7 ways to moisturize your hair in the dry, winter months.

It doesn’t matter if we are raven-haired, red-headed, blonde or brunette. It doesn’t matter if our hair is thin, thick, textured or kinky. During the dry winter months, we might as well hook our heads up to outlets for all the static electricity we produce. The cold, dry temperatures of winter can siphon the moisture from our skin and hair like a sponge. So how best to fight back against winter?

Stop washing your hair every day
We live in a world where most people make best friends with anti-bacterial wipes. Dirt is the enemy. But so is washing your hair too much. Over-washing can strip important oils from your scalp, resulting in dry, over-stimulated tresses. Plus, what’s better for dry hair then your own, natural oils? At the least, try to skip a daily washing.

And when you do wash, consider a homemade shampoo like this one from beauty expert Narine Nikogosian: Combine one tablespoon of dried jasmine with one teaspoon of honey with two eggs yolks. Boil the dried jasmine with one cup of water for five minutes. Steep for ten minutes, then strain. Blend the jasmine, honey and egg yolks. Apply to your hair, and then rinse with cold water.

Install a water filter on your showerhead
Municipal waters contain drying chemicals that can strip your hair of its essential oils. Chlorine and other chemicals used to clean our water supplies can wreak havoc on our hair. Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in a swimming pool knows that hair follicles will eventually make hair like a Brillo pad if not properly rinsed. Here’s more information on shower filters.

Wash your hair backwards
Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients, is also famous for this hair care tip. First, apply half a teaspoon of your favorite oil to your scalp and work it through. You can use jojoba, olive, or sweet almond oil. Second, apply your conditioner and let it sit for a few minutes. Third, use a small amount of shampoo to wash out your hair. Finally, if your hair feels tangled, put a little remaining oil on your fingers and comb through your hair. The oil treatment helps loosen and attract dirt which the shampoo then washes away.

The avocado: not just for salads
The avocado is a triumph of moisturizers, oils and vitamins. But before you add some to your salad, you might want to consider treating your tresses to a homemade avocado mask. Take one small avocado, mash it together with one tablespoon of honey and one tablespoon of olive oil. You can even blend them together. Apply to damp hair for at least 30 minutes, then rinse. This recipe works on all hair types.

Rinse with olive oil
You can give yourself a fancy “hot oil” salon treatment with a mere tablespoon of organic olive oil. First, rinse your hair with warm water. Then work the olive oil through your tresses with your fingers. Let it sit for twenty minutes. Then rinse with cool water, following up with a bit of shampooing if your hair feels too oily.

Sooth your scalp
An irritated, dry scalp can throw your hair out of balance. Organic stylist and expert Felicia Howe recommends Simply Organic Scalp Spa Treatment ($23.99) to tame your irritated head. As Felicia Shares, “I’ve been using this all season, it’s been saving my hair and scalp. It’s amazing.”  This professional-grade product contains olive leaf extracts.

It’s all about serums
Sometimes you need a serum to act like the really great sequel to your favorite conditioner. Serums can leave your hair extremely hydrated while giving you the fresh out of a spa smell. Basically, a serum delivers the goods to your hair in a concentrated punch. So you want to make sure you use one that has clean, green ingredients.

Yarok Hair Care offers a serum entitled Feed Your Youth ($25) containing hydrating Yarrow and avocado. John Masters Organics has their Dry Hair Nourishment and Defrizzer ($16.00) which combines certified organic jojoba, lavender and rosemary. Both can be used in a “set it and forget it” fashion where you work the ingredients into your hair in the evening, only to be washed out in the morning.

Image:Erintaylormurphy, hulagway, wordridden, [g] [e] [r] [y]

When life gives you lemons, use them to clean your house.

Juicy, aromatic and highly acidic, lemons bring out the flavor in sweet and savory foods but they nearly always play a supporting role in the kitchen. Stop relegating them to the rim of your glass and give these winter citrus fruits their due – because they’re serious cleaning and freshening powerhouses. These 20 unusual uses for lemon juice will make your home look and smell fresh, brighten your laundry, and improve your hair, nails and skin.

