Picky about your soap? Here’s one that meets all sorts of socio-eco criteria you can come up with. Chivas Skin Care soaps are made with organic ingredients, fair trade shea butter that supports a women’s co-op in Togo, Africa, and the fresh milk from two French alpine goats that are raised humanely by a local family in Ventura County, Calif.!

Chivas Skin Care was founded by Donna and Lauren Johanson, a mother-and-daughter team that bought the goats to get healthy milk, yogurt, and cheese for the family — but soon found the goats produced way more milk than they could keep up with! Thus, a soap company was born.

Now, Chivas has a line of six soaps — some of which incorporate herbs like spearmint from the family garden. Watch how these soaps get crafted in this short video put together by Lime.com:

I loved the smooth texture of Chivas’ soaps, which smelled great and left my skin feeling moisturized. Plus, the weighty 4-oz bars last a very long time, more than making the up for the $9 sticker price.

But while the Chivas team’s clearly honed its soap-making skills, the facial cremes left a lot to be desired. What I found in the jar I got was not creme as I know it, but a whitish curd-like goo-island floating in oils! Ick!

Hopefully Chivas will perfect its facial creme as it has the soaps. In the meantime, you can get Chivas Skin Care soaps — including some very cute gift sets for the holidays — on the company website.
[crossposted on BlogHer]

5 Comments

Eco-fashionistas feeling the economic downturn: Now comes a green fashion magazine — that’s FREE to view online!

Coco Eco, which debuted at the Designers + Agents Green Market earlier this month, is a paper-free fashion zine that features the latest in green fashions. Anna Griffin, Coco Eco’s editor in chief, says “We carefully considered whether or not to go to print but decided in our commitment to the environment, to forgo that option.” I’m guessing the higher cost of print publishing also played a role, but cutting out that cost also lets you read Coco Eco free!

Browse through the pages for glam green fashion shoots, features on eco-friendly beauty products, profiles on green boutiques, and short interviews with environmentalists in the beauty and fashion world. If you need a few pieces to add to your eco-wardrobe, the back pages have all the details on where to pick up the fashion pieces you saw in the mag’s pages.

The one thing I don’t like about Coco Eco is all the technical kinks in its web format. For first-time readers, Coco Eco’s viewing app can take a few minutes to figure out. For best results, I recommend going full screen (5th button from the left on top navigation bar), or the images will look oddly squished.

Coco Eco has one other techy problem: Unless you have a very speedy internet connection, you might find the zine a bit frustrating to get through. Even on my DSL line, I was seeing a lot of this:

Impatient readers do have the option of downloading a PDF copy of Coco Eco for $2.99 (99 cents of which is donated to breast cancer research) — though figuring out how to do that’s tricky too, as there are no instructions anywhere but on the second last page of the magazine. Once you navigate to that page, you’ll see a “buy now” button that’ll let you make your purchase.

Hopefully Coco Eco will work out the kinks with their next issues. In the meantime, enjoy the inaugural issue and sign up to get an email update when new issues come out by clicking over to the third-to-last page.

[crossposted on BlogHer]

0 Comments

I know I complain a lot about how a lot of so-called eco-friendly personal care products just don’t work right. But I’m happy to say I’ve found a line I really, really like: Arcona.

I discovered Arcona when I got an organic facial at the salon, which apparently has a long list of celebrity clientele, including Sofia Coppola, Jessica Biel and Adrien Brody, though I haven’t spotted anyone famous there myself –

In any case, Arcona’s now my fave place for facials — and my skin care staples are Arcona products too. Arcona has this “Basic Five” skin care method — which requires five products — though usually I only use 3 of them, mainly because I’m reviewing new products. None, however, have surpassed the 3 Arcona products I love — all of which contain no petrochemicals, parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate, perfumes, or dyes:

>> Toner Tea Bar, a daily face cleanser that’s well worth the money because each bar lasts a really, really long time.

