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

Eco Chick Giveaway: Pamper yourself with a Spa Night from Pure Habitat

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by Starre Vartan · 09/12/10

Amy Ludwigson lives green and wants to share it with the world. To that end, she founded a resourceful new site, Pure Habitat. “I just launched Pure Habitat as a way to make it easier to shop from all the amazing companies that are committed to making the world a better place. From organic personal care products to eco jewelry and home décor we have everything you need to live consciously,” says Amy.

To celebrate Pure Habitat‘s launch, one lucky Eco Chick reader will a set of Amy’s favorite home spa goods from the site!

And EVERYONE can get 10% off their next purchase using the code ecochick2010 when you order.

To win: Leave a comment on something that makes you absolutely happy. When you fill in the comment field, it will ask for you email address. This is the address I will use to contact the winner, so use a real email.

Deets and Promises: Eco Chick does not sell, lease or lend any email addresses we collect. There will be one winner of the spa package. Giveaway ends Monday, Septmber 20th at Midnight EST. Good luck!

The Giveaway:

Amadine Oil from Arghand:

This oil is beautiful in the bath or for massage. It is handcrafted in Afghanistan by a coop that is helping to liberate people from their dependence on opium. All ingredients are pure and sourced from fruits and botanicals around Kandahar.

Girl Bath Salts by Buddha Nose:

This product is one of the items I would take if I were going be stranded on a deserted island. I love it that much. It soothes the mind and the best part – the salts really do help ease cramping. It’s seriously amazing.

PeaceKeeper Natural Nail Polish:

This nail polish has been rated by the Environmental Working Group as one of the safest natural nail polishes on the market. They give all their after tax profits to women’s health advocacy and urgent human rights issues.
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Beauty, giveaway, health, Organic, spa, stress relief, women

Lara Miller: Eco Fashion’s Quick Change Artist

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by Starre Vartan · 07/27/10

Eco Fashion designer Lara Miller is an Eco Chick fave; her supermodern, often convertible, sensuously romantic, yet travel-friendly designs are deceptively simple but always on point.

Lara says she didn’t plan her designs for the travelling types (though they suit us so well), but that her ideas come from a playful, fun place that happens to result in highly variable separates (think dresses that can be worn three ways, or trousers that have adjustable hems):

I graduated from a very conceptual design program at the School of the Art Institute where I researched Eadweard Muybridge images and architectual theory by Gregg Lynn. I was fascinated with the idea of animation and gestures in every day life, especially when getting dressed. I wanted to give the wearer a relationship to their pieces and allow them to be more individual. As my line and I have grown up, the functionality has really become key.

The Fern Flip wrap in recycled cotton
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2010, art, car, Chicago, clothing, cotton, design, dress, dresses, eco, fabric, fabrics, fall, fish, News, newspaper, north carolina, ny, paper, recycle, recycled, spa, t-shirt, t-shirts, Theory, travel

Barefoot Walking and Running: Best of Both Worlds with Vivo Barefoot Sneakers

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by Starre Vartan · 09/11/09

My Viva Terras. Cute on the trail or off.

Last summer, I was walking up from the beach at Gay’s Head on Martha’s Vineyard. (They’ve renamed the place Aquinnah, but I’m sticking with the original name, thank you very much) and then headed up the steep dunes, and over the top. When I got to where the sand meets the more rocky soil, I stopped to put my Chakos back on, but then decided to go barefoot instead.

As I walked up the path, seagrasses waving in the setting sun all around me, I could feel what was beneath my feet change. It started more sandy, and warmed from the sun, then small pebbles cropped up, and as I went around a bend, I felt the ground cool and dampen and the pebbles recede into the soft, more claylike walkway. As I headed up another rise, warmth again seeped between my toes, and as I reached the road to wait for the bus, the concrete burned my feet and I put my shoes on.

On that ten minute walk, I remembered something I knew as a child, which is that you miss tons of information from the earth when constantly wear shoes. I used to spend entire summers essentially barefoot (I grew up at the end of a dirt road in the Hudson Valley) and when I was 8 I could have told you how long it had been since rain from the viscosity of the mud that pushed between my toes since I spent hours I playing in the wetland next to my house. I don’t know if I could tell you that now, though I’m certain I could learn again.

