SuSTAINable Eco-Friendly Cosmetics

I must admit, I don't own, nor do I know enough about eco-friendly cosmetic products as I'd like to.  

We do our part in my house to be as environmentally conscious as possible- we recycle (is there anyone that DOESN'T these days??), my husband constantly reminds me to turn off the lights when I'm not in a room (more to save $ from skyrocketing power bills than anything though!), and I try to go without washing my hair every 2-3 days to save water (let me specify something- I shower, I just don't always wash the hair which is actually really good for it to have a break every now and then!).   So I decided to do a little investigating into the world of eco-conscious beauty products.

My suSTAINable cheeks and lips thanks to eco friendly Tarte cosmetics!!

Did you notice my little play on words here in the title? I'm also going to include a "how to get the most natural looking "stain" on your cheeks and lips" at the end of the blog after I fill you in on some great cosmetic and skin care companies who have a commitment to "sustainable" products.

So what constitutes a "green" beauty product??  Weellll, there are a few things that can define a product to be green, however, I'm pretty positive I won't list them all, but these are the heavy hitters:

• Proven commitment to sustainability ( hence, my play on words title!). This means the product has the capability of being continued with minimal long term effects on the environment.  Basically this product was created without doing major harm to our precious environment.  For a more descriptive long winded version/description, go to Wikipedia here.
• Never tested on Animals.  The FDA doesn't require most cosmetics to be tested on animals anyway, so why would anyone do it??  Animals aren't a good judge of what a lipstick can do for my complexion, so don't test on that cute white mouse please.
• Doesn't contain chemicals such as sulfates, parabens, and phthalates.  These are three of the major hard hitting chemicals that are supposedly not very enviro friendly.  So they (the eco-pros) suggest you stay away from products that include these ingredients if you want to stay green.

Former model, now cosmetic mogul, Josie Maran in front of her eco-friendly line in Sephora.

Alicia Silverstone, celeb designer for Eco Tools and their vegan friendly beauty tools!

Check out this description of her collection on Ecouterre.com- an amazing online source for 

everything fashion and beauty focusing on sustainability!!

After some research, here are some of the top cosmetic/skin care companies you could take a look into if you want to do an eco-friendly overhaul of your makeup stash:

1.  Tarte Cosmetics - for all things color and cosmetics with let's face it, really cute packaging to boot! It's a full makeup line devoted to healthy and invigorating ingredients that allow you to "be green, be smart, be tarte!" What a witty company! 

2.  Juice Beauty- (thanks Jeannice for the heads up on this one!)  This company was actually featured in InStyle's Best Beauty Buy section this year for best eco friendly moisturizer- their Juice Beauty Green Apple Moisturizer w SPF 15.

3.  Eco Tools- they recycle things like aluminum and bamboo to create their affordable line of beauty brushes with professional quality.  InStyle also featured them in their Best Beauty Buy section for 2011!  

4.  Face Naturals- (thanks Stephanie, my skin guru friend- for this heads up also!) Apparently this company has awesome organic deodorants with skin sensitive ingredients- and we all know how sensitive under arms can be!

5.  Josie Maran Cosmetics- this is one model who went cosmetic mogul and designed her own eco friendly line of cosmetics down to packaging and ingredients.  Her magic marker lip and cheek stain gives you the suSTAINable look I created below- (even though mine was with tarte products-same idea though!!)  Notice her products don't contain any of those yucky ingredients I posted above when reading her formulations.

So here's how I used my eco friendly Tarte Jewelry box to create my organic looking natural cheek and lip stain!

Lined my lips with an herbal lip liner by Palladio (not a tarte product)- "nearly nude" to keep my stain from spreading all over my face!

This is the color I used from my tarte box (a punchy pink color), for my lips and cheeks.  I used my finger for the most natural looking of applications!  Really any of these colors could have been used tho.

 I took my pinky to apply this because I have pretty small lips and didn't want it going everywhere.

I pressed the color in really hard, blotted with a tissue, then pressed the same color in again.

This repeat step keeps the color truer, longer.

 Same idea for cheeks.  I used my middle finger this time to apply two dots on the very top of each cheek.

Rub those two dots into the skin in a circular motion to give the most flushed dewy look!

Final product.  

This tarte gloss did double duty while doing good for the environment with their products!  

So did I miss some of your favorite environmentally sound cosmetic products?? Let me and my followers know!