Beauty Tips

Eco-Beauty Shopping Guide

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It used to be that I would simply head to a department or drug store to get my beauty treats. Now that I’m greening my beauty routine, I have to work a little harder to find eco-friendly beauty products. For awhile I got everything at health food stores. But now I’m finding green goods just about everywhere as they become more and more popular. I was at a Sephora recently and saw signs all around the store with a Naturally Sephora logo to highlight the many green brands. And other big retailers, like Target and beauty.com, now have extensive, natural beauty sections. There are also lots of really nice eco-boutiques with harder-to-find brands.

To help make your eco-beauty shopping easier, I’ve pulled together a list of some places I really like for getting green goods with details on their green offerings.

Mainstream Goes Green

beauty.com, drugstore.com, Sephora, and Target are excellent one-stop shops for finding lots of great green goods. I’m amazed by how much they offer now. A rep for beauty.com and drugstore.com says the natural stores on each site have grown more and more popular and that they’ve seen the popularity of the natural lines grow even over the last few months.

Beauty.com has a great natural beauty department with some of the best lines around, like ARCONA, Dr. Hauschka, Jane Iredale, REN, and tarte. Recently, they added Origins as well. It seems like they carry just about every product each line makes so the collection here is huge.

The Brands: Alterna, ARCONA, Astara, Boscia, Decleor, Dr. Hauschka, Hamadi, Jane Iredale, John Masters Organics, Juice Beauty, LAVANILA, Nude Skincare, 100% Pure, Origins, REN, tarte, and more.
Good to Know: They have a nice color guarantee so if something doesn’t look good when you try it on, you can return it. They also include free samples with every order.
My Faves: ARCONA Magic White Ice (a brilliant, lightweight moisturizer that also neutralizes free radicals), Jane Iredale Powder Me SPF (a finishing powder that also protects my skin from the sun), and tarte Cheek Stains (klutz-proof, long-wearing color).

drugstore.com is a partner site to beauty.com so you can save money by having your beauty.com and drugstore.com purchases shipped together (shipping is free on orders over $49). As with beauty.com, they have a really good selection – lots of great lines and lots of products available from each line. They have a Going Green/Sustainability Task Force that decides what’s sold in their huge Green & Natural Store, which has everything from makeup and skin care to pet food to vitamins and supplements.

The Brands: Avalon Organics, Beauty Without Cruelty, Burt’s Bees, de-luxe, Desert Essence, Earth Science, Jason Natural Cosmetics, Juice Organics, Kiss My Face, Nature’s Gate, 100% Pure, Physicians Formula Organic Wear, Weleda, and more.
Good to Know: They have an awesome eco-special right now. Get a Seventh Generation shopping tote made from recycled materials and filled with natural samples (a $40 value) with a $30 purchase in their Green & Natural store. This comes with a really nice assortment of samples, including goodies from Nature’s Gate, Burt’s Bees, and Zone Perfect. While supplies last.
My Faves: 100% Pure Nourishing Body Cream, especially the Organic Fuji Apple (smells just like just-picked fruit), 100% Pure Seafoam Facial Cleanser (deep cleans with lots of foam and without drying), and just about anything from Weleda.

Sephora now has a Naturally Sephora logo and an impressive number of products in their Natural & Organic department – more than 1,400 from more than 30 brands. On the Sephora blog, Skincare Strategist and Client Advocate Jamie Anderson says, “At Sephora, products that are considered natural have committed to formulating with high concentrations of antioxidants, botanicals, essential oils, fruit extracts, marine bioactives, minerals and vitamins, and fewer to no GMO’s, parabens, petrochemicals, phthalates, sulfates, synthetic dyes, synthetic fragrances and triclosan.”

I was happily surprised to find that she also says, “We read books and clinical studies, and we subscribe to a variety of newsletters and publications related to cosmetic chemistry. We also attend science, and research and development conferences, as well as work with brand formulators to stay up to date on green chemistry. Our auditing system is evolving quickly and the criteria we have in place now will change and update as the industry does.”

The Brands: Boscia, Cargo PlantLove, Josie Maran, Juice Beauty, Korres, LAVANILA, Pacifica, REN, tarte, and more.
Good to Know: Sephora carries many exclusive products you can’t find anywhere else. You can get eight free eco-beauty samples with any online purchase right now (while supplies last). Enter code NATURALBAG.
My Faves: Every single Pacifica fragrance and body product (they’re all so yummy – and Sephora seems to carry a much more extensive collection than anyplace else I’ve seen), tarte Eye Couture Day-To-Night Eye Palette (stunning colors in a fun, mirrored clutch).

Target is always a fun place for shopping, especially when I stop by the beauty department. My visits are even more fun now that they’ve expanded their selection of eco-friendly goods. It seems like I find something new on every visit. Green beauty goods range from $2.50-$26 so there’s no need to go broke to go green.

