Welcome to the third installment of our seven-part Eco Salon Eco-Beauty Approved Guide: Hair Care. Coming up next is:

MAKE-UP & COLOR PRODUCTS
PERSONAL CARE & HYGIENE
SCENT
SUN

We’ve worked really hard to gather this list from professionals in the field, including Kristen Arnett, Paige Padgett, Jessa Blades, Greta Eagan, Sophie Uliano, Todra Payne, Renee Loux, Starre Vartan and others, along with our very own editors and writers. We’ve looked at ingredients, brand missions and philosophies, considered skin and hair types, all types of concerns and tested several products in each line. We’ve broken it down by category, with multiple options in each, so get ready for lots of options.

We’ve also considered price and tried very hard to include a broad range from luxury to affordable for just about any budget. Even though we’ve listed just one or two product recommendations per brand, it’s hard to go wrong with these companies, so experiment until you find your new must have products! Without further ado, please read on for the 2013 EcoSalon Approved Eco-Beauty Guide!

THE HAIR CARE LIST

1. ACURE Organics

Natural, organic and fair trade skin care products that provide visible results founded on a simple concept: provide healthy skin care products using the purest organic and fair trade certified ingredients in order to help raise money in the fight against breast cancer and to support environmental causes.

Product Picks:

Moroccan Argan Oil + Argan Stem Cell Shampoo (dry or damaged hair, thick, textured)

Moroccan Argan Oil + Argan Stem Cell Cell Conditioner (dry or damaged hair, thick, textured)

2.Alaffia (and sister Brand Beautiful Curls) 

Founded to advance gender equality and alleviate poverty through the fair trade of handcrafted shea butter products formulated based on indigenous beauty knowledge.

Product Picks:

Alaffia Neem & Shea Scalp Recovery Shampoo (for all hair types, but especially flaky, sensitive scalp)

Beautiful Curls Fortifying Curl Lotion (for dry, wavy to curly hair)

3. Aubrey Organics 

Providing all natural, safe and effective personal care and lifestyle products to the consumer.  We offer a true and authentic alternative to many of the mass produced synthetic products on the market today.

Product Picks:

Honeysuckle Rose Moisturizing Shampoo (for thick, dry hair)

Honeysuckle Rose Moisturizing Conditioner (for thick, dry hair)

4. Emtage

Founder Robyn Emtage, personally committed to her customers, to the health of their hair and skin, and to the health of the planet, creates formulas that improve the health of the hair while making it silky, smooth and abundant shine using pure, unprocessed oils and botanicals from Japan, Tahiti, India, and other parts of the world.

Product Pick:

SILKtáge ™ Rejuvenating Styling Serum (for all hair types, especially curly and dry)

5. Intelligent Nutrients 

Founded by Horst M. Rechelbacher (he created Aveda), Intelligent Nutrients is a leading innovator of certified organic health and beauty products utilizing 100 percent food-based and organic certified ingredients and free of harmful toxins.

Product Picks:

Harmonic Shampoo (for all hair types, color safe)

Harmonic Conditioner (for all hair types, color safe)

6. Jason 

A full range of personal care products, including skin care, soap & bath, hair care, oral care, kids care and sunscreens, to care for you and your family formulated without toxic ingredients.

Product Picks:

Tea Tree Scalp Normalizing Shampoo & Conditioner (for oily hair & flaky scalp)

7. John Master’s Organics 

Caring about yourself and caring about the earth don’t have to be mutually exclusive. For more than 20 years, this has been the guiding force in creating Super Natural Beauty for your hair, your skin, and your home that treats the earth with respect.

Product Picks:

Lavender Rosemary Shampoo (for all hair types, color safe)

Citrus & Neroli Detangler (for all hair types, especially easily tangled, color safe)

8. Original Moxie 

Eco friendly hair products for a diverse range of hair types, featuring a unique diagnostic approach and natural ingredients.  Their bottom-up product development begins and ends with real people and takes a problem-solving approach to real hair care needs.

Product Picks:

Get Fresh Shampoo (fine, limp or oily hair, color safe)

Featherweight Conditioner (fine, limp or oily hair, color safe)

Mane Tame (for most hair types, especially frizzy, curly or fly away)

9. Rare Elements 

Built on the principles of luxury and performance, this distinct brand delivers the same gratification that salon-professionals depend on and the healing benefits that only nature can provide. Made using the most exotic and quintessential ingredients in the world, they’ve developed a simple yet effective collection that is ideal for restoring and maintaining the hair’s integrity.

Product Picks:

Pure Shampoo (for all, but best for dry, damaged, processed hair, color safe)

Essential Conditioner (best for dry, damaged, processed hair, color safe

10. The Wonderseed 

The Wonder Seed’s mission is to nurture, heal and protect skin and hair with a complete line of products rich in virgin organic hempseed oil, the most nutritious oil on Earth.

