sent me Alicia Silverstone’s picture, that teen spoke up. I wanted to have a body by vegan. Desperately.
My friend happens to be a vegan, mind you. And she also happens to have a smokin’ bod, which may have less to do with the fact that she doesn’t eat animal products, and more to do with the fact that when you don’t eat animal products there is really very little that you can eat. She’s also 25.
Bitch.
And my raw foodie friends say that this type of diet—which also happens to fall into the vegan category—means that you have more energy throughout the day, because your body isn’t taxed by processing high density foods like meat. In fact, Ani Phyo, raw food chef extraordinaire and author of Ani’s Raw Food Desserts, swears that eating her chocolate ganache cake (which you can now buy boxed) is actually good for your body. Go figure.
There’s also the environmental factor: Livestock produce methane, which is a major greenhouse gas that some experts say contributes more to global warming than carbon dioxide. “You can’t be an environmentalist and eat meat,” is a PETA-popular phrase.
Here’s what you can eat if you’re a vegan: Vegetables. Fruit. Rice or soy milk. Bread made from weird grains. Fake cheese made from soy. Tofu made from soy. Meat made from soy. And lots and lots of nuts.
Here’s what my family eats: Whole wheat pasta made with eggs, whole wheat pizza made with cheese, bean-and-cheese burritos, grilled fish (wild-caught), chicken and hamburgers (grass-fed and organic), scrambled eggs. Give or take a few vegetables and fruit.
Fight, much? Soy barbecue “ribs” may taste like heaven to me, but to my kids they’re just plain weird.
So my body by vegan has to wait. In the mean time, I’ve gone pescatarian, and cut down my family’s meat and fish consumption. We’re still experimenting with tofu. And eating lots and lots of nuts.
Have you ever attacked the last five pounds? Gone vegan? Tell me about it!
*This photo is courtesy of 944 magazine’s April 2009 cover shoot, styled by the extraordinary Monica Schweiger, who contributes EcoStiletto.com’s fashion page. Stiletto-size me!
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, green, organic, parenting, sustainable | Tags: california, divacup, eco, ecostiletto, green, los angeles, menstruation, pad, period, sarnoff, sustainable, tampon
What if I told you that each month you could forget about your period except for twice a day? That you could put the ten bucks you spend on tampons and pads in a piggy bank and save yourself $100 a year? And that you could avoid exposure to polyethylene, chlorine and pesticide residue—plus save tons of waste from going into the landfill?
Well, listen up! The revolution is here and it comes in the form of a tiny, silicone, completely eco-friendly menstrual cup. Put it in the morning of your period, dump it out at night and replace, then do the same the next morning. Yoga, running, swimming, whatever—you can do it and forget about leakage or if the string is showing. You can wear it for up to 12 hours. Toxic Shock Syndrome is so not a factor. You never have to worry about forgetting your protection again. The days of whispered, “Do you have a tampon?” questions to strangers in public restrooms are over.
Insert, rinse, repeat. That’s it.
Okay, so it takes a little getting used to. If you’ve ever used a diaphragm or a sponge you’re halfway there. Taking it out can be tricky—make sure to squeeze the sides together to de-suction before you pull, and try it the first few times in the shower until you get the hang of a no-mess rinse and re-insert. And yes, you do come face-to-face with the fact of just how much blood you lose in one cycle.
But forget your squeamishness for a minute and think about your mothers and your grandmothers. They used pads and garters and when someone came along and told them they could put a little tube of cotton inside of them they probably thought that was pretty yucky too. But they got used to using tampons, and it revolutionized their lives. Just like you can get used to using the cup.
Not to go all heavy (pun intended) on you or anything, but disposable pads are made with polyethylene plastic, which depletes the ozone, contributes to global warming, and emits sulfur and nitrogen oxides. The cotton industry consumes 25% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of its pesticides—the residue resides on your tampons and pads. And the reason why tampons are pure white? Chlorine bleach. But don’t forget about the pesticide and insecticide residue from the conventional cotton that makes up tampons. That’s a lot of chemicals we’re putting near some pretty vulnerable parts.
Sure, there are other ways to make your time of the month a little more green. If you like pads, choose those made from plant-based materials that are both absorbent and leak-proof—or even reusable, like Party in Your Pants, LunaPads and LunaPanties. If you’re a fan of the ‘pon, try organic cotton and chlorine-free versions from Seventh Generation.
But for the open-minded among us, consider a revolutionary option in the form of a reusable menstrual cup like the DivaCup. Once you do, you’ll never want to use anything else!
