Eco-Friendly & Green Living Blog

If you’re fair like me, any little bit of protection from the sun helps, so I was happy to find out about Bethesda’s all-natural Sunscreen Soap.

With an SPF of 10, it’s not enough on its own for me, but I like to use it to wash my hands. After all, even if I apply sunscreen to them, I wash them throughout the day, which means bye, bye sunscreen, so this soap is the perfect way to ensure they’re protected to some degree.

Plus, it’s chockful of vitamins that protect against aging and keep your skin healthy looking, too, plus gylcerin, to keep skin nice and moist!

Available at: www.bethesdaskincare.com

Price: $8 US

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Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

I don’t know about you, but when I travel, I like to carry as little as possible! Since I wear contacts, my toiletry bag is already weighted down with my glasses case and contact solution before adding things like shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, blah, blah, blah….You get the picture.

So I was super excited when I got a press release yesterday about worldPRODUCTS created by Brian Phillips of Toronto’s worldSALON and hairstylist to celebrities like Kim Cattrall, Terrence Howard, k.d. lang, James Marsden, Norah Jones and Jessica Stam.

worldCLEAN, worldPROTECT and worldBELIEVE are products that can be used on both hair and skin and so cut down on the things you need to lug around with you when travelling, plus they have no artificial colours or fragrances, sodium lauryl sulphates or parabens and the packaging is recyclable. All of which made me a happy camper even before trying them out. And when I did try them out, I was impressed.

worldCLEAN is a hair and skin cleanser, worldPROTECT a hair and skin moisturizer, and worldBELIEVE a salve you can use anywhere to relieve skin inflammation, chapping, and cuts and scrapes (and it’s gentle enough for babies!). There’s no fragrance, so that might take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to things that smell. But I loved the fact the products are multiuse (take the worldPROTECT: I used it as a conditioner, dabbed it in my hair as a styling product, and also as a cream on my legs!), plus they do a great job. Who could ask for anything more?

Available at: www.world.ca or worldSALON, 132 Adelaide St. E., Toronto

Price: Limited time offer until Aug. 31, 2009 on the worldPRODUCT trio, $75 (worldCLEAN, 360 mL; worldPROTECT, 360mL; worldBELIEVE, 60mL); bottles can be brought back to the salon and refilled for 20% off (not including limited offer price)

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Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

With the warm weather coming, it’s time to whip your skin into shape and that means some serious exfoliation!

Tackle the task with Naturally Upper Canada Body Polish with Buriti Seeds Warm Honey Nectar. It’s paraben- and SLS-free and filled with goodies like honey and shea butter and ground-up buriti and apricot seeds to get rid of dead cells and moisturize your skin beautifully. It smells yummy, too, in a lovely, subtle way that doesn’t overwhelm.

Available at: the Bay, Home Outfitters, Sears.

Price: $15

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Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Just got back from London and am suffering serious jetlag, but wanted to let you know quickly about a fabulous organic shop/bakery/food shop I found while there.

Daylesford Organic not only has amazing food products, but also absolutely lovely home and beauty products. So if you’re heading to the U.K., it’s a must-see for organic fans. In the meantime, check out the website at www.daylesford.com. Cheers!

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In these cold winter months, my hands really take a beating, and I’ve been using Lovefresh’s fragrant concoctions to rectify the sad situation. The Toronto company was started just over 18 months ago by aromatherapist Stacey Davis, who originally sold the stylishly packaged, plant-based products at the city’s St. Lawrence Market.

My go-to goodies have been the yummy scented Lemon Verbena Scrub followed up by the Pear Body Butter (both paraben and petroleum free), and my hands now look and smell beautiful. I also had friends who were over on the weekend test out the Body Butter to get their thoughts and they loved it, too!

Price: $22 (Body Butter), $24 (Scrub)

Available at: www.lovefresh.com

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Eco lovers rejoice! Pistachio, a new store from Indigo and Chapters’ Heather Reisman, has opened in Toronto just up the road from the Yonge/Eglinton Indigo. (Another will open on Nov. 15 in Yorkdale, a third some time after in Square One in Mississauga, Ont., and Reisman says that they’ll roll out even more in coming months and next year.)

Reisman says the idea behind Pistachio is simple: “Buy less, buy a little bit better, buy forever.” And buy you will! I became the very first customer because I couldn’t resist the Bruce Mau Optimism spiral notebook, and the buckwheat honey.

