Pampering Myself the Eco-Friendly Way...

For every green girl and boy, there is a fabulous day once per year that they get to celebrate being the awesomeness known as their... BIRTHDAY! (Can you tell that I love birthdays? I don't know what I like better, spending time with my friends and family, or the deliciousness of cake and ice cream... yes, I do love cake and ice cream. Friends are good too, but not edible... erm, scratch that random train of thought. Let's move on.) So, how does a eco-conscious girly celebrate and look super cute at the same time? Read on to find out how I pampered myself this Thursday.

I've been dying to try out this super cool product from eco-friendly cosmetic powerhouse Monave: "Kerrie" mineral powder foundation. It's specifically formulated for those of us with Irish toned skin. You, know, somewhat albino with a ridiculous hint of pink? (Most call it "peaches and cream"... it sounds nicer.) Yeah, that's me. Don't get me wrong, I love my heritage and I love my skin tone - but it's ridiculously hard to match with normal makeup products. (BTW, you don't have to be Irish to know what I'm talking about - lots of European ethnicities run into the same issues.)

So, did it work?

Heck yes. The full-coverage powder gave me a fabulously smooth, creamy look, while still keeping the subtle pink tones within my skin. Amazing. I mean really now, just look at my uber cute piccy. :) Even better, I put on that makeup about 12 hours prior to when that glam shot was taken. That kicks some serious butt. (My regular foundation can't even do that - I've got a shine on my face three hours in... Might be time to kick that stuff to the curb.)

Now, I tried several other products from Monave - blush, eyeshadow, etc. And let me tell you, it all rocks. And, Monave even put in an amazing foundation, blush and eyeshadow brush set - those brushes totally make a difference when applying powder. Seriously.

So, what's so eco-friendly about Monave? Well, for starters, Monave stands for "Modern", "Natural" and "Versatile". They avoid chemicals, synthetics, preservatives, dyes and talc. (Great news for those of us with sensitive skin.) Instead of the above nasty products, Monave uses Titanium Dioxide (a naturally occurring mineral that acts as a sunscreen), Mica (a colorless mineral that occurs naturally near the earth's surface), Iron Oxide (natural salts that add color) and Ferric Ferrocyanide (an inorganic pigment providing blue tones). In addition, Monave does not engage in animal testing or use products that have a history of being used in animal testing. Definitely honorable.

Monave offers more than just mineral makeup, they also have lipsticks, lip glosses, facial care products, body care products, and floral spritzers. And again, all of these use natural ingredients.

I definitely give Monave's products two-thumbs way up. They made my birthday look super special. And, I felt good about using it - environmentally friendly and B-E-A-UTIFUL.

Want to get in on the green love? Leave a comment under this post and shoot an email to gingerlygreen@gmail.com. I'll pick a random winner on Friday to receive a set of three mineral powders from Monave!

Cumpleanos Feliz Gingerly!

Clearly my online drawing skills need improvement. But happy birthday deary. Can't wait to hear about what you did for it. 

And just for the record [not to toot my own horn or anything], I saved trees, carbon and money on this card. No paper, no [additional] fuel, no nothing. I used this website to create my card, though I am sure there are plenty of other e-birthday card options [that use cute creatures that sing and dance], like this one.

A little teasing never hurt anyone...

Drumroll please..................................................

It's my birthday in three days!

Hooray!

Now, my evening will probably consist of a night out on the town with the girlies... so what's a green-minded-girl to do to prepare? Especially if she wants to be a pretty-pretty-princess?
Well... you'll have to tune in this weekend to find out!

Two Girls Go Green Gets Air

Okay, not literally. But, I was blessed with the opportunity to be ecostore USA's first Green Thread blogger...check out the post here:

http://blog.ecostoreusa.com/weblog/2009/01/im-gawky-a-guest-blogger.html

And while we're talking about ecostore USA (again)....Mr. Ben gave me some insight on how he liked his soap...here's what he had to say for himself: "ecostore's bar soaps are a great product. They smell incredible, do just as good a job of cleaning my skin as any other bar, and are touted to be just about as good for the environment as not having made any soap from it in the first place. However, if I were to make regular use of their products I'd surely invest in the planting of a few trees, as New Zealand is quite far from these lands." (See this post for more on that).

