We may have mentioned that traditional perfumes are toxic. (Missed that? Why here it is!) Sometimes it seems like traditional fragrances can contain more hormone-disrupting cancer-causing chemicals than the bottom layer of the local dump. But organizations such as the Environmental Working Group have our backs, keeping us informed on what’s safe and what’s going to give us three eyes. Perfume (properly researched by Skin Deep, experts, and possibly eco aliens from Saturn) is safe for us once more!

So now, what to do with all your old perfume bottles? They are often comprised of delicate cut glass and make great flower or bud vases. This puts them to the front of the line for a myriad of uses. If the openings are large enough, you can use them for containers for small objects like jewelry. You can even use them for kitchen containers – imagine how pretty Tabasco sauce may be inside glass? You can use them to contain homemade room sprays. Better yet, consider refilling the bottles with organic perfumes, purchased or homemade. (Check out a simple recipe for homemade perfume here.)

Perfume bottles can use be used as centerpieces for weddings – check out this creative conglomeration of flowers here. Heck, you can even go onto eBay and resell them to artful crafters. But before you do, check to make sure the worth of your bottle. Some antique perfume bottles can catch a high price.

So how to prep your bottles for reuse? First off, you may have some bottles with old perfume still in them. Your first inclination may be to dump them down the sink, but we strongly discourage this. Anything you dump into the sink is ultimately returning to the water supply. Yes, we consider traditional perfumes THAT toxic – check out the rating Skin Deep gives to a certain “happy” perfume available at a department store near you. This product is linked to cancer, reproductive toxicity, allergies, neurotoxicity and more. Want to shower with that down the line? Didn’t think so.

But you can take your perfume to a hazardous waste disposal site. While running to the dump over a few ounces of perfume might seem ridiculous and anti-carbon footprinty, consider dumping the perfume into a container for your yearly or biyearly run to the site. That way you can bring your electronics, batteries and more at the same time.

So now you’ve got your pretty, empty vases. Rinse them with water and vinegar to clean, and allow the bottles to dry completely in the sun. Then use them as mentioned – or just slip them in the blue recycling bins for a new life!

Image: Stepheye

Do you sprint through department stores? I do, and it’s always through the makeup section. I have bad allergies and walking through rows and rows of fragrances is akin to demons waving perfumed-drenched pitchforks at me. Fragrance means an instant headache, sniffling nose, and a possible asthma attack. To me, perfume is utterly toxic. To everyone else? Yeah, actually it looks like it is toxic as well.

At the start of the movement for safe cosmetics, way back in 2002 when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a report called “Not Too Pretty” discussed the dangers of perfume. A full page ad ran in the New York Times with the release of this report, featuring a pregnant woman sniffing what looked like the perfume brand, Poison. The ad ran, “For baby, it could really be poison.” The report found that 72% of tested beauty products contained phthalates, a chemical linked to birth defects and hormone disruption. And Poison contained the highest levels of the chemical.

This report launched the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which is responsible for much of the safer products on the market today. But a recent analysis by the Campaign shows that top-selling fragrances still contain at least 12 ingredients not listed on labels. What’s more, these “chemicals that can trigger allergic reactions or disrupt hormones. Hormone-disrupting chemicals are linked to a range of health effects including sperm damage, thyroid disruption and cancer.” Fragrance receives one of the highest hazard ratings from the Skin Deep database.

Second-hand fragrance is also a concern. Anne Steinemann is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of public affairs at the University of Washington. According to Dr. Steinemann, “One person using a fragranced product can cause health problems for many others.” Some of the health hazards associated with second-hand fragrance are asthma, headaches, and even contact dermatitis.

So do we protest by throwing our perfumes into the sea like some kind of Boston Tea Party? (Heck no, because it is way too toxic for the fish!) We found at least one healthier option on the scented market. A Perfume Organic offers up fragrances with more certifications than a Star Trek neurosurgeon (aka TONS).  This brand is certified USDA Organic, Oregon Tilth, cruelty-free and vegan – it even gets Greenpeace’s approval.

The line was founded by Amanda Walker, a vegan, organic, local, and raw food advocate. After a career in the perfume industry, she decided to create a healthier option for those seeking scent. Her perfumes contain certified organic botanicals and are hand-poured locally in Manhattan in small batches to maintain purity.

