Kudos to a Santa Barbara Day Spa Owner for Recycling!

I stumbled upon a Busy Working Moms Blog run by a day spa owner in Santa Barbara. Check out her cool tips about recycling.

I LOVE business people that care!!!

Read the Recycling Made Easy Article from the BusyWorkingMom blog and support conscious business people where you live!!!

Confessions of a Conscious Shopper

Sometimes it's tough being a wild web woman. You live behind a computer screen, your only interactions with the outside world are via email or web conferencing and you feel all alone in your little wild web world. Now, don't get me wrong...my lack of commute and work flexibility is great, but sometimes you just have "one of those days"...

...And sometimes when the going gets tough, the tough just has to go shopping....

So I was at a meeting (yes, an actual get in the car and meet people in person meeting) and the shopping mall was on the way home...going back to my home office and sitting behind the laptop was not desirable and since I was already in the shopping area, I realize that it would be less impactful to shop now versus make a second driving trip (you are hearing all the shopping excuses already!) back to the mall, so I make a conscious shopping choice to STOP, SHOP and ROLL....keep rolling with me as I confess my not-so guilty shopping sins....

Let me first pat my conscious spending self on the back for taking my canvas bag with me before I started my shopping extravaganza. Go me...ok, rolling on...

First shopping stab - AVEDA. I love Aveda so much I want to marry them. Their products are amazing, the company is cool and most importantly, they are dedicated to making a difference. I try to consciously support companies that do good and Aveda is top on my shop therapy list. Did you know that they are the first beauty company manufacturing with 100% certified wind power?

So, I walk into Aveda feeling pitiful and tired and I am overwhelmed with a stellar customer service "Welcome to Aveda!" greeting. As I sip calming Aveda tea, I get pampered with makeup help (and honestly, I needed some help in the beautification department) a hand massage and overall stellar service. After I look like a naturally glowing goddess thanks to my Aveda superstar, I use my Aveda points (BTW, I am going to Jamaica on Aveda points, mark my conscious spending words!) and as the women are ringing me up, they thank me profusely for bringing my own canvas bag. Getting shopping support when I try to be green really rocks. Then we proceed to talk about their new wind energy movement, my goal to go to Jamaica (a la supporting Aveda) and I'm off....

My seond shop therapy stop was lululemon athletica. I had a gift certificate to the store burning a hole in my pocket and there was no better time than now. Conscious spender note - lululemon has great shopping bags I use as a gym bag or lunch bag and they give you $.50 off when you bring in any shopping bag. I love stuff like that!

I find some great workout wear that is in line with my gift certificate amount and I bought basic black so I can wear this stuff forever. Suggestion for conscious fashionistas - buy classic and the shelf life of clothing will be super long...saves shop time because you have the basics you need and you don't have the trend factors that kill clothing shelf life. lululemon has a great manifesto
that is very pro balance, health and what really matters. Another cool company that I am happy to support.

Once my canvas bag had new workout clothes and Aveda goodies, I was consciously shopped out and wanted to call it quits. I supported two great companies, felt good about my choices and now feel some redemption from my conscious shopping confessional......

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

A truly reSOURCEful toothbrush

We live in a time crunched world...when we lack time, we tend to naturally lack time to think.

Thank goodness the folks at RADIUS TOOTHBRUSH took the time to think about the fact that 80%, yes 80% of the materials used by standard toothbrushes do not have to be replaced Post thought, they created the source toothbrush. The handles are made with renewable resource bio-plastic handles that are made from recycled wood or flax mixed with post-consumer polypropylene.

SO COOL and uber conscious.

It's the same concept with razors, you only need to replace the heads of those, so why not only replace the heads of toothbrushes? I know, ah-ha!

The next time you get a new toothbrush, get a eco-friendly toothbrush!

Gifts that make a Difference

Aveda (one of my favorite companies on the planet) is using renewably-sourced paper in their gift sets this year to help brighten the future for families and forests. Aveda stated on one of their gift flyers that:

"Over 20% of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are due to forest loss"

You can learn more about the Aveda partnership here in their video.

As a conscious customer, I love knowing that my dollars to Aveda give back.

The average woman consumes one tube of lipstick a year - make it organic!

In a former life, I was a cosmetics manager (a "get my butt though college" job that paid well!) and I recall learning in one of my sales trainings that the average woman consumes one tube of lipstick a year. That stat freaked me out (I wish I could recall the source) but it does make you think....

If you are going to wear lip color and you are going to ingest some of it, you better make it good for you!

I discovered Colorganics Lip Tint It is sheer, organic lip tint that is moisturizing with a slight hint of natural color, perfect actually. It's made with organic castor oil and moisturizing organic hemp seed oil.

For those of you who are really into safe cosmetics, ingredients are below.

Ingredients: Certified organic castor oil, certified organic beeswax, carnauba wax, certified organic hemp seed oil, certified organic jojoba oil, natural vitamin E. May contain mica, iron oxides, carmine, titanium dioxide (non-FD&C natural pigments).

Conscious beauty comes via conscious spending! May your next tube of lipstick be a quality one!