Green Tips · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with Green Tips

Green Your Beauty Routine in 5 Easy Steps!

Let’s face it: beauty as we know it in today’s world isn’t very green. Many of us slather all sorts of toxins onto our skin, luxuriate for far too long under a constant stream of hot water, pour bottles of unwanted beauty-related chemicals down the drain and use quite a bit of electricity to get our hair just so.

Once you make the decision to green your beauty routine, sometimes it’s hard to tell where you should start. Here are 5 tips you can use to gradually shift toward being naturally eco-fabulous.

1. Look up all of the products you use in the Skin Deep cosmetic safety database. You may find that even brands you thought were on the more natural side contain alarmingly high levels of carcinogens and other toxic ingredients. Don’t focus on replacing them all at once. It will be a learning process and you’ll have to go through some trial and error to find the products that are right for you. Lipstick is a good place to start, since so much of it ends up in your mouth.

2. Change your body lotion. If there’s one product you immediately replace, this should be it. Your skin absorbs chemicals from the products you put on it, and nothing gets smeared onto larger areas of the body than lotion. Most conventional lotions have ingredients like petroleum, formaldehyde, toxic synthetic fragrances and even hormone disrupters. Some natural, healthy choices are made by brands like Kiss My Face, Alba, JASON and Aubrey Organics. You could also switch to 100% natural shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil or coconut oil, all of which have excellent moisturizing properties and often contain no preservatives or other ingredients at all.

3. Unplug it! Your hairdryer and other styling implements, that is – at least for one day every week. You may feel like you can’t live without your flat iron or can’t leave the house without a blowout, but is it really necessary to get all done up just to go to the grocery store? If you feel like your hair just doesn’t look good without the help of these energy suckers, go to a stylist and have them show you how to style your hair without them. You may find that a slightly different cut or some hair gel makes a huge difference.

4. Use less water. Turn the water off while you’re scrubbing your face, just as you do (hopefully) when you’re brushing your teeth. Take shorter showers – the water may feel good, but it sure is a waste of water to stand there for an extra few minutes just because you like to. And, if your feet are sore, soak them in a foot bath or a bucket instead of taking a full-body bath. It’ll use far less water, and sometimes it can be just as refreshing. Showerheads that reduce the water flow can also be really helpful.

5. Buy in bulk. Many products like lotion, shampoo, conditioner and body wash can be purchased in large sizes, which cuts down on the amount of packaging that gets thrown away – plus, you’ll save money. You may even find, like I did, that one product can do the job of many: I use Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild Castile Soap as shampoo, face wash, body wash, hand soap and even to clean my house. For travel, get a set of reusable containers and just refill them when you need to – resist the urge to keep buying new sets of cute little mini bottles.

While this is just a small sample of what you can do to green your beauty routine, just getting started is huge. You’ll breathe a sigh of relief once you’ve simplified the products you use and the ritual you go through every morning – who knows, you may even find yourself with some extra time to actually have a nice breakfast, go for a walk or spend a few extra moments with your kids. Viva la Green Revolution!

Top photo by Flickr user Pσrcelαΐηgΐrl

Eco Beauty, Green Tips

Green Your Easter

2 Comments

by Olivia Zaleski · 03/08/08

Giant. Chocolate. Bunny.

In case you haven’t noticed, the retail world has gone full force “Easter-Spectacular.” With Christmas over, it’s “out with the mince pies, in with the marshmallow hatchlings.” Every supermarket, drug store and big-box retailer is a psychedelic zoo of neon stuffed animals, disposable baskets and giant Styrofoam eggs.

So much of Easter has become commercialized, mass-produced, crapola–a far cry from Easter’s original ode to nature and rebirth. Yet, as most of us recognize the irony, few of us are willing to give up the childhood traditions of bunnies, candy and brightly colored cutesy things.