Are you thinking about greening your period? What options have you tried? Any feedback on the menstrual cup? Tell me about it!
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, green, organic, parenting, sustainable | Tags: california, children, eco, family, green, insomnia, kids, los angeles, mom, mother, organic, parenting, sleep, sustainable, tmfc, tmparenting, yoga, zzs
Stress. It’s killing me. I was never a nail-biter, but by now I’ve nibbled away the dry cuticles and sides of my fingers until I’m practically drawing blood. And sleep—what’s that? I toss and turn while my brain runs through my to-do list like a hamster in a Habitrail. But I’m not alone: According to the National Sleep Foundation, 76% of Americans experience symptoms of sleep disorders on a regular basis, making sleep disorders the most common health problem in the United States.
And while the grogginess that results from not getting the recommended seven-to-10 hours of shut-eye can be, well, tiring, the mental and physical consequences of sleeplessness—accelerated aging, increased risk of obesity and diabetes, memory loss and learning difficulties—are frightening enough to wake us all up.
What’s the number-one cause of sleeplessness? Stress. Like the kind that comes from reading the paper or watching the news and realizing that the world’s economy is balancing on a precipice, perhaps? Or the kind that comes from waking up every morning worrying that you might lose your job—or your house. Everybody’s feeling it. No wonder we’re not sleeping.
Yet despite how exhausted I might feel after a full day of kids and work that begins at 5:45 a.m. and ends some time around 10 p.m., once my head hits the pillow my eyes pop open like I’ve just downed a double-shot of espresso.
I’ve tried chamomile tea and all kinds of herbs, exercising and not exercising, lavender-scented creams and the like. But my new antidote is the Slip into Sleep Pose, created by David Romanelli, author of Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment: Getting to Ecstasy through Wine, Chocolate, and Your iPod Playlist. One part autobiography, one part inspiration and one part just plain hilarious, this book puts me on the path to enlightenment while making me LOL in the process.
In typical Yeah, Dave style, Romanelli recommends skipping the yoga mat and performing the Slip into Sleep Pose in bed. To add to the atmosphere, I like to cover my eyes with a lavender scented eye pillow. Then I follow these ever-so-simple instructions:
• Lie on your back with your legs slightly apart and your arms a few inches from your sides.
• Turn your palms face up.
• Take deep belly breaths and focus on them to quiet your mind.
• Flex all of the muscles in your body—from your toes to the top of your head.
• Lift your limbs and head a few inches off of the mattress. Hold for a breath.
• Now, release them back down and relax all of your muscles.
• Focus on completely relaxing each individual part of your body, beginning with your toes and slowly making your way up to your head.
• Imagine that relaxation is a warm liquid oozing through your body, flooding your insides and melting away all tension.
• If you know that some areas are especially tense, spend extra time there.
• Stay in this place of stillness for 15 to 20 minutes, then allow yourself to drift to sleep.
Sweet dreams!
Does this pose work as well for you as it did for me? Tell me about it!
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, green, organic, sustainable | Tags: beautiful, beauty, cosmetics, eco, ecostiletto, green, lead, lip stick, lipstick, make-up, makeup, natural, organic, pretty, sustainable, teens turning green
Apply. Lick. Repeat. Before meeting, after eating and, dangerously, while driving, I spend a lot of time applying lipstick or lip gloss to my lips. And according to the Environmental Working Group, all that licking means that I, an average woman, will eat more than nine pounds of the stuff over my lifetime.
Nine. Pounds.
All grossness aside, this fact wouldn’t be so alarming if it weren’t for another: In 2007, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a division of the EWG, found two-third of lipsticks contained lead, a known neurotoxin that has been linked to brain damage and miscarriages, among other horrors.
Nine. Pounds. Containing. Lead.
That’s enough to make me sit up, take notice, and dump the contents of my makeup bags into the trash (fearful all the time that I should be disposing of the stuff as hazardous waste).
But the news has gotten better: This year, Canada banned lead in lipstick. In August of 2008, a single vote in the State Assembly barred a similar ban in California. With a new introduction of the bill on deck for 2009, the geniuses at Teens Turning Green launched a clever “Lips Against Lead” petition, in which people are encouraged to apply lead-free lipstick and kiss an organic cotton petition, that will then be sent to the Assembly when the teens show up to shame them into passing it.
