Calling all beauty product aficionados!  If you haven’t yet stumbled upon The Green Beauty Guide, click over post haste to learn just about everything you ever wanted to know, and a few things you could do without. (Placenta face masks?  yuck…but they agree).  Author Julie Gabriel gets down the the nitty gritty on a whole host of ingredients, when to use them, when to steer clear and does a fantastic job of separating truth from urban myth and hype.  For example, I’ve heard a lot lately about Gotu Kola, in skincare and as a supplement, and Julie’s latest post paints a pretty clear picture on this ancient medicinal herbs pros and cons.  Julie also happens to be the author or a pretty fun book called, GREEN BEAUTY RECIPES: Easy Homemade Recipes to Make Your Own Organic and Natural Skincare, Hair Care and Body Care Products, a good resource to have on  hand when you’re feeling a little made science calling and your beauty routine needs a little freshening up.

Ever wondered if you could make do with the contents of your kitchen cupboards for your beauty routine?  Green MUA Kristen Arnett, founder of Green Beauty Team tells us how.  “Running out of shampoo, toothpaste or another beloved beauty product has happened to the best of us.  Here are 10 ways to use items from your kitchen when you’re in a pinch so you can get out the door looking and smelling your best.”

Having been an environmentalist most of my life, brought up in the halls of fashion as the chouchou d’ELLE in the 50′s and 60′s, it never really dawned on me the importance of beauty products and cosmetics had in the grand scheme of things. Then I read that a hair dresser in the UK by the name of Maurice Ward had mixed a few things from his salon together and miraculously came up with a substance more resistant to heat that the NASA space shuttle tiles. He named it Starlite after Bakelite, the first plastic, its jewelery still prized today.

In recent years, the work of architect Bill McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart at MBDC, implementing their cradle-to-cradle product development philosophy, led to the creation of green chemistry departments at Universities all over the world, most notably at Yale, now working on safer formulas for the beauty industry. Interesting how again, architecture and fashion cross path to share missions.

Emma Pezzack’s Futurenatural came online last year and quickly established itself as one of the most successful all natural and organic supply house for enlightened consumers as well as professional make-up artists wishing to green their kits. Emma joined forces with Anna Griffin, Courtney Dailey and Stacy Malkan at GreenMUA to lead the way in Hollywood.

Cosmetics Professionals Are Starting to Go Green
By Starre Vartan for The Daily Green

Though it may feel like makeup is a necessity when you wake up exhausted, hungover, or both, in reality our little pots and tubes of color are extravagances. And like four-dollar coffees, frosted-to-death cupcakes and doggie sweaters, these little indulgences are what makes life fun.

But at what cost do our good times come, to both our health and that of the planet (which is really one and the same)? I’m not the only one who thinks that life’s little luxuries should come with zero impact; if it’s not necessary then the first rule should be “do no harm.”

Good thing the beauty industry is catching on. Following in the wake of sustainable fashion, less-toxic makeup is now available everywhere from the drugstore (Physician’s Formula‘s new Organic Wear line) to makeup megastore Sephora.) But for a serious selection of the most toxin-free cosmetics, check out online retailers Kaia House and Futurenatural.

We know that consumer pressure can encourage companies to consider the impact of their products, but the makeup industry also works with professional makeup artists (pro-muas) who can have influence on both the companies’ products they use and the clients they work with. Greenmua has a great listing of companies, articles and links for pro makeup artists who are interested in making their industry more sustainable.

I spoke with the Australia-bred Emma Pezzack, the owner and founder of Futurenatural, about Earth-friendly makeup for regular women and the new move by makeup artists to bring these products into the pro makeup arena. Read the interview with Emma…

To learn more about what’s in your makeup bag, check out the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.