Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Bambola Beauty Review: Premium Natural Skin Care

Okay, I’ll admit it. For all my tinkering in homemade natural beauty products, there are times when those recipes go horribly wrong… like the exfoliating citrus mask that gave me an ugly rash the week before my wedding. Some things are best left to the pros, and let me tell you, if you’re going to trust your skin to any company, you might as well trust it to a team of chemists working with all gentle, safe, natural ingredients – like Bambola Beauty.

Founded by a mother/daughter duo with decades of combined experience in natural skin care, Bambola Beauty offers a range of premium products that allow you to customize your own routine based on your skin type. They sent me an adorable little set of tiny samples to try, and while all the products were nice, there were two standouts: the Acai Anti-Oxidant Cleansing Crème and the Volcanic Mineral Scrub.

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Top 5 Fave Eco Beauty Products for Spring 2010

I’m one of those people that starts getting antsy by the end of winter, wishing and hoping to see a peek of green poking up out of the snow. It’s been a particularly cold one here and I’m ready to get out and enjoy the sunshine (and rainy days, grumble grumble) of spring – hence my collection of new favorite spring products, all lined up on my counter just waiting for warmer days. Maybe some of these 5 fantastic lotions, perfumes, makeup palettes and hair creams will become your favorites, too.

Josie Maran Natural Wonder Powders Palette

I mentioned this colorful palette back in January when I interviewed the gracious and gorgeous Josie Maran, and its sweet spring shades were so enticing I just had to try it for myself. It’s packed with the season’s trendiest colors including five eyeshadows, two shades of blush and bronzing powder. Super versatile and a steal at just $35 – find it at your nearest Sephora.

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Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: Edgy and Sweet Reclaimed Jewelry

While random pieces of metal, bottle caps, nuts and bolts might not be obvious choices for jewelry, they prove to be striking and dramatic when paired with delicate chains and gleaming jewels in UK designer Alessandra Rigillo’s jewelry line, ‘Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining’.

I caught up with Alessandra to talk about her inspiration for transforming such rough, gritty materials into savagely beautiful necklaces, bracelets and earrings that are more than just a little bit rock n’ roll.

SR: Your jewelry is packed with items that are rarely associated with ornamentation: metal scraps, nuts & bolts, electrical wiring, bottle caps. What first inspired you to work with these sorts of materials?

AR: I kept my first bottle top, the one with a bee, because I thought it was too cute to throw away. Around the same time I found old drawings of mine from years ago when I started the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam. At that time I wanted to do Jewellery Design but, the school, friends etc…etc…took me on a different path. Here in London, where I moved from Rome in 2002, I discovered the work of Fashion Designers like Traid Re-Made and Junky Styling, that have been producing very interesting garments with recycled material for years. I was fascinated!

I like the challenge of transforming “junk” into beautiful jewellery. My collections aims to inspire people to consume less and to find the “silver lining” in every little thing.

SR: The ‘Nimbus’ line is so sweet and colorful – are those Barbie shoes I spy?!

AR: Yes! They are. I can’t remember exactly why I bought a packet of vintage Barbie shoes on Ebay. The 80′s were the times when you could buy just shoes without the whole outfit. Great! The same shoes in ALL different colours!!!! Things like this make us all want to be Barbie. Decision decision decision..let’s get all of them!!! Girls love Barbie and shoes. The perfect match: a Barbie shoe. The symbol of the little girl inside each of us that still wants to play and have fun.

SR: It’s definitely an unexpected juxtaposition of delicate gold and silver chains, sparkly jewels and objects that are generally considered to be ‘junk’. What other reclaimed objects might we see from you in the future?

AR: At the moment I’m working with used Italian playing cards, jumbo size puzzle pieces, scrap leather, metal mechanical pieces from old sewing machines, vintage chess players….etc…etc… I just wish I had more time!!!

Thanks, Alessandra!

Drugstore Eco Beauty: Physicians Formula Organic Wear

Like any girl born with naturally pale, sparse lashes, I rely on mascara to keep me from looking like a creepy Children of the Corn extra. And since I’m not a big fan of putting carcinogens and other toxins adjacent to my eyeballs, I am always on the lookout for great natural, non-toxic mascara – and damn, is there a lot of hype for a little drugstore product called Physicians Formula Organic Wear mascara.

A panel of green beauty experts rated this product ‘Best Natural Mascara’ along with a $22.50 product from Couleur – but the Physicians Formula stuff costs just $10. After taking a gander at the ingredients, learning that the Organic Wear line is the first ECOCERT® makeup line in the U.S., and reading tons of positively glowing reviews online, I figured I’d give it a shot.

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Eco Chick’s Heroines for the Planet: Danielle Nierenberg

If it’s true that there are sayers and there are doers, Danielle Nierenberg falls firmly into the latter camp. Danielle is currently traveling through sub-saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in sustainable agriculture and blogging about it at WorldWatch.org.

A Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Nourishing the Planet, Danielle is a widely cited expert in sustainable agriculture issues and the spread of factory farming. She knows better than most of us how our eating habits affect the world, and the experiences she shares on her blog will blow you away.

So of course, Danielle fits right in as an Eco Chick Heroine for the Planet! I talked to her about women in agriculture, global food issues and what we can all do to help.

SR: We were surprised to learn through your blog, Nourishing the Planet, that 80% of sub-Saharan farmers in Africa are women and that women make up the majority of farmers worldwide. What are some of the unique problems that female farmers face?

DN: Although women produce most of the food and raise most of the livestock in Africa, they rarely have access to land tenure, credit, agricultural extension services, and are under-represented in farmers groups, associations, unions. But by increasing women’s participation and representation in these groups, women and men farmers alike can work together to improve gender awareness, as well as improve their access to loans and agricultural inputs and land tenure. As a result, women are able to earn a greater income, which translates into better nutrition for their families. But womens voices often go unheard, or even ignored, and that has to change.

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