I have always loved the excitement and fun that surrounds St. Patrick’s Day. The parades, the bagpipes and the green beer put me in a good mood almost instantaneously. However, there is only thing about St. Patty’s that makes me cringe a little: the way I looked donned in spartan green from head to toe. It’s not a pretty.

I’ve decided not to embarrass myself again this year (sorry green sweat suit, it’s been fun) and instead dedicate my daily beauty routine to my favorite “green” and all natural products from Abe’s Market.

1. Coffee:
I can’t start my day without a cup of joe Larry’s! Fair trade, organic coffee that taste delicious and most importantly gets my brain functioning.

2. Smile:
Did you know that our teeth represent the first signs of aging?  If that’s not a reason to keep them pearly white I don’t know what is. But I can certainly think of a reason why Tooth Whitening scares me: Non-food grade Peroxide and harsh chemicals. That’s why I love Lumio Tooth Whitener and Brightner; it’s a natural alternative to teeth whitening. Your teeth will be noticeably whiter within a week without the harsh, nasty chemicals that other whitner’s contain.

3. Wash:
I’m among those unlucky few who still break out years after puberty. It’s something I have never “grown out of” and according to many dermatologist’s I’ll never get rid of it unless I take antibiotics for the rest of my life – thanks but no thanks.  Instead I have opted to control my skin with nutritional soaps and cleansers like Complexion Zen Clarifying Soap by Bunny Butt Apothecary that feeds my skin instead of stripping it. The great thing about this bar is that it has super cleansing powers! It has been activated with all natural willow charcoal. Charcoal has been used since ancient times to cure and heal a variety of skin and health ailments. Yes please!

4. Moisturize:
It’s so important to remember to moisturize every single day even if your skin doesn’t show signs of dryness. If you think of your skin like a flower you can imagine what happens to the pedals if they aren’t given water (moisture) everyday. At first, you wont see any signs but very quickly you will see the pedals wilt, dry-up and die. Yikes.  It’s much easier to keep our skin moist than it is to completely dry-out and repair the damage later. This is why I love Hydroprotective Day Cream by BioSelect. Feels radiant, soothing and refreshing without looking oily. Also, it’s certified Organic and Vegan.

5. Apply, naturally:
Professional makeup artists use the right tools and brushes to give you the flawless look you love. Only problem is some of the commercially made brushes are made of plastic, which is awful for our entire eco-system. That’s why I love the Orglamix Vegan Bamboo 8-piece Makeup Brush set. These brushes are just as beautiful as they are functional; each sustainable bamboo handled brush is handcrafted from top-quality synthetic fibers. This set of 8 essential makeup brushes is specifically designed for use with mineral makeup. Fer-osh!

6. Radiate:
After applying my mineral powder I always finish with a beautiful blush. I love the way the sheer, luminous blush powders by Orglamix look on my skin. The soft-focused color enhances all skin tones by creating that perfect “glow” we are all soughing after.  I also love not having to worry about what my skin is absorbing while wearing Orglamix.

What Orglamix is formulated WITHOUT:

- Parabens

- Sulfates

- Synthetic Fragrances

- Synthetic Dyes

- Petro-Chemicals

- Phthalates

As you can see being a “green” faced beauty is gorgeous for all skin tones. Be happy, beautiful and green today!

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

with style,

Lisa

Jon and I have gotten into the habit of not printing. I don’t look it as a scrafice and don’t miss reading printed material. We simply don’t find the need to do it. Kudos to the various businesses that have made printing unneccesary – Adobe, online statements, Blackberry (why print itineraries when I can sync to my calendar) etc etc

Realizing that I maybe print a page every month got me wondering if US paper consumption has gone down recently and the great effects of reducing paper usage.

The Good News:

• US Paper Consumption is flat or down from previous years according to this Britannica entry from 2007
• In 2007 56.1% of paper was recovered for recycling versus 38.7% in 1993 

A Bit of Shocking News:

• The average world office employee uses around 7 reams of copy paper or 3,500 pieces of paper each year. This fact has set the world’s average paper consumption at 123 pounds of paper per person each year.
• Between 1960 and 2008 the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.5 pounds per day.

Of Course There is Hope….

According to James Derosa“If all 700 million Adobe Readers users decided not to print an article ten pages long each year, there would be 3 environmental effects:

1. Less waste due to 14 million reams of copy not used
2. 80,000 trees wouldn’t be cut down annually
3. 118,000 less tons of CO2 in atmosphere

(And no need to understand the language of printer jams:)

I opened a can of tuna on a backcountry camping trip a few years ago. As I went to drain the tuna juice from the can, a fellow hiker grabbed the can and proceeded to suck the tuna juice straight from it. “What are you doing?” he shrieked. “That’s perfectly good water. This world doesn’t have enough water that you can afford to just waste it like that.”

That’s extreme! Even for a highly environmentally conscious guy like myself.

We talk a lot at Abe’s Market about how to make going green fun. Richard posted on this recently.

I love this TreeHugger piece and short video on Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. The guy rides his bike to work every day. Because he’s a tuna-juice-sucking fanatic? No! His explanation: “I started biking to work for a bunch of different reasons. Ultimately, I bike now because I like it.”I love that simplicity!

Lately, I’ve been gratified to witness a recurring great example of recycle and reuse all in one. Obviously, we recycle everything in my house. We’ve been sending toilet paper rolls, empty boxes, etc. to my 4-year-old daughter’s preschool. Within days, those same items return home in the form of birdhouses, horns and more. It’s fun for us to watch that virtuous cycle in action.

I’ll add some more of my own family’s fun (and simple) green activities soon. For now, I’ll rely on this list from iVillage to get things going.

Do you do anything more than drink tuna juice to make going green fun?

I feel for people who dread Monday mornings. Would it help frustrated people everywhere if their workplace was more like Peaceful Mountain’s ? Just hitting 3 out of 5 of the descriptions below may forever change the acronym to TGIM…

1. Spend your day making something that helps people feel better.

2. You make a product that achieves its goals and possibly exceeds them.

3. Headquartered in a nature loving town like Boulder, CO – where casual Friday means wearing biking shorts instead of your trekking pants.

4. Make your product locally – feels right and means international trips are for pure pleasure and not for exchanging business cards.

5. 100% Alternative Energy Powered Business – Peaceful gets all of their energy from wind turbines. That is high on the bragging rights meter and is a highly visible reminder of a company that is acting on what they believe in.

What else are you looking for in a company?

Did you catch the commercial that Audi aired during the Superbowl? At $2.5 million an ad Audi is hoping to generate a whole lot of discussion and based on what I am reading it seems that they have been successful in doing so. Check out the teaser commercial introducing the Green Police. The campaign is both a satire of the pressure we feel to go green and yet flaunts their new environmentally friendly car, confusing message.

My thoughts are broken into two camps:

1. Audi did a stellar job capturing what many Americans must be feeling – the pressure of doing the right thing and the often cumbersome responsibility to do our part. They parleyed the negativity into the ultimate positive – having your cake and eating it too when you buy their car. Kudos to Audi and their advertising team on the creativity.

2. Is Green so ‘in-your-face’ that most people just want some space?  Do most people feel hampered by having to recycle? Is there a fear that Big Brother will soon enforce proper disposable of batteries?

3. How many products are jumping on the Green bandwagon?I immediately think of the  “We are Green” labels I saw at Banana Republic labels a few months ago. Those labels mean that the article of clothing consists of 5% organic cotton. Have we gone totally Green crazy that a measly 5% of the preferred cotton is enough to advertise a sweater as “eco-friendly”?

How do we get this movement under control?