I promised you guys a full review on this concealer, so here she blows: I am absolutely wild about Afterglow’s Triple Eye Treatment, which for me works as an all-around concealer. Under eyes, sure—though circles like mine never fully cover—but I also use it around my nose, chin, and over any scars and discoloration. It’s the amazing thing about clean products, isn’t it? They just tend to be all-purpose.

Now, how this little gem came to be in my possession is somewhat muddled at this point. A few months ago we told you about our friend’s wedding. That day, somewhere between champagne toasts and waterproof eyeliner, Siobhan must have palmed me this little container of Praline-colored cover-up. [Siobhan's note: Yes, that's exactly what happened. Champagne, champagne, champagne, concealer swap, champagne.] I don’t think I used it then, but when I got back to Los Angeles I ended up trying it on a day when I was out of Jane Iredale and my RMS was in another bag.

Oh happy discovery! As luck would have it, I find this concealer to be a perfect marriage of those two other favorites: a little less thick than the “Un” Cover-Up, a little less liquid than the Jane. Which is not to say I won’t still have those in my arsenal or that I love them any less—but I’m having a bit of a “just right” moment with my Afterglow.

The ingredients are perfectly clean as well. Here they are:

Ingredients: cocos nucifera (organic coconut) oil, simmondsia chinensis (organic jojoba) seed extract, cera alba (organic beeswax), theobroma cacao (organic cocoa) seed butter, althaea officinalis (organic marshmallow) extract, camelia sinensis (organic white tea) extract, titanium dioxide (CI 77891), iron oxide (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

And don’t be confused as we were to see marshmallow—Wikipedia informed me that it’s actually a plant. [Siobhan's note: "Oh my god! It's a plant!"]

Have any of you tried this product? Discovered any other concealers that we have yet to mention?

Let’s be honest: Our Friday Deals are always special. But today is a little extra so because Kahina Giving Beauty—one of our favorite brands to begin with—is offering up one of our absolute favorite new products. Have you guessed yet? Here’s a hint: It’s pictured above, and it looks familiar because Siobhan rave-reviewed it last month and still won’t leave the house without it. Since trying this delicious product we’ve both been spraying it on our faces in a borderline-compulsive way because it’s hydrating without making you greasy, and imparts a glow even on our less-than-glowy days. So without further ado…

Here’s the deal: Kahina is giving you a FREE Toning Mist with any purchase over $75. The mist itself is valued at $36, so once again we’re talking about a brain-meltingly (expression of the week!) good deal. Just enter promocode FREEMIST and it will be included in your shipment. Note: It will not show up anywhere in your cart, but don’t panic, you’ll totally get it. The deal lasts until midnight next Thursday.

If you’re wondering what to get from Kahina, you just cannot go wrong with the pure argan oil, and while it may feel pricey, we should remind you a bottle lasts forever and it goes very nicely with the mist. But we also love the eye cream, the mask, and pretty much everything else they make. So enjoy!

Happy Friday, girls.

Let the covers of women’s magazines tell it and you’d think seasonal change only means one thing: getting your body beach-ready (do people really do this?). But for me, it’s always meant getting my hair right.

I’m a huge fan of letting my mane do its thing during warmer months (see last year’s fun summer-hair challenge, for proof), but after a long winter of daily heat styling and dry air, my hair has seen better days. I suspect I am not alone in this! And so I want to help.

The most important aspects of any hairdo are, of course, healthy hair and a good cut. I love my hairdresser, and if he weren’t gay I might want to marry him, but I’m trying to let my hair get longer, so I’m spacing out my visits. HOWEVER! The waves I so love when I air-dry are, well, limp now.

In order to get things looking better as it grows out, I’ve tried LOTS of products and even—gasp—one dirty one. I won’t tell you about that one because it gave me a rash and I only used it once, but I will share five clean products I tried and loved. And if you don’t like these, or want to save your cash, there’s always coconut oil. And avocados.

1. Argan Oil (prices vary)

Arganoilarganoilarganoil. I’m a broken record, I know (there’s nothing like the zeal of a convert, right?). I’ve slept with Kahina Giving Beauty and Amal argan oils in my hair many times, and the next day, after a light shampoo, my hair always looks and feels and smells amazing, with no greasy buildup. I do it extremely rarely for a simple reason: It’s just too “rich” for my stupid hair. Not rich like heavy, rich like expensive. For the price I pay—and I believe it’s worth every cent—it means my face gets to use it, not my split ends.