All products come from local artisans or are sourced from Fair Trade suppliers, and signs tout impressive eco credentials. Example: gift cards are are made in Canada with soy inks and 100% post-consumer waste fibre, using a chlorine-free process and green-e certified, wind-generated electricity to boot!

Masses of great stuff from face creams to throws, all enviro-friendly, all beautiful, make shopping easy and stylish. (And with Christmas coming, gift-giving will be a breeze, too!)

The stores themselves feature formaldehyde-free MDF, reconstituted wood floors, locally quarried stone, non-toxic resins and zero or low-VOC paints.

Some Pistachio products will also be sold at 50 select Chapters and Indigo stores in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. Check out www.epistachio.com for more info.

This post premieres CHIC CHECK, in which I’ll test products on occasion and let you know what I think about them. I’ll also pick my fave from each batch, so if you’ve tried any out yourself, be sure to comment and let me know what you think!

1 ORGANIC KITCHEN LAVENDER BERGAMOT ANTIBACTERIAL HAND WASH
Green Cred No SLSs or parabens, synthetic fragrances, petroleum products, colourants and animal ingredients, biodegradable.
Scent Great lavender smell with a hint of bergamot (think Earl Grey tea) – pleasant, not overpowering.
Special Bonus Also available as a gift set with a matching lotion and a bamboo tray that’s perfect to use afterward as a key tray on a console table in your entryway or to hold jewelry or coins in your bedroom; $28.
Available at gift shops and department stores across Canada.
Price $12.

2 BURT’S BEES MILK & SHEA BUTTER HAND SOAP
Green Cred No SLSs or animal testing, paraben- and phthalate-free, bottle contains 80% post-consumer recycled material.
Something of a Surprise This soap doesn’t lather the way most do but feels more like a lotion. Not a problem for me, but some might find that off-putting.
Scent A subtle, sweet honey-like, beeswaxy scent, which I find intoxicating.
Available at stores across Canada.
Price $6.

3 ORGANIC SURGE LAVENDER & GERANIUM HAND WASH
Green Cred 99% naturally derived ingredients, no animal testing or animal-derived ingredients.
Scent Lavender, a known relaxant, perfect for those stressful days!
Charitable Work Part of the proceeds from the sales of Organic Surge products funds aid work in Africa.
Available at Shoppers Drug Mart/PharmaPrix across Canada.
Price $4.99.

4 METHOD WATER FLOW FOAMING HAND WASH
Green Cred Paraben-, EDTA- and triclosan-free, biodegradable, no animal testing
Scent Very light and subtle; I think my tween nieces will love it!
Fun Factor Wee ones will love the way the soap magically foams up when it comes out of the pump.
Available at stores across Canada.
Price $5.

♥ CHIC CHECK FAVE: BURT’S BEES!!
I absolutely love everything about this soap, from the way it smells to how it makes my hands feel to the fact that the bottle is made from recycled material. This will be the soap of choice in my apartment from now on!

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email Laurie at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Enjoy the fabulousness of  Mooka, a four-month-old boutique in Montreal, and if you’re nowhere near Montreal, order their goodies online.

Their mission? To create “skin-loving, delicious-smelling and environmentally friendly soaps, balms, butters, scrubs and salts (and anything else you’d want to slather on or throw in the tub) at affordable prices.”

And they do just that, serving up the most scrumptious body care products, and I really do mean scrumptious: I had a brown paper bag with their Oats, Milk & Honey Soap, Brown Sugar Whipped Shea Body Butter, and Chocolate Lip Butter sitting by my computer, and the smell was so delicious it made me positively hungry!

The formulations are mainly vegetable-based (the few animal-based ingredients like honey, beeswax and milk are clearly listed) and boast skin-safe essential fragrance oils, so these made-by-hand products will have you doing a happy nature dance and smelling awfully good to boot. Life is short, so treat yourself well!

Available at: Mooka, 3412 Saint-Antoine O., Montreal, 514-509-7708; www.mooka.ca

Price: from $5

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email Laurie at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Many wipes used in households today, whether they be baby wipes or other wipes, contain polyester, a petroleum product, and chemical-based liquids.

Go totally green with these handy towelette rolls. Made of vegetable fibres and packaged in easy-to-carry rolls, each has 10 tabs or wannabe towelettes; just add 2 tsp of liquid (water, lemon water, rosewater – your choice!) and you end up with a wipe that measures 8 1/2 by 12 inches.

No worries about leaking, dripping or drying out!

Available at: www.ashtongreen.com

Price: $2.95 for 10 tabs to $24.95 for 100 tabs

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email Laurie at naturalchic@styleathome.com!