>> Magic White Ice, a light daily moisturizer.

>> Cranberry Gommage, a few-times-weekly exfoliating scrub.

The ingredients in all of these products are ranked “low hazard” by Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, except for the Grapefruit Seed Extract, which gets a “moderate hazard” ranking of 3, and Lecithin (only in the bar), which gets a 3-6 hazard ranking IF ingested or left on the skin.

Arcona recommends a different “Basic Five” regimen depending on skin type, but if you go in for a facial, you’ll likely leave with samples of the five recommended for you, as I did. My aesthetician’s Brandi, and I recommend her to everyone — Ask for her!

The ARCONA Studio. 425 Broadway. Santa Monica. 310.458.3800.

3 Comments

Get clean, save the rainforest. That’s the message eco personal-care company Save Your World’s sending out. Buy any shampoo, lotion, soap, or other pampering product — all paraben-free, vegan, and made with fair trade ingredients — and you’ll save at least one acre of the Guyana rainforest in South America.

Yep — unlike the vague promises of companies that say they’ll send “a percentage of the profits” to an eco-org, Save Your World’s promise is concrete and transparent. Basically, each product Save Your World sells sends between 15 cents to $4.50 (depending on the price of the product) to enviro nonprofit Conservation International, which uses the money to pay annual lease fees to keep the rainforest from logging companies. Incredibly, it only costs 15 cents to preserve an acre for a year!

And also incredibly, the eco-friendly products do their job! I especially liked the shampoos, which worked refreshingly well, especially compared to some of the disastrous results I got from other eco hair products. The shampoos cleansed, the conditioners detangled and moisturized, and the body wash lathered up nicely.

Even better, Save the World products all get a “low hazard” score of 1 or 2 — except the lotions, which get a “moderate risk” 3 — from Environmental Working Group’s cosmetic safety database, Skin Deep.

My one qualm had to do with some of the natural fragrances, which some might find too strong — or too funky. The “oasis fruit” scented stuff smells very much like Tang, for one! And the “rainforest” scented conditioner and shower gel had a strangely sweet, medicinal scent (though oddly, the shampoo did not). I also found that the lotions seemed thinnish and took a while to absorb — though once absorbed, my skin felt v. well moisturized.

What I really, really liked are the exfoliating bars — soap with a little scrubby grain to them — and am planning to make a permanent switch to them (sorry Dr. Bronner’s!). Save Your World products are conveniently available at Whole Foods and The Vitamin Shoppe — as well as online.

[crossposted on BlogHer]

5 Comments

Question: Kind of a random question, have you ever written anything about natural hair dye? I searched your blog and on BlogHer, but didn’t find anything. As I approach my 39th b-day the gray hairs are coming in like crazy and I’m not digging them. Tried a coffee rinse, but it didn’t work. Would love to see a post on my options, and you know BlogHer readers would love it! B.

Answer: Because gray hairs are not coming in like crazy for me yet, I can’t say I’ve written much about hair dye. But from the little I know, I know this: 1) Henna’s really the only natural hair dye, and 2) Henna isn’t all that great at covering grays.

As for the rest of the hair dyes out there: Many call themselves natural, but these are more accurately called “somewhat more natural” than the conventional stuff. In fact, a trip to a regular drug store will make clear that even v. conventional hair color companies are coming out with “green” lines — but that those lines’ eco-features are v. v. difficult to pin down.

To make things even more confusing, every so-called natural hair color has its own “natural” standard. For ex, Susan Henry’s “eco” line used at Shades Hair Studio contains parabens but no ammonia, while EcoColors used at Nori’s EcoSalon contains ammonia but no parabens. Those with sensitivities to one or the other need to make their choices accordingly.

I’ve been to Shades Hair Studio, and can honestly say that older women who got their hair done looked fantastic, and that the place doesn’t have the gross, artificial smell you get at regular salons — which makes me think the stuff’s gotta be markedly better than the conventional stuff while working quite well. I haven’t been to Nori’s, so I don’t know if EcoColors does the same.

