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

Loving, Naturally

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by Ann Benoit · 10/26/07

A few great natural products i’ve recently fallen in love with for my uber sensitive skin:

Sunshine Spa’s Brown Sugar Scrub Mango Ginger: this organic brown sugar scrub is amazing! I have super sensitive skin and this scrub leaves my skin smooth and happy after shaving. Contains lots of great oils and organic sugar. Really tasty too!

Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild Unscented: this uber mild soap with organic coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils is also great for sensitive skin and can be used for body, hair, cleaning floors, and pretty much everything else. Bronner’s other soaps are a little too harsh for my skin, but this one is a winner. Great to take camping and great for cleaning the floor!

Earth Science’s Chamomile & Green Tea Eye Makeup Remover: great for removing all sorts of makeup with green tea and chamomile extracts. Scored pretty low (meaning good) in the environmental working group’s cosmetic database. Doesn’t irritate my contacts either.

Baby, cleaning, cosmetics, fall, farm, Hair, hemp, makeup, mom, oil, oils, Organic, skin, soap, spa, sugar, Tea, vitamins

Yikes!! Who Wants Lead Lips?

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by Starre Vartan · 10/17/07

A runway look from Jill Stuart’s Fall ’07 collection

No, I’m not talking about the new dark-lip look that’s been spotted on runways from Olivier Theyskens to Jill Stuart to Tuleh….. Treehugger reported last Friday that new independent lab tests by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found that:

More than half of 33 top-brand lipsticks tested (61%) contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm). One-third of the lipsticks exceeded the 0.1 ppm FDA lead limit for candy – a standard established to protect children from directly ingesting lead. Among the brands tested found to have the highest lead levels were L’Oreal, Cover Girl and Christian Dior – showing that the more expensive brands are no safer than drugstore brands.

And in case you think a little lead can’t do much damage (bolding mine):

The most recent scientific studies indicate that there is no safe level of lead – no amount of exposure is without harm. Lead is a proven neurotoxin that can cause learning, language and behavioral problems. Lead is also linked to infertility and miscarriage. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to exposure because lead easily crosses the placenta and enters the fetal brain, where it interferes with normal development. Lead does not break down in the body, but builds up over a lifetime of exposures.

Check out a piece I recently wrote for The Daily Green for a run-down of all sorts of gorgeous, organic lipsticks. After all….

When it doesn’t end up on the edge of a glass or wiped off on a napkin, where do you think it goes? While you might not look at your tube of lipstick and imagine biting it off and swallowing it, that’s basically what happens over time. If I’m essentially eating my lipstick, I want it to be composed of natural and organic ingredients, just like my food.

car, children, cosmetics, eating, fall, farm, FDA, Food, health, Organic, treehugger, women

My Cosmetics and Yours…

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by Ann Benoit · 09/01/07

In a recent search to uncover exactly what i’ve been putting on my skin/hair, I came across the cosmetic safety database, a great website created by the researchers at the environmental working group. On this site, thousands of products have been tested and you can type in any of your products and check to see the degree of toxicity that it contains.

The results of a search will tell you if ingredients in that product are linked to: cancer; developmental/reproductive toxicity; violations, restrictions & warnings; allergies/immunotoxicity; and other concerns for ingredients used in the product. It will also let you know if the manufacturer has signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics or conducts animal testing.

Frankly, I was shocked to look up some of the products currently living in my medicine cabinet. For example, I typed in Aveda Botanical Exfoliant. I had assumed that a company like Aveda would be using fairly ok ingredients, right? Well ingredients in it are linked to: cancer; developmental/reproductive toxicity; violations, restrictions & warnings; allergies/immunotoxicity; organ system toxicity and contamination concerns just to name a few! Not to mention that Aveda (now owned by Este Lauder) hasn’t signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. This product scored a 6 out of 10 (10 being the worst) hazard rating.

Although I’m not necessarily going to throw out all of my products and rush to buy new ones (that seems like a huge waste and financial commitment), finding better alternatives to my current products and replacing them when I’ve finished is the new plan. When the database brings up a rating of a product, there is a link that tells you which other products have less toxicity.

allergies, Cancer, cosmetics, farm, Hair, skin, waste

Ladies Love Lube!

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by Starre Vartan · 10/18/06

Guestblogger Wendy Strgar, is the owner and founder of Good Clean Love (they make the above lube) a manufacturer of all-natural love and intimacy products.  Married for over 23 years with four children, Wendy teaches about Making Love Sustainable, a green philosophy of relationships which recognizes the importance of valueing the renewable resources of love and family in our lives.  Her blog is a lively discussion about making love real in your life. 

Lubrication is a Fact of Life

By Wendy Strgar 

Lubrication is a fact of life.   In any relationship where working parts are at play, whether it be an engine, a dinner party or an evening of love, everything works better when it is “well oiled.”   Lubrication allows for glide, ease and effectiveness.  When lubrication is working well, it is invisible.  When it isn’t working, we know it immediately! An engine without oil locks up in minutes; awkward silence and uncomfortable glances can kill an otherwise great night between lovers.
Lacking lubrication in intimacy can take on multiple forms and occur for a myriad of reasons.  Age, childbearing and nursing and some medications are often the cause of vaginal dryness and its associated pain in sex.
Largely, the variety of lubricants on the market break down into three main categories; water-based, silicone-based, and oil-based.  Each category has its benefits and weaknesses and it’s important to be informed about the health and environmental consequences associated with different product ingredients, because after all, you’re putting them in and on sensitive areas.

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breast cancer, business, Cancer, car, children, Coconut Oil, cosmetics, epa, formula, Germany, health, Home, Lavender, media, oil, oils, party, personal care products, resources, skin, soap, sustainable, Tea, water, women

Women in Science Site

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by Jennifer Veilleux · 03/27/06

This month the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation in partnership with L’Oreal created and launched a website that serves as a platform for discussion about women in science. This website is a new piece of the ongoing Women in Science program sponsored by UNESCO and the French cosmetics company. The existing posts, written by Nobel Prize winners and women scientists among others, discuss education and the role women play in science, encourage us to step through the barriers of sexism and to create more girl power in the field. Further discussions are slated to include women’s role in, and importance to, the environment.

cosmetics, fur, women, women's