12 Green Days of Christmas: Day 3 Makeup

There are a few things to note with "Green" makeup. A natural makeup line is not the same as an organic makeup line. Organic makeup goes through meticulous inspections and production. Every step is monitored to ensure that it meets the highest standard. Most natural makeups maintain that their products are free from unsafe chemicals and ingredients. The great thing about today is that there are so many new products and companies who are striving to make organic and natural products. I've listed a few of the ones that have caught my eye!

1. E.L.F. Cosmetics Minerals
This line of makeup is 100% mineral-based with no parabens, no preservatives and no chemical dyes. They have amazing pricing on their makeups as well!

12 Green Days of Christmas - Day 2

Day 2 Books and such...


While flying home for the Thanksgiving holiday, I took advantage of the free television playing on the seat back in front of me. It was Friday night and Brian Williams was interviewing the Prince of Wales. Charles, the quiet heir to throne, was surprisingly green minded. He walked Brian around an absolutely beautiful organic garden and revealed a desire to help stem the chemical assault on nature. He's written a new book (an adult and child version) and has a short documentary, all entitled Harmony. Listen to him while he can still talk, once he becomes King he has to be impartial, by law.

The 12 Green Days of Christmas

For the Green Bean on your Christmas list (which I hope is everyone on your Christmas list), we present the 12 Green Days of Christmas, each day selecting of few green products to help your find the perfect gift.

Today: the Green Lunchbag:

Lunchskins sandwich bags. EASY to use and durable. Just throw them in the dishwasher each night. Then the peanut butter and jelly don't turn into a penicillin pocket. Love them. they come in several colors and can be purchased at several outfitters, including the Container Store.

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lunchskins® Sandwich Bag

Simply brilliant. Our fantastic and reusable lunchskins® Sandwich Bag replaces the multitudes of plastic bags used to pack lunches. Each lined sack is made from quick-drying, lightweight cotton fabric. The flap is secured with hook and loop fasteners - it can be labeled with any permanent marker. Reuse the bags over and over again to contain everything from your PB&J to your tuna salad!  

• Made from certified food-safe fabric
• Top rack dishwasher-safe

Office Plants

My husband and I both moved into new office spaces recently. He has an office, I have a cubicle. Three gray walls hug me each day, a computer screen send its radiant waves into my face, flourescent lights pelt me from above. Even though I work in the medical profession, I've never felt so unhealthy.

On my Christmas wish list are two items to green my workspace:

Plants

and

A Salt Lamp

First, plants: From a NT Times article on hardly houseplants, I have narrowed the selection to these stalwarts:

WAX PLANT (HOYA CARNOSA VARIEGATA) Can sprawl some 15 feet along a bamboo pole, from one window to another. The wax plant takes its style cues from “Desperately Seeking Susan”: the new vines are hot pink; the flowers, patently fake. The secret to raising it to adulthood, is “to back off the water” in the winter, imitating the plant’s natural dry period. 

RABBIT’S FOOT FERN (DAVALLIA FEJEENSIS) A hanging basket made of wooden slats provides a comfy home for this fuzzy native of the Pacific Islands. Encouraged to “creep around the bottom of the basket it can make a kind of fern ball.” In the summer, the fern swings from the branch of a peach tree in the courtyard. 

BIRD’S NEST FERN (ASPLENIUM NIDUS)A shade-loving plant, whose form resembles “a badminton shuttlecock” turned “upside-down.” The new growth from the central rosette is chartreuse, the older fronds, which may be a foot wide, are dark and shiny. 

New Studies Show Environment Linked to Chronic Diseases

For years the debate has been whether or not the chemicals from the environment adversely affect our health. Many groups have tried to get the government to recognize that there is a link and to start to do things that will help "prevent" chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes and not just "intervene". Although there is still a genetic link and other factors that go into an individual's risk in getting a disease, there is even more evidence now proving a strong link with the environment.

In May 2010, the governments Cancer Panel stated that there was a "significant" risk between the chemicals found in pesticides and the development of cancer. This significant risk has now sky rocketed to a 70 to 90 percent link to chemical and cancer according to a new study found in the well known Science journal. It stated,

"Although the risks of developing chronic diseases are attributed to both genetic and environmental factors, 70 to 90% of disease risks are probably due to differences in environments." Stephen Rappaport and Martyn Smith, "Environment and Disease Risks, Science, Vol. 330, No. 6003, pages 460-461.

This is a huge finding and should alter the way we look at foods and the pesticides we place on them.