Quick tip: roll a fresh lemon under your palm on the countertop to soften it up for easier juicing.

Fingernail Brightener

Nails looking dull and yellowed after a long period covered in dark polish? Just squeeze a lemon into a small dish, clean your nails and soak them in the lemon juice for a minute or two. Some women claim that this treatment will also make nails stronger, particularly when adding a tablespoon or so of olive oil to the dish.

Food Preservative

Keep cut fruit and vegetables like apples, pears, avocados and potatoes from turning brown by squeezing on a little bit of lemon juice. You can also perk up droopy lettuce by soaking it for an hour in a bowl of cold water and the juice of one lemon.

Emergency Deodorant

Caught smelling less-than-fresh, with no deodorant around to save the day? Cut a lemon in half (or snag a wedge from your drinking glass) and rub it under your arms. The citric acid in lemon juice will reportedly kill odor-causing bacteria. In fact, you could use this trick to ditch conventional deodorants altogether.

Odor Destroyer

Even garlic, fish, mothballs and that disgusting gunk in your garbage disposal can’t stand up to lemon juice’s odor-eliminating power. Use a cut lemon or fresh-squeezed lemon juice to remove bad smells from your refrigerator, cutting board, microwave or practically any other surface. You can even add it to the cooking water of stinky foods like cabbage, or just simmer lemon peel in water on the stovetop as a natural air freshener.

Insect Deterrent

Many insects are highly sensitive to smell, including spiders, ants, fleas and typically so-hardy-they’re-almost-alien cockroaches. Squirt lemon juice in windowsills, the thresholds of doors, along baseboards and into any cracks where insects might get into the house. Add lemon juice to your floor wash for even more insect-repelling action.

Lighten Age Spots and Freckles

There’s some debate as to whether this actually works, but if you’re desperate to reduce the appearance of freckles or dreaded age spots, lemon juice might be worth a try. Apply lemon juice with a cotton ball once per day and over time – we’re talking months – they may lighten a little bit.

Glass Cleaner

Lemon juice will make hard water stains, debris and other marks on glass disappear. Use straight lemon juice on a sponge for tough jobs, or dilute a few tablespoons in a cup of water and spray it on. Wipe it off with newspaper for totally transparent windows (that might just kill a bird or two.)

Stain Remover

Sweat, mildew, berries, wine, oil – pretty much any substance that leaves a stain on fabric can be removed with good old lemon juice. Durable fabrics can be rubbed with a paste of lemon juice and salt while more delicate fabrics might require a gentler touch, saturating the stain with lemon juice and then washing it out.

Sore Throat Soother

Gargle with a teaspoon of lemon juice in 1/8 cup of warm water to help shrink swollen throat tissue and kill bacteria. Frequent cups of hot tea made with a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of lemon juice will also do the trick.

Toilet Cleaner

When mixed with household borax (not the insecticide kind), lemon juice can remove even those stubborn rust stains from the toilet bowl. Make a paste of borax and lemon juice and apply it to the stain with a scrub brush or sponge. Let it sit for up to two hours, then scrub away.

Metabolism Booster

Does lemon juice really boost metabolism? Some of the claims raise red flags as being a bit too enthusiastic, and most of these lemon-based “metabolism boosters” are recommended as food replacements in starvation diets. But hey, adding a little lemon juice to your water every day will make it taste better, and drinking more water can definitely help you lose weight. So, there’s that!

Dandruff Treatment

Lemon juice may not cure dandruff or prevent it from occurring in the first place, but it can remove flakes that are already present so you don’t have to worry about them making an appearance on your clothing. Massage lemon juice into your scalp, leave it on for ten minutes and shampoo as usual.

Metal Polish

Slice a lemon in half, dip it in salt and rub it onto metal surfaces like stainless steel ranges and copper pots to eliminate grime and make them gleam.

Rice De-Sticker

A few drops of lemon juice added to simmering rice will keep it from sticking to the pot, making clean-up a lot easier.