Last week, Sarah Jane Morris (“Brothers and Sisters”), Katie Gill (“Drillbit Taylor”), Kristen Renton (“Days of Our Lives”), Carolyn Hennesy (“General Hospital”) and eco-lifestyle expert and author Anna Getty slicked up with organic, paraben-free Terra Firma Longevity Lip Stain in gorgeous, berry-red Rosalie to “sign” the petition at my second-annual EcoStiletto Green Girl’s Night Out at Intuition for Dress for Success.
That’s me with Sarah, after doing my part and kissing the petition. After which I re-applied, licked my lips, and breathed easy.
Have you looked at the ingredients in your lipstick lately? Check your brand at www.cosmeticdatabase.com, then tell me what you think!
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, green, organic, sustainable | Tags: acne, aloe, beautiful, beauty, california, dry, eco, eco-friendly, green, honey, los angeles, natural, organic, pimple, product, shine, vinegar, women, zit
So the second-annual EcoStiletto Green Girls’ Night Out is tomorrow night. Hundreds of people donating shoes to Dress for Success and shopping the latest eco-friendly fashions at Intuition. Mini makeovers. Organic cocktails. Even the DJ is solar powered! I’ll be wearing a gorgeous vintage dress, vegan stilettos and…a big, fat zit on my cheek. Because regardless of the fact that I’m well past puberty, when stress hits and the spotlight’s on, chances are my skin will do something to muck it up.
With 24 hours to go, I’m on acne damage control overdrive—au naturale, of course. After spending most of the weekend swabbing with antibacterial tea tree oil, today I type at my desk sporting a giant glob of aloe. It seriously looks like a sneeze gone bad. But there is nothing better for pimple fighting than pure aloe vera. Simply break off and open one of the leaves and smooth on the clear healing gel inside. Its powerful antioxidants speed up the healing process and protect the skin from infection. As an anti-inflammatory, it also helps to bring down swelling and redness. I think every household should have a healthy aloe plant. Unfortunately, my black thumb means I have to keep replacing mine!
To combat any dryness from the tea tree, tonight I’ll do an all-over honey mask. Honey is a natural humectant, meaning it helps the skin to retain moisture, so it’s especially effective at times when skin gets parched–like after being repeatedly swabbed with tea tree oil. I keep organic honey sticks on hand, and when my face feels dry and tight I simply cleanse, crack open a stick, slather the honey on to my face, neck and décolletage, and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes while I soak in the tub. When I rinse it off my skin is so soft and super hydrated–and I get to lick it off my lips in the meantime!
Finally, this obviously has nothing to do with the harrowing skincare situation, but it is part of my night-before-a-big-night beauty routine. My stick-straight hair gets so filled with static that I look like one of those pink-haired dolls from my childhood–you know the one that you’d spin and it’s hair would stick straight up? That’s me. So I tend to pile on the hair products. A palmful of mousse here, a slick of shine pomade there, a little hair spray to keep things in place. Granted, all of my products are eco-friendly and chemical-free, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still build up. When I need to show off shiny, healthy hair, I gently strip away product buildup by rinsing with a cup full of cider vinegar in the shower. Vinegar clears away product build-up from the hair shaft and closes the cuticle. It also promotes blood circulation in the scalp. A vinegar rinse leaves my hair so shiny and soft—so I can start piling on the products again.
What are your natural secrets to nailing the beauty spotlight? How about a fool safe way to NOT get those stress-related zits in the first place? Tell me about it!
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, fashion, green, organic, parenting, sustainable, travel, vacation
What do you do when you have three kids and your husband just got back from a 20-day business trip? You take a vacation. What do you do when you have three kids and in-laws who can only take about 24-hours of them? You take a staycation. It’s cheaper, shorter and surprisingly more eco-conscious—no matter where you stay!
Now for those of you unfamiliar with the term, a staycation is when you take a vacation without ever leaving your hometown. I was surprised to find that this term has been included in Webster’s Dictionary since 2003, and is defined as a “stay-at-home vacation,” of which common activities include, “use of the backyard pool, visits to local parks and museums, and attendance at local festivals.” I’m guessing that the staycation will grow in popularity this year as the crash cuts short many families’ standing reservations for cross-country travel.
Since we did, in fact, drive to our staycation, it wasn’t as low on the carbon footprint scale as diving into a (preferably saltwater) backyard pool, not that we have one. But compare our 20-mile trek in a 30-mpg car to anything in an airplane, which emits carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide at heights that make these emissions twice as destructive to global warming as those emitted on the ground, and we look pretty damn light. In fact, according to TerraPass, one jaunt across the Atlantic can produce as much ozone-depleting pollution as the average driver does in a year.