Product Picks:

Hemp Seed Oil Shampoo – Sweet Orange (for all hair types)

Hemp Seed Oil Conditioner – Sweet Orange (for all hair types)

11. Yarok 

Their focus is to make the greatest positive impact on hair and scalp health with the least negative impact on the natural environment. Whether it’s our packaging, our product formulations, our day-to-day operations or our strategic partnerships we are dedicated to supporting environmental causes.

Product Picks:

Feed Your Do Styling Whip (for all hair types, especially dry, frizzy or in need of texture)

Feed Your Youth (for all hair types, especially thinning or sensitive scalp)

Read Eco Salon’s 2013 Eco Beauty Approved Guide Part 1: 19 Bath & Body Products here.

And Part 2: 41 Facial Care Products here.

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

Looking to try healthy beauty products before you buy?  Goodebox delivers 6-7 personalized samples per month to take the guess work out of cleaning up your beauty routine. Try Goodebox today.

The post EcoSalon’s 2013 Eco-Beauty Approved Guide Part 3: 11 Hair Care Products appeared first on EcoSalon.

Got milk? You don’t have to just drink it. 

Love it or hate it, milk has a place not only in your diet but also in your tool box and cleaning closet as well as among your toiletries. Raw goat milk, in its unadulterated and probiotic-heavy state, is the best to use. But seeing that unpasteurized milk is outlawed for sale almost everywhere in the U.S., pasteurized goat milk is second best. While not all milks are created equally, you can use any animal milk to successfully benefit from these tips. From curing a hangover to tending to those stained linens, milk has got your back.

Appetite Suppressant

To prevent overeating at mealtime, drink a glass of milk 15 minutes beforehand. Milk fills you up and gives you enough protein – 1 cup of non-fat milk contains 8.26 grams of protein – to keep you feeling fuller and less inclined to go overboard when food is served.

Hair Conditioner and Mask

With its vitamin and mineral content, milk works great on smoothing and shining your hair. Rinse your hair with fresh milk and let it sit wet for a few minutes before rinsing with water. You could also mix powdered milk with water to form a paste and then comb through hair, letting it to sit for at least 5 minutes before washing out.

Hangover Cure

Milk helps to settle the stomach, rehydrate the system, and raise blood sugar levels. These make it a great morning-after hangover cure. Additionally, milk contains the amino acid cysteine, which is known to neutralize a lethal dose of acetaldehyde, which is an alcohol metabolite.

Fish Freshener

Place frozen fish in a milk bath and let sit until the fish thaws. The milk makes the fish taste fresher.

Make-Up Remover

Mix powdered milk with water until a paste forms. Apply the paste to skin to remove make up. Rinse thoroughly.

Crack Eliminator

Before you toss Grandma’s beloved china, enlist milk to the rescue! The protein in milk reacts with the mineral kaolin in china to close cracks. All you have to do is place china in a pan, cover it with milk, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer for up to an hour.

Silverware Polisher

For glistening silverware, take advantage of milk gone sour. Simply soak silverware in sour milk, cover it completely, and let it soak over night. The next day, wash the silverware as you normally would. If the milk isn’t sour already and you want to make your own, for every cup of milk, mix in one tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of vinegar and let it sit for five minutes before use.

Bug Bite Soother

Mix milk powder with enough water until it resembles a paste. Apply the paste to the area affected by the insect bite to relieve pain. The enzymes in the milk will neutralize the venom.

Facial Cleanser and Mask

Milk is a natural cleanser. It contains vitamin A, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins B6 and B12. The alpha-hydroxy acids in milk exfoliate the skin, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and discoloration. Use a cotton ball to dab milk all across your face. Let it sit for a few minutes and then wash with water before moisturizing. For a mask, take 1/4 cup powdered milk and add enough water until it becomes a paste. Mix thoroughly and apply to the face. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before rinsing.

Ink Remover

To remove ink from clothing, take the affected garment and soak it in a milk bath overnight. The next day, wash the garment as usual. The stain should be gone. To boost the milk’s effectiveness, mix two parts milk with one part vinegar as the soaking solution.

Body Skin Moisturizer

The butterfat in milk moisturizes the skin. And because the pH of milk is close to the skin’s natural pH, the skin is more receptive to the moisturizing effects of the milk. Pour a few cups of fresh milk or 1/2 cup powdered milk into your bathtub, Cleopatra style.

Dry Hands Softener

To relieve dry and chafed hands, rinse them in milk a few times a day. Over the course of a week or two, your hands will begin to feel softer and less Winter rough.

Leather Cleaner

Dab worn or dirty leather with milk and buff until clean. The milk removes debris and leaves the leather shiny and looking brand new.