Hair Highlighter

You can achieve natural-looking highlights at home with nothing more than a little lemon juice, a sunny day and something to occupy your hands for an hour or two. Either apply it directly to the strands you want to highlight or get an overall lightening effect by spraying on a diluted mixture of 1/2 cup lemon juice to 1/2 cup of water. The intensity of the lightening will vary depending on your hair type and texture.

Laundry Brightener

Just as it removes stains, lemon juice can act as a natural, non-toxic alternative to bleach. Add a quarter cup of juice to the washing machine to brighten whites. Lemon juice’s stain-removing power is further heightened by hanging the treated laundry up to dry in the sun.

Heartburn Relief

The efficacy of this trick depends on whether your heartburn is caused by too much acid in your stomach, or not enough. If it’s the latter, drinking a little lemon juice in water can quickly relieve discomfort.

Facial Treatment

Applied with a cotton ball, a little lemon juice acts as an astringent, eliminating oil and tightening pores for a smoother look. Mix salt and lemon juice into a paste for an all-natural exfoliant.

Itchy Skin Soother

Apply full-strength lemon juice to unbearably itchy skin rashes like poison ivy to soothe them and keep them from spreading.

Hangover Help

The next time you’re groaning in pain the morning after enjoying just a tad too much alcohol, try drinking a little lemon juice squeezed into warm water or tea. Not only does it help you re-hydrate, but the lemon juice can reportedly help balance the pH levels in your body and replace the vitamin C lost in the binge.

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Photos: neil conway, ninetwoseven, corbin_dana,  conanil

Prepare yourself for cold and flu season with these immune boosting products.

Many people may watch Mad Men for the human-interest stories, intense character arcs, and glimpses of history. I watch for the women’s gloves. Gloves to this germaphobe means never having to open another public bathroom door with my sleeve. Or successfully touching my nose after riding the Metro. Or pushing a grocery cart without fear. Oh, what a world it would be.

So what’s a glove-lusting germ-hater to do at the advent of cold and flu season? Green beauty has a nice selection of immunity boosters free of toxic ingredients. Check out our favorite picks to boost your immune system and see you through the winter.

(None of these products are meant to be consumed internally, nor has their effectiveness been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. They are not intended as a substitute for a doctor’s care, so see your doctor if you are sick. Embrace hand washing. This announcement is courtesy of the common sense side of everything.)

I-Booster Salve by Buddha Nose ($24.00)
The last severe cold I (heroically) endured, I heavily employed this salve from Buddha Nose. As creator Amy Galper writes of her product, its intention is “to wake us up when we feel fatigued and to activate and protect us when we feel run down.” By rubbing it on your neck and shoulders, you are said to receive a natural boost to your energy. Made with USDA certified ingredients, this lemon, clove, and cinnamon blend brings a pleasant scent up to your aching head.

Cloud of Protection By Nieves ($18.00)
Perhaps one of the most fragrant spritzers I’ve ever come across, this formula contains essential oils that claim to fight bacteria and viruses. With naturally antiseptic ingredients such as juniper needle and eucalyptus, this product goes airborne to keep you in a lovely haze of scent. Its creators also recommend it to clear negative energy in your vicinity and to help with some “odor guidance” in public bathrooms and more.

Vapor Bath Elixir by Farmaesthetics ($31.00)
Another slam-dunk product from the green experts over at Farmaesthetics, this fragrant immune boosting “spa in a bottle” brings to mind evergreen forests when it’s added to the bath. Containing certified organic ingredients to open congestion and boost the immune system, its mix of menthol, clove, eucalyptus and lavender is not to be missed. I actually keep my bottle on my desk to use as an aromatherapy boost throughout the day, it’s that good.

Aromatherapy Personals Immune Boost ($17.00)
Eucalyptus and lemon make another appearance in this fragrant roll-on from Aromatherapy Personals. Made with certified organic ingredients, it contains bacteria-fighting tea tree oil. It also has lemon, frankincense, rosemary, and sweet orange to sooth your senses. You can roll it onto pulse points along your wrists and use it on your temples and the back of your neck. Aromatherapy Personals also offers a product to sooth a sinus headache.

