What's in a name? At cosmetics megastore Sephora, suspiciously little. Despite a high-profile Natural & Organic initiative featuring more than 1,400 products and 30-plus brands, Sephora's naturals appear to be more (greenwashing) style than (green) substance. With its own dodgy definition of the term "natural"—the "Naturally Sephora" seal—the company has managed to loop green-leaning consumers into meaningless semantics ... and some very not green products.

The problem with the term "natural" is that it's essentially meaningless; there's no set definition of the term. Neither the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nor the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulate what a cosmetic may or may not contain in order to be labeled as "natural."

In fact, Sephora has come up with its own definition. "As you probably know, the term 'Natural' is not regulated by the FDA (meaning any beauty product can use that term, no matter what it contains!), so we formed an internal committee that worked hard to set our own Natural standards," says Sephora on its blog. "And here are the results: Our Natural products contain fewer to no parabens, petrochemicals, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate and synthetic fragrances and dyes."

"Fewer" hazardous chemicals—does that sound natural to you? It didn't to Slate, which listed Sephora among its four biggest enviro-scams. And it didn't to Terri Bly at Feelgood Style, who tore into Sephora's claims with the zeal of dyed-in-the-wool cosmetics fan who's simply begging to be proven wrong. Bly found ingredient lists packed with petrochemicals, parabens, synthetic fragrances ... toxins ranked moderate to high in the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep cosmetics database.

For now, Sephora continues to hole up behind the green screen of its own definition of what's "natural." But until consumers can get straight answers and clear labeling, better safe than sorry: check every product and brand against the EWG database, and don't be hornswoggled by a meaningless store certification.

(Photo credit:EWG Skin Deep cosmetic safety review)

Organic beauty experts ... gorgeous products ... beautifully curated ... luxurious ingredients ... informative browsing ... responsible hedonism ... Drooling yet? There is a promised land for organic beauty, and we have seen it: Futurenatural.com.

Futurenatural has all the products you'd look for at a high-end beauty retailer like Sephora. But it's what you won't find that's truly remarkable: no petroleum derivatives, parabens, synthetic colors or fragrances, dibutyl phthalate, sodium lauryl sulfate, formaldehyde and absolutely nothing tested on animals. "Really simply, what you'll find here is the best organic, biodynamic, natural, wild-harvested and artisan brands in the world," notes founder Emma Pezzack. "Though not all of our products are 100% organic or natural, and not all of them use eco-packaging, at Futurenatural we believe that doing something is better than doing nothing, and we support companies that are making the effort to eliminate toxic ingredients and processes."

Futurenatural is no small-time shop pedaling goopy, home-made concoctions. Pezzack blends an organic upbringing with professional experience as a makeup artist, stylist and work in sales and marketing with such companies as Smashbox and Revlon. Her savvy extends to the natural ingredients in the products she stocks, as outlined in Futurenatural's explanation of terminology and handy glossary of ingredients.

Logging into Futurenatural is like logging into Sephora, only to find that everything is non-toxic and animal-safe—a naturally beautiful prospect, indeed.

(Photo credit:futurenatural.com)

Nobody does blemish concealer better than the cosmetics industry. Let's face it, most consumers assume that the government is watchdogging the ingredients in our lotions and potions to a degree that we can slather up with confidence. Umm ... Think again.

However, we found a dog that will hunt. The green standard, in this case, is the Skin Deep cosmetics safety database from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 41,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. As Skin Deep itself puts it:  "Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety."

Skin Deep doesn't simply dump a list of chemicals into your lap. Two scores give you easy-to-compare benchmarks to help you judge both the absolute and relative safety of a particular product.

• The hazard score represents an amalgamation of  known and suspected hazards, collected from more than 50 definitive databases. Product hazard ratings can be higher than those of their individual ingredients, scaling upward in products that include ingredients that increase skin absorption.
• The data gap rating measures how much is not known about a particular ingredient and why. For instance, some ingredients may show low hazard scores because they have not have been studied or assessed completely, yet other ingredients may retain low hazard scores after thorough scrutiny.

