Topic: organic beauty products

4 Awesome All Natural Red Lipsticks For New Year’s Eve

4 Awesome All Natural Red Lipsticks For New Yearâ��s Eve

Red lipstick is my thing. As I’ve gotten older, it’s become my go-to beauty staple, the product I can throw on for any occasion and feel confident, classic, and beautiful. But I’m also increasingly cautious when buying beauty products: Many cosmetics, including lipstick, contain lead and other less-than-desirable ingredients like phthalates, plasticizers…even gluten or animal byproducts. So what’s a red lip lover to do? Especially with a fancy New Year’s Eve night out coming up?

I was kind of skeptical that I’d be able to find an awesome red lipstick made from natural ingredients that performed like my MAC and NARS faves. However, using myself as a guinea pig (trying lipstick, truly a hard day of work), I discovered several terrific reds made from natural ingredients. More »

Blisstree Beauty School: Garlic Gives You Glowing Skin and Nice Nails

I almost always have a garlic bulb in my cupboard to add to dinnertime recipes. I really hate chopping it up though, because its juice lingers on my hands for hours, and no amount of scrubbing can totally eliminate the powerful scent. So when I was browsing my local beauty store and saw beauty treatments containing garlic, my initial reaction was “disgusting!” But then I got curious: What did these products smell like, and why would anyone seek out garlic of all things in their skin care regimen? I had to know more. More »

Blisstree Beauty School: Clear Up Your Skin With Charcoal

As I started writing this post, I got a big ol’ zit: Red, inflamed, and obvious. Was it the change in the weather? My not-totally-wholesome diet? Whatever the cause, I had to get rid of it as quickly as possible. And, because I’m trying to be more conscious of keeping potentially nasty ingredients out of my beauty products (it is Earth Day, after all), I found a more natural (and perhaps strange-sounding) approach to help banish blemishes: Charcoal.

What It Is:

Think of the ashy-looking pieces left behind after burning logs over a fire – that’s charcoal. Most often, it’s the after-product of plant sources like trees, bamboo or coconut husks. And (quick chemistry lesson here) charcoal is a form of carbon, one of those “building blocks of life” that’s in every living thing. Hint: If you see “carbon” on an ingredient list, it’s code for charcoal. More »

Win an Anti-Aging Kit From Park Avenue Prescription Worth $70!

Today’s new 40 Days of Giveaways prize is time-travel in a bottle for your skin. (If you’re late to this spring fling: Blisstree is using the season of Lent to reward you for giving up your vices in favor of healthier habits. Each weekday from now until May 3, we’ll give away a different prize to one reader just for becoming our Facebook fan.) And today’s prize is all about revealing the younger-looking you this spring and summer. We’re giving away one (1) Park Avenue Prescription Anti-Aging Starter Kit (worth $70) to one reader who simply “Likes” Blisstree on Facebook. Aging? We defy you. More »

In Praise of Drugstore Cosmetics: Long Live Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque

Recently, I spent $38 on a few ounces of moisturizer. Even worse, I had to go to Sephora to get it. For some women, that place is a giant candy store. For me, it’s a hideous carnival of too many fragrances, where the spackle-faced carnies are pushy and poreless. (I can barely apply eyeliner without looking like a prostitute with Parkinson’s Disease. Also, I have pores.)

A few weeks before my mortgage-worthy moisturizer purchase that, need I remind you, cost roughly the equivalent of three movie tickets, I bought an under-eye cream for $25. So far, I’m pleased with both of my purchases, but these pricey beauty buys aren’t nearly as satisfying to me as that old-fashioned drugstore staple: All hail Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque.

It’s not just because I’m cheap (which I often am). For me, when something costs more than $10, it had better work. More »

Become Our 2,000th Facebook Fan and Win a Beauty Product Prize

Big news, dear readers. We’re currently just nine people away from our 2,000th Facebook fan, and you know what that means. (If you don’t, I’m about to tell you.) We’re giving away a super-sweet (and possibly healthy) prize to the lucky Blisstree reader who becomes our 2,000th Facebook fan. That’s it — no tricks, gimmicks, or scams. What kind of prize, you ask? Think along the lines of organic beauty products, self-help books, and other fun stuff from our personal Blisstree stash.
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Spring 2011 Colors: 10 Eco-Friendly Nail Polish Choices

Yesterday, our friends over at Well+Good NYC rounded up eco-friendly nail polish company Priti’s newest line from recently wrapped New York Fashion Week. But while those featured colors sure are pretty, they likely won’t be in style until the fall. So we went hunting for some nail and toe polish shades that are on-trend right now – including pale blue and leafy green. Plus, all ten finds are eco-friendly and non-toxic. As always, you can use the Cosmetics Database to see whether or not your favorite beauty product brand is free of the “toxic trio” (toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate), camphor, and other potential carcinogens and harsh or toxic chemicals. In the meantime, we can’t wait til spring has sprung. More »

