Life is good for green beauty. We have boutiques for easy shopping and sites for learning more about eco products. But sometimes, it is nice to settle in with a good book to educate ourselves. (Especially with ones printed on recycled paper!) Luckily, there are a lot of fantastic books that give us a comprehensive look of what it means to be a green beauty. And we’ve been lucky enough to read more than a few.

Check out our favorite picks for green beauty tomes. And after we have our green faces …

Tags: beauty , cosmetics , health

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? So that means beauty treatments are also in the eyes of the participant. But sometimes, these eyes are smeared with snail ooze. Or maybe they’re splashed by a ramen noodle spa or slithered across by snakes during a massage. Some beauty treatments around the world seem the stuff of Willy Wonka’s factory, without the ensuing sugar coma.

But hey, we don’t judge. After all, we live in a world where people make a practice of injecting botulism into their foreheads and silicone into …

Tags: beauty , cosmetics , fish , mask , pedicure , spa treatments

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Stretch marks. Friend and new mom Erin Fox speaks of them in hushed, angry tones, calling them, “Something so evil they must be destroyed. Evilly.” Yes, Erin, stretch marks are bad. What’s more, they are complicated. No, I’m not talking complicated like understanding the appeal of putting crazy people on reality television. Stretch marks are complicated because a vigorous debate exists as to whether they can actually be prevented.

And the debate over stretch marks is fierce. It pits doctors against mothers against physical trainers against beauty technicians. And …

Tags: beauty , health , moisturizer , pregnancy , skin , stretch marks

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Do you sprint through department stores? I do, and it’s always through the makeup section. I have bad allergies and walking through rows and rows of fragrances is akin to demons waving perfumed-drenched pitchforks at me. Fragrance means an instant headache, sniffling nose, and a possible asthma attack. To me, perfume is utterly toxic. To everyone else? Yeah, actually it looks like it is toxic as well.

At the start of the movement for safe cosmetics, way back in 2002 when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a report called “Not Too Pretty” …

Tags: allergies , beauty , cosmetics , fragrance , health , organic , perfume , scent

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There’s a plague sweeping across the United States, and this one has nothing to do with sparkly vampires. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just confirmed – bed bugs are back!

Bed bugs are small insects that feed on sleeping animals – namely, us. They are expert hiders and tend to live within eight feet of where people sleep. The intrepid little suckers are making a comeback and it is leading to heightened levels of scratching and anxiety.

The blood-sucking insects were more common in the mid-twentieth …

Tags: bed bugs , ddt , health , infestation , insecticides , insects , natural bug remedies , New York , parasites , pesticides , pests , plague

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You are what you eat – or so we’ve heard over and over again until it makes us want to run out and eat a Big Mac. But there’s a reason celebrities like Angelina Jolie or Gwyneth Paltrow seem to obsess over their macrobiotic-vegan-fermenty things. (All in that order, most likely.) If you eat well, you’re going to look well.

The most obvious place all those good nutrients are going to manifest is in your skin. Samantha Heller, a clinical nutritionist at NYU Medical Center in New York City, says: “Everything …

Tags: beauty , food , health , nutrition , wellness

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Beer goggles. They are mysterious. Like Loch Ness or Sasquatch, some deny their existence. These deniers are usually women with impeccably pressed cotton shifts who don’t know the hell that is smeared mascara. But the rest of us know better.

These some, who shall remain nameless, may kick back a beer or five and wake up with a broken high heel and dim recollections of dancing on a bar. And they might admit to wearing beer goggles from time to time. Even though we (I mean, THEY) know that beer goggles are …

Tags: beauty , beer goggles , drinking , evolution , gender , psychology , sex

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You know when you see a candle shaped like a cupcake – and you’re debating just how chewy and gross wax might taste because now you want to eat a cupcake? If so, then you will relate to my current dilemma. At the recommendation of Primrose Organics Salon in Los Feliz, I decided to check out Strawberry Hedgehog’s Whipped Body Crème.  This product contain organic and fair-trade ingredients. The problem? It looks so good, I want to eat it.

Strawberry Hedgehog is the eco-baby of artisan Tracy Perkins, who founded …

Tags: beauty , moisturizer , organic , strawberry hedgehog

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Lately, I’ve been talking to a lot of makeup artists. Why? I’m getting married in a few weeks and would just as soon dump an entire tube of makeup down my dress than attempt to apply it myself. And while I’m talking to these artists, I’m getting the same question over and over – how do you envision your bridal look? Do you want “sexy vixen” or “glamour gal”? You could be “fun and flirty” or better yet the “no-makeup makeup” look?

Frankly, I envision my bridal look as Michelle Obama’s toned …

Tags: beauty , beauty tips , makeup , makeup tips , sexy vixen

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How many of you take off your eye makeup with a couple squares of toilet paper and call it a night? Granted, I don’t usually wear a lot of eye makeup, but my remover regime is generally done in a tear, a swipe, and a toss. Sure, I may have bright red, irritated skin afterwards – not to mention the delicate skin I’m giving the sandpaper treatment. I usually end up looking like something between a boxer and raccoon after I take off my makeup. Why? Because I don’t like putting …

Tags: beauty , eye makeup , jurlique , makeup , makeup remover , tips

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