Hand Sanitizer Spray by EO Organics ($1.99)
Anti-bacterial sprays can be controversial. Loaded with triclosan, they kill off bacteria but not all of it. The surviving bacterium gets angry. And you don’t want to see bacterium get angry. This product from EO Organics is ready to fight bacteria. What’s more, it contains certified natural ingredients such as fragrant lavender. Yes, perhaps we can’t walk around sporting Betty Draper-friendly elbow gloves. But at least we can dose our hands with some lavender-scented product to make life just a little easier during cold and flu season.

Image: Fran Ulloma

FTC Compliance

The latest trends in eye makeup start with eco-friendly products.

Delicious, creamery eggnog in a frosted glass. Pumpkin pies baked from scratch. Spiced rum cakes served next to a crackling fire. Oh, those holidays will soon be upon us. For many of us, this means a whirlwind of feted parties spent in stacked heels and vintage cocktail dresses. And what will be splashed across our faces this holiday season? The latest trends in eye makeup with lots of drama and shimmer.

The key to a spectacular eye can be an excellent eyeliner. Accordingly, we’ve picked three of our favorite eye enhancers to help us all through the holiday season.

Alima Pure Luminous Eye Shimmer ($11.00)
This rich, intense eyeliner brings a smoky shimmer to your lids and lashes. From husky blue to oceanic gray to simmering purple, it’s a mineral-based makeup which invokes some of the most romantic Earth hues around. Also available in matte colors, this eyeliner easily fills in for a shadow if you’re so inclined.

Alima Pure offers a BDIH-certified product, which means it has been deemed safe and natural by the rigorous European standard of beauty care. Cruelty-free, Alima Pure donate 1% of all profits for the planet and offsets 100% of corporate carbon emissions through Carbonfund.org. Skin Deep gives it a highly-coveted rating of 2.

Living Nature Eye Pencil ($20.00)
Want to get the job done with an old-school pencil? Living Nature offers this vegetable wax based product to provide a smooth line in smoldering hues. The pencil-like application allows for a sharp line or a broader smudge if desired.

Living Nature offers up the native botanicals of New Zealand. They are free of parabens, phthalates, and any genetically-modified ingredients. This product receives an excellent rating of 1 from Skin Deep.

Jane Iredale Mystikol Eyeliners ($20.00)
These innovative eyeliners can easily become the star performer in your makeup bag. On one side, we have powdered eyeliner ending in a pointed wand. On the other, a powdered highlighter doing the same. What this means for us, the users without the steadiest of hands, is that we can easily outline our lash lines or lids with professional-looking end results. From bright blues and dusky purples to deep greens, these eyeliners enhance your eyes under holiday lights.

Offered up by mineral makeup guru Jane Iredale, this product scores an excellent rating of 1 from the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database.

Want more information on great, green eyeliners? Check out some of our past picks.

Image: liquene

FTC Compliance

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we give you seven ingredients to self-police out of your life year-round.

We’ve already established that breast cancer awareness month perhaps may be a wee bit commercialized with tainted pink product. And by “wee bit,” we really mean as commercialized as a Kardashian wedding set in Vegas directed by Michael Bay. And that this over-commercialization, in fact, takes away from the message that being aware of breast cancer is a good and noble thing.

What’s more, as a writer who covers green beauty, nothing steams my kale more than the giant beauty companies getting in on the “pinkwashing” game. Yes, I’m talking about the companies who promote breast cancer awareness via area run/walks and plaster their product with pink ribbons while doing very little to actually take cancer-causing ingredients out of their lipsticks, mascaras and more.

Green beauty expert Stacy Malkan addresses this in her call-to-arms “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.” Calling out Revlon, Estee Lauder, and Avon, she writes, “When new knowledge comes to you that your product contains problematic ingredients, if you were authentic in your support for breast cancer, you would be vigilant in addressing that.” She further points out that the “pink-ribbon companies” defend their use of bad ingredients and actively work to keep their industry unregulated and self-policed.