2. Max Green Alchemy Scalp Rescue Styling Gel ($12.99)

I’m wild about this gel. I put it on my ends wet or dry and it holds nicely. I also sometimes use a pea-sized amount on the hairs around my face, when the hair is still wet. It’s not a typical gel—the texture reminds me a little of aloe—there’s no crunchiness or wet look, obviously, and the ingredients are squeaky clean. It’s nongreasy and smells light and fresh in a unisex kind of way, which gives you full license to throw out your boyfriend’s Dippity Do when he’s not looking.

3. Rare E’lements EL Treatment ($44)

This serum-like treatment is delightful. We both love it and use it with some frequency as an overnight treatment or a leave-in for day on our ends. It smells incredible. Like, “Ooooo! What perfume are you wearing?” incredible, thanks to the ylang ylang and other scented oils. I might go so far as to say that, with frequent use, my ends actually look markedly better than they did. I try to avoid overpromising, but this product really is a winner, and it seems to be more of a winner the more I use it. A dab will do ya, and even with several-times-a-week use, I have a long way to go before I’ll have to repurchase.

4. Whatever is left on my hands after I apply body oil ($0)

Oil-rich body lotions or body oils contain a lot of the same ingredients as natural hair treatments, so if your lotion pour was on the generous side, use the leftovers on your wet hair before drying. I do this probably two or three times a week instead of using a hair product, and it works well. Plus, it saves money and encourages the kind of ingredient savvy and multitasking we’re fond on.

5. Intelligent Nutrients Certified Organic Volumizing Spray ($29)

To prove how clean this product is, Horst made me drink it when I met him. Little did I know it would become the only go-to hair product I would use and reuse for almost two years straight. A word about the name: Maybe it’s because my hair is heavy to begin with, but I’ve never understood why this product is called a volumizer. That said, we both absolutely love it as a leave-in, and have been using it and repurchasing it religiously since we discovered it while writing the book. (Other ladies: Please weigh in if you have tried it and found it gave you a boost at the roots! Is this a volumizer for you?) One bottle lasts several months to half a year, it smells incredible, and it helps smooth wild ends and flyaways. It also makes heat styling much easier.

OK your turn. What have you tried as a hair treatment? And do you do the beach-body thing? (Just kidding!)

Vintage hairdryers via

You know when you meet a new person and you’re so wild about them that even their snoring is adorable? You think about them when they’re not around and find ways to work them into conversations no matter how much of a stretch it is? That’s basically how I feel about the Kahina Giving Beauty Toning Mist, which I’ve been using religiously for exactly a month now mainly because…

It’s not every day one of your favorite brands puts out a new product, and it’s not every day you find a product that is loaded with actives, feels and smells good, and—gasp—works.

A word about the word “works.” This is obviously to a certain extent subjective, but seeing is believing when it comes to skincare and based on what I see in the mirror (even in the super-unflattering lighting in my bathroom) and on the ingredient list (posted below), I’m a believer. I feel almost certain that my skin has been more hydrated, calmer/clearer, plumped and glowy since I started using it—which I credit to the sodium hyaluronate, argan leaf extract, willow bark and rose water. There are also a lot of antioxidants in there.

Here’s how I use it: After my morning shower, where I typically wipe my face with a muslin cloth from Pai (with no cleanser), I spray my face with Kahina’s Toning Mist, wait a couple of minutes, and then apply moisturizer and sunscreen. And at night before bed, after washing, I spray, wait a few, then apply my night oils and an eye cream. It’s also nice over makeup (it sets minerals very nicely) and as a refresher after a long flight. So far, so great.

Plus, 25 percent of the profits are set aside for the Berber women in Morocco who harvest and produce Kahina’s argan oil.

You can get it from their site, for $36. I’m not sure how long it will last but with a month of twice-daily use I have a long way to go before it runs out.

Ingredients: aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice*, aqua, rosa damascena (rose) flower water*, salix nigra (willow bark) extract, populus tremuloides (aspen bark) extract, medicago sativa (alfalfa) extract*, sodium hyaluronate, argania spinosa (argan) leaf extract, oryza sativa (rice) seed extract*, camellia sinensis (white tea) leaf extract*, sodium PCA, glycerin, sodium levulinate, sodium anisate, maltodextrin, sodium benzoate.

Have you tried this mist? Do you have a toner you like?

It’s part two of our series! A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Natural Products Expo here in So-Cal. This giant trade show is like Disney Land for health buffs—virtually every natural (or so-called natural) brand under the sun has a booth there, where they dole out their samples all day long.

