Beauty Products · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with beauty products

The Complete Organic Pregnancy

I just finished reading newly released The Complete Organic Pregnancy (Harper Collins) by Deirdre Dolan and Alexander Zissu and loved it. Since I am currently nineteen weeks pregnant, I have been soaking up a lot of information lately on all things revolving around pregnancy, babies, and organics. There are plenty of baby and pregnancy books that give laundry lists of what could go wrong, what could be wrong, what to do when it goes wrong, etc. It is great to find something straight forward that avoids being alarmist. Also, there are not a lot of books out there that cater to the individual who is looking to live as holistically as possible without getting mired down by doom and gloom or stymied by Western medicine. It’s funny to me that sometimes when we talk about being proactive when it comes to eating whole foods, avoiding toxins, and living mindfully, others claim this approach “negative.” I guess it’s that classic body snatcher thing, wherein the heathen or she who goes against ‘the norm’ must be chastised.

This book does a fantastic job of being informative, well researched, and fun. Sometimes the pregnant, nesting mama can get a bit overwhelmed with the plethora of information out there and these authors do a fantastic job of creating a concise, convenient tome that is easy to read and peruse anytime. It covers everything from those ubiquitous, often toxic beauty products to how to reduce back pain in the third trimester. I highly recommend it to anyone thinking about conceiving, already pregnant, or who has kids. Thanks to Alexandra and Deirdre for taking the time to compile this caring and thoughtful work.

Amazon, babies, Baby, Beauty, beauty products, book, books, car, eating, farm, Food, kids, Organic, Pregnancy, reduce, Toxins

Pomed: Protect Our Mother Earth's Daughter

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by Danelle Brown · 05/11/06

Beginning June 7, 2006 and ending June 22, Verte will be hosting Pomed: Protect Our Mother Earth’s Daughters. This new twist to special event planning and fundraising will take place as a grassroot event during the 1st “Until The Violence Stops” festival presesented by V-Day. With a range of talented fashion designers such as Swati Argade , Pomed will host a live fashion auction whose proceeds go 100% to the non-profit organization Bpeace. Organic food will be provided by Marcey Brownstein; drinks, accessories, and beauty products will be served and given away. The entire event will benefit 6 wonderful non-profits and organizations.

Purchase your Pomed tickets today to take part in the June 20th unique eco-friendly fundraiser/auction where you will sample the finest organic food and drink and have a chance to win amazing eco-friendly and ethical accessories and beauty products. Visit www.pomednyc.com for further information (for those of you who can not be in NYC, register to be alerted when the on-line auction is to begin).

Tickets to this amazing V-day festival are on sale right now. Purchase your ticket for Pomed today along with a ticket for one of the many plays performed by such actresses as Jane Fonda, Hillary Swank, Rosario Dawson,and Isabella Rossellini (www.vday.org)

accessories, Beauty, beauty products, design, designer, designers, ethical, Fashion, Food, fur, NYC, Organic, organic food

Nature Girl

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 01/10/06

Rich Hippie has a sister company called “Nature Girl,” a line of organic bath and beauty products determined to keep the eco-minded consumer free of harmful ingredients and smelling fresh and green.

There’s “Eco Chic” organic salt scrubs (nice name!!), “Nature Love” shea butter body balm, and “Green Queen” extra rich botanical body lotion. These are just three of the delectable body treats available from this line. The products are cruelty-free and full of organic, wild-crafted, ethically harvested goodness.

bath, Beauty, beauty products, Body Lotion, ethical, lotion, Organic

UnCommon Scents

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 01/10/06

There is nothing more odious (pardon the impending pun) than that heavy, pungent perfume you can smell from a mile away. And many of us have spent time perusing the shelves of that ubiquitous modern shrine to plasticity called Sephora only to leave with a pounding headache that has that “fake vanilla” scent stamped all over it.

Ugh.

I have been a true scent-junky for at least fifteen years and recently, upon applying a commercial fragrance, noticed I started sneezing almost instantly. I started to wonder just what exactly is in these products we apply on a daily basis. Being one who tries to always buy organic, it dawned on me that my personal doctrine to “stay natural” had not penetrated my hankering for smells.

Many companies, even those claiming to be “natural”, use synthetic fragrance and chemical additives such as preservatives and artificial coloring, and contain dangerous chemicals such as phtalates that are proven endocrine disruptors whose activity has been found to mimic hormonal signals in the body.

There are what I have always considered to be more natural alternatives to smelling like “Calvin Clone,” but often you end up smelling like a head shop or your grandma’s lavender garden when using organically derived essential oils. Some of us like smelling like a head shop, but for those who want something more unique, there are some interesting alternatives.

Rich Hippie is a line of completely organic, wild-crafted perfume, founded in LA. Through the use of carefully selected plant extracts and the implementation of traditional perfumery practices, Rich Hippie has created an environmentally conscious fragrance line that is original and hip.

The line boasts scents such as “Psychedelic – a sensual, lush, mysterious and romantic scent with extracts of organic Madagascan vanilla bean, organic ginger root and organic sweet orange peel,” “Nirvana” – a “unisex scent with extracts of organic sandalwood, West Indian bay leaf and organic Italian bergamot peel,” and “Wild Thing – an intoxicating, romantic, and sensual floral with rare Indian jasmine, Albanian Orris root and Egyptian rose.” There is also the signature scent, “Rich Hippie” – a “hip, bohemian, seductive floral with extracts of exotic African flowers, Madagascan Vanilla bean and Guatemalan Cardamom.”

These perfumes ain’t cheap, at an average of $85.00 per 1/2oz, but to support a small company that is investing in organic farming practices is worthwhile compared to the minimum $35 to $40 that is typically spent on factory-made fragrances that are known health hazards. According to the FDA, perfume companies don’t have to publish their ingredients anywhere, because they are considered “trade secrets”. Through growing consumer pressure to monitor cosmetics companies and clearly substantiate the safety of perfumes and other products, the FDA has clearly delineated its authority over this domain on its website This means there is no way for us to know what is in common colognes until independent labs do their own analysis and there aren’t a lot of scientists lining up to joust with big name cosmetics.

California is actually the first state in the union to implement the “Safe Cosmetics Act,” signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005, which states that manufacturers must disclose (to the state) any ingredient that is on state or federal lists of chemicals linked to cancer or birth defects.

For more information on what is actually in your beauty products see NOT TOO PRETTY, SAFE COSMETICS and how they are affecting the environment see MARINE LIFE