Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography, Creative Commons

The next time a friend says, “Dahhhling, you look positively radiant!” — well, she may be telling more truth than not.

This week, the Ecology Center released the results of its tests of dozens of low-cost jewelry from stores like Forever 21 and H&M. The Michigan nonprofit found that more than half of all such jewelry contained high levels of toxic substances, such as lead, chlorine and brominated flame retardants.

More than half (57 percent) of the products tested had a “high” level of concern due to the presence of one or more hazardous chemicals detected at high levels. Four products contained over 10 percent cadmium, a known carcinogen. Fifty percent contained lead, with over half of these containing more than 100 ppm of lead in one or more components, exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) limit of lead in children’s products.

“There is no excuse for jewelry, especially children’s jewelry, to be made with some of the most well-studied and dangerous substances on the planet,” said Jeff Gearhart, research director at the Ecology Center and founder of HealthyStuff.org. “We urge manufacturers to start replacing these chemicals with non-toxic substances immediately.”

That flashy bracelet from Hot Topic may be “hot” in more ways than one.

Every Monday, our resident gurus identify groundbreaking, trendy, hip products that elevate your life from bourgeois to brilliant.

Most dryer sheet products contain numerous fabric softeners and chemical fragrances, such as linalool and ethyl acetate, that may have potentially toxic effects on your health. Instead of tossing a traditional dryer sheet into your laundry, consider tossing it out in favor of a more natural alternative.

Enter Caldrea‘s basil blue sage dryer sheets. These sheets have all the positive benefits of a traditional dryer sheet, such as the ability to soften your clothes and reduce static, but without the harmful side effects. A glance at the ingredients label reveals six simple substances, including a plant-based softening agent and essential oils from rosemary, sage and basil.

Plus, the sheets are biodegradable.

Every Monday, our resident gurus identify groundbreaking, trendy, hip products that elevate your life from bourgeois to brilliant.

Humidifiers and air purifiers have a lot of benefits. For example, they can help keep your skin from drying out in the winter, and may even reduce the symptoms of your nasty cold. But there’s usually one big problem: these contraptions are often quite fugly.

Thankfully, designers at Cloud and Co. created a sleek, ultra-modern humidifier. Its matte, white shell is pure beauty, even when the device isn’t running. The designers summarize it as thus: “Functional product and art object.”

When you can leave your humidifier out in public next to your Modernica V-leg series table, yes, yes please.

Discover more at Cloud and Co.

Don’t get duped. Survey some examples of potential greenwashing below, then keep reading to discover five common ways that marketers often use to trick you.

• Snacks: Sunchips look natural, with their “All-Natural” label and marketing language like “Healthier for you. Healthier for the earth.” In fact, their bag claims to be 100 percent compostable in 14 weeks. Yet Consumer Reports magazine tested these composting claims and concluded that after 14 weeks, “the bag barely changed in the compost pile.” Meanwhile, Frito-Lay, the manufacturer of Sunchips, is getting sued over its all-natural ingredient claims because the lawsuit says the chips contain genetically modified ingredients.

• Meats: Hormel’s “Natural Choice” product line boasts that it’s 100% natural with no preservatives. Additionally, it wraps its interior plastic packaging in a recycled, brown paper box that feels earthy-good. While such packaging is very commendable for reducing the overall amount of plastic used (cue the applause), all is not rosy. “Natural meat” doesn’t mean much because the animal can still be legally fed substances such as antibiotics and genetically modified food. Meanwhile, the production of meat in factory farms contributes up to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Cleaning Products: You’ve probably seen ads for Green Works’ cleaning products everywhere, from TV to the walls of subway stations. The ads often revolve around images of the cleaning product nestled in a flower field or in the dappled sunlight of a forest understory. But all that imagery looks good…and means nothing. Some argue that “99% naturally derived” is not the same as truly natural, and that some of its products (e.g., disposable cleaning wipes) are still encouraging a throwaway culture. To say nothing of the plastic packaging.

• Diapers: Glance at the Huggies Pure & Natural diaper box, and you’ll see leaves (lots and lots of green, green leaves!) and big words declaring benefits like “ORGANIC COTTON” and “ALOE & VITAMIN E.” While these are all pluses to an extent, they’re still disposable diapers. And no matter how many green leaves and natural-ish marketing words a company uses, disposable diapers still create problems for the environment. The University of Minnesota reports that such diapers create 7,000 percent more municipal solid waste than cloth diapers, and that while some disposable diaper manufacturers claim their products are biodegradable, “there are no established standards.”

While greenwashed products may be better than other products, they’re still not necessarily truly green. And sometimes, their greenness is outright unverifiable. When surveying an ad or product label, watch for the following tricks:

1. Imagery. Just because a Clorox ad puts a bottle of bathroom cleaner in  the middle of a forest doesn’t mean it’s green. Other similar tricks include using earth- or green-toned colors (e.g., browns, greens, blues) or the use of traditionally eco-friendly design elements, such as leaves added to a logo.

2.Broad, poorly defined claims. For example, a label that blatantly says “earth-friendly” means nothing. The same goes for the ubiquitous “all-natural” label. Formaldehyde is natural…and poisonous.

3. No third-party certification, or certification by an agency or organization that’s owned by the product’s manufacturer. Even worse: seals, medals, awards or certifications by nonexistent organizations.