While it was primarily devoted to food, the natural beauty presence at the show has grown a lot. So you can imagine that I got a little excited and a lot overwhelmed as I searched for new brands!

But of all the products I saw at the Natural Product Expo, this sunscreen from an Australian company called Grahams made one of the biggest impressions. Here’s why: This super-clean sunscreen is made up of more than 25% zinc oxide, and yet it leaves NO FILM. Like, none.

Grahams SunClear SPF 30 Natural Sunscreen

First of all, I adore the texture. While it looks like it cream, it applies like a natural oil—which means it’s a little shiny at first, but it absorbs super fast. It feels so hydrating and I’ve worn it a few times now under makeup and for a girl who rarely wears sunscreen (eeks, I know!), I’m feeling like a convert.

One of the main ingredients is rosehip oil, which is a favorite of companies like Pai and Evan Healy, so it’s no wonder this stuff feels good. Here’s the full ingredient list off the bottle:

Active ingredient: 25.9% Zinc Oxide

Ingredients: Capric/Caprylic Triglycerides, Rose Hip Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Sesame Seed Oil, Shea Butter, Vegetable Oil, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, Coconut

Now, a few important notes: Do not use this product if you don’t like coconut oil, or the smell of coconut (both things I happen to love). That’s what Caprylic Triglycerides are, and the addition of actual coconut at the end imparts a decidedly tropical smell—though it’s a very natural one. This ain’t Hawaiian Tropic, I promise. Also, the formulation they sell in Australia contains phenoxyethanol, but the U.S. formulation—which is the one we are recommending—DOES NOT (and the product does not contain water so there are no bacteria concerns). Just don’t get confused when you see phenoxyethanol listed on their site.

Another note: This product is not marketed solely as a face product, and it comes in a fairly large bottle. It is all-purpose, and would be great as a body block and perfect for kids too!

So, where can you buy it here? For now it looks like you can get it on Amazon, but we recommend you call Evolue (310-289-1560) instead, and Jean will send it to you. We were together at the Expo and discovered it together—and she immediately decided to carry it at her shop.

So now you’ve read about two of our favorite screens. What’s your favorite?

TGIF, are we right? Well here’s something: Another week has passed, and another deal is upon us. And this one is really pretty sweet.

So far these Fridays have been quite the adventure. There’s been a little controversy, and some Mercury-retrograde-style technical difficulties, but all in all we’re having a really good time and it seems like you guys are too. It’s been great to hear your feedback, and we’re especially happy to be facilitating an open and direct dialogue between companies and consumers. Transparency at its best.

This week’s amazingness is from Kahina Giving Beauty, a brand that is very close to our hearts. Not only did we swoon for Kahina’s ethically sourced organic argan oil from very early on (and later for the eye cream), we quickly became friends with the company’s founder Katharine L’Heureux, a kind, elegant and funny woman who even thew us a book party at her loft back in August (!). But that’s not why we say nice things about her or her line. We truly, authentically love it from the perspective of sustainability, ethics, packaging, and performance.

We adore so many of their products—full range pictured above—which is why this week’s deal is especially exciting: Kahina is offering a gobsmacking 25% off anything you order, and if your total (after discount) is more than $50, they’ll throw in a free cleanser automatically, too. They have NEVER done a deal like this—and who knows if they will again. All you have to do is enter promo code NMDL25 at checkout to get your discount.

If you’ve missed some of our past coverage of Kahina Giving Beauty you can read it here. We’re also planning a review of their new Toning Mist in the coming weeks. (Here’s the preview: It’s bananas. And Siobhan loves Alexandra so much that she left her mist in Los Angeles for her—but only because she had another at home. Ha!).

Enjoy your weekend and help us spread the word on this one! It will last until next Friday.

We asked you last week if you wear sunscreen every day and we’re pretty sure you broke our record on number and length of comments (if you haven’t yet weighed in, and haven’t yet seen the awesome still of Spicoli, please click here). Now we want to get started, but first a checklist that we are using to consider the performance of a screen:

• It can’t cause zits.
• It can’t cast us in a white glow.
• It can’t be make us look like we’ve been rolling around in vaseline.
• It can’t be overly matte either.
• It has to work well.
• It has to wear well under makeup.
• It can’t smell gross.

Obviously all product considerations produce a sort of mental check list in our minds, but sunscreen is especially tough because there’s a demand for form and function that you just can’t fake. With an antiager, you can’t tell right away if it works (probably because most don’t! Ha.). But if a sunscreen doesn’t work, you’re a sad, burned mess.

