Safe cosmetic ingredients is the name of the game for new body care line, Beautycounter.

“I believe strongly that women should never have to compromise their health in the name of beauty,” says Gregg Renfrew, who describes herself as a mother, wife, and friend. “I know we can do better, and that’s why I started Beautycounter.” Standing among a crowd of rapt women and men in a chic hotel in wintery Boston, Renfrew kicked off the launch of Beautycounter, a new beauty and skin care line designed around the safest cosmetic ingredients. Just how these products plan to save us may surprise you.

Beautycounter offers up the usual high-end face oils, shampoos, and sugar scrubs so popular with the organic set, but it promises its users much more than hydrated skin. It’s a social selling company designed to empower and educate women on the basic products we use daily, which oftentimes contain dangerous chemical ingredients. But Beautycounter also plans to inspire a country.

The Beautycounter launch at The Liberty Hotel, Boston, February 26, 2013.

Renfrew promises that the Santa Monica-based company has “done the homework for you” by using only safe, qualified ingredients that won’t harm your health. Citing high cancer rates, Renfrew points out that “using [traditional] products has a cumulative effect, and it can really influence us over a lifetime.” She notes that the European Union has banned and restricted more than 1,300 beauty ingredients, while the United States has banned only 11. “Even tiny amounts of these toxic chemicals can disrupt your hormone system and impair your ability to lead a health and long life.”

Beyond selling body care products, Beautycounter plans to enact change in the United States. Working together with three non-profits: The Environmental Working Group, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and Healthy Child, Healthy World, the company aims to make a difference for the individual while also promoting a large scale movement towards safe, clean beauty in our country.

And here’s how Beautycounter plans to do this: Styling themselves as “a social selling company,” they offer a $10 membership, with the proceeds allocated to one of the three non-profits working with the company. They also offer positions as consultants, where you can build a business around the products. As Renfrew explains, “You can sell Beautycounter anywhere, anytime—at a wine and cheese gathering, a Twitter or Facebook party, or just offer coffee with a friend.” Just think of your mother’s Tupperware party, but without the plastic and strange orange hues of the 1970s.

“What we all share is our common desire to move the needle in the right direction,” Renfrew promises. And with the right direction promising greater health among high-performing products, it’s a cause from which we all benefit.

You can learn more about the Beautycounter movement at Beautycounter.com.

Photos courtesy of Beautycounter

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With Project Green Search, season two now underway, group co-founder Aysia Wright has her green cap on and is ready to tackle the big job of finding the next fresh face to represent social and environmental ethics in the green realm.

I caught up with her this week to ask some questions about just what project Green Search is all about. Here’s what she had to say.

Tell us what Rachel Avalon accomplished over her year?

She attended events such as the Global Green Oscars, the Millenium Awards, Fred Segal red carpet events, among others, as well as being featured in several articles online, in print, video and radio, including Treehugger, Peppermint Magazine, Organic Spa Magazine, Coco Eco Magazine, EcoStiletto, The Daily Green, and more. Given her interest in non-toxic beauty, she ultimately agreed to become an Ambassador for the Campaign for Safe cosmetics. She will be producing webinars on clean beauty to allow those seeking more information to obtain it in an easily digestible format vs. wading through reams of data and articles. Ultimately, PGS is a support network that will work to provide the winner with much exposure and open as many doors as we can. It should not be looked at as a golden ticket, it’s an opportunity for recognition, support, exposure that will help a dedicated woman on her way. What she does with it is up to her. The prize package doesn’t hurt either.

I think a lot of people assume this contest is just for a fresh face for modeling but we read on your site that it’s to create a sort of warrior woman for a “Green Revolution.” Enlighten us on what it’s really for.

It’s two fold: Hopefully Project Green Search serves as a point of inspiration for people at large to realize they can align their careers with their social and environmental ethics. Something flashy and sexy like modeling, or hosting, is a fun and visible way to make that point. I also want PGS to serve as an awareness platform for people to realize they don’t have to tow the party line – they can stand up to companies with questionable environmental and social practices and demand them to make changes. Whether that means choosing only to work with triple bottom line, LOHAS based businesses and organizations, or working from within entities to foster positive change is up to them.

Does it help if she does have a fresh face?

I’d say she has to have something esthetically special – fresh, striking, radiant, classical beauty, poise – something that sets her apart. Let’s face it, attractive women have a unique power to draw attention, which benefits the product, service, organization or event they are representing. But these women need to be more than just a pretty face and beauty in this context is much more. These women have depth, authenticity, a passion for change making. It shows when a person believes in what they are representing, and strengthens the brand they represent. More and more we are seeing companies feature women with a story – seek more than just looks for their models and spokespeople and there is real opportunity here.

Is the contest age specific?

No, the contest is not age specific. Women of all ages are welcome to enter. There’s a pretty broad demographic of people out there age wise seeking eco friendly products and services, and they respond to people who they can relate to. This might be a 22-year-old woman or it might be a 55-year-old woman.

What are some new challenges you’ll do for this year’s contest?

We’ve got a pretty fun line up of challenges this year, most of which are centered around developing a career in this space, but we do have one new component that’s all about having a kick ass time and bringing out the competitive nature of the finalists – the Eco Scavenger Race – in which the finalists will pair up for a mad dash, following clever clues to suss out certain sustainable goodies.

Looking forward, what do you hope to  to accomplish with PGS?

Ideally, I’d like to see it develop into a mechanism for sharing the stories of people who opt to fight the good fight, make tough decisions along the way, work to make change.

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