What can’t you find on Etsy these days? The online marketplace of handmade goods offers everything from the perfect 1940s fashion finds for a Katherine Hepburn look to planters made out of reclaimed shoes, and it’s a great source of lovingly crafted organic beauty products, too. Artisans around the world mix up tinted lip balm, facial oils, perfumes, bath salts and other personal care items using vegan, organic and environmentally friendly ingredients. Here are seven notable natural beauty shops on Etsy.

Naked Eye Beauty

Totally vegan, handcrafted in small batches and made with eco-friendly and organically sourced ingredients, Naked Eye Beauty’s beautiful selection of personal care products includes bath soaks, lip balm, facial cleansers, mineral makeup and more. Try three of Naked Eye’s most popular products with the ‘Best of NEB Bundle,’ which includes hair powder in your choice of color, rose tinted lip balm and herbal deodorant cream.

Herbivore Botanicals

Herbivore Botanicals offers a range of 100% natural, vegan bath and beauty products hand-crafted in small batches using no artificial colors or fragrances, animal products, parabens, SLS or chemical preservatives. Bamboo charcoal soap, rose lip balm, pink clay floral face mask, sea salt hair spray and coconut milk bath soak are among the goodies you can get from this Seattle-based business.

Crush Cosmetics

With a wide range of rich and dramatic colors, Crush Cosmetics is a great source of mineral makeup on Etsy. Their products are free of parabens, silicones, fragrances and phthalates, with no nano or micronized ingredients. Many items are vegan-friendly.

Phoenix Botanicals

Phoenix Botanicals is a Brooklyn-based shop selling wildcrafted herbal balms and remedies as well as botanical perfumes. ‘Faerie Balm’ is a natural liden-infused moisturizing salve for the lips, face and other sensitive areas, while Sweet Birch Balm offers cooling anti-itch properties.

Borne Cosmetics

Borne Cosmetics creates organic mineral makeup formulated with antioxidants, jojoba oil, kaolin clay and crushed pearl. For a limited time, you can get sample baggies of mineral silk foundation (about two months’ worth) for just $4.99, making it easy to try out a few things. Other products include blush, eyeshadow, facial cleanser and anti-aging face cream.

The Pure Apothecary

Simple, natural and local: The Pure Apothecary’s organic beauty products are made with the environment and health in mind. Try the organic pumpkin flavor lip balm, which is only available seasonally, or the invigorating Peppermint Eucalyptus essential oil body lotion.

French Girl Organics

Inspired by the effortless, chic beauty of French girls, French Girl Organics is a handmade collection of organic, vegan bath and beauty products made with no animal testing. Facial care, lip tint and solid perfumes are infused with ingredients like activated charcoal, neroli, wildcrafted rose hip seed and organic white tea extract.

Images courtesy the brands

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Livia Firth designs her first piece of sustainable jewelry and teams up with C.L.A.S.S. to create a fabric library.

We’ve been thrilled to follow Livia Firth, Creative Director of Eco Age and wife of Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth, as she has brought sustainability thinking onto the red carpets for a few awards seasons now. Her Green Carpet Challenge started out as a personal project, where she chronicled her conscious gown choices on her Vogue UK blog, but has garnered significant attention lately as Firth has managed to recruit some serious star-power.

Meryl Streep teamed up with Lanvin to create a golden gown made from eco certified fabric, Tom Ford created a gorgeous v-neck cocktail gown for Julianne Moore using vintage velvet and, for the BAFTAs, Viola Davis wore the first-ever eco Valentino gown.

For the Oscars this year, Livia Firth herself worked with Valentino’s studio to create a stunning red gown made from post-consumer recycled PET. Mr. Firth, who has done his fair share of green carpet challenges, played the recycling card and wore the same Tom Ford tuxedo he donned while accepting his Oscar for The King’s Speech.

It’s great seeing Firth challenging A-listers to dress consciously on the red carpet to make it a little more green. To make this easier for her fellow award show attendees, she recently teamed up with sustainable fabric guru Giusy Bettoni’s global network C.L.A.S.S. (Creativity Lifestyle and Sustainable Synergy) to start the first Green Carpet Challenge Fabric Library. Designers and their celebrity clients can use this resource to find more sustainable fabric options, making the entire process of creating a green carpet gown much easier.

“We will offer the great designers who work with us a host of exciting ethical fibers and ideas and continue to push the boundaries of world class aesthetics with ethics,” says Firth.

What is really great about this new venture is that the Green Carpet Challenge Fabric Library will include offerings far beyond the typical eco staples like hemp and organic cotton. There are ethical and sustainable alternatives for a whole spectrum of materials, from wool, silk cashmere, cotton, linen, hemp, vegetable tanned and dyed leather to recycled polyester (eg. Newlife®), recycled polyamide, cashmere, cotton, denim and wool (eg. Cardato Regenerated).

“I have known and enjoyed working with Giusy of C.L.A.S.S. for a number of years,” Firth says. “Bringing together her unparalleled knowledge of sustainable fabrics with the GCC’s continued mission to increase the profile and the possibilities of sustainable style makes huge sense.”

We could not agree more.