Where does this leave us? The easiest way to ensure you are purchasing a safe product is to become a vigilant reader of labels. How best to do it without the chemistry degree it seems to require deciphering such labels? Here are seven ingredients to avoid that will be plainly listed on your product.

Fragrance
Of all the ingredients, fragrance is perhaps the sneakiest. The beauty industry has enacted so-called “trade-secret laws” allowing manufacturers to create synthetic chemical mixtures to contain as many as five hundred chemicals at a time. And what do they call these chemicals? Fragrance. In other words, you’re not just getting a delightful whiff of pleasant smell; you’re also likely getting a ton of masked, potentially-dangerous chemicals. And these chemicals may expose you to allergens, neurotoxins, hormone disruptors and more.

Listed as fragrance, perfume or parfume, they are in (yes) perfume, makeup, deodorant, body lotions, shampoo, soap and basically any beauty product that has a scent. Fragrance can also stand in for natural essential oils, which can be irritating to the skin. Basically, you just don’t know what you’re getting unless it is from a reputable brand or you run it through the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database. (More on that later.)

Nanoparticles
These tiny particles are 80 times thinner than a human hair. Nonetheless, they are big in the beauty industry just now because they can deliver a product’s benefits in an effective manner. Unfortunately, this means that they can also deliver the product’s dangerous chemicals straight through protective layers of your body, such as the ones surrounding your brain and your womb. This could potentially cause cell damage.

Until there are more studies done on nanoparticles, sideline them from your makeup and sunscreens.

Phthalates
Phthalates as perhaps one of the best known criminals on the ingredients label, if only because no one seems to know how to properly pronounce them. (Some speculate that it is thall-lates.) Popular in just about everything, including makeup, hair spray, perfume, nail polish and more, they are suspected carcinogens and known hormone disruptors.

Parabens
Like their phthalate cousins, parabens are also extremely common in beauty ingredients. These are the preservatives that keep your makeup, conditioner, shampoos, and lotions “fresh” on the shelves. Known hormone disruptors, they also may be a carcinogenic. They can prematurely age your skin. One study shows that they can contribute to a higher rate of wrinkling and sun spots on skin when exposed to the sun.

1,4-dioxane
1,4-dioxane is not listed on labels; rather, it refers to a process called ethoxylation which occurs in the body from certain ingredients. These include PEG, polyethylene glycol, polyethylene, and polyoxyethylene, which have been used to reduce the risk of skin irritation for petroleum-based products. 1,4-dioxane is a known carcinogenic. Further, it was found in up to 48% of personal care products tested by the Environmental Working Group in 2008.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate
These are surfactants used in our shampoo, soaps, toothpaste and more to make them suds up. However, they are possible hormone disruptors. And the worst thing? Our old enemy 1,4-dioxane may be found in sodium laureth sulfate. So sacrifice a little suds for a lot a health. Luckily, the conventional beauty industry is starting to catch on with this ingredient as more and more brands are sporting the “SLS-free” label. And that’s a great thing.

Triclosan
This anti-bacterial agent and preservative is popular in body products from deodorant to soap to toothpaste and more. It’s a known skin irritant and does not have a conclusive positive effect on every day use. (Meaning, outside of a hospital where it is tackling a super bug.) Further, it may disrupt hormones and could be helping along a bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. Instead, wash your hands with soap and water, and look for products that contain thyme, a natural and effective anti-bacterial agent.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? You can always ease into green beauty by just pulling one or two ingredients from your products. Work your way up the list. Plus, there are several fantastic green beauty brands you can trust, as well as excellent purveyors of such product. Here’s one of our vintage pieces listing some great eco-beauty boutiques.

If you want to learn more about green beauty, be sure to consult the EWG’s Skin Deep database. You can run many beauty products and individual ingredients through this database for a safety ranking. For your nightstand reading, check out Stacy Malkan’s “Not Just a Pretty Face” and Siobhan O’Conner and Alexandra Spunt’s “No More Dirty Looks.”

