Red Lips Green Heart

*give your eyelash curler a five to ten second zap with the hair dryer before curling your lashes…the heat gives extra staying power so your eyes pop all day!

Almay gets into the natural makeup game, offering a new line called Almay Pure Blends. The eyeshadow comes in 10 great colors, is talc and paraben free, and even includes even includes fruit and flower extracts (like Lotus, Orchid and Acai) to nourish the skin. This natural eyeshadow even comes in eco friendly packaging (58% recycled material). The makeup line includes foundation, lip gloss, blush and bronzer, eyeshadows, and loose finishing powder. And going green doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of green…it’s all available at your local Target.

Even alternative makeup line Urban Decay is diving into the green field with their Sustainable Shadow Box. It’s perfect for anyone who wants a super fun color palette in earth friendly packaging. With their tag line being “Does pink make you puke?” Urban Decay is known for their eye popping eyeshadow color selection. With shadow names like Roach, Smog, Rust, Oil Slick and Acid Rain – inspired by the beautiful hues of America’s urban landscape, you know this is not your mom’s makeup! This proves my biggest point, that bringing some green into your beauty routine does not mean sacraficing color or fun!


This palette includes TEN dynamic eyeshadows, a cruelty-free eyeshadow brush, AND a travel size bottle of Eyeshadow Primer Potion. The lacquered case is bamboo, an abundant, sustainable material (and the sexiest alternative to paper or plastic.) Shadows are nestled in a tray made of recycled paper, and the clear outer PET box is recyclable.


Thanks to Urban Decay for adding a whole new shade of green to their makeup line with this sustainable choice!

Fast. Easy. Cheap. No, I’m not talking smack about that one girl in high school. These are the three reasons I love false lashes. Talk about an instant beauty boost!! They’re fast to put on, and instantly add a bit of glamour to your look. False lashes are easy to apply, after a few practice runs you’ll be a pro. And they’re cheap, ranging from $2.00 to $10.00 for a single pair of lashes, so they can fit into everyone’s budget. Perfect for any special occassion or for just any time you want your eyes to really “pop”, this video shows you just how easy it is to have long, lucious lashes in minutes.

here’s links to the specific lashes and glue used in the video.

I am equally excited about what’s IN this limited edition reusable straw palette from Tarte as I am about what’s NOT in it!


Let’s start with whatcha get. Makeup, makeup and more makeup is packed into this compact palette: 6 modern and vibrant mineral eyeshadows, from peach to teal, lime to lilac..something for everyone…and packed with vitamin E to protect against free radical damage. Add to that 3 sparkling lipglosses, infused with Tarte’s T5 super fruit complex…which is not something to “gloss” over (sorry, I can’t help myself). The T5 super fruit complex is a blend of the five most active superfruits: goji, acai, maracuja, acerola and pomegranate. It’s loaded with naturally occurring, antioxidant rich nutrients and vitamins that have been known to deliver refining, anti-aging and skin-restorative benefits with each application: pretty impressive for a pretty lip gloss.


Included is a bamboo eyeshadow brush, which we love, as bamboo is so green with it’s fast-growing-and-easy-to-harvest-ness…and the brush is mini, cute, and perfect for your on the go makeup bag. All this packed into a reuseable straw case: when your finished using the shadows, just remove the foam tray (made from EVA, a post consumer recycled material) and you have a great little green makeup bag made from sustainable straw!


And now to the ever important list of what you WON’T find in this case: parabens, mineral oil, phalates, sulfates, propylene glycol, butylene glycol, gluten, or synthetic frangrance. Nice.


And if you were wondering if your choice in eyeshadow could help make or break the Brazilian Rainforest, here’s a tip: Tarte uses sustainable organic acai in their T5 formula, in support of the Sustainable Amazon Partnership (SAP), a public and private collaboration to promote lasting sustainable management of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest through forest conservation, improved living conditions, and educational opportunities. Tarte makes regular contributions to SAP and buying these Tarte products creates further demand for sustainable and organic ingredients.

Looking for true love? Then look no further than www.tarte.com. Buy any product from Tarte cosmetics and recieve a FREE full size cheek stain in “True Love”. Offer expires 2/17/09 and is only good while supplies last, so don’t delay! Enter code LOVE09 at checkout. Giving away all this true love, Tarte has Cupid more than a little nervous…true story.

Being green with envy just got a whole new meaning! Nvey Eco Organic Makeup makes being green a breeze. Proudly producing certified organic products, Nvey also takes a firm stand against animal testing, testing only on their obliging staff and occassionally the CEO. All Nvey products are free from parabens, talc, SLS (sodium laureth sulfate) and it’s derivitives. No ingredients from genetically modified crops are allowed, and Nvey favors plant derived oils to mineral or petroleum oils. This is truly a high quality organic line with a broad range of products to choose from.

