Posts Tagged ‘organic ingredients’

Posted on March 9, 2010 - by Leslie Billera

Read Your Palm Responsibly

From soaps, candles and bath and beauty products to ice cream and bread…palm oil is used in products we consume every day.

But the back story of palm oil tells an ugly environmental tale.  Life-giving tropical rainforests are being burned and cleared for expanding palm plantations. Just one more reason why it’s super important to know where the ingredients in the products you buy actually come from.

We turned to the World Wildlife Foundation, one of the fiercest advocates for sustainable palm oil, to learn more about large scale palm oil production:

• The world’s most biodiverse tropical rainforests are found in Malaysia and Indonesia, where the land is being devastated every day to create oil palm plantations.
• Clearing these forests creates inhospitable habitats for the region’s wildlife, including tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, and orangutans, the most threatened animals.
• Oil plantations erode the land and use fertilizers and pesticides that pollute the air, soil and water.

Buyer Beware

Don’t let irresponsibly grown palm oil ooze into your green beauty care routine.  You can do two things when it comes to taking a stand against it:

1. Avoid personal care brands that include palm oil in their products and opt for responsibly sourced products from full disclosure beauty and bath companies like Napa Valley Bath.

2. Write to your favorite retailers and manufacturers (with online access, it’s easy) and ask them to use Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in their products.

Scroll down this list to see brands and products that source palm oil responsibly including The Body Shop and LUSH soaps. Kudos to these types of caring companies who join Napa Valley Bath and St. Helena Olive Oil Co. in sustainable, responsible, and earth-friendly agricultural practices!

Posted on March 1, 2010 - by Leslie Billera

A Sea of Bodily Love: Sponges & Loofahs

We hope by now you’re treating yourself to at least one relaxing, aromatherapeutic bath a week that’s:

• Good for the earth: the non-toxic ingredients in organic bath and beauty products don’t wind up in our water streams.
• Great for your body: by making smart choices about the products you put on your skin, you’re investing your health.

Now it’s time to think about transporting all the nutrient-rich soaps, sea salts, scrubs and more available from Napa Valley Bath in the most eco-conscious way…

Sea and Be Seen

Opt for sea sponges versus synthetic sponges, which are typically made from petrochemicals.

For thousands of years, people have been cleansing themselves with multi-celled sea sponges. Sea sponges live in almost every aquatic environment, filtering nutrients from the water through their pores.

Real sea sponges:

• Are a non-endangered species, so they are greener alternative to synthetic sponges
• Regenerate, so there’s no worries about over-harvesting
• Hold a greater amount of water
• Biodegrade, so there’s no waste

So ditch that pink, plasticized pouf hanging in your shower – your green bath is truly sea sponge-worthy!

Love Your Loofah

Did you know that a loofah is a dried plant related to the squash family?  Loofah sponges can be used every day to:

• Give a boost to your circulatory system
• Cleanse and exfoliate your skin
• Help prevent cellulite build-up

Make sure that any loofah you buy is organically-grown and unbleached. In a DIY mood? Harvest your own!

Posted on February 20, 2010 - by Leslie Billera

Teens and Personal Care: A Cautionary Tale

The average woman uses 12 personal care products a day…and the ever-enthusiastic teenage girl? More like 17.

As we’ve shared with you, many conventional personal care products carry a heavy chemical load for all of us.  But teenagers are especially at risk: they’re at a period of accelerated development, physically, that makes them particularly vulnerable.

A 2008 Environmental Research Group study backed up these concerns.

The study took samples from 20 teen girls, age 14-19. Harrowing highlights include:

• They found 16 chemicals from 4 chemical families – phthalates, triclosan, parabens, and musks – in blood and urine samples in the 20 girls tested.

• Studies link these chemicals to potential health effects including cancer and hormone disruption.

• These tests feature first-ever exposure data for parabens, a common cosmetic preservative.  It indicated that young women are widely exposed to parabens, with 2 parabens – methylparaben and propylparaben – detected in every single girl tested.

Purchasing non-toxic personal care products is step one to a lower chemical count for teens. Turning teens on to what their peers are doing to make healthier, greener choices is another step.  Check out Teens Turning Green, a national program of engaged kids working towards a more non-toxic world, from personal care to school to lobbying Washington.  Yucky pink hand soap loaded with suspected carcinogen Cocamide DEA, a suspected carcinogen? Not in a Teens Turning Green School!

You can also turn your teen on to Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group’s amazing database of thousands of personal care products, and help them take control of the buying choices they make as they grow.

Last but not least, why not surprise them with a treat from Napa Valley Bath: all of our products are non-toxic, all-natural, pure and mostly organic.

Posted on January 14, 2010 - by Leslie Billera

Shop ‘til You Drop, Green and Guilt-Free!

The ever-inspiring Green America has just issued their annual must-have catalog. This amazing shopping guide lets you juice up your shopping with a hardy dose of eco-consciousness. From clothing to housewares to green gifts and much more, the Green America National Green Pages is a great resource that covers every aspect of your life.

