When I was in Texas last month for SXSW Eco, I did all kinds of fun things: I ate tacos, visited our friends at W3LL People, met up with writer friends, stayed up way too late then woke early to attend some really interesting (and dismaying) discussions about our burning planet…
Being the natural beauty dork I am, though, another highlight was my impromptu visit to Whole Foods’ 80,000 square foot flagship near downtown Austin. This is not just a love letter to Whole Foods, though. Hear me out…
Anyone who’s read the book or the blog will know we love Whole Body, sure. We admire their tough organic standards, and how widely available they’ve made safe, high-quality beauty choices. We like their team, and their scale. But because Whole Bodys differ from region to region, and store to store, you sort of never know what you’re going to find when you visit one. Here in New York, the WB section at Columbus Circle, for instance, is gorgeously laid out, and there’s a nice selection of makeup to play with. At Union Square, my go-to because I tend to work out and play in the lower quadrants of the city, the makeup is crammed in hallway. I still love it, don’t get me wrong, but the shopping experience matters. And if we want to bring organic beauty out of the hippie fringes, nice-looking stores—like Evolue in Los Angeles, and the Apothecary at ABC Home here in New York—are a must.
Of course, small shops devoted to natural beauty are few and far between—and understandably. They’re expensive and the demand for organic beauty products in this kind of setting needs to catch up with the supply. We know that anyone who switches to natural beauty sees their life and their skin and their hair transform. It happened to us, and our friends, our moms and our boyfriends. And we get letters from people all the time telling us as much. Of course, spreading the message is hard—and changing people’s buying habits even harder.
There’s still so much the average American shampoo-buyer doesn’t know about her products—and it’s going to be hard for her to learn if her only options are the confusing, greenwashed aisles of pharmacies.
That’s why we think everyone should read our book, or books like it. And it’s also why we want to see natural beauty scaled way, way up.
When we were writing the book, we had fantasies about curating Sephora’s naturals section: How great would it be, we thought, if you could go in to any Sephora and know with confidence that the products with a green leaf on it (or whatever) had actually been vetted by people informed and passionate about ingredient safety—and effectiveness?
Of course we like the little guys best. We want to support small retailers, several of which are online, and are our favorites—there’s Spirit Beauty Lounge, Nubonau, Nature of Beauty and others. We will continue to support them first and foremost, but if this natural beauty thing is going to get really big, exposure is key. Call me pie-in-the-sky, but we want to see safe, effective and appealing options made available, at reasonable prices, to women and men all over the country, too.
Which bring me to Austin. What blew my mind, and I texted Alexandra as much when I was there, is that I finally saw in person the potential for this whole natural beauty thing—at scale. Here is a giant store (really, it’s almost obscenely big) with a zillion kinds of kale chips and organic quinoa and chickens who lived better lives than we do, and front and center—not as an afterthought, and not shoved in a corner—was a gigantic section, beautifully laid out, well lit with samples galore, teeming with natural and organic beauty products we can feel good about.
I’m not saying Whole Foods is the answer, though it’s certainly part of it. It showed me what was possible.
Now we’d like to hear from you. What do you think natural beauty movement needs in order to grow? More stores? More education? And if the latter, how do you propose we all go about it?
Image via
Sooooo. Routine. I’m kinda terrible at it! For those of you familiar with ayurveda, I have pretty typical vata tendencies (and just by the by, I’m meeting with an ayurvedic doc next week and planning to pick up some tips to share). What this means is that I don’t wake up or go to bed at the same time every day; I can go from being ravenous one week to skipping meals the next; sometimes I’m strong like an ox and full of energy, while others times I feel frail and sensitive. Needless to say when it comes to my beauty rituals I change my products with great, and erratic, frequency. This isn’t exactly the worst thing when your job is to try new stuff, but it’s not the best when you’re also trying to assess results. Just another reason me and the blondie make such a good team!
So here’s a current snapshot…
Name: Alexandra
Age: Old enough to actually forget that I’m 32
Current weather: Dry, sunny, 80ish
Hair: Thick, coarse, curly, with lightened tips (that I still love!)
