Confession: I love my beauty products. Sometimes it feels as though I've spent my entire life trying various products to finally get to the point where I am now - with my skin not breaking out or reacting to things all the time. So when my husband wondered why, with all the organic food and household cleaners that I purchase, I don't consider all the products I'm covering myself in. Good question, but to tell the truth I didn't really want to think about it.
Enter Lisa from TLC Booktours and her offer to me to host Julie Gabriel and her book, The Green Beauty Guide. Julie Gabriel has written a complete and all encompassing book about green beauty - from head to toe. I knew she had me after I read the second chapter, beauty and the toxic beast. Gabriel discusses specific ingredients contained in most beauty products that are just plain toxic, and the fact that they're not really being regulated. This was a huge take home message for me. Gabriel provides a list of specific ingredients/chemicals to avoid. If you are like me, most everything in your bathroom will contain these things.
What's a girl (or boy) to do? Not only does Gabriel give examples of products she recommends, she also give recipes to prepare your own beauty products. I'd love to try her hand and nail treatments! Gabriel says that if there's one product you should replace, it's your moisturizer since it sits on your skin all day with plenty of opportunity for absorption, unlike soap. I thought great - I have a bottle of Whole Foods brand lotion that I had a coupon for - I'll use that. When I looked at it, wouldn't you know it contained several of the ingredients Gabriel recommends avoiding. The point is, as Gabriel says, you really need to be vigilant in seeking out green products and making sure they are actually green instead to just appearing to be.
From Gabriel's Ten Commandments of Green Beauty, to the incredibly helpful appendix complete with online product sources and resources, this book covers it all as far as green beauty goes. From hair care, to toenail polish, Gabriel shares her thoughts and suggestions on each and every topic.
I didn't agree with everything in Gabriel's book. For example, the idea of rinsing my face with imported bottled mineral water simply because it contains magnesium does not strike me as being an especially green suggestion. But overall, I found The Green Beauty Guide to be a helpful addition to my 'green' library, and I imagine I'll refer to it often as I adjust my personal regimen to make it more green.
If you would like to read more about Julie Gabriel and The Green Beauty Guide, may I suggest her website - I've enjoyed browsing it myself.
If you would like to visit other stops on the booktour (there are more giveaways!), you may find them here.
Now for the fun! The publisher accidentally sent me two copies of The Green Beauty Guide! So I would like to share one with you. To win this book, you must leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite green beauty item, or if you don't have one, what you perceive to be the biggest challenge in transitioning to green beauty products. There is one entry per person. You do not have to have a blog to enter, but please make sure I have a way to contact you via email if you've won. I'm sorry to have to restrict this contest to US addresses only - I checked the shipping costs for Canada and the UK and I simply cannot afford it right now. I will close the comments and draw the winner on November 28.
14 comments:
I think the biggest challenge in transitioning is finding something that works like you are used to - a face scrub with the right size scrubby bits or a green lip balm that also has spf. Right now I can't find a good green exfoliating soap.
This book sounds really useful, especially the do-it-yourself parts!
For me, the biggest challenge is knowing what ingredients to avoid in store-bought beauty supplies and finding something without those ingredients at a reasonable price. This book looks like it could be a big help. Thanks for the giveaway!
I soooo want to read this book, and I'm kicking myself for not scouring the TLC site and trying to get on this tour. lol
My favorite green product is Pure and Natural soaps. They're hypoallergenic, packaged in recycled, biodegradable packaging, and the packaging is even loaded with baby's breath seed so you can plant it and grow something nice. The biggest challenge for me, even with Pure and Natural, is knowing exactly how green it is. I need to see that list of chemicals!
My e-mail addy is in my sidebar at my blog. :)
Does not ever washing my face at night count as green?? I think the biggest challenge with switching is worrying which products are really green and which ones are a rip-off, but it sounds like this book helps with that.
I would love to be entered!
When I was younger, my fave products to use on my fave was just a plain sugar scrub. Just a little sugar, lemon juice and water and voila!
Now that I have hit the 40 year-old mark though, my skin reacts to everything. What do you use?
Oh man! This is perfect! My biggest challenge with trying to be a green beauty is that my face reacts to EVERYTHING. ALWAYS. So it gets quite expensive to try new things, and then to not have them work is a waste of money and of the earth's resources. Booo!
I agree with everything you've all said - well, except for the not washing the fact part ;-)
Ti, welllll, what I am currently using is not green. AT ALL. An inexpensive facial wash alterated with a benzoyl peroxide soap (I've had adult onset acne which is currently completely clear), a moisturizer with sunscreen for day and a moisturizer plus a retinol product at night - this helps with acne, bumps, and wrinkles as a bonus. The biggest things that have helped my skin in the past few years are 1. washing my face super thoroughly. for what seems like forever and 2. no more abrasive scrubs or any scrubs for me, that just irritates things which I never realized.
PS to Ti, did you want me to be more specific??
Yes.. be more specific! I have been hit with adult acne and everything I have tried has made it worse or has not helped at all.
You can email me if you don't want to name brands, etc.
thereedfamily@sbcglobal.net
I love make up and over the years I've been transitioning to more "natural" items, or so I thought. I was a big fan of Origins & Clinique but if you check on the Safe Cosmetics database some of their stuff isn't so safe I guess. I think the biggest challenges for me to really transition are the cost ("green" make up products are so expensive), will it really work and the feel of the moisturizer or facial wash, etc.
Anyway, thank you for holding the giveaway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed :)
Oh, me, me! I don't have a favorite green beauty item. Actually, the biggest challenge to me would be to get off my fatt rear to mix things, I suppose. It's so much easier to just grab something off the shelf at Walmart, but after reading a bit about carcinogens in expensive lotion (people are paying for carcinogens????), I want to learn more. Thanks for hosting a giveaway, Tara!
bookfoolery at yahoo dot com
I think my biggest challenge is that I love variety. I cannot walk by a makeup counter without buying something. It is a sickness really. It would be nice to know which ones I should steer away from though. Thanks!
This looks like a great book. My biggest challenge with going green is finding something that works well for my difficult skin and doesn't break the bank!
Oh! I definitely want to be in the drawing! I have problem skin as well...
my favourite green product is Burt's Bees' Lemon Cuticle Cream. I tend to have gross, messy cuticles, but when I use this, it fixes them overnight. Awesome! :)
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