And take heart – the first leap into healthy beauty products may seem daunting, but it gets easier with each positive step forward.

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Images: xshamethestrongx/Flickr  adforce1/Flickr  vikingzippy/Flickr

You can lie, sue, and Spanx all in the name of youth in Hollywood.

We age. It’s a normal part of life for all women, like getting your period or slowly turning into a person who refuses to wear high heels. But if you live and work in Hollywood, it’s a different story. If you are a woman, you are supposed to look young. If you are a woman over the age of 25, you are supposed to look young – for your age. If you are an actress, you are supposed to look like a zygote with Botox who is allergic to carbs.

So what are the women of Hollywood supposed to do?

First, lie about your age. Most actresses shave a few years off their birth certificate. This is a given fact in Hollywood, just like Renee Zellweger’s amazing legs. Note that these hacked birth certificates suddenly invert for actresses after the age of 50, such as Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren. Then, their sheer force of coolness shines forth like a laser, scorching everyone in its wake.

And if you’re caught lying about said age? Sue. This week, Amazon.com revealed that they were being sued for $1 million after revealing the age of a “Jane Doe” actress on the Internet Movie Database website. Amazon.com refused to remove the age reference. Now that everyone knows she is a wasted hag, Jane Doe insists she can’t get work because she looks too young to “play” 40. The burden of looking younger than your years is heavy for some.

Second, admit that you wear Spanx. Jessica Alba, Portia DiRossi, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Gwyneth Paltrow all cop to “a smoother silhouette” thanks to the spandex girdles. Further, the right slimming undergarments are essential, say housekeeping books from the 1950s that also recommend greeting your husband at the door with a martini and light conversation about your bomb shelter.

In a post-feminist world, Spanx are useful in manufacturing enlightening moments in a marriage. Like when you realized you haven’t packed your Spanx for an out-of-town wedding, and your husband asks if you’re talking about the underwear for your paunch. After everything goes white and “Flight of the Valkryies” plays in your head you admit, yes, it is the underwear for your paunch.

Finally, cultivate a “who cares?” attitude that secretly includes a nightly dosing of bird excrement on your face combined with extracts of sake and gold chips. Because have you heard? That’s how the Japanese stay so young.

Or you could just leave Hollywood’s standards and actually not care. In the end, we all age. Just smile at the 20-year-old heaving a long-winded sigh that he or she feels so old because they just found their vintage iPod from 2003. After all, there comes that day when we’re all wearing the same comfortable shoes and asking someone to repeat what they said.

Consider this a token of the ritual of bathing, a refreshing alternative to grimy shower gel.

Soap-on-a-rope producers Senteurs d’Orient are based in Lebanon, where the soap making business has been going strong for some 6,000 years. Before Dove and mesh sponges cornered the market, taking a bath was considered a luxurious and leisurely privilege, a sentiment that the Senteurs d’Orient soaps recall.

Made from pure vegetable oils, ultra-moisturizing shea butter and hand-picked flowers and blossoms, they’re completely natural and toxic-free (unlike so many of our other cosmetics).

Available for purchase at Prince Charles’ eco-luxury shop at the royal Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire or on the company’s website for about $10.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

6 iconic lipstick colors, now with a touch of green.

Meet Nancy Wake, the “White Mouse” of World War II. Described as “one of the most effective and cunning British agents working in German-occupied France during World War II,” Wake hid Allied servicemen in her home, parachuted into enemy territory, and knew how to wield a machine gun. Also, she traveled nowhere without her Chanel lipstick.

That’s some iconic color.

Today, sans machine guns, we’re privy to the classic colors of old. Be it nude, coral pink, or classic red, the green beauty industry offers up a bevy of iconic colors. Here are our favorite picks for archetypal lips.

Classic Red by Lavera ($19.00)
Think Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and other classic stars of the silver screen. Made with certified organic ingredients, Lavera’s “Red Berry Charm” provides a vivid, intense color with almond oil and Shea butter. The company commits to offering up natural cosmetics which are certified natural by BDIH of Germany.