You Asked. We responded.

A couple weeks ago I approached Ecostore USA about a commenter's query: "[Is] organic soap from new zealand worth the fossil fuel expenditure?"

And today my friends, I have an answer for you. Coming straight from the mouths of Ecostore themselves:

"NZ has the lowest carbon footprint electricity in the world (mainly from renewables)...shipping takes little power. Most of the carbon footprint of our products will be shipping them around the USA same as [our] competitors. Our products will thus have less carbon footprint than the other eco brands (until [we] start making them in the USA). "

I was also told that they are working on getting US manfuacturing for their products, so at some point that won't even be an issue.

But this does make me think...should companies bear the labels of how much carbon they output. I envision a nutritional facts for greenhouse gas emissions. Would you buy Doritos over a can of sour cream Pringles, if you knew that it had a lower carbon footprint? Do you think it's a necessity for companies to expose this information?

I find the question interesting, and ecostore's response even more interesting. Which opens up a whole new can of questions to think and ponder about when using different products.

But I like the fact that this question was brought up. If you ever have any questions about green stuff or green products we've featured, please don't hesitate to shoot me an e-mail or post a comment and ask away. That's the point of this blog [or at least one of them].

UPDATE (3/28): Still have questions? Now's your chance to ask them: AskMalcolm_9sm

Publish at Scribd or explore others: ecomania malcom rands

Where'd my Xerox copy go?

So, the other day in one of our random brainstorms, someone brought up a green idea that came from Xerox: Disappearing ink so that the paper can be reused. Interesting, I thought. Xerox, the company that makes machines that make ridiculous amounts of paper - which can then be recycled or thrown away - has demonstrated ink which will disappear so that you will then have to reprint your paper because you can't find it and need the info. Phew. That was a long thought. And very not grammatically correct.

According to the article, which appeared in April of last year, "[Xerox] Scientists demonstrated paper that can be reused after printed text automatically deletes itself from the paper's surface within 24 hours. Instead of trashing or recycling after one use, a single piece of paper can be used a second time, and reused up to 100 times."

That article came out about eight months ago, and I haven't been able to find anything on their website about whether or not the ink ever went into production for general consumer use. Personally, I think it's an intersting idea, but not overly effective. I mean, really now, I have a horrible problem with being disorganized, so what am I going to do when I print out a key paper and it disappears? Why print out another one (on the same, now not printed on paper). Eh. Step in the right direction, but I'm not sold.

What are your thoughts? Would something like this work? What are some other somewhat strange, green ideas from big corporations that you've heard of? Let us know?

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas

Okay, okay so it’s a bit later than expected. But I really wanted to tell you guys about the Green Christmas I had this year.

I wanted to write and tell you about it earlier, but I couldn’t because I didn’t want my loved ones finding out what I had gotten them.

So here it goes…

Well first off, let’s set the stage. For weeks and weeks prior to Christmas, I pondered and pondered about what I would get this year for the ladies in my life. When it suddenly dawned on me, whatever the heck it was going to be, it needed to be green. So I started doing a bunch of random Google searches and eventually decided I was going to buy some trendy eco-friendly bags for the girls to use for shopping or going to the beach.

I started searching for the perfect bag. But I couldn't find anything that I was in love with (that was also decently priced). So I said screw this, and decided I would make my own.

During my searching I did become inspired by a bag that used a Basmati rice sack for part of it. So I thought, perfect, I'll make my bags using the rice's burlap sack. The only problem was no one in my family eats Basmati rice. So I trudged out to Costco and purchased three 20-pound bags of rice.

Yes, that is a lot of rice. BUT, the rice did not go to waste. I ended up donating the 60 pounds of rice to the Baldwin Community Center of Pontiac Michigan.