Before I go any further, you should know that you can get a copy of the amazing Green America National Green Pages – FREE – at your local Whole Foods. I saw it in a Whole Foods in Paramus, NJ: if you don’t see it in your local Whole Foods, ask a manager!

Another way you can get it is to simply join Green America with membership options as low as $20. As a member, you’ll get resources for green living, purchasing, and investing AND become part of the growing movement for a just and sustainable future.

Right there, you’ve got a good deal going.

Vote with Your Dollars

Just a taste of the type of discounts you’ll get in the Green America National Green Pages:

• 15% off sweatshop-free, bamboo-fiber baby clothing
• 10% off at a green bed and breakfast
• 10% off Fair Trade chocolate
• 5% off a solar water heater
• 15% off recycled paper stationery, invitations, and holiday cards

You can also take advantage of these type of green deals and many more – for free – online.

As a Napa Valley Bath and St. Helena Olive Oil Co. customer, you love the health benefits of organic, truly all-natural bath and beauty products.  With the Green America National Green Pages, you can extend that goodness to all areas of your life.  Enjoy!

Posted on October 27, 2009 - by Leslie Billera

Scare Away Scaley Skin!

Halloween means cooler temps lurking around every corner.  Don’t be haunted by dry skin – give it the extra TLC it deserves.

Napa Valley Bath delivers the decadent moisturizing you need this fall and winter with our Lavender Body Butter. Developed specifically to treat cracked, callused and parched skin, it treats your dry dermis to the nutrition and care it craves in cooler temps.

Highlights from this skin-tastic salve include:

• Aloe Vera Leaf Juice:   Used extensively in skin care and in health care to soothe and protect, aloe vera is also used to treat a variety of skin care disorders as well as burns.

• Safflower Seed Oil: This oil boosts the skin’s firmness, makes it smooth, toned and gives it more elasticity.

• Shea butter: Extracted from shea nuts, shea butter is a great moisturizer and emollient  (something that softens and soothes) with anti-inflammatory properties. Ours is from Uganda, where shea trees grow in abundance naturally.

• Lavender Hydrosol: We’re big fans of lavender hydrosol, the lesser-known and less concentrated sibling to lavender essential oil.  It tones, cleans and delights as only lavender floral waters can.

• Beeswax & Propolis Cera: Busy bees supply us with this natural wax rich in moisturizing fatty acid esters and propolis cera, the waxy component of the resinous material found in beehives.

• Orange Peel Wax: Orange is a natural skin refresher rich in vitamins.

• Wheat Germ Oil: Plant-based oils are the green alternative to toxic chemicals; wheat germ oil contains Vitamin E and essential fatty acids such as linoleic, oleic, palmitic and stearic fatty acids.

• Comfrey Root Extract: Used to repair damaged tissues, comfrey boasts a long list of nutrients including Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin, B complex vitamins, calcium and more.

• Lavender: As you know, we love our lavender. We use both lavandula angustifolia flower oil and Lavandula grosso (lavandin) flower oil for their soothing, healing qualities.

Feed your skin this beauty brew of goodness and keep spooky skin away all year long!

Posted on October 15, 2009 - by Leslie Billera

Keep Truly Clean with 100% Organic

Last time, we profiled several synthetic ingredients found in ‘conventional’ bar and liquid soap including 1,4 Dioxane, Diethanolamine (DEA), Parabens: this is the stuff that’s supposed to keep us clean?

Maybe you’re thinking, ‘Not me! I use ‘organic’ beauty care products!’

It’s time to face the myth of organic when it comes to personal care products thanks to an unfortunate technique known as ‘greenwashing.’

Greenwashing is Just Plain Dirty

Slapping the word ‘organic’ onto a product is an addiction for big beauty manufacturers.

The sad truth is, it’s misused, abused and often completely wrong. The abuse is so egregious that the researchers the Environmental Working have created a special database to help consumers get a grip on what’s really green and healthy – and what’s not.

Using one drop of organic essential oil in a beauty product is one of the most common greenwashing techniques in the cosmetic industry.  Companies regularly get away with declaring their products organic as a whole, when in truth, only a small percentage is.

Other popular greenwashing terms that often come in tandem with ‘natural’ style packaging – include:

• Made with organic essential oils
• Contains organic ingredients
• Made with nontoxic ingredients
• 100% natural
• Essentially nontoxic
• Earth-friendly
• Environmentally Safer

Look closely at the ingredients list, be a vigilant shopper, and treat yourself to organic products that you can trust.

What is Organic, Really?

We know – it gets confusing. Here’s a simplified guide:

• The farmer or producer must avoid synthetic chemical additives, including fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, genetically modified organisms and sewage sludge

• Farmland must be free of chemicals for more than three years, depending on the country

• All the production stages must be transparent, open for audit and take part in frequent inspections

Next time we’ll give you an amazing recipe for a nutrient rich hair butter using two of our favorite organic ingredients: organic virgin olive oil and organic lavender essential oil!  After all, if you make it yourself, there’s no doubt what’s in it!