Men’s Vivo Barefoots at the Terra Plana store.

So when a couple months ago I heard about the barefoot running movement, and the new book, Born to Run, I was intrigued. The premise is that our fancy $200 uberpadded sneakers are actually BAD for our bodies when running, and can actually cause or exacerbate injury. Which makes sense if you think about the fact that we have only been wearing such contraptions for about 20 years (flat, unpadded Converse All Stars were the sneaker of choice for basketball players for years). So I went hiking with a friend in Connecticut and took off my sandals and did a bit of trailrunning with naked feet, which was fun as long as I was careful (and this forces one to focus on each step, which is interesting). And then…

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book, car, comedy, decor, eating, farm, farms, health, Home, humor, kids, media, MTV, Organic, shoes, spa, style, summer, Target, Technology, trike, tv

Eco Chic Weekly 8/29/09

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by Amanda Quraishi · 08/29/09

Eco Chic Weekly compiles the best of the best in green fashion and beauty blogging each week. Please feel free to copy and use this post on your blog with a link back to Fashion, Evolved.

• Learn how to make ethical fashion choices and upcycle your existing wardrobe this week on Green Girls Global.
• Check out the Eco Fashion World interview with Maroussia Rebecq, founder of the Andrea Crews Collective.
• Eco-Chick has rounded up some Eco Fashion News from around the web!
• The Eco Diva goes local with Etsy.com!
• Learn about Bangladesh Garment Factories Going Fair Trade at Ethical Style!
• Check out Curatorial’s Limited Edition Collection featured on Feelgood Style.
• Green Grechen discusses the impacts of milk silk.
• Want to see some of the best organic fashion on sale today? Green Lashes and Fashion has a round up!
• 8 Ways to Get the Closest Eco Shave for Men and Women–on Greenopia!
• Inhabitat is featuring the very drool-worthy Noon Solar Bags.
• Modern Hippie Mag has a question about hair oil in their Ask the Beauty Chick column.
• Are You a Green Beauty? Take the Quiz on Planet Green!
• Upcycled bags are better the second time around…so says The Alternative Consumer!
• Join in the Vintage Jewelry Obsession this Fall at The Green Girls.
• The Thrifty Chicks are Standing Naked in a Thrift Store.
• Treehugger dishes on the 7 Common Cosmetics Ingredients You Need to Avoid!
• Fashion, Evolved interviews Jaszy McAllister creator of ethical, beautiful Jaszy’s Jewelry.

bags, Beauty, clothing, cosmetics, design, designer, Eco Chic Weekly, Eco Diva, Eco Fashion World, Eco-Chick, ecofashion, electronics, ethical, ethical fashion, ethical style, Etsy, Fair Trade, fall, Fashion, Feelgood Style, green beauty, Green Lashes and Fashion, habitat, Hair, Inhabitat, interview, Jewelry, local, Milk, mom, News, oil, Organic, organic fashion, PlanetGreen, silk, spa, style, The Green Girls, treehugger, upcycled, vintage, women

How Sustainable is Your Favorite Wine? Greenopia Rates 25 Wineries

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by Starre Vartan · 07/29/09

Greenopia has just rated 25 wineries for their environmental impact. Here’s why:

Any oenophile worth her spitting glass has heard the dire stories about how global warming will affect wineries, altering the very microclimates that make it possible to grow champagne in Champagne, France and enable growers to eke out a Pinot Noir under a very precise set of conditions. Wine production is a multibillion dollar-a-year industry in the United States, and wine-growing regions are set to migrate northward (or shrink- by up to 80%- disappear altogether) as warm days with moderating sea breezes shift with the increased temperatures, and general local and worldwide climate disruption alters the conditions and locales where grapes have been growing for hundreds of years.

So it makes sense that the wine industry (and vino lovers) would take action against climate change and environmental degradation.

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business, car, carbon, climate change, Eco-Chick, emissions, Food, Global Warming, health, local, Organic, produce, rape, resources, spa, sport, style, sustainability, sustainable, Target, Tea, transportation, treehugger, water, weather, Wildlife, Wine