To get the ball rolling on our Five Face Sunscreens We Love series, I’ll start with a vegan one.

100% Pure’s Argan Oil Moisturizer SPF 30

I test drove this puppy in New York for a couple of weeks and liked it a lot, but let’s be real: a sunscreen that performs on a girl who spends all day inside in an overcast city isn’t exactly groundbreaking. But I just got back from five days with Alexandra in sunny Los Angeles, where we spent a lot of time outside (for me, anyway), and I am happy to report that it worked like a charm! No burns, no major freckling, nada.

The lotion feels very light. Though it’s technically a moisturizer, it’s definitely too light for me on its own for hydration. I have been using a plumping, hydrating hydrosol and another day cream under my 100% Pure and have been loving it. It’s very cosmetically appealing: it feels light on my face, makeup sits nicely on top of it, and it hasn’t caused any breakouts—all of which made me wonder how good it could possible be as a screen, which is where the ingredients come in:

Ingredients: Active Ingredients: 24.8 % Zinc Oxide

Inactive Ingredients: Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice1, Rgania Spinosa Kernel (Argan) Oil, Rosa Canina Seed (Rosehip Oil) Extract, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Extracts of: Euphorbia Cerifera Cera (Candelilla Wax), Organic Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf2, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf, Origanum Vulgar (Oregano), Thymus Vulgaris (Thyme), Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit Seed) Seed, Hydrastis Canadensis (Goldenseal), Lonicera Caprifolium (Japanese Honeysuckle) and Cinnamomum Zeylanicum Bark (Cinnamon)

Big high five on this one! Stay tuned for the next four. Have you tried one you love?

Oh hey. Do laundry this weekend? Yeah, same. I’m of the mind that the only thing worse than doing laundry is the stuff we actually pour into the machine (and down the drain) when we’re doing it. If you’re like us, you maybe use Seventh Generation or Ecover or something. But that was probably not always the case—and it’s certainly not the norm. There are a couple of reasons why we think this is bad news:

1. It’s bad for your skin.

Allergens abound in traditional laundry detergent, and many of us react badly to the dyes, fragrance and other synthetics without even realizing it. Then we end up showering in salicylic acid to get rid of stubborn bacne, or we slather on cortisone to get rid of our eczema-like rashes in a cycle that just repeats and repeats and repeats but never ends.

2. It’s bad for the planet.

Traditional laundry detergents are loaded with persistent toxic chemicals which, once introduced into the natural world, don’t leave. They can also acidify the water (fish looooove this) and are packed with petrochemicals, which, health implications aside, come from an obviously nonrenewable resource. They also used to contain phosphates, which have thankfully been removed from laundry detergents and are in the process of being phased out of dishwashing soaps—but not before they were poisoning aquatic life for many decades. Americans do a ton of laundry every week, and whatever we choose to use is being flushed down the drain with the dirt it wrestles from our clothes.

In the book we encourage people to swap out beauty products as things run out, while prioritizing replacing things you use regularly over a large surface area. Consider this your largest surface area, and get rid of your [whatever you use] ASAP. If you drop off your laundry at a wash-and-fold, leave a bottle of good stuff with the laundromat. They’ll be happy—it saves them money because they aren’t using their own detergent—and you’ll be happy because you aren’t poisoning fish or giving yourself rashes. Plus, you’ll be setting a good example. Just be sure to remind them every time you drop off that they have your soap.

As for picking a new detergent: Unless there’s an ingredient declaration on the bottle—which unlike cosmetics, is not mandatory for house cleaners (though New York has been leading a move to change that)—and unless it is readily biodegradable (the readily part is important), we’d say: Don’t use it.

And here’s a practical reason to make the switch:

Procter & Gamble announced it will be raising the price of its detergents (Tide and Cheer et al) starting in June, owing to rising commodity costs. A 4.5% increase may sound like pocket change to you, but it will offset $500 million in costs for them—a reminder of just how big this business is.

Related (and pictured): A company called Ecologic has figured out how to make packaging out of old newspaper and postconsumer cardboard, which reduces plastic and is compostable. Inside the cardboard  is a plastic lining that you can remove and recycle with your other plastics. Seventh Generation’s 4X Laundry Detergent will be packaged in it (I like the Free & Clear one), and available on shelves this week. One bottle = 66 loads of laundry.

I also like BioKleen Home (which unfortunately does not have complete ingredient lists on their site), and Ecover’s stain remover is bananas. It works on everything, even olive oil stains on dainty silks.