After completing the bags with a lot of my mother's handy help, I stuffed the bags with:
1. Little mini notebooks made out of cereal boxes from this etsy shop.
2. For my boyfriend's momma, I put in an ornament from an amazing fair trade store called Ten Thousand Villages…it was made by someone in Kenya out of recycled coke cans (in case you couldn’t tell).
3. A variety of Luna bars
4. Burt's Bees Chapstick
5. Vintage organic papered calendars courtesy of Asgard Press

I also attached this corny little poem to it, which I fancied up by gluing a magazine cut out to the back of it:

It reads...
"It all started with a trip to Costco and a little bit of advice,
That got me to purchasing three 20-pound bags of rice.
I donated the rice to feed the poor,
Then sewed and cut, and sewed some more.
Out popped a cute and trendy bag,
For you to carry all your goods and swag.
Decks the halls with boughs of holly,
'Tis the season to be GREEN and jolly."

Want to make a bag for yourself? Here’s how:

Materials needed:

• 1 burlap bag of Royal Basmati rice
• 1/2 yard of cute fabric for lining the bag
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Thread to match the cute fabric
• The Internet

Directions

1. Buy a burlap bag of Royal Basmati rice. I purchased my 20-pound bags from Costco.
2. Buy cute fabric from Jo-Ann Fabrics. As you can see by the photos, I picked out a red fabric with white polka dots, a red one with white stars and for my third bag, a red fabric with white flowers. But go crazy, make it your own.
3. If you want to donate the rice, you can look up local homeless shelters/soup kitchens on the world wide web. I donated mine to the Baldwin Center of Pontiac Michigan. When I dropped off the rice, I brought the rice in the burlap sacks and asked if I could have the bags back (they probably thought I was a bit odd). So they dumped the rice into their bins, and off I went with my bags.
4. Once you have your empty bags and are ready to get to work, cut off the top of the burlap bag just below the bottom of the red zipper. Keep the red zipper, because you can make a pocket with it, like I did (which is too complicated to type out, so e-mail me if you're curious about this one). Set aside the extra burlap because you’ll need to turn that into another handle later on, since the bag only comes with one handle.
5. Carefully remove the handle off the top of the bag and keep that too.
6. Empty the bag completely…make sure that there are no leftover rice grains in there.
7. Measure the bag’s height and width (all of my bags were slightly different sizes). Cut the fun fabric more or less the dimensions of the bag PLUS an extra 1/2 inch on top to turn under along the upper edge of the bag. You will use just a small seam allowance of 3/8 inch, so your lining should fit perfectly inside the bag. You will need two pieces of fabric this size to form the inside lining.
8. With RIGHT sides of the pretty fabric together, sew along the bottom and sides to form a bag. Set aside for a moment.
9. Now, take the leftover piece of burlap (from step 4) and cut it and fold it over to match the other handle that came with the bag. Sew the handle's sides down to itself so that it's ready to attach to the bag.
10. Now take the handle that came with the bag and the handle that you made in step 10, and sew them down to the top of the bag so you have two handles--one on each side. Reinforce the stitching.
11. Place the fabric bag inside the burlap bag with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing out. Finally, turn under that extra 1/2 inch you allowed and sew around the top edge to attach the fabric to the burlap.


And voila! Okay, so my directions need a little bit of help.

BUT have no fear, if you’re interested in buying one of these bags, I don’t plan on selling them, but I would be willing to negotiate, just e-mail me at Gawkygreen at gmail dot com. I suggest taking a stab at making one yourself though. And if you want more directions/hints/tips, e-mail me and I'm sure we can work something out.

P.S. Everyone loved their gifts!

And the winner is....

The winner of our Ecostore USA delicious soap contest is....Mr. Benjamin, a.k.a the bloozeman.

Ben's a cool dude who, coincidentally, spent some time in the Marshall Islands, New Zealand's neighbor. He taught English over there, and wrote a pretty stellar blog. Check it out here: http://bloozeman.blogspot.com/

Congrats, Ben. Enjoy the soap and let me know what you think.

We adore comments on our blog, and take to heart the things our readers say. The other day a comment was posed to us that questioned whether the fossil fuel expense of getting Ecostore's soap to U.S. soil was worth it. Well, the premise of our blog is that we are two of your average girls testing out the green world, and reporting back on it. That being said, I don't have the expertise to give an educated response on that. So I've reached out to Ecostore USA to get their response on the matter. I am awaiting their answer. When I do hear back, I'll let you know.