STWW: "Green" Products

This was originally a guest post for Workaday Ramblings (a great blog by the very lovely Sarah) last month but I thought I'd post it here since it's a great STWW. Enjoy!

In honour of St. Patrick's day, I'm talking all things green though this has a little twist to it: I tend to shy away from green coloured make up and so this will be reviews on environmentally friendly and natural (or Green) products that I use.

The first is the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Full Coverage Foundation. If you didn't know, Tarte is a cruelty-free brand that has eco-friendly packaging and supports co-operatives in the Rainforests. As an added bonus, Tarte uses natural products such as minerals, plant extracts and vitamins in their products and steers clear of parabens, phthalates and synthetic fragrances among many others. Aside from being a Green product, this foundation is winner in that it is a great foundation. It is an almost-full coverage foundation (thanks to my hyperpigmentation, some of my darker spots still need concealer and this is not very buildable), it lasts very well throughout the day even without a primer and it doesn’t feel heavy or greasy. It almost feels like a second skin which is perfect for those who want to wear foundation but hate the feeling of it. The only downside is the range of colours for the foundation is very minimal. I’m between shades so I just opted for the shade down. I find this to be the perfect foundation for long days as it is long lasting and doesn’t feel heavy while giving great coverage.

The second is a combo that I've been using for months now and really love: the Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention shampoo and Restorative conditioner. This is another cruelty-free brand which uses certified organic and ethically sourced ingredients such as Argan oil, avocado butter, coconut oil and much more. They, like Tarte, stay away from chemicals such as parabens, phthalates, paraffins which is a huge bonus. I have dry, curly hair which is damaged from dying and using hot tools on it. This combination is a miracle worker: my hair feels soft and moisturized while not greasy; it's clean without feeling stripped. While this works incredibly well for my hair, it may be heavy for those with finer or straight hair - I would recommend skipping any conditioners and using just the shampoo as it is conditioning on its own. My friend with straight, fine and limp hair uses just the shampoo and loves how much thicker and healthier her hair has gotten.

The last green product I love is St. Ives Swiss Formula Apricot Scrub Gentle. St. Ives uses 100% natural moisturizers and exfoliants such as Shea butter oil and walnut shell. A problem with a lot of exfoliants is that they use microbeads which are plastic and cannot be detected or filtered out by water treatment methods. These beads then go out into the ocean where unsuspecting sea creatures consume them and ultimately we eat these beads through seafood. Plastic microbeads are not biodegradable - they cannot be removed from the environment and they release toxins as photodegrade. Walnut shell is a natural exfoliant and this scrub is gentle for my sensitive skin. It's great for brightening up my skin on days where it looks lacklustre and so I use it twice a week.

Hope you've all enjoyed my post, comment below for any green products you like or tweet me @SundayWardrobe. Hope this inspires you to make green choices when it comes to beauty!