Be a Green Beauty

I love being green.

But I loathe the possible side effect of smelling like a blend of hemp and granola from all my green efforts. And I hate when other people smell that way, too. Thus, I have put together a list of the best enviro-friendly bath product companies for ladies.  No hemp or granola; only cute, yummy-smelling products that also happen to be good for the environment.

So go ahead – splurge a little in these stores.   Your skin and your “mother” (nature, that is) will thank you.

100% Pure – This company boasts no animal products, fragrances, thickeners, emulsifiers, or preservatives.  Just pure, smelly, fruity goodness.  They feature a full line of bath, skin, and hair care products.  My personal fave is their body washes that actually make you smell like what it says on the bottle (genius, I know!).  They have several scents to choose from, ranging from mint eucalyptus to dark chocolate mocha. (Editor’s Note: If it’s all natural, can we eat it!?) My personal fave, however, is the Honey Almond Milk Shower Gel.  It’s seriously like taking a bath in a creamy almond smoothie, but without all of the clean up.

Lush Cosmetics – This company has stores in 35 countries across the world.  Lush hasn’t just conquered the far reaches of the globe, they’ve also become one of the green powerhouses of the bath product industry.  Their products are all natural and they have practically eliminated any unnecessary packaging from their products. Most items can be purchased by the pound and are wrapped with parchment paper upon purchase.  For their catalogs, and when packaging cannot be avoided, they make sure to use post-consumer materials to save them trees.   Lush also makes all of their products by hand (I’m talkin’ smashing coconuts with hammers kinda work), which saves energy and provides jobs.  If you’re going to give Lush a try, I strongly recommend trying their skin care line.  I personally love Ultrabland, a peanut oil based cleanser that can seriously take off ANY makeup you may put on your eyes without the painful sting of alcohol-based makeup removers.

The Body Shop – Now the other two are probably a better bet for eco-conscious products, but this one’s good simply for it’s level of convenience.  A closer store requires less driving, which saves gas and money in the end.  The Body Shop has all natural products and has also been working to incorporate sustainable ingredients and Post-Consumer packaging into them for quite some time.  Furthermore, they are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2010, meaning that they will be purchasing enough carbon offset credits to completely cancel out all of the carbon produced due to production, shipping, etc.

But it’s the products that matter, right? Well, The Body Shop has ‘em. Whenever I step into one of their stores, I always have to sample their Mango Body Butter (and by sample, I mean slather enough on my body to last for the next 3 days).  It smells absolutely delicious and smooths your rough patches with Community Trade cocoa butter. It’s by far the best stuff out there.

FYI: According to their website, The Body Shop was the first company to source sustainable palm oil from Colombia in 2007.  Since then, palm oil has been deemed as an environmentally harmful product as it results in degradation of many of the world’s rain forests and, thus, large carbon emissions and habitat destruction of several endangered species. I do not advise or suggest purchasing items that contain palm oil. The rest of their stuff, though, is totes fine.