The naked truth?

About 70 percent of LUSH Cosmetics’s products are sold naked without packaging (even their shampoo)! By reducing their dependence on virgin plastics, LUSH is helping to reduce landfill waste and CO2 emissions – all without compromising the quality of their products.

Their lust-worthy line of solid bath products are hand-made with gentle, natural ingredients that use aromatic properties to soothe and smooth. What’s more, the compact little slices of Heaven are a long-lasting and economical alternative to pricier liquid options.

Wanna learn how you can get naked?

In celebration of Earth Week, EcoSalon is giving away three sets of LUSH’s most popular naked products. Each set includes one Therapy Massage Bar, Buffy Body Butter, Solid Sugar Scrub, Godiva Shampoo Bar, and Vanilla in the Mist Soap. The sets come neatly packaged in LUSH’s eco-conscious Knot-Wraps, which are gorgeous scarves made from vintage or vegan fabrics that can be re-used for any number of purposes (think purse, grocery bag, decor, you name it).

The total packaging-free package retails for $40, but three lucky EcoSalon readers will score them for free.

Excited?

For complete giveaway rules go here, and you’ll find FTC guidelines here. Good luck!

The post LUSH Cosmetics’s Knotty Giveaway appeared first on EcoSalon.

Global demand for palm oil, used as the main ingredient in processed foods, soaps and cosmetics, has resulted in the clearing of many ancient rainforests to make way for palm oil plantations. As a result, indigenous people are being displaced, the native orangutan population is heading for extinction and the area’s fragile ecosystem is being jeopardized.

While some companies such as Cadbury are paying no attention and are actually increasing their use of palm oil, others such as LUSH Cosmetics are very concerned and plan on finding ways to stop using this destructive ingredient altogether.

This week, LUSH cosmetics launched an innovative campaign to make the public aware of what the increased demand for palm oil is doing to rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia.

It’s a multifaceted campaign:

First, LUSH Cosmetics announced plans to become a palm oil-free company, selling a newly-formulated soap made with groundbreaking palm-free soap base. This palm oil-free soap, three years in the making, will result in LUSH being able to reduce the amount of palm oil they use by 133,000 pounds or 60.5 tons per year – the equivalent of saving 36.3 acres of primary rainforest from destruction.

Secondly, LUSH is writing to the top 300 known palm oil user companies (such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestle) and asking them to follow LUSH’s lead and reformulate their products so that they, too, are palm oil-free. As an incentive, LUSH is offering to supply each company who does this with a year’s supply of soap.

Thirdly, LUSH has launched an interactive window display at 48 shops across the United States during August. At each display, which features a giant palm tree, orangutans and the slogan “Wash Your Hands of Palm,” people are invited to dip their hands in green paint and add their palm prints into leaves on the palm tree. The paint is then washed off with LUSH’s new palm-oil free soap. Plus, they will be given a free sample soap to take home with them.

LUSH is also selling a limited-edition tree shaped soap called Jungle with 100 percent of proceeds from its sales donated to the Rainforest Foundation, a nonprofit that works with indigenous people to protect their forest homes from expanding palm oil plantations.

Images: arabin, Greenpeace, LUSH

The post LUSH Cosmetics in a Lather Over Palm Oil appeared first on EcoSalon.

My husband is always first to note that if a perfume’s natural, why is it bottled?

“People like to smell what they can’t in their everyday,” I usually tell him.

After all, it’s not likely I’m going to pick vanilla beans today, wrangle up some sandalwood or score an overflow of Moroccan book bindings (a real scent).

But thanks to a handful of perfumeries here and there, people like you and me are able to smell similar to these scents we crave.

One of my new favorite perfume galleries is CB I Hate Perfume – an unlikely name for perfume you can only love.

Of all the scents I sniffed and rubbed not a one let me down and they really smell so true to their names: At The Beach 1966 (with hints of Coppertone, wet sand and driftwood), Wild Hunt (with a mélange of summer afternoon heat, leaves, fir and pine) and In The Library (a mixture of Russian and Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish).

These perfumes are derived from beet juice extract, water, hydrogenated castor oil and fragrance. No specially denatured alcohol is used in any CB perfume.

I knew I’d love this line but to be fair I did make it to a few other venues to sniff out some organic perfumes. Though nothing was that stand out, I did enjoy Lavanila’s Pure Vanilla, Pacifica Hawaiian’s Ruby Guava solid (with sweet pomelo, guava and a hint of coconut) and Karma Solid by Lush (with a spicy orange and patchouli base).

Let me know what you find for organic perfumes. I’ll add them to my sniff list.

The post Reinventing Our Scents appeared first on EcoSalon.