A Perfume Organic offers four scents, each for $65: Green, Urban Organic, Perfumed Wine-Rose and White Magik. Green is rose with hint of chamomile; Urban Organic is lemon with ginger and grapefruit; White Magik has white flowers with spearmint; and Perfumed Wine-Rose is berry, crisp apple and peppers. I have to be honest – with my history of fragrance headaches, I approached these perfumes as one might approach a root canal. You know you gotta do it, but you just want it to be over with. Commence crushing headache, right?

Cue the ringing of church bells and throwing of confetti! Nary a headache did I have with these scents. They smelled fresh and botanical. If you want to smell like fruit, you smell like fruit. If you want a hint of floral, it’s there. My favorite was White Magik for its sage and spearmint “aftersmell.”

And just what are they made of? Amanda supplied me with a detailed list of what goes into her perfumes. Her scents contain pure ingredients like lavender, bitter organic, spearmint, white pepper, lemon, and more. As she told me, “I never use any solvent extracted ingredients. This is very important as solvent extraction use petrochemicals and phthalates (such as absolutes and concretes). Also, I’m very careful to never use any endangered ingredients – my sandalwood is from Australia.”

Best of all? You can actually wear her scents without smelling like a broken perfume factory just rampaged by 1000 cats. You can find them at Futurenatural.

FTC Compliance

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Last week, we told you about our upcoming June event called EcoSalon Shops!, and promised to let you get an inside track on the designers involved. We have about 21 people to showcase, so in an effort to be fair, we’re going to do it alphabetically.

First up, A Perfume Organic.

Amanda Walker, founder and perfumier offers “exquisitely crafted perfumes blended from the finest USDA certified 100 percent organic botanicals, hand-poured locally in Manhattan in small batches to maintain purity.”

Perfume became an obsession for her while working for a Manhattan based, multi-billion dollar beauty corporation. Amanda wanted to offer a healthier alternative to synthetic perfumes full of acetone, petroleum, and phthalates (used to make plastics).
Her signature perfume GREEN bears notes of fruity rose (New York’s state flower), black truffle, chamomile, and sweet ylang ylang with a spicy wood finish. And the petite bottle and flower seed-embedded box can be recycled and planet as an effort to reduce wasteful packaging.

Sommelier, Katherine Marlowe, “©is collaborating with A Perfume Organic to select wine notes for the new Perfumed Wine Trio.

The first release in the trio, Rosé, is a fresh berry, crisp apple, dark oaks, and rich spices blend beautifully and is available June 1, 2010, for pre-order only. Being a perfume junkie, I can’t wait to lather in all the non-synthetic goodness. Fingers-crossed she has Rosé at the event!

If you’ve combed the selection of perfumes lining the sparkling counters at Macy’s or Nordstrom and have yet to find “your” scent, why not make your own instead? Making your own perfume is easy, and this way, you can create a fragrance that is unique to your personality – and organic. Before you set out on your hunt for essential oils, let’s explore the meaning behind popular aromas to determine your perfect match.

The bright and fresh fragrance of sandalwood signifies spiritual harmony, perfect for aligning those chakras to achieve the blissful state of nirvana.

If you seek invigoration, citrus aromas like lemon, orange and lime awaken your senses and energize your spirit.

To evoke a serene presence, both rose and chamomile are known for their soothing effects.

The floral scent of lavender denotes well-being and is a fabulous aroma therapeutic way to eliminate stress.

For nights out on the town, sensual aromas like jasmine and vanilla are exotic and intoxicating.

These aromas are just a sample of what the diverse fragrance wheel has to offer, and you can find a vast assortment of organic essential oils at Mountain Rose Herbs, Florapathics and Young Living. Once you’ve chosen the right fragrance for you, all you need is some organic vodka and a pretty glass storage jar to formulate your very own essential oil perfume. Concoct a mixture of approximately 85% vodka and 15% oil, cover the jar and let it stand for several days.

Don’t hesitate to combine different scents in your effort to compose an original fragrance; trial and error is half of the fun. Next, pour in a tablespoon of filtered water for each ounce of vodka, stir, allow this formula to sit for a few more days and, voila! You have natural, DIY, personalized perfume that sure beats the expensive designer alternatives.

