I’ve always loved Urban Decay for multiple reasons. The company doesn’t test on animals, it has a vegan line, and it consistently releases insane colors the make my inner-makeup weirdo smile. And recently, the company announced it’s going to embark on a new campaign that makes me love these makeup slingers even more.

Vanity Fair reported that Urban Decay launched “The Ultraviolet Edge,” an appropriately named global initiative that will fund women’s-rights organizations. Wende Zomnir, Urban Decay’s chief creative officer and brand co-founder, formed this ambitious initiative to “empower women and bring women’s inequality issues to the forefront.”

To help get “The Edge” up and running, Urban Decay will donate $3 million to various causes over the next five years (and pledges to donate $500,00 in its first year) and will partner with the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund for its initial donation.

In addition to the brand’s generous donations, Urban Decay will also publicly recognize inspiring women who it feels are making a difference. The first woman the boisterous makeup makers are recognizing is a person who is as colorful as the makeup it sells: Gwen Stefani. This is the brand’s reasoning for making Stefani its first notable woman:

Gwen Stefani. Like us, she has a history of breaking down barriers and hails from Orange County, California. (Fun fact: She and Wende, our founder, met back in the early days of No Doubt and UD.) We dig Gwen’s innate ability to set trends and defy expectations. She also shares our passion for empowering women and will help give this initiative the attention it deserves.

If you’re an Urban Decay fan, you can get in on the ladylove action, too. All you have to do is purchase it’s limited-edition hue, Enigma. This eye shadow primer is priced at $20 and 100-percent of your money will go to Decay’s Ultraviolet Edge.

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Image via Urban Decay Cosmetics’ Facebook page

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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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