Skin: A little congested right now but pretty consistent these days, more dry than oily (was once the opposite)
In the shower…
I probably only shower about three times a week if I’m being honest. I also don’t wash my face most days—which is something I’ll get more into in another post. But generally, my transition to clean has ended up with me being, well, dirty. I love water but I don’t think that the stuff coming out of my shower head is necessarily doing me that many favors. I live in a super arid climate and as we’ve discussed in the past, some folks think water in and of itself can exacerbate dryness. I usually take off my makeup with some kind of oil or oil cleanser like this Spieza Organics one. And because I don’t wash my hair, every day is not a new battle to “reset” my curls as it once was—but enough excuses!
Outside the shower…
Hydration is my big move in the morning. Sometimes I spray myself with one of the wonderful hydrosols from Kahina or Tammy Fender and then I reach for the richest cream or oil I have on-hand. I’m out of Tammy Fender Repair Balm, which is nothing short of tragic. I also just finished this incredible eye cream from Odacite that I was using as an all-over face moisturizer—upon the founder’s recommendation—and LOVING (full review on this delicious line to come!). So this morning I opted for a sample of neroli oil from Hope Gillerman. Have you ever used neroli? It’s a new one to me, but it felt nice.
The finishing touches…
Probably the thing I do with the most consistency if I’m leaving the house is my makeup routine. Right now my skin is a little tanned so I’ve been trying to pull off a summery bronzed look. I am completely mad about the RMS Beauty lip shines, especially the “moment” one which I use as a cheek shine. I’ve run out of my beloved Jane Iredale concealer but I’m loving this new one I have (which I’ll tell you guys more about in another post) and use it under my eyes, around my nose and for any other discoloration. If I wear any I’m still partial to my Laura Mercier waterproof full-of-chems mascara. But my most exciting summer makeup discovery has been this Ilia lipstick called Bang Bang. On my lips it reads as a bright, almost electric pink—a color I never thought I could wear—and it’s a total revelation. It goes on all creamy but somehow the color actually holds, even after its wiped off a bit.
As far as my hair goes, you guys know the drill I think. Water and conditioner if I shower, and lately a little bit of this curl cream.
Finally, crucial for a girl who doesn’t wash that often is perfume! As of last week I’m using Honore Des Pres’s Chaman’s Party, which is this woodsy, earthy, spicy scent (with notes of clove and basil) that I simply can’t get enough of. And it’s Soapwalla all day for my pits.
There you have it. Keep sharing your routines in the comments—and by golly I hope to hear from my fellow non-washers!
Well, would you looky here: Siobhan is revealing her secrets on another site! That’s OK though, because it’s WellandGood, and we love them. While their post is geared at the NYC ladies, we all need to figure out how to pack our fave natch products, right? So here’s the post:
Labor Day Weekend is summer’s last call, when hoards of New Yorkers traditionally decamp for the beach.
Some hop a Jitney for the Hamptons or a ferry to the Jersey Shore. But plenty hit the airports—and it’s you we’re concerned about. Are you packing yoursunscreen? Will you remember your facial oil? Is your natural cleanser travel size?
To avoid long lines, baggage fees, and the apparently very-real threat of luggage theft, you need to be able to pack your natural beauty regimen into 3.4 ounce bottles in a quart-sized plastic bag—not an easy feat.
“I don’t check luggage, and I refuse to use conventional cosmetics, even when I’m out of town,” says No More Dirty Looks author Siobhan O’Connor. “So I have to get crafty with how I pack my products. It took some doing, but I finally have it down.”
What are O’Connor’s essentials? We asked her—and Well+Good’s own beauty guru, Melisse Gelula—to share their perfect all-natural beauty travel kit. Bon voyage!
To hear about Siobhan and Melisse’s picks keep reading here.
There’s a hot debate going on over at Jezebel about whether or not Dutch artists Lernert and Sander who shot this video—of a model being made up 365 times in one sitting, in other words with a year’s worth of makeup—were trying to make some larger point.
Some commenters feel that it’s judgey, while others think that it’s just a curiosity piece done for the heck of it.