Image: tanakawho

Chocolate’s a wonder. Recently elevated to superfood status, the world’s favorite luxury foodstuff (making up half the candy sold in the U.S.) is so complicated and versatile that we’ve barely scratched its surface. It’s a dessert? Tell that to anyone who puts dark chocolate in their chili. It’s unhealthy? In moderation, it’s good for your heart, your skin and your brain. If you think you know chocolate’s role in the world, here are 15 facts that might surprise you.

As Hard Cash. Once, money grew on trees in the form of cocoa beans. The Mayans (who are thought to have first discovered chocolate) used cocoa beans as a form of currency. The Aztecs did the same, even levying taxes in precious cacao…and of course producing the famous and no doubt expensive drink Xocolatl.

As Body Paint. Now, obviously you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, not the merest clue. But there are people (other people, we’re talking about) who spread chocolate in all sorts of places in order to have all sorts of fun. Not that we’d know.

Swirled into Cheese. It’s old news that putting something sweet in cheese (cranberries, for example) lifts the flavor through the roof. But chocolate is too sweet, surely? British supermarket chain Tesco didn’t think so, rolling out the chocolate whirl (59% white Stilton, 11% Belgian chocolate) in 2007. The Michigan State University’s chocolate cheese confection goes for a more fudgy, cheesecakey consistency.

Wrapping Bacon. I have to wonder how this dish originated, the same way I wonder how Cambodians discovered tarantulas are edible. No matter what it tastes like, the concept ranks alongside the Scottish deep-fried Mars Bar as a first-degree crime against food.

Fighting Tooth Decay. Say what? No, it’s true. An extract of cocoa has recently been found to be more effective than fluoride in keeping your teeth healthy.

Unsuccessfully Cornering Escaped Hamsters. For 9 days, Fudgie the Hamster evaded Scottish firefighters equipped with a sophisticated array of hamster-luring equipment included a tiny camera drizzled in chocolate – and the scrappy rebel was only captured when hunger drove him back out into the open. Even chocolate has its limits.

Keeping Your Ticker Healthy. Pick the dark chocolate and you have a dietary supplement that will improve your coronary circulation.

Keeping Your Skin Happy. Cocoa butter is marvelous stuff – rich, smooth and with an aroma that will have everyone fighting to get near you. And since it’s chocolate, it’s technically edible – the way all skincare products should be.

Stop Your Tension Going Hyper. A study from the University Hospital of Cologne found a link between polyphenol-rich (dark) chocolate and lowered blood pressure. A heavenly reason to eat chocolate when you’re stressed – as long as it’s the right kind, of course.

Feeding Your Car (or Airship)? Escherichia coli bacteria have a sweet tooth – and when they gorge on surplus chocolate, they produce hydrogen that can be used as a clean source of power. Speculating wildly, could waste chocolate power the zero-emissions vehicle of tomorrow?

Making You Smarter. Dark chocolate is rich in flavanols that improve the circulation of blood around your body, including the brain – fighting mental fatigue, making you more alert and generally making you a more efficient thinker. For this reason, chocolate is one of the smartest foods we know.

As Spa Treatments. Chocolate contains antioxidants (the less processed the better) so used correctly, it’s good for the skin. Hershey – recent newcomer to the organic market – has a hotel where you can indulge in cocoa-rich treatments ranging from chocolate milk baths and a cocoa bean polish to the hour-long chocolate fondue wrap. Can you imagine a chocolate high?

As Perfume. Rather obvious when you think about it. Chocolate is one of those smells, like coffee and fresh-baked bread, that seems to weakens everyone’s knees even if they don’t like the product itself. However, this perfume claims the aroma is a male aphrodisiac that makes you thin. Riiight.

Lifting Your Mood. Reaching for the chocolate when you’re feeling glum has become a cultural cliché, and since eating chocolate appears to have similar physiological effects to kissing, it’s not hard to see why. (Dean Ornich, M.D. describes the sensation for Newsweek). Since it improves the circulation, is a mild stimulant and makes you euphoric, chocolate seems perfectly suited to lift you out the doldrums…but not everyone agrees.

Not Feeding Your Pets. Here’s why dog chocolates were invented. Human chocolate contains theobromine – harmless to us but highly toxic to our four-legged friends. So ignore even the most imploring look…in case your kindness kills.

