Green Skin

No, I’m not talking about this look:

but it is pretty wicked, as my friends in New England might say. 🙂

Awhile back, my sister told me about this cool website, Cosmetics Database, where you can look up beauty products and see their score in terms of safety and environmental impact. You can search via keyword for a particular product you’re interested in, or search a topic like “Makeup” or “Skincare” and sort by score.

I have been trying a lot of different products lately, searching for the right balance of eco-friendliness and effectiveness. I just realized I’ve been stuck in the A’s – most of the products I’ve been using are by Alba, Avalon, Auromere Ayurvedic, Almay and Aveda. Heh. Many of these fall in the mid range, with a score of about 4-6. I’m not crazy about this, but I haven’t found anything I love with a lower score… yet. Avalon Organics is a great line my sister likes, but I’m not crazy about the smell of lavender, which is in the shampoo best suited for my hair. I swear, I’m the only person who feels this way – everyone I know loves the smell! I adore violet, but lavender, not so much. I would like to try some of their other shampoos, though. I’ve been using their Vitamin C Moisture Plus Lotion SPF 15 which I like, but rates a 6 out of 10 on the hazard scale. I was using Giovanni shampoo for awhile, which you can buy in bulk at my local co-op. I liked it, but it wasn’t perfect for my hair, which tends to be kind of coarse. If I’m not careful, I lose the battle of the Jew-fro. 🙂 Aveda has a reputation for being “natural” and “plant-based” but many of their products still contain fragrance and less than natural ingredients.

Right now, I’m using Alba Coconut Milk Extra-Rich Hair Wash and Mango Moisturizing Conditioner, which smell great but rate a 5 on the hazard scale. Not bad in the scheme of things, but not great. I also hate the amount of plastic I go through with these products! Buying in bulk is a great option, as I mentioned, but that’s not an option for everyone, and sometimes they don’t have the right products that work for specific hair needs.

For soap, I really like Dr. Bronner’s. I’ve got a bar of the Citrus and of the Almond right now and they’re great – and only rate a 2! I used to be a Dove addict, but this has been an easy switch. They smell delish! Looks like Dr. B also makes a full-line of other products, so I’m going to keep my eyes open for those. Their Magic Liquid is great, too, for a variety of purposes, but it definitely doesn’t cut it as a shampoo for my hair!

There are so many products labeled eco-friendly out there right now, but it’s hard to know which are real and which are greenwashed. Hopefully Cosmetics Database can help us sort through and find what we’re looking for!

What eco-friendly beauty products do you like? How do they rate on the hazard scale? Have any to recommend to me?

Green hair, green beer

Happy Fake St. Patrick’s Day, all!

So, in honor of St. Patty’s (I’m celebrating today and Tuesday!), I thought I’d do something “green” for my hair. I’ve been on the search for great green hair products and have tried a bunch, but I haven’t found any that have worked great for my dry, thick hair. I had been thinking about making a homemade deep conditioner for awhile, and when I realized I had an avocado in my fridge I wasn’t going to eat in time, I thought, perfect! It’s rare that an avocado doesn’t get eaten in my house, but I got two of these non-Hasses from my CSA, and I didn’t really love ’em. So avocado deep hair treatment, here I come!

I looked up some recipes online, and most involved mashing up the avocado with mayo. I’m not a mayo fan, and thus didn’t have any on hand, but I decided I’d try using olive oil (2 tsp) and a dash of honey.

Well. Things didn’t go exactly according to plan. Maybe the mayo was key – or maybe I should have really pureed the avocado. I have pretty thick hair and one avocado did not go a long way. So I basically ended up with chunks (ew, I hate that word! why did I use it? Ha, oh well) of avocado randomly dispersed around my head. I kept it in for about 20 min, and then rinsed it out with this new Aloe vera shampoo I got on one of my little local business supporting walks.

I know – how MySpace are these pictures?? 😉 Just being goofy. I mean, I basically had guacamole on my head. Which reminds me – can anyone name where this quote comes from, “These people are such avocado heads.” It’s my favorite show of all time!

I just dried my hair (and, honestly, combed out the rest of the avocado, ha) and while it’s not quite Pantene-commercial-shiny, I think it looks healthier, bottle-free! Hopefully I’ll get some cute pics tonight. 🙂

If you don’t have avocados on hand, there are lots of other things you could use to make a homemade deep conditioner: olive oil, bananas (I don’t buy them, but if you have extra on hand that are starting to turn and you don’t want to make banana bread, this would be a great alternative), yogurt or milk & honey, etc! I plan on trying out a bunch of different concoctions in the future, but you could totally Google any extra ingredients you have lying around to see what you can do with them!

Off to meet some friends for some green beer! For me, that means a local brew!