This Easter, consider a compromise. Trade in the dollar-store trinkets for “greener,” yet equally festive, alternatives. From re-purposed baskets to organic and fair-trade chocolates to natural egg dyes, there’s plenty of colorful flair that won’t harm the planet. Here are some tips:

The Basket:
Instead of wasting money and precious natural resources on Kmart’s taffeta “Lamb Candy Holder Basket”, hit up the local secondhand store or crafts fair for a “real” basket. Feeling particularly ambitious? Then make your own basket. You can learn the “art of basketry” here, or follow this simple pattern for newspaper, magazine cut-outs and wallpaper-swatch baskets. For true eco-ingenuity, or if you’re just really broke, get crafty with colorful tissue boxes, paper bags and your supermarket’s berry containers.

The Grass:
Now that you’ve got such a great basket, don’t ruin it with plastic grass. Just snip some from the top of your lawn. If you prefer foliage that won’t wilt or wither, flip through the pages of a magazine and cut out anything green. Shred it up and you’ve got grass-like filler.

The Eggs:
Most supermarket eggs come from notoriously filthy and inhumane commercial outfits, not old MacDonald’s farm. As the conditions of factory farms come to roost, many conscious consumers are demanding eggs that meet environmentally sound standards. You can demand the same by purchasing USDA organic eggs. For extra eco-brownie points, support your local farm. Find yours at localharvest.org.

The Homemade Eggs:
If you’re super eco-conscious and vegan, then you’re probably skipping the laid eggs altogether. Good for you, but don’t get tempted to the dollar-store’s jumbo plastic selection. Make your own “fake ones” with homemade paper-mache or cornstarch clay.

The Egg Dyes:
Skip the unholy mess of pellets and artificial food dyes. Fruits, vegetables and spices offer a wide range of color possibilities: from bright red to lavender, orange and blue. Just boil eggs (local and organic please) in water and a teaspoon of vinegar. Add ingredients below for desired color. Let simmer for at least 15 minutes. For a darker shade place the brew in the fridge for some overnight saturation.

Pink: beets, cranberries, frozen raspberries.
Red: red onionskins.
Orange: yellow onionskins.
Lavender: grape juice.
Light Yellow: orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin.
Yellow: Ground turmeric, saffron.
Pale Green: spinach leaves.
Blue: canned blueberries, red cabbage leaves.
Beige/Brown: strong brewed coffee.
Eggs dyed with onionskins, from Instructables.com

The Candy:
Peeps, lollipops, pecan nougat, jellybeans, and even Smucker’s Puckers are just a few Easter favorites. Aside from creating hyperactive chaos on Easter morning, Easter candies are grossly over-packaged. Yes, it is nice to get your egg in perfect condition, but does it really need to come swaddled in corrugated body armor? Look for the candies that come in the least amount of packaging. Cadbury Schweppes has the idea and is now offering eggs wrapped only in foil and without a cardboard box, cutting the company’s Easter packaging by 798,073 pounds.

The Chocolate:
As most of us know, chocolate comes from the cocoa bean, a crop harvested in some of the most economically and environmentally disadvantaged parts of the third world. According to reports from the BBC and New York Times, cocoa producing regions are rife with environmental and humanitarian iniquity.

This Easter, why give your children chocolate made from the sweat and sometimes even blood of less fortunate children? Swap the waxy dollar-store chocolate for organic and fair trade alternatives. Fair trade certification ensures chocolate is made under both environmental and humanitarian standards. According to the Fair Trade Organization (FTO), these standards are quite stringent, ensuring the minimum use and safe handling of agrochemicals, conservation of water, controls on gathering from the wild and deforestation, a ban on GMO (Genetically Modified Organism). For a list of delicious organic and fair trade chocolate options click here.

The Bunnies: Live or Stuffed?
According to the House Rabbit Society, a national, nonprofit bunny welfare organization, each spring, unwanted “former Easter rabbits” fill local rescues, humane societies and worse dumpsters. Unless you’re in it for the long haul and know how to take care of one, please, don’t put a live bunny in your Easter basket! Leave little Peter Cottontail be . . . to hop down the old bunny trail . . . hippity hoppity, Easter’s on its way.

Happy Easter! Please leave your greener Easter suggestions in the comments section.

For more posts like this from Olivia Zaleski check out her weekly column on the Huffington Post