I’m not going to pretend to know the artists’ intent on this one but I will say this: It sure makes you think about how much makeup women use over the course of a year. And when you know how much of that also gets inside your body, intended or not, I’m getting a message loud and clear. And it’s sick!
So what do you think? And do you like it?
Those who abide by a monthly beauty budget that’s less than a cellphone bill can find department store counters pretty disappointing. But the solution isn’t necessarily found at Sephora or Duane Reade, especially if you like natural and organic ingredients.
So we’ve pulled together a list of nine natural and organic beauty brands from sources that won’t break the bank. These clean skin-care picks don’t skimp on quality, and cost less than $45 for a moisturizer or serum.
That’s half the cost of a cell-phone bill—and most of these will last you a couple months. Hear your new products calling?
Pangea Organics
A unisex favorite in plantable boxes.
Average cost of a moisturizer: $36
Fave: Moroccan Argan with Willow & Rosemary Facial Cream
Buy it at Whole Foods or www.pangeaorganics.com
Weleda
A 90-year-old line of biodynamic skin-soothers made in Germany.
Moisturizer: $18–$33
Fave: Pomegranate Firming Day Cream
Buy it at C.O. Bigelow or www.usa.weleda.com
John Masters Organics
Skin care from the famed eco-friendly hair stylist.
Moisturizer: $28–$44
Fave: Pomegranate Facial Nourishing Oil
Buy it at Whole Foods or www.johnmasters.com
Keep reading here! And tell us: What’s your favorite natural moisturizer?
After all that lead talk, it’s no wonder that our friends at Well+Good went on a natural lipstick hunt. We’ve had lipstick on the brain too. Below is their post “7 natural red lipsticks that perform”—got any to add to the list? (Note: Not all of these are truly clean—we’re looking at you Korres—but the author says as much.)
There’s nothing more classic than a strong, crimson pout. (At least in my beauty world.) But many vibrant-hued lipsticks are packed with lip-drying chemicals, “accidental ingredients” like lead, and mineral-oil bases meant to lubricate bike chains not your lips. I get that pigments are still primarily chemical- and insect-derived, but what about the other 98 percent of my lipstick?
Is it possible to find a red lipstick that’s both highly natural and high-performance? We put seven reds to the test:
Vapour Organic Beauty Lipstick, $22, www.vapourbeauty.com
Shade we tried: Siren Tryst 412
Best for: Creating a matte, bee-stung look.
This red weighs in somewhere between a lip balm and a stain, but the color lasts for hours and fades naturally and evenly. Even better, it comes in sixteen shades.
What’s in it: 70 percent certified organic ingredients, wildcrafted botanicals, no chemicals, and beeswax and jojoba for base ingredients. Made with wind power, and sold in sleek yet biodegradable packaging.
Christopher Drummond Beauty Creamy Lip Stain, $22.50, www.christopherdrummond.com
Shade we tried: Arouse
Best for: Those who want a true, bold red with wet-look color. The first application goes on sheer, but it layers to desired (smoking hot) intensity, and is surprisingly long wearing. It comes in a small compact with mirror and mini brush.
What’s in it: For a killer color, it’s a pretty simple ingredient list of mostly organic jojoba seed oil, aloe leaf gel, beeswax, pomegranate, and grape seed extracts, and vitamin E.
Korres Raspberry Liquid Lipstick, $22, www.korresusa.com
Shade we tried: 56 Red
Best for: Liquid-gloss lovers.
It slicks on like a liquid gloss with a wand and quickly dries to a lush lipstick finish, making it a good day or night lip product. Though its prone to feathering at the lip line, it keeps lips soft for hours.
What’s in it: Korres’ marquee ingredients are antioxidant raspberry and pomegranate extracts and certified organic acai oil. The product is also free of parabens, mineral oil, and propylene glycol. But if you consult the list of ingredients, you’ll see it’s not a chemical-free or a truly all-natural choice.
We’re just full of questions today, aren’t we?!
We’ve actually been meaning to ask you this one for a while now, because when it comes to clean beauty everyone has had what we call the “a-ha moment”—and it can make for great story telling. Of course, you’ve heard ours about a billion times now: We got the Brazilian Blowout, found out we’d put ourselves through toxic trauma, started reading the labels on our products, and freaked the frig out.
