The Friday 5: A Splash Of Color Edition

The best of EcoSalon’s stories this week.

It’s almost time for the 2012 5k Color Run – where participants are dusted (read “spattered”) with non-toxic cornstarch paint, a different color every kilometer. How do participants look by the end? Check it out – and find out if there’s one coming to a city near you.

Another colorful date for the diary: Mother’s Day. Cue the traditional commercial orgy of cut flower selling. So of those 23 trillion flowers sold every year (you heard me), how many are unethically sourced? Jessica Marati takes a look at the good and bad sides of the Mother’s Day flower trade.

There’s no green like avocado green – and if this vegan avocado alfredo sauce from Aylin Erman is half as good as it looks, it will knock your socks off.

Proving that beauty can be found even in the unlikeliest places, we present – a dermapathological art contest. Whimsical and so very colorful.

Finally, if you’re concerned with the media’s influence over those with body image issues, this should get your attention: classical nudes in famous paintings digitally remastered to fit modern standards of physical beauty. How does that make you feel?

Mike Sowden

Mike Sowden is a freelance writer based in the north of England, obsessed with travel, storytelling and terrifyingly strong coffee. He has written for online & offline publications including Mashable, Matador Network and the San Francisco Chronicle, and his work has been linked to by Lonely Planet, World Hum and Lifehacker. If all the world is a stage, he keeps tripping over scenery & getting tangled in the curtain - but he's just fine with that.