Useful links: Chocolate World; CocoaJava

Images: miss karen, cstrom, uncommon scents, profumo, Dennis Wong; MSN; dotbenjamin; bingbing

As Hard Cash

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Once, money grew on trees in the form of cocoa beans. The Mayans (who are thought to have first discovered chocolate) used cocoa beans as a form of currency. The Aztecs did the same, even levying taxes in precious cacao…and of course producing the famous and no doubt expensive drink Xocolatl.

As Body Paint.

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Now, obviously you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, not the merest clue. But there are people (other people, we’re talking about) who spread chocolate in all sorts of places in order to have all sorts of fun. Not that we’d know.

Swirled into Cheese

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It’s old news that putting something sweet in cheese (cranberries, for example) lifts the flavor through the roof. But chocolate is too sweet, surely? British supermarket chain Tesco didn’t think so, rolling out the chocolate whirl (59% white Stilton, 11% Belgian chocolate) in 2007. The Michigan State University’s chocolate cheese confection goes for a more fudgy, cheesecakey consistency.

Wrapping Bacon.

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I have to wonder how this dish originated, the same way I wonder how Cambodians discovered tarantulas are edible. No matter what it tastes like, the concept ranks alongside the Scottish deep-fried Mars Bar as a first-degree crime against food.

Unsuccessfully Cornering Escaped Hamsters

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For 9 days, Fudgie the Hamster evaded Scottish firefighters equipped with a sophisticated array of hamster-luring equipment included a tiny camera drizzled in chocolate – and the scrappy rebel was only captured when hunger drove him back out into the open. Even chocolate has its limits.

Fighting Tooth Decay.

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Say what? No, it’s true. An extract of cocoa has recently been found to be more effective than fluoride in keeping your teeth healthy.

Keeping Your Ticker Healthy.

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Pick the dark chocolate and you have a dietary supplement that will improve your coronary circulation.

Keeping Your Skin Happy.

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Cocoa butter is marvelous stuff – rich, smooth and with an aroma that will have everyone fighting to get near you. And since it’s chocolate, it’s technically edible – the way all skincare products should be.

Stop Your Tension Going Hyper

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A study from the University Hospital of Cologne found a link between polyphenol-rich (dark) chocolate and lowered blood pressure. A heavenly reason to eat chocolate when you’re stressed – as long as it’s the right kind, of course.

Feeding Your Car (or Airship)?

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Escherichia coli bacteria have a sweet tooth – and when they gorge on surplus chocolate, they produce hydrogen that can be used as a clean source of power. Speculating wildly, could waste chocolate power the zero-emissions vehicle of tomorrow?

Making You Smarter

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Dark chocolate is rich in flavanols that improve the circulation of blood around your body, including the brain – fighting mental fatigue, making you more alert and generally making you a more efficient thinker. For this reason, chocolate is one of the smartest foods we know.

As Spa Treatments

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Chocolate contains antioxidants (the less processed the better) so used correctly, it’s good for the skin. Hershey – recent newcomer to the organic market – has a hotel where you can indulge in cocoa-rich treatments ranging from chocolate milk baths and a cocoa bean polish to the hour-long chocolate fondue wrap. Can you imagine the chocolate high?

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Rather obvious when you think about it. Chocolate is one of those smells, like coffee and fresh-baked bread, that seems to weakens everyone’s knees even if they don’t like the product itself. However, this perfume claims the aroma is a male aphrodisiac that makes you thin. Riiight.

Lifting Your Mood

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Reaching for the chocolate when you’re feeling glum has become a cultural cliché, and since eating chocolate appears to have similar physiological effects to kissing, it’s not hard to see why. (Dean Ornich, M.D. describes the sensation for Newsweek). Since it improves the circulation, is a mild stimulant and makes you euphoric, chocolate seems perfectly suited to lift you out the doldrums…but not everyone agrees.

Not Feeding Your Pets

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Here’s why dog chocolates were invented. Human chocolate contains theobromine – harmless to us but highly toxic to our four-legged friends. So ignore even the most imploring look…in case your kindness kills.

Useful links: Chocolate World; CocoaJava

Images: miss karen, cstrom, uncommon scents, profumo, Dennis Wong, MSN, dotbenjamin, bingbing, mynameisharsha, jpockele, seyed mostafa zamani, kyz, jurvetson, Liz Henry and ?Blackangel?