giveaway

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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This is a guest post By Sandra Mendoza-Daly at DebutanteClothing.com

Sandra Mendoza-Daly is the owner and editor of Debutanteclothing.com. The blog features news, tips and resources on all things vintage. It’s a must read if you love vintage. The shop is loaded with wearable vintage which has been carefully selected by Sandra herself. No frumpy or dated items in this store! Sandra is on a mission to teach the world how to incorporate vintage with modern clothing.

When it comes to accessories, women are usually in one of two camps: shoes and handbags. I’m part of the handbag camp. I love bags of all shapes and sizes, every decade, and a variety of materials. But shopping for vintage handbags is one of my favorite pastimes. Shopping for vintage purses can be a real treasure hunt, with some designer names and styles worth a small fortune. Before you set out for shopping for your next vintage bag, here are a few pointers to help you find a purse you will treasure forever.

  • Buy What You Love

    This old adage is true of any collectible, but especially true when you are shopping for vintage bags you actually want to wear. Always buy what makes your eyes dance and your arm or hand feel like it’s carrying a work of art.

  • Less is More

    Vintage bags do tend to run smaller – women didn’t have Blackberries and iPods back in the good old days. Be sure to buy a bag that will be roomy enough to hold just the essentials. Think of it as a junk in your bag diet.



Some of my favorite Day Bags:

Leather satchels

Vintage Coach Bag: $75

Vintage Coach Bag: $75

Totes

Vintage Gucci Bag

Vintage Gucci Bag

Structured

Vintage Navy Blue Faille Kelly: $39.49

Vintage Navy Blue Faille Kelly: $39.49




And favorite Evening Bags:

Plastic

Vintage Lucite "Bag": $250

Mesh & Beaded

Vintage clutch: $20

Vintage clutch: $20



How to Care For Your Bag

  1. Keep in a dark, cool place like a closet. It’s hard not to display these beauties, but keeping them out of light or harsh temperatures will keep them around for another 50 years.
  2. Keep them in a dust bag. You can make your own out of a clean pillow case.
  3. Clean with a damp, soft cloth. Do not wash or spray your bag with any harsh chemicals.



Great Places to Shop for Handbags

Etsy.com

Decodame.com

Bagladyemporium.com

ModBag.com


Giveaway!!

Do you love vintage handbags? Want to win one? Sandra has been so gracious to allow one winner her choice of either a lovely vintage satin clutch or a cute mustard pleather & plastic clutch.

enter to win a vintage clutch enter to win a vintage clutch

Ways to enter to win:

leave a comment here and tell me which one suits your style better – the classic black, or the edgy mustard? (I personally would rock the mustard pleather/vinyl clutch!)

Follow Sandra on twitter – leave a comment back here confirming your follow to be entered to win.

RT this post using the button below

Good Luck! Giveaway ends next Monday, August 17th and the winner will be chosen by random.org.

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15% off at Beklina + $100 Giveaway!

by grechen on August 3, 2009 | SUBSCRIBE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK |

All this month (August 2009), whenever you make a purchase at Beklina using the “grechen15″ code for 15% off, you’ll be automatically entered to win a $100 gift certificate from Beklina! (the 15% off code is not valid on sale items or pre-orders).

In case you need any ideas on what to buy :)

Mociun Tee

Mociun Tee

ORGANIC Tuxedo shirt

ORGANIC Tuxedo shirt

Skin & Threads Cardi

Skin & Threads Cardi

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**this giveaway is closed! thanks to all who entered**

the winner is…as chosen by random.org…
ggbtcrandom
comment #22: Joanna Smith!!

Happy Monday – that means it’s time for another fabulous giveaway! This week, BTC Elements is giving away this super-fabulous yellow one-piece swimsuit by Kelly B made from bamboo, organic cotton & spandex:

eco-friendly swimsuit giveaway from btc elements

Okay, so now you want to win one?! Here’s how:

One visitor will be chosen randomly after Sunday, August 9, 2009 and notified by e-mail.

Multiple ways to win – each one counts as one or more entries; do one or all of them, but remember to leave a comment after each RT and twitter, facebook, or blog entry. THE ONLY entries that count are comments (I assign each comment a number, then use random.org to select the winner). If you do not leave a comment here after each entry, you will not get credit for that entry.

Follow BTC Elements on twitter! (they post a different deal-a-day with an exclusive twitter code…totally worth following!) Please leave a comment here again once you do so your e-mail will be counted again.

Leave a comment on this post telling me where you’d like to wear this bathing suit (vacation destination, pool at home, etc.)

Leave another comment with your favorite item from BTC Elements

Tweet about the contest on twitter with a link to the contest page (use the button at the end of this post). Come back here and leave a comment with a link to your tweet so I can add your extra entry. (you can RT the contest more than once…but you’ll max out at 5 extra entries for tweets…and that will also count as an extra entry – just remember to leave a comment back here every time you do)

Subscribe to blog e-mail updates (an e-mail will come the morning after new blog posts are published – no new posts, no e-mail!)

Powered by MailChimp

don’t forget to leave a comment after you subscribe!!

Follow me on twitter! Come back and post a comment here with your twitter name so I can verify – and follow you back!

Post about the contest on your facebook page then come back here and leave a comment for your extra entry.

Post about the contest on your blog – please post back here with a link in case I don’t get a pingback…

Good Luck!!

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**this contest is now closed**

Happy Monday – that means it’s time for another fabulous giveaway! This week, Cosa Verde is giving away two Keepsake Necklaces by pica pica (one necklace to two winners, one will be filled, and one will be empty for you to fill with your own keepsake):

enter to win a keepsake necklace from cosa verde and pica pica jewelry

I’ve always loved glass jars of all shapes and sizes, but I especially love the teeny tiny ones (which are antique glass vials originally used to hold pocket watch parts) like the ones Liz uses on her Keepsake Necklaces. There’s just something about these small glass vials that makes them more special – like they could hold a secret.

Check out pica pica on Cosa Verde along with other green, independent designers handpicked by Liz and her partner to be featured on their site. I love Cosa Verde because it’s a tightly curated, only eco-friendly “portal” to etsy; it makes shopping for locally made, independently designed eco-friendly items SO much easier than just doing a search. And everything featured at Cosa Verde is just as cute and interesting as these keepsake necklaces.

Okay, so now you want to win one?! Here’s how:

Two visitors will have a chance to win two keepsake necklaces – one filled and one empty. The contest will close this Sunday, July 26 and winners will be chosen randomly.

Multiple ways to win – each one counts as one or more entries; do one or all of them:

Leave a comment on this post telling me what you’d put in your keepsake necklace. Do you have a special little object you’d want to keep in this lovely glass vial?

Tweet this message: RT @greedygrechen: think big, shop small @cosaverde eco-friendly marketplace http://www.cosaverde.com

Tweet about the contest on twitter with a link to the contest page (use the button at the end of this post). Come back here and leave a comment with a link to your tweet so I can add your extra entry. (you can tweet the contest more than once…but you’ll max out at 5 extra entries for tweets…and that will also count as an extra entry – just remember to leave a comment back here every time you do)

Follow Cosa Verde on twitter! Please leave a comment here again once you do so your e-mail will be counted again.

Follow me on twitter! Come back and post a comment here with your twitter name so I can verify – and follow you back!

Become a fan of Cosa Verde on Facebook! Remember to come back here and leave another comment!!

Post about the contest on your facebook page then come back here and leave a comment for your extra entry.

Post about the contest on your blog – please post back here with a link in case I don’t get a pingback…

Good Luck!!

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