Nude by Ilia ($24.95)
First encouraged by flower power in the 1960s, a natural sheer nude now suits any occasion. Ilia offers up “Nobody’s Baby,” a color made with 85% certified organic ingredients. It’s so silky that you don’t even need a gloss for sheen: in fact, it’s designed to act as a lip balm at first swipe. Free of synthetic preservatives, fillers and petro-chemicals, it also comes in a recycled aluminum case. Ilia is also cruelty-free.

Foxy Brown by Living Nature ($26.00)
1970s screen legend Pam Grier inspires us with this classic warm tone. Today, Living Nature continues the trend with all-natural ingredients. Offering up an iridescent sheer color with “Warm Rocks,” this hydrating lipstick is cruelty-free. Made with natural botanicals of New Zealand, the company provides a comprehensive guide to their ingredients.

Coral Pink by Jane Iredale ($20.00)
Bright, coral pink made a splash in the 1980s when preppy handbooks deemed pink and green the hottest color combination. Jane Iredale takes this festive hue into the 21st century with “Erin,” an iconic coral at home in Newport, Rhode Island or California. This silky, conditioning color is also free of dyes and synthetic preservatives.

Punk Purple by Afterglow ($24.00)
Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, and Pat Benatar made girl rockers cool in the 1980s. Today, we’re paying homage to these power players with a deep purple pucker. Afterglow offers up “Merlot” for some organic lip love. Made with 100% natural ingredients, Afterglow promises that their product is made with no parabens, nanos, bismuth oxychloride, gluten or talc.

Gold Shimmer by Primitive ($17.50)
Want to add a 1970s glam disco sheen to your lips? Check out “Taj Mahal” from Primitive, a vegan and versatile gold shimmer that’s perfect for layers or to stand alone. Primitive offers up clean and pure ingredients, providing a silky color made with Shea butter and jojoba oils. This lipstick is also cruelty-free.

Image: cerromijares

EcoSalon co-hosts the Yoga Beauty Bar in Estes Park, Colorado.

Last weekend, EcoSalon traveled through field and mountain to co-host the Yoga Beauty Bar in Estes Park, Colorado. Part of the 16th Annual Yoga Journal Conference, a seven-day event of 35-plus master teachers sharing their practice, the YBB featured some of the best lines of clean, green beauty, including Buddha Nose Body Care, Dr. Alkaitis Skincare, Lotus Wei Flower Essences, Priti Nails, Yarok Organic Hair Care, Revolution Organics, and Trance Essence. Runa Tea and Wei of Chocolate also made an appearance, as well as healthy travel experts Pravassa.

Together with Amy Galper of Buddha Nose, Linden Schaffer of Pravassa, and Sarah Braat, LMT and Qigong Healer, we offered up an incredible experience of green beauty to the yogis of Colorado. And guess what? It was amazing.

Amy Galper of Buddha Nose (front right) talks product with a patron

“The only power we really have to make change is how we spend our money,” Buddha Nose proprietor and co-host Amy Galper told me, “But the Yoga Beauty Bar is not just about selling product. We want people to experience the brands.” Between misting clients with her famous Heart Spray, a delicate floral mist with the mind/body intention of love, Amy enthusiastically shared her vision. “Once we have information about a healthy product, we can advocate for healthier living for ourselves and for the planet.”

A patron checks out product

And the patrons of the Yoga Beauty Bar responded in droves. Patrons perused the hip shades from Priti Nails and pure cosmetics from Revolution Organics. They sampled the fragrance scents from Trance Essences Perfumes and Candles while sipping Runa Teas and nibbling on the delicious, floral-infused organic chocolates from Wei of Chocolate. (My favorite? The citrus-inspired “Joyful.”) Patrons delighted in the Lotus Wei Flower Essence’s elixirs and mists and lathered up with Dr. Alkaitis skin care moisturizers.