Corn on the Cob Flavor Booster

Boil corn with some milk in the water – about 1/2 cup – and the corn’s sweetness will heighten and its flavors will become more developed.

Shaving Cream Replacement

Run out of shaving cream? Nothing powdered milk and water can’t fix. Mix enough water with powdered sugar to produce a paste. Apply the paste to your face, underarms, and legs and shave. This simple concoction is smooth enough to resemble the real thing.

Poison Ivy Soother

To reduce the itch from an unintended stroll through a poison ivy bush, dab fresh milk or a powdered milk and water paste on the affected area. The milk will reduce the itchiness, redness, and irritation.

Sunburn Soother

Delicately pat sunburned skin with fresh milk. The milk cools the burn and the enzymes in the milk help to offset the pain.

Fertilizer

A tip from farmers and seasoned gardeners themselves – use milk as a fertilizer. Milk has been used as an organic fungicide and fertilizer without harming the plant.

Furniture Polisher

Sour milk makes for a great furniture polisher. Apply sour milk to furniture surfaces through a disposable spray bottle and wipe clean. You can also make your own sour milk, outlined above.

Milk Carton Bird Feeder

No, we didn’t forget about offering you a way to re-use the milk carton! Here is a tutorial on how to turn the carton into a bird feeder.

Images: Muffet, Striatic, Sshreeves, Jenny Downing, Gagstreet, Markusram, Robert Benner, The Living Room

The post 20 Unusual Ways to Use Milk appeared first on EcoSalon.

Don’t believe the hype.

These days, big brands are falling over themselves to prove they are toeing the planet-friendly line and sticking to wholesome products – and that’s good for everyone (when it’s not a lie, of course). Over the last 4 years we’ve been keen to champion the companies choosing the natural and sustainable over the artificial & toxic. Here are 6 posts from our archives where we ask – is it natural?

I purposely put all of the prominent, still-independent brands in this list because I want to tell their stories. But this isn’t a story about small vs. big, small being good and big being bad.

All the independents listed below are big companies, but they have the ability to uphold higher standards and work within their missions because they aren’t beholden to the intense scrutiny of the money managers.

Just for fun, can you guess which ones they are?

The Stories (And Money) Behind 10 Of Your Favorite Organic And Natural Brands

We use conditioners to keep our hair healthy, sleek and shiny. Or just to avoid looking like the Scarecrow from Oz.  Whether you’re a daily conditionista or someone who simply smooths it on once or twice a week, you’re going to want to keep it organic.

Why? To avoid the common ingredient in conventional conditioners called Lauramide DEA. It strips away important amino acids like serine, histamine and other hair and skin proteins. This can leave hair feeling dry and unmanageable – creating the need to use more conditioner. Who knew hair conditioner could be so conspiracy-theory! While the debate continues to rage about how conditioners will eventually destroy us all, we’ve got you covered with products that won’t.

6 Best Organic Hair Conditioners

Greenpeace recently reported that clothing items bearing the logos of 14 global brands – including Adidas, H&M, Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch – have been found to contain nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), chemicals that can break down to form the hormone-disrupting substance nonylphenol (NP). Just this morning, Reuters released the news that Nearly 300 Cambodian workers fell sick this week at a garment factory producing goods for Swedish fashion brand H&M.

14 Fashion Brands Test Positive For Hormone Disrupting Chemicals

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.”

A Fragrance Without The Fragrance: Organic Perfume Review

There are a lot of eyeliners on the market, with pencil, liquid and cake eyeliners being the most popular. The only true skill you need is a steady hand, and what I mean by that is the steadiness it takes to make your eyes look superbly lined and cat-like, without appearing like something The Joker may have applied!

The trick to lining your eyes is to start small. Do little dashes along your lid and then blend with a brush to avoid that weird eyeliner strip of flesh – you know, when there is a space of flesh between your eyeliner and your actual eye. Start from the middle and do small strokes, front to back. Short strokes, small dots even, can help you look more Catwoman than Scary Makeup Clown.

Five Of The Best Natural And Organic Eyeliners

Take a stroll through the cereal aisle and you’ll see box after box of sugary confections that look more like desserts than breakfast. Of course, all of those glazed mini cinna-buns and marshmallows are clearly not healthy, but what about the whole grain oats, shredded wheat and flax flakes? General Mills’ Oatmeal Crisp Crunchy Almond is “whole grain guaranteed,” but the ingredients include brown sugar, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and honey, making it 27% sugar. Kellogg’s Raisin Bran may be mostly wheat flakes, but it still has just as much sugar as Lucky Charms at 19 grams. In contrast, Kashi 7 Grain Whole Puffs has zero grams of sugar, and Cheerios have just 1. Check out this chart at Harvard School of Public Health to compare dozens of varieties.

10 Health Foods With More Sugar Than A Coke

Images: stublog, kaibara, kaibara87 and

The post From The Vault: The Whole(some) Truth appeared first on EcoSalon.