Morning Links: 6 Skin Care Problems Solved In Your Kitchen

Take a Really Deep Breath – 5 ways to get more benefits from every yoga asana. (Yoga Journal)

Dudes Play Games, Too! – Heterosexual men are finally buying into the cachet of sex toys in the bedroom. (Salon)

Eat Your Beauty Regimen – 6 skin care emergencies solved in your kitchen. (Shine) More »

Beauty Buzz: 6 Weird Spa Treatments to Skip or Try In 2011

Call us inspired. After discovering the benefits of having someone massage our face from the inside out, we’ve spent more time investigating what other incredible (and incredibly painful/strange/crazy) spa and beauty treatments are gaining popularity this year. But why the sudden turn to the extreme? It’s just a theory, but with the economic downturn hitting spas hard in the past few years , the only way to lure beauty junkies back into the fray is to take spa treatments to the next level. Of course, extreme beauty is nothing new. From binding feet to Botox, we’ve already seen it all. Or have we? Here are six suspect spa treatments you may want to skip (or try) in 2011: More »

What We're Reading:

Weird Spa Treatment Trend: Buccal Facial

As I was browsing SpaFinder’s report on global spa trends for 2011, one “trend” in particular jumped out at me: Extreme Beauty. SpaFinder mentions treatments like plasma therapy, an anti-aging treatment where your blood is drawn, re-oxygenated, and then re-injected; intense detoxing treatments; and bizarre facials that take place nowhere near the face (think backside and vagina).

But as I dug deeper there was one cutting-edge treatment that literally left me queasy. It’s called the Buccal Technique. For those unfamiliar (and I’m guessing there are many of you), the Buccal is an intense facial massage performed inside the mouth. Inside the mouth. More »

3 Ways to Know Your Makeup Is Past Its Shelf Life

The other day I took a good, hard look into the dangerous depths of my makeup bag. A true beauty junkie, my stash includes more than 50 lip glosses, three types of foundation, more than a dozen blush colors (from powder to gel to liquid), and more eye shadow than a small Sephora store. And the truth? On a daily basis I probably only use about 5% of it.

And while from the outside my brown-and-white-striped makeup bag looks like a beautiful cosmetic storage specimen, the inside probably hides other specimens that would likely terrify me. But I’m lazy. Cleaning and purging my cosmetics case is hardly at the top of my to-do list. Deciding to tackle the problem head-on, I asked Jessica Liebeskind, a New York-based celebrity makeup artist, and president and executive creative director of Vintage by Jessica Liebeskind, to walk me through the bare minimum of preventive care when it comes to makeup. Here are her three tips for not breaking up with your makeup, while keeping your sanity, your wallet, and your heath intact: More »

10 All-Natural Beauty Products to Fight Dry Winter Skin

A paralyzing blizzard in the Midwest and pounding ice pellets in the Northeast make Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction for an early thaw seem questionable at best. Just the mere thought of bikinis and bare limbs makes us want to crawl under a cashmere blanket and not come out until mid-April. But, because it’s difficult to be depressed while slathering on a good self-tanner or submerged in a frothy bubble bath, we’re opting to self-medicate with a new crop of all-natural beauty products that take on the worst winter has to offer. From frog-shaped bath bombs to luxurious lotions and hair products, here’s our top ten list of winter-blues-busting beauty booty: More »

Beauty Regimen: How Often You Should Clean Your Makeup Brushes

It’s something I never, ever do — clean my makeup brushes. It’s kind of like flossing, I know I should do it, but most of the time I skip that step before bedtime.

Every morning I use my makeup brushes to apply bronzer, powder, and shadow, and when I slide them back into their case I think, “I really should clean them,” but never have the time as I dash out of the house. At night, I’m more concerned with removing my makeup, rather than washing my brushes for tomorrow’s application.

Days turn into a week, which turns into a month, and before I know it – I’ve gone a year (gasp!) without cleaning my makeup brushes. I’ve even been known to throw out my brushes and buy new ones, rather than have to properly clean them. What a waste. And I’ve learned the hard way that ignoring your dirty makeup brushes is a big no-no. More »

The Man Behind a Natural Skin Care Empire — Check out this post about Dr. Saul Alkaitis, whose natural beauty products are celebrated by everyone from raw food enthusiasts to fashion models. (Well + Good NYC)

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