Continue reading Cosmetics database scrapes blemish concealer from ingredient lists ›

(Photo credit:yenhoon, stock.xchng)

No quips about hair-raising tales, now—this is serious stuff. Scientists have been studying the fertilizing effects of human hair on crops, and the bald fact is that human hair—from the sweepings from hair salons, for example—makes a pretty good fertilizer for slower-growing crops.

It's not an entirely new idea. SmartGrow has been selling garden toupees for a while now, dense mats containing human hair from China and India that you can place under or over your plants to add nutrients, hold in moisture, and battle weeds. And if you don't have a garden, the mats make an excellent alternative to spray hair—and you can grow a great crop of herbs or lettuce right on your own head (potatoes and carrots not recommended)! Space-saving and multi-tasking!

Apparently human hair contains all the nutrients needed to make plants grow; it seems like such a waste to keep it on our heads, doesn't it? Just lying there doing nothing. But using human hair to help grow veggies and fruits brings up some interesting questions.

1. Is the produce still vegan? Seems to us that human hair is an animal product. Eating hair-raised veggies won't make your average vegan very happy.

2. What about product? In other words, how clean is this hair, and how tainted with petrochemical hair sprays, sodium lauryl sulfate- and paraben-ridden shampoos, and ammonia-laced hair coloring is it? Do we want that stuff in our food? Who's watching over this, anyway?

3. Does "just plain weird" have any weight here?

Sorry, I'll stick to other tried-and-true methods of fertilization for my veggies until I get some answers. Maybe like the Japanese used to do.

(Photo credit:SXC)

It makes perfect sense to use the Bonne Bell approach to skin care until a certain age (Berry Scent? Yes, please! Edible? You bet!).  Up to a point, inexpensive moisturizers work great (age 20? 30?).  However, even though good old Jergen's Original (cherry flavor, like Mom used to wear) forestalls the worst facial dryness, most men and women require a smidge more help than is offered at Walgreen's or Rite Aid.

Besides. when it comes to lotion and books, two rules apply:  Purchase neither, if sold in the vicinity of packs of gum or birthday balloons.

Another rule of thumb: If you want to decrease your exposure to unnecessary chemicals, your face lotion is a great place to start.  If you're not sure what might lurk in the jar of age-reducing magic, a great place to start is to look it up on the Environmental Working Group's "Cosmetic Safety Database." 

I've been a loyal user of Dermalogica products for five years now.  Here's a snapshot of what the site says about my favored product: Dermalogica's Skin Smoothing Cream (price: $44.99 for 1.75 fl oz.):

•  Hazard Score 6 (out of 10)
•  Ingredients in this product are linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations and warnings, and allergies and immunotoxicity.

On the upside, Dermalogica performs no testing on animals. And it's a good thing too, or those monkeys would certainly get cancer.

In any event, this is sufficient information for me to try and find a less obviously risky lotion to use for my daily skin care needs.  So here is what I found out:

1. Dr. Hauschka Rose Day Cream (Price: $39.95/ 1 fl oz)

• Hazard score 7 (out of 10)
• Some ingredients linked with cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations and warnings, or allergies and immunotoxicity.
• No animal testing

2. Oil of Olay All Day Moisture Cream (Price: $10.99 / 6 oz)

• Hazard score 4 (out of 10)
• Ingredients linked with cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations and warnings, or allergies and immunotoxicity.
• No animal testing

While Dr. Hauschka products have a range of hazard scores, I was surprised to find Dr. H with a worse hazard score than good old Oil of Olay.  Alas, my quest for high quality daily moisturizing lotion for my face needs to encompass more than just hazard score. I also want it to work well.  I found a product that is relatively inexpensive ($11.24 / 1.75 fl oz) and purports to be paraben-free.  It's name is weirdly appealing: Yes to Carrots.  As a redhead, I'm inclined to give it a try.  The downside? It's not listed in the Cosmetic Safety Database.  So I'm going to give it a whirl and hope for the best, even though I can make little sense of the listed ingredients.

Some things in life require a leap of faith.

(Photo Credit: tanakawho Flickr)