My cousin Ginny turned me on to their Organic Eco Erase and I love it. This concealor is perfect for dark circles under the eyes, blemishes, and redness at the base of the nose. It’s creamy but light and yet, light but effective: you don’t need to apply much to get great coverage and it stays in place all day! Formulated with Safflower, Jojoba, natural vitamin E, and organic castor oil, it’s providing nutrients and protection to the skin while also proving coverage…that’s what I’m talking about!

Nvey makes really pretty eyeshadows too…available individually or in one of these great palettes. One gripe I often grumble is that a lot of organic makeup lines only offer really frumpy colors. Not so with Nvey. Their colors are stunning and fun, and the palettes come in combinations that can be used for both day and night. Talc free, but chock full of chamomile, vitamins A, C, E, and the perfect balance of corn silk and jojoba oil, this formulation delivers a smooth, silky, soft shadow that’s perfect for all skin types, even sensitive skin. The shadow has real staying power, so the color you put on is the color that stays on.


Among other things, the line also offers two kinds of foundation: one a cream with that offers full coverage and a liquid that offers lighter coverage. I hope to have a chance to try these products soon….as soon as I do, I’ll write up a full report.

This sweet berry red cheek stain by Tarte is silky smooth with just the right amount of color. Paraben phalate, petroleum and preservative free, it also contains antioxidant blockbusters acai, goji berry, and pomegranate so it nourishes the skin while adding a pretty blush. The silky formulation and great color make it a great lip stain…everthing in your makeup bag should do double duty so well!


While the cheek stain is decidedly red, the packaging is all green: it’s packaged in a fully recyclable container so you can toss it in your recycle bin when you’re done with it, but Tarte offers you an option that’s even better. Return your empty cheek stain container to them and recieve 10% off your next cheek stain purchase…save money AND the planet?!?!? Going green is a breeze…


In the summer, I particularily love the color bronze goddess as a sheer bronzer and as a lip color.

There are more great colors to choose from here.

Parabens are used as low cost preservatives in cosmetic products: shampoos, conditioners, cleansers, lotions, and most makeup contains parabens. Take a quick look at the labels of most products in your bathroom and you will see parabens in the ingredient list, often more than one variety (methyl-, propyl-, butyl-,and ethylparabens are the most common).

There is an ongoing debate about the safety of parabens in topical products. While there is suspicion and minimal evidence of it’s dangers, there is no hard prood that they ARE NOT dangerous either. And I believe that until someone can prove that they ARE NOT dangerous, it is better to take a precautionary route and avoid them. The suspected effects of parabens are too great to take them lightly.


Explained so well I can’t compete, here is an excerpt from Terressentials Organic Natural Bodycare website:


“The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in their report “Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: Agents of Subtle Change?” reported that parabens showed estrogenic activity in several tests. This means that these chemicals mimic your body´s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action when they are rubbed into your body or washed down the drain into your drinking water. These disruptors interfere with your body´s endocrine system: your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid—virtually every system in your body. The EPA also stated that “continual introduction of these benzoates (parabens) into sewage treatment systems and directly to recreational waters from the skin leads to the question of risk to aquatic organisms.” Scientists in Europe found other endocrine-disrupting body care chemicals in the bodies of fish that humans are eating, and in human breast milk.


Dr. Elizabeth Smith has written that “It is a known medical fact that estrogen stimulates breast cancer” and that “anything absorbed through the skin may be as high as 10 times the concentration of an oral dose.” (Think about how nicotine and birth control/hormone patches work—the chemicals are absorbed through the skin!) She also reported that, in one study, a paraben was injected under the skin and was found to have an “estrogenic response on uterine tissues.” Scientists observing these harmful effects on the uterus remarked that “it is suggested that the safety in use of these chemicals should be reassessed.”


Endocrine disruptors are transported into the body, daily, via absorption through the skin and hair follicles when using personal care products.”


Playing around with ingredients that may spur breast cancer and wreak havoc on our endocrine systems, not to mention poisoning our water sources, is just too risky for me, given the growing field of paraben free choices. Do you have to immediately throw away everything you own containing parabens? Not neccessarily. Are parabens more dangerous in skin care products that soak into your skin than hair care products that sit on the hair shaft and later wash away? Definately. Do you have to vow to never use anything with parabens again? No. Would it be wise to limit the amount of parabens you are exposed to with whatever products you can? I think so. Just sayin.

Thick brows are where it’s at. Thin brows are VERY hard to pull off…they tend to look harsh, overplucked and instantly age you. Spend a minute flipping through any beauty magazine and take a close look at the brows in both the ads and the features…very few thin brows (with the exception of pencil thin models with teeny heads). Thicker brows give nice definition and framing to the eye area, make the face seem thinner, and add a youthful touch.


Check out this video with great beauty tips on how to temporarily get a thicker brow look, or fill in while you are growing your brows in.