But I digress. All green-mindedness aside, the goal of our staycation was to relax, reconnect and celebrate our (gulp) 12-year anniversary. Oh, who am I fooling? We’ve got three kids: The goal of our staycation was to sleep.
And sleep we did. In a giant, four-poster, enormous bed that looks like it belongs in a fairytale, during one truly fairytale weekend at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, CA. (Check out the pic and tell me you wouldn’t take that over Sleeping Beauty’s castle.)
Now, granted, the Langham is not marketing itself as a “green” hotel, like some of the others we’ve come across: The Starwood Element chain, for example, the amazing Ambrose in Santa Monica or the Hotel Felix, which will become Chicago’s first LEED-certified hotel when it opens this March.
But even at a hotel like the Langham, known for luxury rather than eco-mindedness, poolside drinks were served in compostable veggie plastic, an incredible meal in the hotel’s signature Dining Room included local and sustainable grown elements, amenities include an organic perfume blending bar by Ajne and visitors were encouraged to reuse and recycle. Yes, plastic mini bottles of water are still offered when you pick up your car from valet. No, the beautiful, old-fashioned, red-tiled roof is not yet adorned with solar panels. But the times they are a-changing.
And we feel well rested, indeed.
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, fashion, green, organic, parenting | Tags: beauty, california, carbon footprint, clean, clothes, clothing, eco, eco-friendly, environment, environmental, fashion, global warming, green, greener, hemp, landfill, leather, los angeles, mommy, organic, parenting, PVC, recycled, recycling, sustainable
Is green really the new black? In 2006, $32.8 billion was spent on healthy and eco-friendly food, beverage, personal care, and household products. In 2008, $7 billion was spent on natural and organic personal care products alone. And the natural household products category is projected to grow to $1.48 billion in 2011 (an increase of 119% from 2006).
Apparently, even in today’s economy, green is the new green.
But that doesn’t mean it has to cost you more money to go there. As demand grows and the supply of sustainable materials gets stronger, the cost of eco-friendly products goes down until they compete with the mainstream stand-bys on the shelves.
A few months ago, I tested organic versus conventional kids’ lunches and found six cents difference in favor of the organic version: Check out the video to see how that breaks down. By now you’d probably save a whole dime to go green at lunchtime, and you’d certainly prevent your kids from ingesting a whole heckuva lot of pesticides.
But the fastest way to go green and save some green at the same time? Make your own.
DIY FASHION
Denim trends change faster than lip color—but tossing your jeans because they’re last year’s boot cut means you’re adding to the four millions tons of textile waste that hit our landfills every year, according to TextileRecycle.org. Instead, reincarnate them for pennies by turning them into something eco-fabulous, following step-by-step instructions from Born-Again Vintage: 25 Ways to Deconstruct, Reinvent and Recycle Your Wardrobe (Potter Craft, December 2008). With one pair of jeans, you get three new additions to your wardrobe, with little more cost than thread (and elbow grease). First, cut off the legs, seam rip the center seam and fray the cuff to make a cute mini. Next, take one of the discarded legs, turn it inside out and sew up the sides. Add a zipper and strap and you’ve got a retro denim tote. With the leftovers, make a headband accented by a tricked-out denim flower. And you thought your sewing skills maxed out in seventh grade Home Ec.
HAUT LIPGLOSS AT HUMBLE PRICES
Got a double boiler, an organic mint candy and a beet? You’ve got the season’s hottest eco-friendly lip gloss, according to eHow. You’ll need:
Beeswax
Sweet almond oil
Double boiler
A Vitamin E capsule
An organic mint hard candy
Essential oil (optional)
A fresh beet
A small sealable container
Melt 2 tsp. of beeswax and 2 tbsp. of cold pressed or extra virgin sweet almond oil in a double boiler. It is important that you heat the mixture slowly, as excess temperatures can destroy the healing elements of natural oils. Make sure that the mixture never gets so hot that it is uncomfortable to touch.
Remove from heat and stir in two to four drops of oil squeezed from a vitamin E capsule. Vitamin E has antioxidant properties that will nourish and protect your lips, but it is also a natural preservative for your natural lip gloss.
Melt a very small piece of organic peppermint candy into the wax and oil mixture.
Slice a piece of raw beet and add it to the mixture. Add more or less depending on how deep you want the color, but make sure to fish out the pieces before it cools. The amount of dye you add to your lip gloss will depend on your personal choice; however, you should make the shade in the pot slightly darker than the desired finished color.