Firth also recently launched her own eponymous eco-friendly fashion label, Livia Firth Design (LFD). This collection will feature a small line of luxury clothes and accessories designed by Mrs. Firth herself. Pieces are all produced with “love, fair trade rules and environmental standards in mind.”

The first piece from the collection to be released is a limited edition skull necklace. This necklace is Liva Firth Design’s first piece and it’s been made with sound manufacturing ethics in mind. The bronze used is made in the U.S. – in a solar powered factory – and is then sent to a jewelry-making co-operative in Devon in Southwestern England. There, the skulls are hand-crafted using the lost wax casting technique, a process developed by the Ancient Egyptians over 4000 years ago which involves covering a clay work of art in molten wax and allowing it to harden before covering it in a substance called “grog” to create a mold. The hot molten bronze melts the wax when it is poured in and a bronze sculpture is the result. Each of the four skulls on this necklace has been handcrafted in this manner, by artisan workers who are keeping age-old traditions alive.

The necklace is exclusive to Eco Age and features four handcrafted skulls on an unconnected chain, meaning that the necklace can be worn in a variety of ways (which Livia demonstrates in a the video clip below) and you can mix it up as you wish, wrapping it around your wrist or upper arm, or wearing it as a choker or pendant, depending on your mood and occasion. Intricately made with strength, playfulness and rebellion at its core, this necklace is guaranteed to bring an exciting edge to any outfit.

“LFD has at its heart simplicity and glamour and a little bit of playfulness, which should always be part of our life.” said Firth.

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Liven up your monochromatic winter wardrobe with pops of mustard yellow.

Even though bright yellow seems to work best in summer, you can still sport some sunny color right now, if you just tone down the saturation a bit. Mustard-yellow hues happen to work very well with grays and blacks, which is good news for those of us who tend to buy our winter staples in dark monochromatic colors.

Stewart + Brown Knit Panel Zip Pant
These edgy pants are a take on the classic moto riding pant, but with Stewart+Brown’s signature feminine touch. They’ll become a wardrobe staple because they will go so well with all those neutrals you already have. I love the silver hardware and french terry-detail on the inside pant legs. Made in the USA from 100% organic cotton polished twill.
On sale for $122, Stewart + Brown

Envelope Cosmetic Bag by Apple & Bee
This charming envelope make-up bag by Australian company Apple & Bee is designed to fit in all your essentials and can also double as a cute mini-clutch. The outside is made from organic cotton and the inside is lined with hemp. Available in two additional patterns.
$28, Olivine

Amber Recycled Glass Earrings
These earrings are made from recycled glass bottles, individually selected and hand-cut into this circular design. Designed by Kathleen Plate from Atlanta, Georgiia, each one is hand-crafted and one-of-a-kind, which means they will vary slightly in size and shape.
$42, Jute & Jackfruit

Mischa Lampert Nolita Wool Hat
A great hat can work wonders for any outfit. Mischa Lampert‘s hand-knit wool hats are unique, stunning and warm. They’re made from organic merino wool that is naturally dyed and spun by hand in Lambert’s NYC studio (meaning she doesn’t use any electricity). Availability of styles vary.
$93.73 – $131.50, Kaight

Rickshaw Musette Bag
This medium-sized tote bag is made to fit your most important items, like a note book, newspaper, magazine and iPad. It is printed, cut and sewn in San Francisco, featuring made-in-USA fabric — Rickshaw’s signature Performance Tweed fabric made from recycled PET (plastic bottles).
$15, Rickshaw Bagworks

Julie Park Dolman T Dress & Yestadt Millinery Hat
This comfy, casual dress by Julie Park is made from tissue-weight Organic cotton grown in Australia. The diagonal seam along the front and the somewhat shorter back give a great textured, layered effect. It’s the perfect complement to this lemon-colored hat, handmade in NYC by Yestadt Millinery, using traditional, old-world millinery techniques. A high-quality hat like this is sure to last a lifetime.
Dress, on sale for $80 & hat, on sale for $190, both from Beklina.

El Naturalista Taiga Boot
These boots from Spanish shoe label El Naturalista are a freakish hybrid of styles that somehow just works. The lace-up detail on the bottom adds interest and ensures that they work with any kind of pants or skirts. The delicious mustardy hue is called “Leaves Mostaza,” which only makes me want them more.
On sale for approx. $238, El Naturalista

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What is it that makes a designer inspiring?

Why is it that we do not approach sustainability in a way that embraces ecological thoughtfulness of any extent, rather than total prosecution for trying at all?

Gretchen Jones, Sara Didzinski of Better Late Than Never jewelry and Austin Bates, production manager at Pamela Love

I came to New York City as a designer so I could be a part of a strong movement towards good design, not just green design, but design that will last a lifetime based on how and where it’s made and its inherent, timeless style. So on the 5th day of NYFW at Pamela Love’s A/W 2011 collections, all I can feel is pure love for the opportunity to view designers doing their best to inspire – and to be as conscious as they can.

Pamela Love’s presentation took hold of the 8th floor studios in a manner that demanded undivided attention with six white angels for models, gigantic crystals as backdrop (and infused in the jewelry) and ethereal lighting to make us think we were somewhere in the clouds.

I wanted to be those girls.  Wanted to fill my jewelry box with huge cuffs, even bigger necklaces and focus on the centering energy of a quartz crystal.

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