Green Options

In celebration of their newly obtained organic certification, Bubble & Bee Organic is giving away a of couple fabulous (and brand new) products.  Get a free Rude Raspberry Lip Balm with any purchase.  Purchase over $35 worth of goodies and get a Lotion Stick as well.  Buy over $65 and they will even throw in free shipping.

Tune your television to the Today Show on NBC (check your local listings) tomorrow morning, Friday April 24th, for a bit on “green” beauty products by Kelly Magill of Positively Green Magazine.  One of the products she will be featuring is Bubble & Bee’s Lemongrass Rosemary deodorant, relative of Pit Putty, which I raved on about back in January.  All Bubble & Bee deodorants are made without propylene glycol, aluminum or parabens.  They also work really well and smell terrific!  So be sure to check out the segment and see what else Kelly has in store.

Using nontoxic organic beauty products should be a no-brainer by now, as we all know that what you put on is as important as what you put in.  Today you can effectively swap out any conventionally produced, toxin-laden product for a safer version that looks and acts just like its synthetic loaded counter-part.

Yet, many still opt for simpler skincare and go homemade.  While this is an easy and cost-effective route, there are certain products that need to be created, manufactured and packaged by professionals to provide the results and safety we all want and need.  Whipping up an exfoliant or cleanser is do-able and even fun.  Hair products and makeup are a completely different ballgame.

If you have not yet heard of Bubble and Bee let me put the bug in your ear.  This maker of organic personal care items is making waves in the world of safe organics.  Their fun products are nontoxic and made with the best ingredients they can get their hands on. The line touts lotion sticks, lip balms and shower gels, to mention a few.

But their stand out product, in my humble opinion, has to be Pit Putty.  This stuff really works and best of all, it’s aluminum-free.  Like your typical organic deodorant this one controls odor, but unlike others it even seems to help keep you dry.  It is made with organic arrowroot powder, which absorbs wetness and doesn’t cause skin irritation like baking soda can.  Pit Putty also contains organic extra virgin coconut oil for moisture and essential oils to keep you smelling nice.  Comes in two scents; Lemon and Clove (unisex) and Geranium Lime (more girly).

Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh are writing a series on the impacts of everyday things. They will be posting previews on the Green Options Media blog network before launching the posts on Huffington Post. Here’s a sneak peek at what happens in the shower.

The magical cleaning agent in your bar of hygiene is likely cow fat or oil from, say, coconut. At the manufacturing plant, a chemical process removes the valuable glycerin in the fats and oils to be used in other products. The leftovers are mixed with sodium hydroxide and then blasted dry to form soap pellets, which are then mixed with the colorants, fragrances and other ingredients that allow a humble soap to go by the name of Carribean Breeze or Lilac Meadow.

While the production of soap—or anything, really—has environmental repercussions all its own, the pretty smells in our personal care products are, perhaps, the issue most worth examining here. Many of the chemicals producing fine aromas have been linked to not-so-fine human ailments or tested on animals, and their disposal—down your shower drain in a sudsy stream—fills our water system with chemicals that do not readily biodegrade (or breakdown).

Now, how about a shave?

Editor’s note: Deodorant may not be a prime topic for polite conversation, but we all use it. Our friends at Life Goggles tried out Bionsen’s product, which features Japanese spa minerals as materials (and we’re not sure what that means, either). Looks like this is a product mainly for European readers… any US-based users? This post was originally published on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. (and please note: Bionsen’s web presence is a bit funky… there is a site here, but it doesn’t seem to include this product).

Bionsen kindly sent me a bottle of its deodorant for me to test. Usually I’m a spray deodorant kind of guy but not being able to send aerosols through the post, I opted for the pump spray. At £2.49 it’s not unreasonable, although I tend to choose my spray by being on special offer so is probably a little more than I would pay normally.

I was also reticent about the pump spray and the fact it would be wetter on my underarms, but I’ll try anything so I plowed on. Bionsen is a hypoallergenic range containing Japanese spa minerals (whatever they are) and is aluminum and paraben free. There’s some science behind the deodorant, as instead of it blocking the sweat glands like anti-perspirants, Bionsen (and other deodorants) tackle the odor instead. The “antiseptic agents and germ-killing ingredients target and kill the bacteria that causes body odor on contact. Fragrances also work to combat body odor but the natural, finely-tuned balance of the body is not affected”.

I often wonder why our beauty products do not come with warning labels; most of them are filled with toxins harmful to our bodies and our environment. Ingredients such as parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate, germall, coal tar derivatives, urea, phthalates, toluene, formaldehyde, mineral oil, propylene glycol, triclosan, DEA, TEA, MEA, synthetic fragrances, PEG, BHA, and petroleum. Many of these ingredients have been confirmed to cause a wide range of cancers, reproductive concerns, allergies, and a sizeable list of health problems. Furthermore the ingredients which pollute our bodies also pollute the environment.To see the health effects of your current cosmetics check out the Environment Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. In the search field of the website, type your brand of cosmetics, or simply type one of its ingredients. Information will appear using a 1–10 ratio scale; 10 being the most harmful brand or ingredient.Your skin is your largest organ. It is porous; everything you apply on your body seeps into your pores. Therefore, what you put on your body is as important as what you put in it. Why not use beauty products kind to animals, kind to the planet, and kind to you?

What’s the solution?After much research concerning cosmetics which are safe, yet provide the desired results, I’ve found a great website to share: Holistic Beauty.