Dear readers, help! We are seeking an awesome (smart, independent, energetic) assistant to help us manage this site and take it to the next level!

If you’ve ever sent us an email you know that we are spotty on response at best, totally MIA at worst. Well, here’s why: Other than the addition of Rebecca’s awesome posts we have nobody helping us run this site. No interns, no generous pals (well, OK, we have generous pals, just not ones who work on our site for free).

So we finally want to hire someone to help us get our s***t together and make this site a more awesome place to hang out. The job would be very part time—about 5 hours a week to start—and wouldn’t pay a whole lot at the beginning. So if you think this is you, it’s probably best that you have a second job or school and are excited at the prospect of helping this grow. The more competent the individual, the more likely this could one day turn into a full-time gig—and then some!

The person we’re looking for is:

—A total self-starter with a passion for connecting with people and growing communities

—Experienced or interested in marketing/PR/social media and writing

—Tech-savvy; Wordpress, Photoshop and social media skills a must

—Energetic with a positive attitude

—Business-minded

—Loves to socialize both on and off the web

—Passionate about clean beauty!

The job would involve:

—Checking and responding to NMDL emails daily

—Fielding our interview requests and pestering us to meet deadlines

—Managing relationships with brands and making new connections

—Exploring ways to monetize the site that don’t sacrifice its integrity

—Setting up community-content morning posts daily, copy editing and formatting as needed

—Helping with our Facebook/Twitter and beyond

—Organizing deals and contests as needed

—Possibly contributing to the site as a writer

Sounds fun, right? There’s much to do! If you are this person or know someone who would be perfect please email: nomoredirtylooks at gmail dot com with a subject that gets our attention. :) But if we don’t get back to you, please don’t be offended! Given our current bandwidth, this could be a slow process…

Somehow we missed Mercedes’ first routine in our inbox (guh!). But like many a clean girl, hers keeps evolving and we’re thrilled she sent in this new one because, well, it’s awesome. Now, can someone tell us what “stippling with a beauty blender” is? Because this makeup technique sounds amazing!

Name: Mercedes

Age: 30 (on the cusp of 31, Gemini love)

Current weather: New England spring – holding steady in the low 60s, not a ton of humidity yet.

Hair: Naturally wavy, relatively fine but I have a lot of it, past my shoulders, very dark brown. I wear it in loose waves (from a large barrel curling iron) all the time.

Favorite icon: Not from the past, but Kate Winslet has been one of my beauty icons since I was young. She is such a truly beautiful, real woman and she inspires me to accept my own natural beauty.

Skin: I’ve always had a problem with dryness, but since going natural it really is more towards the “normal” side of things. Occasional cycle-related pimples, and a bit of redness here and there, but overall no major skin complaints. I’m happy! I don’t really ever wash my face with cleanser – I either use Jane Iredale’s magic mitt with warm water, or an oil cleansing method with macadamia nut oil (what I use to take off my eye makeup) and a hot washcloth. A few time a week I exfoliate with May Lindstrom’s The Clean Dirt.

In the shower…

I usually shower in the evenings, and as much as I would like to was my hair infrequently, I cannot stand the smell of scalp and with hot yoga classes and the lack of fragrance potency of most green hair products, I end up washing every other day. Shampoo and condish are my one true love Yarok, sometimes switched up with John Master’s Organics Zinc and Sage, which my boyfriend says makes me smell like “swiss miss” (the marshmallow, I guess). I suds up with either Dr. Bronner’s (the baby formula one) or a charcoal shower gel, and have been using up old bottles of Acure shampoo and condish to shave with (didn’t like it for my hair). Also, I’ve been using Rare El’ements pre-shampoo treatment a few times a week before I wash. I’ll usually put in, go to a yoga class,  and then wash out. Once a month I’ll do a coconut oil deep conditioning. This has all transformed the condition of my formally pretty fried hair. I also like to do face masks once a week or do – my fave is the Pangea Oraganics seaweed one.

Outside the shower…

On the face it’s a spritz of some kind of toner (right now it’s the Acure one for dry skin – meh about it, next up will be In Fiore which I’m dyyyyying to get my paws on), and argan oil all over, and Kahina eye cream. My newest find is Bija Body…and I.love.it. I use the daily serum and lotion all over. It smells divine and lasts for a good long while. Sometimes I use Chocolate Sun self tanning lotion on my legs. I try and let my hair air dry as much as possible, and use Intelligent Nutrients leave in condish as a heat protectant.  Then I use a large barrel curling iron to create large waves, do a little backcombing for volume, and set with some Intelligent Nutrients hairspray.

