Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Although I am excited to see that there is an increased demand, it is a little frustrating to see so many “non-toxic” 3-free nail polish companies come out and declare their righteousness.  “3-Free” means free of Toluene, formerly used to make polish flow easily, Formaldehyde, sometimes used in nail hardeners, and Dibutyl Phtalate, a plasticizer formerly used to make polish more flexible. While I think Zoya, Sparitual and others are fabulous companies doing great things, in some sense I feel…what’s the big deal?  Did you know that most drugstore AND salon AND department store brands are also 3 free?  OPI, Revlon, Chanel, Nars, even Wet n Wild are all 3 Free!  The only one that isn’t that comes to mind is Essie.  I think what I find a little frustrating about it is that I know some of us are willing to pay a premium for a more earth-friendly and safe product but the difference between a wet n wild and another brand may just be marketing.  Certainly there will never be any such thing as organic nail polish but I am more a little more impressed with Acquarella and Suncoat water based formulas.  I chose Acquarella for Spirit Beauty Lounge because it really lasts long, comes in great colors, actually leaves your nails hydrated and doesn’t even contain propylene glycol.  The ingredients are simple: Acrylic polymer emulsion, Water, and non-toxic colorants (No FD&C).  To me, that stands out amongst the rest.  Even with 3 Free polish, the fumes will hit you when you open the bottle.  If I can avoid that, I would rather.  How about you?

PlantLove™ Botanical Lipstick by CARGO
Mainstream beauty companies often have little incentive to “green” their packaging and products and use manufacturing limitations and cost as an excuse. Let this $20 lipstick, a bestseller at Sephora stores nationwide be a sign of things to come.
The lipstick tube is made entirely out of corn and the carton is made of flower paper embedded with real flower seeds that grow real flowers when planted!
It’s a great sheer lipstick; hydrating with mango seed oil, meadowfoam seed oil, jojoba and shea butter and no mineral oils or petroleum. Sadly they chose to taint all those luscious botanical oils with a nasty, toxic paraben preservative.
It’s a shame too since CARGO is donating $2.00 from the sale of every tube to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Clothes made from Recycled Fabric from Arin Crumley on Vimeo.
Brooklyn label MANDATE OF HEAVEN does Refashioned Vintage.