I hope that at least points you in the right direction. Readers: Have you researched and/or tried “natural” hair color? Share your knowledge in the comments.

4 Comments

As you know, I’m not a huge fan of Aubrey Organics; its skin care products suck. And while Aubrey Organics offers an impressive number of organic certified personal care products, and is known as an eco company overall, not all of its stuff gets the best rankings on Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database. Aubrey’s Rosa Mosqueta Nourishing Shampoo, for example, gets a “moderate risk” ranking of 3.

Still, I gave the products a try. Rosa Mosqueta Nourishing Shampoo was okay, but not v. impressive. This product, which is supposed to be good for all hair types but great for color-treated hair, was more watery than most shampoos. The stuff didn’t lather well, making it difficult for anyone with long hair to spread throughout.

That said, I actually liked the Blue Camomile Hydrating Conditioner quite a bit. The stuff’s thinner than most conditioners, but I found it worked quite well as a detangler! Plus it’s ranked a low risk 2 on EWG.

I tend to like my shampoo and conditioner to come from the same company, but if I have trouble finding a pair of matching eco hair care products, I may very well start using Aubrey Organics Blue Camomile Hydrating Conditioner as my regular conditioner.

2 Comments

I gave organic certified hair products a try — and those sucked — so I moved on to Miessence hair products, which are greener than most and quite safe and eco — but not organic certified.

I’m now sad to report that Aubrey Organics isn’t the only green company selling products that separate into weird components.

While I wasn’t a huge fan of Miessence Organics’ skin care products, those were at least passable. Not so Miessence’s hair products. The shampoo wasn’t horrible — I tried both the Desert Flower and Lemon Myrtle varieties — but both of them had that same oily residue problem I reported about the face stuff. In addition, both shampoos were both so thin that I had to use an inordinately large amount — which seemed wasteful.

The conditioner was worse. When I opened the Miessence Shine Herbal Hair Conditioner, I discovered the ingredients separated. What I saw was a watery substance with lumpy, um, lumps, floating on a more conditioner-like, somewhat less watery whitish substance. The stuff smelled vaguely sour. All of it was very thin and didn’t work very well as a detangler.

Let me emphasize: Not all green hair products are bad. I’ve just been trying out a lot of products, some of which don’t work, just as some conventional hair products also don’t work. I’ll do a roundup of all of this soon, so enviro people will know what to avoid and what to embrace.

Anyone used Miessence hair products and actually liked it?

2 Comments

After having tried three facial moisturizers from Aubrey Organics, I think I can safely say the eco-company’s facial care line’s not for me.

The latest item I tried: Aubrey Organics Green Tea & Ginkgo Moisturizer with SPF 15. Not only did the moisturizer separate into two layers — yellowish oil on top with a thinnish milk-scum-esque substance on the bottom — actually attempting to remix and use the concoction made me break out. To add insult to injury, the sunscreen in this moisturizer gets a horrendous ranking on Skin Deep!

Previously, I’d tried Aubrey’s Blue Green Algae with Grape Seed Extract moisturizer with SPF 15 and the Natural Herbal Maintenance Oil Balancing moisturizer — both of which also made me break out.

The only product of Aubrey I’ve really liked is the Lumessence rejuvenating eye creme (scores a “moderate hazard” 3 on Skin Deep), which comes in an uncharacteristically attractive package and works like eye cream’s supposed to. However, I’ve entered a consolidation phase of sorts, where I think what I use for my face should be gentle enough for my eye area too, thereby allowing me to cut back on the number of products I buy. Thus, I’m unlikely to buy this Aubrey product again….

Of course, it’s possible that Aubrey’s just not a good match for my particular skin type; maybe it works for others of you. Anyone use Aubrey Organics skin care products on a regular basis?