The Brands: Alba, Avalon, Burt’s Bees, EcoTools, Dr. Bronner’s, Giovanni Organics, Juice Organics, Kiss My Face, Lavera, Weleda, Yes to Carrots, and more.
Good to Know: Target is in the midst of having a sale on many natural and organic products. The sale is good through this Saturday (April 25th).
My Faves: Weleda Skin Food (super-rich, multi-purpose moisturizer), Weleda Wild Rose Deodorant (wonderfully refreshing and aluminum-free), EcoTools brushes (incredibly soft and cruelty-free), and adorable, recycled-cotton cosmetics cases.

Sweet Boutiques

Of course, small boutiques can offer more personalized service and harder-to-find products. I can’t begin to list all the eco-boutiques. But here are a few that are definitely worth a look.

Clary Sage Organics is an eco-boutique that opened here in San Francisco last year. It has gorgeous clothes and a well-chosen selection of eco-makeup and skin care. They test every brand personally for over a month and do research on the ingredients used in each line, using data from the Environmental Working Group and the Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database. They will soon be selling their products online.

The Brands: Benedetta (a local brand from our area), Color Science, Deep Steep, Farmaesthetics, Juice Beauty, Nude Skincare, Nvey Eco, Pangea Organics, Pharmacopia, REN, Tsi-La.
Good to Know: Clary Sage Organics carries EDUN, the socially conscious clothing company founded by Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. I interviewed Ali and Clary Sage Organics co-founder Patti Cazatto when Ali was in town recently with the new collections. Check out my post to see the interviews and the shop.
My Faves: Farmaesthetics Midnight Honey Bath & Beauty Oil (a light, versatile oil to put in a bath and on the body – smells amazing) and REN Glycolactic Skin Renewal Peel Mask (a gentle but highly effective peel that makes skin incredibly soft and glowing).

SpiritBeautyLounge.com stakes the claim of being the only carbon-neutral online boutique for luxury green, organic, and cruelty-free beauty and lifestyle products, including hard-to-find European skincare lines. They definitely carry lines I’ve never seen anywhere else. They stock organic and sustainable beauty products from companies with clearly defined humane, ethical, and environmental policies. They also carry recycled and vintage jewelry and non-toxic household cleaning products.

They also do a lot to keep their packaging green, by using recycled tissue paper, biodegradable cellophane bags (didn’t even know those existed), biodegradable bubble wrap (same goes for that), natural raffia or organic cotton ribbon, biodegradable and water soluble packing peanuts, labels printed on recycled stock with vegetable inks.

The Brands: Acquarella, All the Better to Kiss You, Amazon Beauty, Aromatherapy Personals, Ctonics, Dirt Candles, Ila, Intelligent Nutrients, Jurlique, Nvey Eco, Organic Apoteke, Patyka, and more.
Good to Know: Live chat available. They offer a very cool option of getting a set of deluxe samples delivered to your door every month.
Recommendations: Acquarella Nail Conditioner (excellent, safe strengthener and conditioner) and Acquarella Non-Toxic Nail Polishes (water-based polishes in a wide array of shades – without the awful nail polish smell).

Tobi.com is a hip, online fashion and beauty boutique with Eco-Tobi, a department devoted to eco-fashion and beauty. They’ve sought to create a personal feel that focuses on customer relationships. According to the shop founders, “We’ll greet you and always remember your name. We’ll know your style, what you love and what looks great on you. With every visit, we’ll share our love of fashion with you, and we’ll get to know each other better.” They have online chat customer service for one-on-one help from a stylist.

All the eco-beauty products were personally chosen by the founders. For example, with the Kimberly Sayer line, Catherine (the co-founder/chief stylist of Tobi) came across Kimberly Sayer when she was looking for a paraben-free night cream  that would also be light and gentle on her sensitive, acne-prone skin. She fell in love with Kimberly Sayer Tangerine & Calendula Night Cream, because it’s super light and didn’t clog her pores.

The Brands: Erbaviva, Hamadi, Juara, Juice Beauty, Kimberly Sayer, Korres, Pangea Organics, Pure Fiji, Red Flower, The Laundress, and This Works.
Good to Know: Online chat feature is available Monday through Friday from 9am-6pm PST.
My Faves: JUARA Candlenut Hand & Body Balm (incredibly rich and smells like a tropical paradise), JUARA Tiare Jasmine Tea Body Milk (lightweight and smells sweetly exotic), and Ren Damask Rose Ramnose Biosaccharide Body Cream (wonderfully rich and smells like fresh-cut roses).

Do Tell

So where do you go for your green beauty goodies? Have you been using more eco-beauty products this Earth Month? Do tell.

P.S. Check out our regularly updated Beauty Resources page for some amazing beauty deals from companies like beauty.com, drugstore.com, Macy’s, and Sephora.

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