I was reminded of what that felt like today reading Laura Smith’s story over on MyDaily UK—an AOL site we love, not least of all because they named us blog of the week in January. But back to Laura…
Seems her mother has a habit of cutting out newspaper clippings for her, and a recent one was from the Sunday Telegraph. This particular piece featured our guy Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and a clean-beauty pioneer, spelling out why our beauty products may be doing us harm. Laura’s reaction:
I read it. I worried about it. And then I started reading the labels on my lotions and potions…and worried even more.
A little further down she realizes that she uses an average of 14 products a day—despite considering herself pretty low maintenance—and that’s before nail polish and makeup. Going down her list:
My body moisturiser (Palmer’s), face wash (Simple) and leave-in conditioner (Keihl’s) all contain methylparaben and propylparaben, which are used as preservatives. They are suspected hormone disruptors and may interfere with male reproductive functions.
My expensive shampoo (Aveda) has cyclomethicone, used to soften, smooth and moisten. It’s another suspected hormone disruptor and reproductive toxicant that’s known to be harmful to fish and other wildlife.
My face wash and toothpaste (Macleans) contain sodium laureth sulfate, a widely used foaming agent that can be contaminated with a chemical confusingly called ‘1,4-dioxane’, which may cause cancer.
Pretty much everything I use contained fragrance, which can also be referred to as parfum, both of which are catch-all terms that can include any of 5,000 ingredients, some of which are linked to cancer or can trigger allergies and asthma.
Oh, we know honey, we know! And boy can we sympathize—right? Go give the girl some support, but also tell us here about your own moment of truth.
When Alexandra and I get together, the conversation naturally (and frequently) goes like this…
Food, psychology, health, exercise, beauty, ayurveda, sex, stress, and sleep. (Oh, and astrology.) Those are like the basic-cable channels we flip between: once we get to sleep, we go back to food. Cycle, repeat, cycle, repeat.
I’m of the mind that feeling your best really requires a combination of all of these things, but if I had to pick a single one as the most important of all, I’d pick sleep.
The data on the importance of sleep is incontrovertible: We need it, we need it consistently, and there are specific things—like a routine, black-out blinds, white noise, cool climes—that optimize it. In the absence of good sleep, science says we are at the mercy of cascading hormones that trigger food cravings, cause irritability, lack of focus, emotional fluctuations, and sap our energy—making it harder to do all those other things we know help us feel our best.
A few years ago, I realized I’m one of those 8-hour people. I need my 8 hours, and a disruption of more than a couple days tends to result in undesirable consequences like bad skin and an even worse mood. As such, I try as best I can to be consistent—without forsaking things like, you know, enjoying myself.
I’m not a crazy person about it, but it does take discipline and rigor to keep it up because as anyone who loves a good time knows: there’s always more fun to be had, always one more hour of Housewives, one more chapter to read, one more glass to raise, one more hour of conversation to indulge in.
So in order to keep my sleep consistent, I seem to have, over time, created a bed-time ritual. There are like five things I do every night, and they’re kind of corny and a little embarrassing, but suffice to say somehow, without even noticing it, I’ve created a ritual that totally works! I guess it’s my way of telling my brain: There’s time for activity, and there’s time for sleep. This is the latter.
Some of the things I do every night: I power down all my electronics and turn off the power strip connected to my internet and my giant television; I turn on my fan (even in the winter—homegirl likes her white noise!); I drink some water; I send nice thoughts in my head to people I love or to people who need it.
So now I ask you: What is your non-negotiable-if-you-had-to-pick-just-one-ticket-to-health habit?
And when it comes to sleep: Do YOU have a bedtime ritual?
I’m at a conference hosted by Dr. Andrew Weil, a kind of hero of ours who, at 70, embodies the idea that if you eat an antiinflammatory diet, get a lot of sleep, exercise, meditate and eat mushrooms, you’ll be just fine. (Not that kind of mushrooms, you guys! Though, hey.)
This is the Nutrition and Health Conference in San Francisco, where doctors, nurses, nutritionists and other healthcare professionals (with a few journalist interlopers) come together to learn from the best of the best in integrative medicine.