1 Comments

So in order to give organic certified hair care products a chance, I tried Dr Bronner’s Organic Shikakai Conditioning Rinse, despite my reservations about its potential crunchiness.

Now I know for sure the stuff’s way too crunchy for me.

Why? Well, let’s start with the ingredients. This rinse is made of organic lemon juice, fatty acids, and oils — as well as a mysterious substance called “organic shikakai powder” that, according to the back of the rinse bottle, comes “from the seed pods of the small South Asian tree Acacia Concinna” This powder, unfortunately, makes the rinse look a lot like very runny diarrhea — exhibit right.

The problem’s not just aesthetics, however. There’s ease-of-use issues too. One has to pour a couple capfuls of the rinse into a separate glass, add water, then “slowly pour while massaging into hair.” This process — although not terribly lengthy — seemed to me a unnecessarily involved compared to regular conditioners.

But I duly created the watery cocktail and and poured it into my head — to find the stuff stung my skin! I’d accidentally scratched myself with a fingernail earlier in the day (it happens), and when a bit of this rinse got on it, the scratch smarted as if I’d squeezed lemon juice directly into it — which is essentially what I’d done by using the rinse.

The pain aside, the rinse left my hair feeling slightly oily after I washed out as much as I could. Some people may like this moisturizing effect — vikas1985 of Health and Skin Care Tips recommends shikakai for dry hair, for example — but I don’t have dry hair and didn’t like the residue at all.

To be fair, the oil did, rather surprisingly, absorb into my hair after it dried. And the rinse did work well as a detangler, which I appreciated. And although reader Elise got ripped off at Whole Foods and paid $10 for her 8 oz bottle, I got mine at my local co-op for just $4.85.

But I’m just not willing to put up with a more cumbersome hair care routine — especially one that requires that I never have any scratches or paper cuts for fear of stinging pain.

Just to be clear, I do like Dr. Bronner’s and use its soap. The company even makes a Shikakai Soap, which cricket at plucky tree recommends. Another Dr. Bronner’s product — Organic Baby Shaving Gel — also contains shikakai and is recommended by Hali Felice at Damn I Like That! I may actually try giving that one a whirl in the future –

But to get back to conditioner: Since this hair rinse is the only organic certified hair conditioner-like product on the market, I’m now going to have to move on to the non-certified, but still green as possible hair care options. Next up are Miessence and Aubrey’s — wish me luck and less pain!

[crossposted on BlogHer]

6 Comments

How flexie a shampooer are you? I ask because in my green care exploration, I found out that organic certified hair products are — different.

From my research, I’ve only found two organic certified hair care lines: Dr. Bronners and Terressentials. However, both those lines don’t offer “normal” shampoos and conditioners.

Dr. Bronners recommends using soap as shampoo — then using a “Hair Rinse” instead of a conditioner. Difference between a hair rinse and a conditioner? The former requires a cup and mixing:

Just stir 1- 2 capfuls of this rinse into a cup of water, close eyes and slowly pour while massaging into hair. Keep hand combing hair until hair feels entirely sleek (~30 seconds). Rinse out well. Repeat if necessary in extra hard water conditions or with longer hair.

Terressentials also offers a “Hair Rinse” — but as a shampoo substitute. Difference between a hair rinse and a shampoo: The former requires you to put your hair through a lengthy “detox protocol” that recommends two to three washings for the first four days or so. Considering the fact that I don’t even shampoo every day, this “detox” seems rather onerous….

Using a bar soap as shampoo’s not unique to organic certified products. Many fans of Lush, for ex, swear by the soap-as-shampoo dealio. These hair rinses — defined either as a shampoo or conditioner depending on the company — are in a class of their own however. I’m wondering how many of you’ve tried these shampoo / conditioner alternatives — and how many of you would be willing to try them in the future:

If you’ve tried either of those products, please share your experience with the rest of us! I’m also curious about the popularity of bar shampoos (or bar soaps used as bar shampoos):

8 Comments