Green Options

I’m a believer in voting with our dollars to send companies a message about what we, as consumers, want and that message is ringing through loud and clear. Consumer demand guides retail decisions - plain and simple.  With organic beauty brands popping up at what seems to be lightning fast speeds these days, its evident consumers are speaking and companies are listening.  It’s undoubtedly exciting there are more organic options popping up on the scene at a steady pace, but it can also be very confusing and overwhelming for consumers to distinguish a truly organic brand from one that isn’t when labels and price points can be similar.

It’s all about ingredients.  But how can we decide when we can’t locate the ingredients and when we finally do, are they really organic? 

The concept that we must cleanse both inside and out resonates loudly with me. As one who has experienced the benefits of seasonal detoxing and who believes we should be mindful of what we put on our bodies and what we put into them, I was excited to recently discover SoCal Cleanse, a company who advocates the importance of both.

My passion for organics began with food. Not long after becoming more aware of what I consume, I began to wonder why I would be feed my skin with anything else. It simply made no sense to be conscientious about one and not the other.

It seems Germany has always been ahead of us in terms of placing value on the natural and the pure. Its not a fad, phase or new concept for them its simply their way of life. So it comes as no surprise that some of the great organic skin care geniuses have come from Germany and I’m genuinely excited to introduce you to yet another.

Amala (ah-mah-la) translates to “most pure” in Sanskrit, “revered mother” in Tibetan and “love her” in Spanish. This exclusive collection is for those seeking an intersection of luxury and purity. Ute Leube, creator and founder behind this pampering brand knows her ingredients, inside and out, backwards, forwards, up and down and has strong convictions about what is “responsible skin care”. She and business partner, Kurt L. Nübling are some of the world’s experts in the cultivation of organic botanicals and have been for the past 20+ years. Up until now, they’ve been known for their extensive and popular organic essential oil line (and anti-aging skin care), Primavera Life; which can be found throughout Europe in most drugstores and health food markets and scarcely available online in the U.S. This past May, Amala made its world debut in Singapore with great success and is currently only available in America in select upscale spas and online.

Making it’s debut at the All Things Organic Expo comes Revolution Organics, a brand new USDA Certified Organic skin/body line fresh out of Canada. “We really wanted to make our products look chic while still maintaining the highest level of organic integrity” says Co-Founder, Melissa Shabinsky. All plastic containers are recyclable and the packaging is made from post consumer recycled content. Their first products including a 22+ uses All Over Body Balm, Skin Creme and Lip Balm are scheduled to launch on Beauty.com October 1st. And that’s not all! Plans to roll out a color collection as well as a bath and body line are in the works and expected to be available later this year through early ‘09.