It’s like being in college and taking classes with all tbe best teachers, back to back to back, in two packed days.
Some topics came up over and over: plant-based or mostly plant-based diet. Another? The idea of food and good nutrition as…medicine. “Eat your medication,” one guy said.
So we want to know from you. Do you believe that proper nutrition is nature’s best medicine? And further, because nothing looks better than health: Do you think food and nutrition affect your looks?
Friends! If you’ve read the book or hung out here for a while you know we’re fond of oils, and coconut oil in particular because it’s an amazing and cost-saving multitasker that has lots of qualities to recommend it.
It’s a rich moisturizer, it’s cheap, it’s versatile, it’s antimicrobial, antifungal, and antibacterial, has a decent amount of antioxidants, and it smells like baked goods. What’s not to love? Well, some stuff.
You can get it at any good health food store in the cooking oil section, just be sure to spend the extra buck or two to get raw, organic, virgin coconut oil. Now, without further ado: Here are the 10 specific things I’ve tried it for, with honest assessments of how that worked for me:
1. For cooking at high heat. Coconut oil has earned itself a bone fide health halo, which you can read about here. Because some oils are not safe at high temperatures, I’ve swapped in coconut for a lot of my roasting, and some frying. I have tried and liked it in the oven for potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussell’s sprouts, carrots, asparagus, broccoli rabe, red onions and other veggies, too. I’m not fond of how it tastes with eggs or mild-tasting white fish—but it’s great with salmon.
2. As a cheekbone highlighter. Sweep a little on top of makeup (sounds weird, go with it) and leave it alone. It looks like your skin but glowier, which is why Rosemarie Swift, of RMS Beauty, uses it in her amazing Living Luminizer, “Un” Cover Up, and Lip-2-Cheek pots.
3. To shave my legs. So good! You get a real close shave and don’t have to worry about moisturizing after.
4. As a deep-conditioning hair treatment for my totally wrecked ends. There’s a reason lots of conditioners use coconut oil: According to this study, coconut oil is better able to penetrate the hair than is mineral oil (shocking!) and sunflower oil—which is good news because I’ve been dealing with a little heat damage over here. Because I don’t want to cut off the damage—I’m liking my hair long right now—I’ve been trying to get the ends looking OK as I grow it out. Knowing full well there is no way to physically repair fried ends (I even confirmed this with a cosmetic scientist named Colin, who isn’t a clean guy, but he’s nice and he’s smart) I’ve been loving this method: once a week, I sleep with a handful of coconut oil in my hair. I rub it in, comb it, pile it in a loose bun on the top of my head, and call it a night. In the morning I shampoo and it seems to make a big difference in the look and feel of my ends.
5. To take off my eye makeup. Put a little on a cotton ball or a piece of toilet paper and sweep it over your eyes gently. It even works on waterproof mascara.
6. As a personal lubricant. Saucy! Let’s be brief: It totally works by yourself or with a buddy, but it’s not compatible with condoms (oil + latex = babies).
7. As a face moisturizer. I do not like this. I’ve read about acne-prone women who have used it to great effect because it’s naturally antibacterial, calming, and moisturizing, but I won’t put coconut oil—or any product that contains it—anywhere near the part of my face that breaks out (hi, chin). I tried the oil-cleansing method when we were writing the book and I got the absolute worst cystic acne ever which, yeah, yeah, might not have been the oil’s fault, but did I want to wait another month to find out? Hells no.
8. As a body moisturizer. See above (shaving). I recently met my friend Jessica at yoga and before class started she yanked up her pant leg and told me she’d been using coconut oil on her whole body. How’d they feel? So soft. So! Soft! And the smell doesn’t linger, for the record.
9. As a day-time hair tamer. Cute on your ends but I wouldn’t put this on the top of your head, especially if you’re blonde, because it looks really, really greasy.
10. Gluten-free and vegan baking. It’s a staple. It tastes really good and, it seems to me, is the only thing that can mask the chalky taste you get with most gluten-free baking. (Mmmmm Babycakes.)
What am I missing? Or what have you tried and loved—or hated?
