Feelgood Style

Gisele Bundchen recently gave birth to a gorgeous new baby but she’s been busy on all fronts with the launch of her new Sejaa Pure Skincare collection. Having graced the covers of more than 500 magazines, countless runway shows and too many ad campaigns to list here, you’d be forgiven for thinking she has time for little else. However, the amazonian beauty has been a Goodwill UN Embassador since 2009 and has been deeply involved in humanitarian and environmental issues throughout the course of her career. Only natural then that she would create a skincare collection that reflects her values, with pure natural ingredients that have as little impact on the earth as possible. Read the rest of this entry »

In a country where regulations of beauty products are non-existent, the Skin Deep Database was a revolutionary undertaking, providing access to safety information few others have the time or knowledge to decode.

The Skin Deep database, if you are unfamiliar with this resource, provides safety scores for an extensive range of personal care products and the ingredients found in them. Using a complex algorithm, ingredients for each product are entered into a database and, using the available research from around the world, a number from 0 to 10 is given for the product, based on the ratings for each of the ingredients.

As impressive and ambitious as the database is, the system is not perfect. Many reasons exist for this, perhaps none more important than the dearth of research on cosmetic ingredients, particularly regarding their long-term impact on health. The reality is that the Environmental Working Group has taken on what is essentially an impossible task, and they are doing the best they can.

My role as head of a natural beauty retailer has required me to become intimately familiar with the Skin Deep database. Through numerous experiences and conversations, I have come up with a system I believe makes the most of this resource. This Guide to the Skin Deep database is my attempt to help you make the most of the information the database provides, by outlining what to look for, what to ignore, and how to determine whether your favorite products are deserving of your hard-earned dollars. Read the rest of this entry »

Throughout history the Brits have charted a course that always seems just a little further out there, a little more edgy and a little more daring than their commonwealth counterparts. Leading the way as they’ve always done and completely counter to the common conception – shrinking violets & conservative types they are not! Launched today, this latest issue of Coco Eco Magazine celebrates all that is creative, cutting edge and chic about Brittania. A fashion exclusive with Stephen Jones OBE (one of the worlds greatest millners), Gary Harvey (eco-couture genius), Sir Richard Branson (need I say more), avante-garde fashion, coverage of Global Green + Eco Chic Geneva, and a retrospective of key makeup trends to emerge out of the UK that have shaped beauty as we know it. The issue is jam-packed from cover to cover with the icing on the cake… an eco-chic guide to London. Coco Eco is fast becoming the magazine of choice for smart girls everywhere who appreciate that green is gorgeous, glamorous and going places! Get your copy by clicking over to Coco Eco (www.cocoecomag.com) and signing up for a FREE subscription. Writer :: Emma Pezzack – www.futurenatural.com: the best organic beauty products in the world.

Photo Courtesy of Brandon Hickman

At the Global Green Pre-Oscar party last week, Suzy Amis Cameron’s eco Oscar gown was unveiled. It was lovely, but there was no mention of what made this gown more sustainable than most, other than it was colored “Na’vi blue”. This sort of vagueness is how people can easily be accused of greenwashing.  Even the interview with the designer did not include this pertinent information, only her discussing the challenge of creating an eco gown. Yes, it’s a little harder, but when price is not an issue it’s no harder than designing any other couture-quality gown.

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This week I met with Tierra Forte of TransFair USA, to discuss the new apparel certification pilot program they’re developing to extend fair trade benefits and protections beyond just the farm, but also for factory workers. I am very excited about this, as one of the main reasons I chose to pursue an MBA in Sustainability was to find a way to help improve labor conditions for apparel industry workers. Having worked in the US apparel industry for over a decade, I’ve witnessed the shift from domestic to foreign to predominantly Chinese manufacturing, and all of the benefits and difficulties that encompassed.

67% of American Consumers Don’t Know Fair Trade

The United States represents 30% of the fair trade market, even though only 33% of American consumers know what “fair trade” means. Have you explained it to your friends and family yet? I didn’t even know how environmentally rigorous the certification is until I dug into TransFair’s website. TransFair teaches and empowers producers to become stewards of their environment, so that Fair Trade Certified products are also environmentally responsible. For example, with apparel, they only approve factories which already meet the legal environmental standards. This is a big deal in countries where many textile mills dump toxic waste into the water supply as part of the dyeing and finishing processes. 58% of TransFair’s commodity products are also certified organic, and this is increasing.

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I used to think the smell of roses was something my grandmother might like but certainly wouldn’t pass the test of my modern girl olfactory senses. How wrong could I be! If you’ve ever plunged your nose into a fresh, powdery rose bloom on a warm day, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The new Double Rose Rejuvenating Cream from The Organic Pharmacy uses over 95% organic ingredients (most of which are cold-pressed), one of which is pure Persian Damask Rose. The smell is sheer bliss. A unique extract grown at 2,000 feet in the central region of Iran, the harvesting involves the entire village, who come together in May during the Rose harvest to pick the delicate flowers at dawn when moisture content is at its peak. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve read any of my posts about skin care products before you probably know I have issues with overly sensitive skin. Minor use of one tiny bit of the wrong thing makes me break out in all kinds of badness which could be anything from acne to hives.

Skin MD Natural may be just what the doctor ordered to solve my skin issues and give me radiant, healthy, break out free skin. Read the rest of this entry »

Having read a lot of recent coverage of the FTC’s August 2009 ruling about bamboo, I wonder what will become of brands whose staple fabric is “bamboo”? The problem is, most of these designers and the textile sales reps they buy from, were sold rayon fabric labeled as bamboo. Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber based on wood pulp. Sure, some of that wood pulp could be bamboo, but try getting a Chinese textile mill to tell you what they’re actually putting into the mix, as opposed to what they know you want them to tell you is in there.

While Viscose Rayon (known simply as Rayon in the US) is a wonderfully breathable fiber with great texture, strength, and drape-ability, it does require a lot of nasty chemicals to turn that wood pulp, bamboo or otherwise, into soft textile products. In Delia Montgomery’s recent article on the subject, one of the comments mentions the impact of cotton, complaining that cotton has a more negative net impact than bamboo.

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Dance is a good antidepressant! Studies show dance boosts happiness and benefits overall health by:

• stimulating the hippocampus, the brain area that regulates moods.
• sparking new nerve growth in the brain with body coordination.
• building repeated mental patterns and creating new pathways with each new move learned.
• relieving and preventing depression with endorphins and releasing several other happy hormones.
• increasing neural transmission especially when combined with singing and music, in fact, new scientific studies show that any live drumming builds neuroreceptors for folks with ADHD. Wow.
• doubling the brain’s blood and oxygen levels when done aerobically, circulating neurotransmitters.
• building muscles and helping to prevent heart disease.
• offering hope in the battle of Alzheimer’s since dance helps increase the temporal and prefrontal activity to improve communication skills, memory, and attention.
• helping kids of all ages work and think faster, and form new interconnections in their minds.

The intangible aspects of dance, the magic we feel inside when dancing, help us realize the non-physical benefits of this ancient healing art. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people, when starting out with green beauty products, have no idea where to begin.  Which products should I purchase first?  Which will my skin like?  And which are truly safe products, for that matter?

There are several online retailers who help with these decisions and get your new green beauty regimen off to a great start.  Simply, easily, and without spening a lot of money.  These are also worth a look if you already have a green beauty routine in place and would like to try a few different products.  It is always fun to sample new stuff! Read the rest of this entry »