At the same time, Linden Schaffer shared Pravassa Travel, her New York-based wellness company that plans healthy vacations around the globe, such as Aruba, Bali, Vermont and Italy. Pravassa focuses on an aspect of health and wellness like cooking, body work, nutrition, pilates or yoga. Vacationers are able to refocus their thinking and restore their every day well being.

Linden Schaffer (left) of Pravassa 

All the while, LMT Sarah Braat worked on yogis who were eager for a massage or Quigong healing. Sarah, a nurturing soul who seems to make magic with her hands, is the founder of Sage Healing Arts in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. You can find Sarah on Facebook. She also does remote energy work and is offering a 10% discount to all EcoSalon readers.

Sarah Braat performing energy healing

Truth be told? This entire experience made me a healthier person.

As the green beauty guru for EcoSalon, I traveled to spend my time discussing green beauty to the interested yogis of the conference. I arrived much like an extra from the movie “Contagion,” staring down the barrel of one hell of a bad cold. Fortunately, I had the luck of entering into the nurturing and restorative sphere of Buddha Nose and Amy Galper’s line of USDA Organic body care products. “I have just the thing for you,” Amy offered after taking one look at my sallow face. She dosed me in her I-Booster Spray, an anti-bacterial concoction made with stimulating essential oils of Clove, Cinnamon, Lemon and Ravintsara.

Hair treatments courtesy of Yarok Hair Care at our party

Later that evening was the EcoSalon-YBB sponsored party, where yogis crowded into our Estes Park cabin to commune over green beauty. Lucky revelers, including myself, got to partake in various masks from Dr. Alkaitis and serums for Yarok Hair Care. The next day, I felt like a new woman as my cold symptoms were significantly reduced.

Facial by Dr. Alkaitis

It makes perfect sense. Our bodies take in 60% of the ingredients we put on our skin – so what better way to restore your health than to feed it with some of the purest ingredients on the market?

Amy informs me that future Yoga Beauty Bars are in the works – in fact, she plans to expand them across the nation at various events. “We have a real passion to educate people about clean, green product,” she says. Lucky for this EcoSalonista, her passion may also help hinder colds.

To see more behind the scenes Yoga Beauty Bar action, watch our video:

What the mall makeup-counter ladies say isn’t always right.

Come closer. We need to share something but we don’t want the Internet to hear. Ready? Okay. Sometimes our makeup looks bad. Okay, really bad. Like, eighth-grade picture bad, when you’re combining braces, big-framed glasses, and hair you haven’t figured out quite how to tame yet.

How does this happen into our adult years? We’re not quite sure. Maybe we’re swayed by catchy magazine layouts that promise the latest trends that don’t translate off-page. (Or they do translate, but they read: clown.) Maybe we’re influenced by a makeup artist who sits us in a department store chair and plies us with powders that look great under fluorescent lighting, but look fluorescent under the light of the sun.

Or maybe, it’s time for all of us to just take a stand and say NO MORE to certain makeup trends and tap into what feels right to us. Regardless, here’s a few combos we advise you steer 100 miles clear of.

Blue eye shadow and red lipstick
Blue was once the glory of all eye shadow. We plied it across our Barbie’s lids, convinced it was the most fabulous accessory short of the silver saddle jauntily sitting across a My Little Pony. Now, blue eye shadow, especially when matched to red lipstick, is like the Sasquatch of makeup. It sounds interesting in theory, but we have yet to see it work in person.

Matchy-match eye shadow and lipstick
Pink and pink? You look like you’ve escaped from your hospital bed and are about to start a zombie plague. Blue and blue? You’ve already started the zombie plague. There’s not a color match on planet Earth that can work on any complexion without completely washing it out. Seriously, Stephen Hawking would back me up on this. It’s a law of physics.

Black eyeliner and nude lips
This is perhaps the most controversial of our bad color combos. Black eyeliner, artfully applied, is the ultimate tool to make eyes pop. But combined with a too-pale lip? Your eyes are popping while the rest of your face looks like it’s given up and gone to bed early with a glass of warm milk.

Image: soundfromwayout, xlordash