Want a centuries-old beauty trick? Tie on your sunbonnets and lean in. (Yes, now I am whispering.) Honey is the secret to everything. Okay, maybe not everything, but it comes pretty darn close. It’s the multi-tasker of natural beauty. Cleopatra made milk and honey baths infamous. Poppea, wife of Rome’s Emperor Nero, used milk and honey to maintain a youthful appearance. And best of all? It is everywhere and it is relatively cheap.

From your farmer’s market to local grocer, almost everyone carries a stock of honey. Naturally, you want to try to use organic honey. But beware of green washing – while many claim their honey is organic, it is nearly impossible to discern where the bees which created it foraged. They could have easily been exposed to pesticides, fertilizers and more. Some recommend buying farmer’s market honey, where you can talk to the grower about how his or her bees were cultivated and how the honey was bottled.

So just why is honey so awesome?

It’s a fantastic moisturizer.
Honey is a natural humectant. This means it draws in and maintains moisture, making it an excellent albeit sticky solution for dry skin. Want a great homemade moisturizer? Mix two tablespoons of warm honey with two tablespoons of organic yogurt. Whisk the mixture together and apply to your face for 15 minutes. Rinse with warm water. And try not to annoy any neighboring bees in the process.

It can work as an anti-ager and acne treatment.
Honey helps slough away dead skin cells, renewing skin. It is also packed with antioxidants, which can help combat the signs of skin damage. It also has antimicrobial properties, which makes it an excellent treatment for acne. This means honey can help clear blockage in pores as well as fight bacteria causing pimples. It is much easier on the skin than many of the harsh chemical acne treatments on the market.

It can help heal scars.
As we have already reported, honey is a superstar for scar treatment. Because of its antimicrobial properties, it has been used for centuries to treat wounds. And because it is also a fantastic moisturizer, it can help skin along on the road to recovery. You can place honey on your recovering scar and cover it with a layer of gauze to help along treatment.

It’s good for your hair.
For the same reason it’s a good moisturizer for your skin, honey works great on your hair. Some use it as a deep conditioner. Mix half a cup of honey with one tablespoon of olive oil. Work into your hair and leave for 20 minutes. Rinse like you’ve never rinsed before! Your hair will be soft, silky, and hopefully not too sticky.

It gives you fresh breath.
Worried about your breath? Consider gargling with antimicrobial honey. Mix one tablespoon with a half cup of water. Some suggest throwing in a dash of cinnamon or a squeeze of lemon. Gargle away. And don’t forget to throw a little honey in your tea for sweet, fresh breath.

Image: vickyb

The post 5 Reasons Why Honey Is the Ultimate Beauty Must Have appeared first on EcoSalon.

You should never have to apologize to your hair. Even if you’re soaking in gobs of sea salt, sun and chlorine, your hair will understand. After all, don’t you deserve to enjoy your outdoor-sy time after six months of snow, sleet and rain? Should you be guilt-free about dipping your scalp in the water, no matter how salty or filled with pool chemicals it may be? (Yes and double yes!)

But your hair can be like your mother-in-law – you shouldn’t have to make her happy, but in the end it makes it a lot easier to just get through the day. The fun of the sun can turn our hair drier than the 5,500 year old hair filling out the shoe of this ancient Carrie Bradshaw. It’s all about the sebum. (Isn’t it always?) Sebum is the natural lubricant in our hair that keeps it moisturized – and chlorine, salt, and sun essentially suck this straight out of your hair. This causes your hair sheen to diminish and the cuticle to possibly crack, causing split ends.

Luckily, there are some good natural products on the market that help wash away dry hair with a mere rinse in the shower. One in particular? EO’s Products Repair – Deep Conditioner Wild Lime and Ginger. EO is a fantastic company and I’ve always had good luck with their products. Their certified organic products “use the highest grade natural and certified organic ingredients” and they are sustainably sourced and free of parabens, artificial dyes, and fragrances. Oh, and their signature blue bottles are made from recycled PET plastic.

So yes, their deep conditioner does well in terms of keeping things natural. (Here’s a complete list of the ingredients in the deep conditioner.) But how does it work? The directions call for you to leave the product on your wet hair for ten minutes. I lathered up for a little less but was still pleased with the outcome.

The conditioner works well – I have fine hair and felt like I was walking around with a pleasant ball of fluff on my hair after using it. It has a non-descript scent that is fairly pleasant. It didn’t weigh my hair down like a lot of deep conditioners can do – but I did have to spend an extra minute or two rinsing it out of my hair. Use just a little at a time and rinse well. It’s $9.99 for four ounces, and you can find online here.

Image: Môsieur J. [version 3.0b]

The post Tested and True Product for When Our Hair Looks Like Hay appeared first on EcoSalon.