eco-beauty

To wrap-up eco-beauty week, here’s a wonderful post by Stancie Wilson of Fig+Sage on her personal favorite beauty products (I’m totally trying all of them…)

Stancie Wilson is an avid researcher who’s passionate about organics and the personal care industry and is eagle-eyed when it comes to ingredients. She’s not a hippie or treehugger (though nothing wrong with that), she’s a working woman with a full-time career in the communications industry who loves spreading the word about truly pure and stylish products, helping educate others about the dangers of toxic ingredients and hopes to help others dicifer products that are greenwashed and those that are truly green.

She’s Co-Founder and Editor of the popular blog, Fig+Sage™ [www.figandsage.com] which won the 2009 Top Blog Award named one of the “Best Blogs By Women” by Blogtrepreneur, is featured in Alltop and was recently awarded Blog Pick Of The Day by RedOrbit. Gaining rapid popularity since its inception in March ‘08 is no surprise given its honest and refreshing voice in a sea of “crunchy” green blogs. It is the go-to online resource for discovering hip organic and fresh eco finds with a heavy emphasis on organic beauty.

Stancie is also Beauty and Fashion Editor for Feelgood Style [www.feelgoodstyle.com] and was the first to be awarded the ‘Eco-Friendly Expert Maven’ title by ThisNext.com last year where her recommendations are followed by millions of shoppers.

If you’re like most consumers its likely you’re overwhelmed at the sheer number of brands claiming this and that when it comes to natural and organic beauty.  At times you may even feel like a deer in headlights with so many options and claims being hurled your direction by savvy marketers.  Its important to remember there are brands who have a genuine passion for creating products with both performance and purity in mind and as one who has tried, tested, slathered, smoothed and used countless natural and organic beauty products, I’m  going to share with you some of my favorites, those shining stars that are now amongst my absolute must-haves, most of which are in my makeup bag right now.

 Intelligent Nutrients Anti-Aging Serum:

Its not often that I’m absolutely blown away by an entire skin care range, but this one does just that and its my #1 favorite (of the hundreds I’ve tried) at the moment.  Its no surprise really, considering Horst Rechelbacher is the brain behind this brilliant brand. He founded Aveda back in 1978, sold it to Estee Lauder in 2005 and is now the founder/formulator/visionary behind these USDA and Soil Association certified products, that prove “organic luxury” is not an oxymoron. I use just 1-2 drops for my entire face (including under eyes and eyelids), neck and décolleté.  If you have really dry skin, you’ll benefit from applying this before your moisturizer, but I just use the I.N. Serum at night and the I.N. Moisture in the morning.  Looking in a mirror in the morning can be scary, but I actually really look forward to it after I’ve used this serum.  Pores appears smaller, redness is gone and if there were any blemishes they have either vanished completed or on their way to recovery.  And I love the smell of this – fresh and herbal.  First glance at the price tag may raise eyebrows but considering how long this will last (approx. 6-8 months) and how your skin will adore it, its a total bargain.  In last months issue, Lucky Mag’s Beauty Editor raved about this serum, writing “there’s nothing better”.  In case you want to try it out before dropping a good amount of cash, the only places I know that offer samples sizes of Intelligent Nutrients are Spirit Beauty Lounge and The Nature Of Beauty

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Welcome to eco-beauty week at Green Grechen! All week we’ll be featuring guest posts by beauty bloggers with a special spotlight on greening your beauty routine. Today’s post is a great one to kick-off the week, featuring tips on how to choose & use eco-friendly beauty products and her own personal favorites for Fall, by Spirit Demerson, owner of Spirit Beauty Lounge (one of my favorite places to shop for eco-friendly beauty online – AND where you can save 15% with code “grechen15″)

spirit beauty lounge

More about Spirit:

Artist, activist and beauty school dropout, Spirit Demerson has spent many years testing, mixing, analyzing & searching for effective organic beauty products and ingredients. As a child she made her own perfumes using vanilla extract from the pantry and skin toner using fresh watermelon rind (her dads invention.) Cosmetology school was a natural choice but the lure of a modeling career beckoned and she left her native San Francisco Bay Area for NYC at the age of 18. Frustrated by the less-than-luxurious organic beauty selection available at natural foods markets and misleading labels at drugstores, she became an expert, spending hours obsessively researching ingredients, often mixing up batches of lotions and potions in her kitchen.

There are many different reasons why you may want to green your beauty routine – whether it’s out of concern for the environment, trying to avoid carcinogens and toxins for health reasons, or just trying to live a more natural lifestyle in general. One thing you must know is that up to 65% of what we put on our skin is absorbed into the bloodstream and knowing that, it’s definitely worth thinking about what we put on our skin the same way we think about what we eat. In my 10+ years in the beauty biz, I’ve come to realize that by and large, most women do care about the safety and sustainability of their cosmetics and personal care products but don’t want to have to sacrifice efficacy or even perceived luxury, to go green. At the end of the day, a product still has to perform and should still be a pleasure to use. That’s why I feel as an “eco-beauty activist”, the best way I can promote the cause is to provide a source for the best-of-the-best ethical and sustainable products out there and be an example of how the “green & glam” lifestyle has worked for me, without sacrificing a thing!

I’ve spent a lifetime using natural-based beauty products and I can tell you that today, not only are the offerings equal in quality and beauty to any conventional products, but many of them are even better; more effective, more pure, and more beautiful. So many friends, family members and now, customers, have told me that their skin and hair conditions have improved or been cured since switching to natural and organic beauty products. In my own battle with acne, I spent thousands on pharmaceuticals, prescription creams and drugstore treatments that always seemed to make my skin worse until finally starting an all-natural routine that changed my skin for life.

Cosmetic companies like Nvey Eco, RMS Beauty and Priti are proving that the killer chemicals in conventional products aren’t even necessary. You can get long-lasting, flawless results in every shade imaginable without the toxins so why wouldn’t you?! Greening your beauty routine can be fun and easy and I guarantee you’ll make the most of it with these 6 eco-beauty tips: [click to continue…]

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