So what about you? What kind of laundry detergent do you use?

Welcome to the last of five posts about fabulous foundations! If you missed the others, check them out here, here, here, and here.

You didn’t think we’d forget to include our first love, RMS, did you? It’s funny now to remember just how scared we were to switch to clean makeup when we were first writing the book. In fact, we wrote the Face and Makeup chapters last just to postpone this transition!

But I remember talking to Siobhan right after she interviewed Rose Marie Swift (the company’s founder) in New York, discovering RMS for the first time. She was giddy with excitement on the phone, and it marked a pivotal moment for us: We finally understood that everything was going to be okay—nay, better! If this was what natural makeup felt and looked like, we were ready to throw out our Nars at last. (Okay, maybe I’m being hyperbolic for storytelling purposes, we held onto our Nars for a while yet.)

The ‘un’ cover up in particular was a revelation to me, and it still is. Up until that point I’d been wearing mineral powder—pouffing like the best of them, just how they’d shown me to in the Bare Escentuals how-to video. There wasn’t really anything wrong with those minerals (though the over-zealous poufing part is a bad idea because of inhalation risk)—but as my skin got a little dryer, as I got a little older, I was starting to look awfully masky.

I still use minerals (these ones) but mostly for spot concealing, while the ‘un’ cover up is my go-to foundation. Many people don’t realize that this product is not just a concealer (the small container and rich pigment is deceptive). My favorite way to use it is to dab it around the center of my face—around my nose, on my chin, under my eyes—and then spread it outward. It’s very spreadable and you can control how opaque or translucent you want it (on good skin days I apply with a bit of moisturizer). And while it does even out skin tone, you never feel like it’s hiding your skin either—a testament to the good clean ingredients they use. And speaking of ingredients, here they are:

*Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, *Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, *Cera Alba (Beeswax), *Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, *Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Tocopherol(non-GMO), *Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) Extract, and may contain: [+/- Titanium Dioxide CI 77891, Iron Oxides CI 77492, CI 77491, CI 77499]

It’s available at Nubonau, Future Natural, RMS’s site, Spirit Beauty Lounge and elsewhere.

See? Food for the skin. Have you tried this RMS product?

Part four of our foundation series is here, and we think you’ll like this one a lot. To recap: We’ve already told you about a stick foundation that wears like real skin, our favorite loose powder and a liquid we find truly dreamy. Now we’re going to tell you about a tinted moisturizer (everyone loves tinted moisturizer!) from a brand that’s been something of a mainstay in the naturals world for some time: Suki!

Suki Tinted Active Moisturizer

Tinted moisturizer is a pretty genius invention—the perfect product for a girl who, like me, doesn’t like to wear a lot of makeup, cares about sun protection (not that it’s enough on its own…), and loves hydration. Now, I’ve been eying Suki foundation at Whole Foods for a couple of years so I was happy to finally get my paws on a bottle of this SPF 15 tinted lotion.

One pump from the bottle is actually more than enough, so I try to do a half-pump onto the back of my hand, and then apply it on top of, or mixed together with, a moisturizer, with my fingers. It disappears into the skin more than any other liquid I’ve used, but still has an evening-out effect that I like—so I know it’s doing something. I never reapply foundation throughout the day (concealer? another story) but I do think that if you’re someone looking for a lot of coverage that lasts, this probably isn’t for you.

For people looking to just add a little glow of hydration and some color, you’ll love it! Also, it contains a touch of willowbark, which is great for clogged pores. Oh, and it’s clean, of course. Here’s the ingredient list:

organic roses (rosa centifolia) infused in filtered water (aqua/eau), organic sunflower seed (helianthus annuus) oil, 100% natural beeswax (cera alba), organic grapeseed (vitis vinifera), jojoba seed (simmondsia chinensis), hazelnut (corylus americano) & borage (borago officinalis) oils, cetearyl alcohol, organic fair trade shea butter (butyrospermum parkii), standardized white willow bark (salix alba) extract, food-grade non-gmo lecithin (lecithin), natural vitamin c (magnesium ascorbyl phosphate) & retinol (polypeptide liposomes) polypeptide liposomes, organic rose (rosa caninca) extract, food-grade xanthan (xanthan) & arabic (acacia catechu) gums, aroma (pure steam distilled essential oils), geraniol, linalool [may contain: titanium dioxide, iron oxides]

It’s available at natural beauty shops Juju Salon and Future Natural and elsewhere online, too.

What’s your favorite tinted moisturizer?