Finishing touches…

I love love love makeup. I have a separate everyday routine, and weekend/going out routine (which unfortunately still utilizes some dirty stuff). My current go-to day routine includes a layer of Vive Sana sunscreen, and RMS un-cover up in 22 applied with a beauty blender. This is my new FAVORITE discovery. The un-cover up didn’t work for me as an undereye concealer and I was lamenting the money I spent on something I couldn’t use. But then, inspired by posts on here about different ways to use products, I started playing around. To use all over the face for light coverage I discovered I need to use some kind of primer (the sunscreen, or sometimes I’ll just Vapour’s Skin perfector if it’s going to be overcast all day), and stippling with a damp beauty blender makes it blend in so well. Then I use a very light shade of Jane Iredale’s concealer click pen under my eyes, a contour-ish dusting of Studio 78’s bronzing powder (new discovery, love! Almost a dupe for NARS Laguna), a dab on the cheeks of Revolution Organics cream blush (the hot pink one!), sometimes a bit of RMS living luminizer on the cheekbones and cupid’s bow, fill in the brows with Jane Iredale brow gel, even out the eyelids with Nvey Eco concealer, curl lashes, apply some Jane Iredale basic black eye pencil on my waterline (top and bottom), apply a coat of Tarte’s lash primer (also a relatively new discovery, and it noticeably prevents mascara from flaking), and a few coats of Josie Maran’s GoGo mascara. Lips right now is Ilia’s tinted lip conditioner in Blossom Lady. It may sound like a lot but this takes me less than 10 minutes and I feel like me but better. Now, going out makeup is another story! It tends to include lots of black liquid liner, fake lashes, and bright lips <3

So glad to be part of the NMDL community. Green beauty is a huge passion, and I learn so much constantly from all of you.

Right back at ya, Mercedes!

A few readers have requested more on this topic, and once I started reading about it I really wanted to find a solution.  I can’t say I’ve found one, but I hope this helps and leads to some great comments that will help those suffering.  Though I have not had the condition myself, I’ve had numerous skin issues in my life, including psoriasis on my face.  Not pretty.  Anything right out there, front and center on your face, can degrade quality of life.  Let’s see if we can come up with a natural solution.

The good news is that there are stories out there of people who have significantly reduced or eliminated their PD.  The bad news is many report it gets worse before it gets better.  Anecdotally, natural treatments seem to take a few days to a few weeks to make a difference.  So, how do you know if a new treatment is in the “worse-before-better” stage, or if it really is a bad idea?  I have a hard time with that one, because my skin doesn’t really do “worse-before-better.”  It does “hmm-I-think-this-is-working” or “OMG-my-skin-is-on-fire.”  Can anyone help with how to know if you should tough it out, or move on?

Since there may be different triggers for PD in different people, there is no one solution.  But a good place to start is to eliminate common triggers.  Eliminate topical and nasal steroids, fluoride, SLS*, isopropyl myristate**, and petrolatum/paraffin based products.  Try to eliminate ALL sources of these ingredients, not just from the obvious things like face cleanser and toothpaste.  Your shampoo may get on your face, and anything you touch can spread around.  Minimize exposure to UV light, wind and heat.  Oral contraceptives and gastrointestinal issues may also be at the root of the problem for some.  Whenever I see skin issues, the first things I think about are hormonal and digestive system imbalances.  I’m not going to try to cover those aspects in this post, but look at those possibilities if topical treatments don’t help you.

Many people are prescribed antibiotics and/or antifungals for perioral dermatitis, and they seem to work for a while, though the problem typically returns.  As I was reading about a potential fungal problem in PD, I immediately thought of my go-tos for yeast issues: dilute apple cider vinegar and coconut oil***.  Turns out there are people out there using these successfully.  I know what some of you are thinking – I’ve heard it advised not to use oils on PD, so perhaps it’s not the solution for everyone.  Some people don’t like the ACV, but prefer a yogurt mask.  Based on what I’ve read, if I had PD I’d be trying to eliminate the common triggers I mentioned above, eating healthy unprocessed foods and anti-inflammatory herbs/spices like turmeric and ginger, and experimenting with these topical treatments:

• ACV (experiment with the dilution, try something like 1 part ACV to 2-3 parts water)
• Coconut oil (unrefined and organic if possible)
• Calendula oil (here’s one from Mountain Rose Herbs)
• Zinc soap (here’s one to try that also contains calendula)
• Yogurt mask (leave on 15-20 minutes once or twice per day)

Have you successfully tried any of the above remedies for PD?  What has worked for you?