4. Unnecessary “ingredient-free” claims. For example, some products sport labels today that say “CFC-free,” although CFCs have been legally banned for years. Also watch for “chemical-free.” That means nothing, as everything is a chemical. Instead, it should be more specific, such as “free of synthetic chemicals.”

5. Fake organic terms. Some manufacturers boast the use of organic ingredients on the front of the label, while the back of the label reveals that the organic ingredients are few and far between many synthetic chemicals.

Bonus tip: Fair trade labels are popping up everywhere due to increased consumer awareness of manufacturing and farming practices abroad. But did you know that Transfair, a fair trade licensing organizatin, allows companies to label their product as fair trade so long as the product has as little as 2 percent fair trade content?

Photo credit: Stop the Water While Using Me!

Every Monday, our resident gurus identify groundbreaking, trendy, hip products that elevate your life from bourgeois to brilliant.

According to the United States’ Natural Resources Defense Council, more than 30 percent of counties in the lower 48 states will face extremely serious water shortages within the next 40 years. There are a lot of things you can do to conserve water (and also reduce your utility bills). For example, cutting your showering time back by just 60 seconds can save you just under 2,000 gallons of water annually. Hot damn.

But sometimes, it can just be so hard to remember to turn off the water when shampooing or scrubbing down your bod. Thankfully, we now have Stop the Water While Using Me!, marketed as the world’s first cosmetics line built around reminding you to turn off the water (also, arguably one of the longest brand names ever chosen for a cosmetics line).

It’s a full range of bath products for your skin and scalp, including shampoo, soap, shower gel and body lotion, and each is made with purely natural ingredients like honey and grapefruit. Other perks include a complete absence of chemicals and synthetic dyes and perfumes. Plus, none of its products were tested on bunnies, hamsters, ogopogos or anything else with a mother and father.

Oh yeah, and its all-caps label reminds you to shut off the water when you’re washing. If only for 60 seconds. It’s not that hard, right? Discover more at STWWUM’s website, which has an equally long URL address.

Source: TranquilTuesdays.com

Every Monday, our resident gurus identify groundbreaking, trendy, hip products that elevate your life from bourgeois to brilliant.

Tranquil Tuesdays, a Beijing-based tea company, is shaking up the sleepy tea world with its non-tranquil approach to commerce. Each of its six tea varieties — white tea, black tea, green tea, Pu’Er tea and two kinds of oolong tea — are handpicked at tiny family-run tea estates throughout China.

In China, women generally pick the tea while men control the business side of things, but Tranquil Tuesdays works directly with many female supplies and is commited to improving the skills of underprivileged women in China’s rural communities.

But for many people, it all comes down to the flavor. Tranquil Tuesday’s teas are unblended, unflavored and unscented, so what you’re tasting is the distinct flavor of an individual estate in a specific region.

Discover more at TranquilTuesdays.com.

The cleansing products from So…Soap don’t just break down dirt and oil in your pores, but also break down the barriers to employment that many poor women in Hong Kong face. While there are a lot sustainable products out there that meet one or two social, political or environmental concerns (e.g., PETA-endorsed Method), this is the first soap I’ve seen that takes nearly everything into account. And I mean everything!

1. Communities: The manufacturer uses a community-based production scheme that recruits local women. The women are given a way to provide for their families while working flexible hours close to home. When you buy a bottle of So…Soap, your individual label will tell you what specific community helped to produce your product!
2. Ingredients: Every product is hand-made from completely natural, vegan  ingredients. You won’t find sodium laurel sulfate or any of the other common ingredients typically found in most hair and skin products.
3. Packaging: Each So…Soap product comes in a cute bottle. What consumers may not know is that the manufacturer paired up with two local organic soy milk producers to obtain used soy milk containers that are disinfected and reused as soap containers.

Discover more at SoSoap.com.

Chapstick’s “Classic” formula has more than a dozen ingredients, including unpronouncables like “arachidyl propionate” and Iron Man-worthy dye names like “FD&C yellow no. 5 aluminum lake.”

Compare that to the lip balm from Sprout Skincare, which contains just four ingredients: cocoa butter, extra-virgin olive oil, beesewax and essential oils. Plus, it’s organic, fair trade and handmade in Hipsterland Brooklyn!

Even more, we love that it’s made by a tiny business headed up by Brooklyn entrepreneur Adina Grigore. “Our ingredients are safe enough to eat!” she tells Entrepreneur magazine.

Unfortunately, the lip balm doesn’t give any specific calorie information.

Because bar soap is more ubiquitous in your bathroom than a Kardashian on cable TV, it’s so very easy to take it for granted. But you probably shouldn’t. Most of the bar soap products on store shelves are pumped full of dyes, chemicals, artificial perfumes and other nasty stuff that, over time, can dry out and damage your skin. Hello, premature wrinkles!

While Dr. Bronner’s magic soap bars — no, really, they’re labeled “magic” — may first catch your eyes for their text-heavy, messy labeling, a second glance reveals just how awesome these soap bars are. The ingredient list boasts all-natural, organic and fair trade stuff like coconut oil and jojoba oil, while it also proudly displays PETA’s “Not Animal Tested” logo. Good for my skin, good for the bunny rabbits, good enough for me!

Plus, the numerous available scents, like citrus orange and lavender, are as refreshingly clean as the ingredients. Cruelty-free soap has never smelled or felt so good!