Stir the mixture occasionally as you allow it to cool. While still slightly warm, transfer your natural lip gloss into a small sealable container, allowing it to cool completely before sealing.
A CLEAN HOUSE FOR PENNIES
I’m addicted to Susan Carpenter’s Realist Idealist column in the Los Angeles Times, mainly because she’s so damned skeptical it makes me laugh. But last week’s column—about four simple, environmentally friendly ingredients that can clean your house from top to bottom—made her a believer.
The truth is, our grandmothers cleaned with white distilled vinegar, baking soda, castile soap and water for hundreds of years until the chemical industry began marketing expensive alternatives, which resulted in 85,000 new chemicals into our households over the past 50 years, according to Healthy Child, Healthy World. No wonder our kids have asthma.
Susan bought a $2 bottle of white distilled vinegar (a disinfectant and deodorant), $1 worth of baking soda (a deodorant and mild abrasive) and a $10 jug of castile soap (made of 100% vegetable oil). With a little water, she mixed it up in recycled cleaning product containers and scrubbed away at windows, toilets, tubs, floors and sinks. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice (a disinfectant) and a dash of olive oil (a lubricant) to the castile soap, she dusted and shined her wood furniture. That’s a $13 investment that yields materials to keep your house clean for months.
What are your money-saving tips in the fashion, beauty or lifestyle departments? Do any of them happen to be green, too? Tell me about it!
Filed under: beauty, eco-friendly, fashion, green, organic, parenting, sustainable | Tags: california, carbon footprint, clothes, clothing, eco, eco-friendly, environment, environmental, fashion, global warming, green, greener, hemp, landfill, leather, los angeles, mommy, organic, PVC, recycled, recycling, sustainable
I’m turning thirtysomething this year. And though until now I’ve gotten by on the bare-bones makeup routine, I took a long, hard look in the mirror this morning and realized I need to grow up and break out the big guns. Blush. Highlighter. Maybe even some—egads—shadow. Because these days, my natural look needs a little, shall we say, assistance.
With that said, what’s working still does its job. I’ve got my go-to mascara, my favorite lip gloss and the concealer that got me through last month’s break out. This is no time to be messing with the basics, right? Wrong. I’m viewing a looming 4-0 as the perfect opportunity to create an entirely new look, and if I’m starting from scratch, it might as well be green.
The truth is, that go-to drugstore concealer and eyeliner I’ve been hanging to to contain parabens, which have been found in breast cancer tissue. And the mascara? It might just be formulated with mercury, a known neurotoxin, according to the Skin Deep Database (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com), a resource for cosmetic ingredients that was created by the non-profit Environmental Working Group.
I tossed the lipgloss after I learned that the average American woman will ingest more than four pounds of petroleum over her lifetime just by licking her conventionally lipsticked lips. And that, frighteningly, last year the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released an aptly-named “Poison Kiss” report alleging 61 percent of brand-name lipsticks contain lead in excess of .1 parts per million, the FDA’s limit for lead in candy. (The FDA has no limit for lead in lipstick. Go figure.) Ick!
Then I went to the woman who knows from eco-beauty, Josie Maran (www.josiemarancosmetics.com), who was the face of Maybelline for 10 years until she got sick and tired of promoting chemicals and launched her own line. Her lip glosses taste like Dulche de Leche, but you can lick your lips all you want—there’s not an ounce or petroleum (or lead, for that matter) in the lot. And her mascara is to die for, but without mercury or any neurotoxins to speak of, you don’t have to worry about dying to wear it.
For shadow, I wanted to try mineral since it’s reputed to stick around longer and lord knows I have little time for touch ups. I adore the aptly-named tints in mineral master Alima’s new Silver Screen collections—Garbo is the perfect neutral, and Bette a retro blue. Minerals are also key in my new chemical-free concealer. You can’t beat Alima’s $1 sample sizes to get your color right (www.alimapure.com).
Tarte’s new offerings are chemical-free, and their signature Berrylicious Cheek Stain (www.tartecosmetics.com) is totally clean. It gives a sexy flush without looking weird and is so easy to apply: Just touch the stick to your cheeks, then rub with your fingers to blend. Now they’re paired the Stain with Rise & Shine, which, on one end, is this amazing stain, and on the other is a perfectly slick but not sticky gloss. And it’s pocket sized—or purse-sized, if you’re a grown-up like me.
Are you hitting a milestone this year? Or thinking about greening your look? Tell me about it!