*sodium lauryl sulfate, a surfactant, detergent and emulsifier commonly used in cosmetic products like shampoo and toothpaste

** a synthetic oil used in many cosmetics to create a slick, non-greasy feel and allow other ingredients to penetrate the skin

*** it might seem like antifungal creams would help, but those typically have a mineral oil/paraffin base and isopropyl myristate

Remember the whole lead in lipstick thing? It’s back.

Of course, it never really went away. We’re regularly consulted about cosmetics, and the question comes up pretty much every time we do an interview. It also pops up at cocktail parties, business meetings, and during first encounters with friends of friends. “Is it true there’s lead in lipstick?” Sure is.

It’s a sticky, clicky factoid that’s been around for years, and if I’m being honest, it kind of bugs me because I think it sort of distracts us from the bigger picture, which is that there’s all kinds of garbage in all kinds of other products, too.

And those other products are far less discretionary than lipstick (much as we love lipstick). Things like body lotion, which we slather on head to toe, and baby shampoo, which we use on our kids,* and shaving cream, which we rub onto our legs and nethers and god knows where else—and then we take a sharp blade to our skin, lucky if we only end up with a nick or two.

En tout cas, the entire personal care category is full of stuff we don’t want on our in our bodies, and yes, lead is one of them. The counterargument to “Wow, that’s so messed up” is usually along the lines of “The dose makes the poison; and there’s very little lead in lipstick, so you don’t need to worry.” That defense was upended this past week, thanks to a new report by—who else?—the Environmental Working Group.

The EWG’s researchers collected the lipsticks of young women and took them to the lab. They found not only dangerous amounts of lead, which is a neurotoxin, but also cadmium, which is a carcinogen, aluminum, chromium, and manganese.

Mother Jones did this nifty graph for their story listing the 20 most-lead-contaminated lipsticks of the 400 investigated by FDA last year:

More from Mother Jones on how much of these contaminants were found in the lipsticks:

Though metal content varied widely from brand to brand, they found that women who apply lipstick two to three times daily can ingest a significant amount—20 percent of the daily amount that’s considered safe in drinking water or more—of aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese. Depending on the lipstick, in some cases women who slathered it on (14 times a day or more) were meeting or surpassing the daily recommended exposure to chromium, aluminum, and manganese. Lead, a metal that humans should avoid exposure to entirely, was detected in 75 percent of the samples.

So, there you have it. There’s lead, and other things, in your lipstick. Use nontoxic lipsticks (which, yes, can still be contaminated, if they use mineral-based pigments, which many do). Don’t eat it. Annnd the lady above looks like Jessica Paré.

Related: What lipsticks are you loving these days? I have a new obsession I’m saving for a review!

Image via

* Collective humankind “we” — neither of us has kids.

I’m about to write a pretty girly how-to makeup post. It would almost warrant a YouTube video—if it weren’t simple enough for a monkey!

Two completely random events conspired last week for me to come up with a whole new makeup look (just when I thought I’d tried it all). 1) A 100-degree heat wave hit Los Angeles for two days putting the entire city in a sweat. And 2) I ran out of my favorite dirty mascara.

And so, the look that I’m calling “night-for-day face” was born. All you need are two products that you likely already have: bronzer (or blush if you don’t do bronzer) and a pencil eyeliner. It’s night-for-day because I like to wear eyeliner (with mascara) and bronzer for evenings out in the summer. But, while the eyeliner gives this look a touch of evening edge, it’s so light that it passes as polished without being too much for daytime wear.

The absolute best part about this face though? It’s 100% weather-and-activity-proof. There’s no leaks or smudges or runs. And it’s really really easy to reapply during the day. Also, it’s super liberating to not wear mascara but still have a little eye happening! Here’s what I do.

Prep: I’ve been using the Marie Veronique face oil, which smells and feels amazing. (Would I pay the $110 for it? Nope, probably not, but I got this bottle gifted.) The oil really helps the bronzer apply nicely though your usual moisturizer will likely do the trick. My skin has been pretty clear lately so (knock on wood), I’ve been using minimal concealer.

Apply: Bronzer with my finger (love the studio 78 one) under my cheekbones and slightly up around the contour of the bone. A tiny bit along the bridge of my nose as well as my eyebrow bone. Then I very lightly line the inside of my eye with a black pencil (Jane Iredale or HoneyBee Gardens). Very very lightly though, so that it’s more of a translucent gray than black if that makes sense. If you go too dark without mascara your eye will look small, but somehow that doesn’t happen if you do the line barely there.

That’s it! You can add some lip gloss or a touch of color on the lip, but the trick is light touch with everything or else you just look made up.

What have you been doing with your makeup these days??