Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Green Beauty & Introducing My Green Product of the Week!

This week I’d like to focus my greening thoughts on an area that is a major line item in my budget: BEAUTY PRODUCTS.

Shopping green can definitely take a chunk of change out of any woman’s pocket, especially when it comes to beauty products. I’m always searching for the perfect lip gloss, eye shadows, shampoos and body wash. These days, I’m trying to green my routine by not just considering what its doing to me, but what these products leave behind after use. It can cost a lot of money, but from here on out I’ll try to share a “Green Product of the Week” that is not too much of a burden on the wallet. Here is this week’s share:

Whole Foods 365 Lavender Body Wash!!! I discovered it at Bikrahm’s Yoga Studio. Yogi’s are way too good for overly chemicaled or high fragrance products in the bathroom. It was the first time I tried anything lavender-y, but I now love it! You’ll find lavender in a lot of before-bed products (bath salts, lotions, etc) because its scent is so relaxing (and Lord knows I need something to help me relax!) I’ve noticed that since I’ve been using it, my morning allergies have decreased and my skin stays virtually blemish free. I tried going back to a regular Olay-type body wash and it was just too much. The best part about this body wash is it’s only $4.99 for a bottle that can last 2-3 months!

I genuinely love a lot of Whole Food’s 365 store brand products. Don’t be scared to go natural! It doesn’t have to cost that much…

Here is some information I found recently on Women's Cosmetics and Skincare:

Numbers, stats, and figures that put your personal care decisions in a greener context. Compute, learn, enjoy, repeat.

• $35 billion: The size of the booming cosmetics industry. Major loopholes in U.S. federal law allow this industry to put virtually unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products with no required testing, no monitoring of health effects, and inadequate labeling requirements.

• 33 percent: Personal care products that contain at least one chemical linked to cancer, according to the Skin Deep report by the Environmental Working Group, a partner of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

• 2 billion: Number of disposable razors end up in U.S. landfills each year.

• 38,000: Number of animals that die needlessly in the EU every year in tests for new cosmetic products, according to animal welfare groups.

• 77 percent: Percentage of rinse-off cosmetics that contain parabens; the figure rises to 99 percent for leave-on cosmetics such as sunscreens.

• £182 million: Annual revenue from the U.K. sun-care market. Government advice for us all to cover up has boosted the sales of higher protection factor creams. SPF 15 and SPF 25 are now the U.K.'s most popular choices. Unfortunately the higher the SPF, the more chemicals the cream will contain.

• 7: SPF rating of the average T-Shirt; 85 percent of fabrics tested in an Australian study had an SPF of 20 or more.

• $3 billion: Revenue from the skincare market, the leading segment of the personal care industry; hair care has showed the strongest growth in the past 5 years.

Found at: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/womens-personal-care/womens-personal-care-statistics.html

Peace & Green,

Irene Bianca

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Welcome Back. I appreciate the suggestion.