Ode to Olenhaus

Oh hot pink a/w 2009 boots from Olenhaus…how I did not realise that I needed you in my life until now. Your so pink, and shiny and edgy and so very vegan, yet so wearable. Your a vintage pair of shoes in the making…a siren of the street, an eco statement of the highest level, ’super- powered’ boots.  And your not available…(yet!).

Illuminated Porcini

Mushrooms inspired this set of ‘Porcini’ Lamps, bringing a series of organic shapes together to form this sustainable lighting. Created using naturally sustainable materials; Tasmanian Oak, a non-endangered timber species sourced from Australian sustainable forests finished with natural Australian beeswax, and 100% pure new wool upholstery, which is both biodegradable and renewable. The hand-crafted feel of these items reflects the elements of its nature.

Olenhaus Vegan Stilletto’s

Check out these gorgeous, fashion-forward and vegan! shoes for A/W 2009 available from Olenhaus. This gorgeous number have already appeared on Vogue online. Grab a pair while you still can!

England In The Summertime

I love Natasha Bailie’s vintage clothing line so much that much that I decided to model a little 50’s number with photographer Jofoto on a location shoot. The great thing about Natasha’s dresses is that they really are such good quality, which is often hard to find with vintage clothing. Once you have one of these items, it really will last you for life, read her latest interview here.

Honey Pot Lighting

One of my favourite sustainable furniture designers Tom Raffield has created this new lampshade called ‘The Hive’, with inspiration taken from our winged bee friends. The spiralling shape allows light to flood through the grain of the wood creating a unique and beautiful lighting effect.

Skincare For Man, Beast and Woman?

Because we don’t like to forget the male half of the population at La Luminata, we have been trying out some mens eco skincare products, or more to the point our male counterpart has. We have been reviewing Bulldog Natural Grooming which has come back with a big thumbs up…

‘How can you face the problem when the problem is your face’ – Bulldog ask on their Natural Face Wash, and they have adopted this upfront no-nonsense approach through their entire men’s grooming range. This is reflected on the inside too where Bulldog have bypassed a number of controversial man-made chemicals in favour of packing each product out with at least 7 essential oils and ‘body friendly’ ingredients. Bulldog offers men real choice as the first affordable natural option available in supermarkets and department stores. Also, they have managed to make the packaging 100% recyclable and produce the product in the UK rather than shipping from overseas, reducing the carbon footprint and product miles.

Hats Off to Holland & Barrett

Who have created a high quality, cost effective, bio certified new range of body, hair and skincare products which rival similar collections in high-street chains Boots & Superdrug. The range caters for every skincare type using organic ingredients such as pomegranite, vitamin E, teatree, lavender manuka honey and aloe vera. My own personal favourite is the pomegranite range which features really effective eye cream and the day cream which protects the skin from antioxidants.

First Look Narciso Rodriguez A/W 2009

Although not technically eco in any way, I just love the designs of Narciso Rodriguez. The simple elegance and lines make these pieces future friendly, in that they won’t date and should last a very very long time. So simple and yet so flattering…

I Dream of Green

Love this! Vintage floor length emerald green dress from Rockit. Now I just need to think of a suitable occasion that I could possibly purchase this for….

Role Models: Miss Eco Glam

La Luminata has interviewed fellow blogger Miss Eco Glam of Lifescape Magazine to get her first-hand tips on the best new eco skincare and beauty products. Read on!

What is the inspiration behind Miss Eco Glam?

Basically its my alter ego!  The name was chosen because it describes how I would like to see myself and  other women become, – Glamourous but through ethical means.

Your a model as well as an eco beauty expert. What advise can you give us mere mortals to look as good as you?!

To be honest, it’s tough for me and i do have to work very hard at looking ‘good’.  I am really into my own health after years of having chronic fatigue and other health problems that have caused me to have had years of feeling drained all the time which has shown in the way I look. My hair and skin have suffered alot over the years.

I have now become very aware that the things we do when we are young, drink, eat bad sugary and processed foods etc, always end up causing problems later in life.  Mainly affecting the skin and weight which is what us women seem to worry about the most! But its the long term effects that worry me the most.  If you take a good look around at the people in the street, hardly anyone when they are older looks really healthy do they, these days?

In your opinion, what things do we need to bear in mind when purchasing a good organic, ethical cosmetic brand?

We need to steer clear of products with harmful chemicals in them.  And to be honest, we need to get smarter in terms of knowing what to look out for.  There is a lot of misrepresentation in the skin care industry. Most think that ‘Natural’ means the product is pure and clean but it usually is a name that skin care companies use to fool people into thinking its a non-toxic product.

Also the term ‘organic’ can be very misleading as well.  I recently tested a product that on first glance seemed to be organic but upon inspecting the ingredients list, it actually was only 5% organic – the other 95% was not and had some pretty nasty things in there- that is a bit of a worry isn’t it that people are still believing what is printed on the packaging?

The most dangerous chemicals that you should become aware of are: diethanolamine (DEA), sodium laurel or sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), propyl alcohol, toluene, talc, propylene glycol – these are all so common and over the years of use, build up in the body and can lead to cancer and other devastating illnesses.  And also, if we use them, such as body washes or shampoos, etc they get flushed down the drain as well and go into our water systems and pollute the environment.  The SLS’s are particularly dangerous and yet are in pretty much every shampoo, washing up liquid and general detergents.  And, the most shocking thing is, they are derived from petrol! Who would knowingly put petrol on the their skin? No one….But thats the scary thing, most people are oblivious to it.

Are there any skincare brands that you particularly endorse and why?

My two favorite skin care brands are Akamuti, it is a top quality, organic and fair trade range that has the best price point (average price is £7.00!), minimal and sensible packaging, and smells divine!  I get samples all the time sent to test out and every single thing I have tried is a joy to use.

For something a little bit different, my other favorite brand is Live Native products. My favorite product of Live Native’s is their ‘Every Body Every Day cream’. It is just amazing, smells good enough to eat and super powerful.  These really go hand in hand with my beliefs in terms of the  diet I follow as well.

I follow a Raw food diet and these products are raw as well. Raw means unprocessed and not cooked over 47 degrees- so that the food (and this skincare range) have all their enzymes intact which means they will feed your skin to the optimum ability. Our society has become way too over processed, just look at fast food and unhealthy items we can get in our supermarkets with so many artifical ingredients. It’s no wonder that so many health problems and obesity are getting out of contol.

Are there any unknown but up and coming cosmetic labels that we should know about?

There is another brand from the USA called ‘Dr Alkaitis’ that I love as well.  They are available here but not in mainstream department stores.  These products are also raw and were created by an extraordinary man, Dr Alkaitis who is A highly acclaimed research scientist, an expert authority on organics, molecular biologist, Ethnopharmacologist (the study of traditional ways of healing mainly with plants), a pharmacognosis (the study of the medicinal properties of plants), and has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. As you can guess, these products are superhigh tech but in the most natural sense.

What ingredients should we be looking for and avoiding in our skincare?

Basically we need ingredients that act as ‘food’ for the skin, and the best ingredients I think are in Raw skincare products.  An example of this is Dr Alkaitis’s Universal Mask : Oat Buds*, Organic Grass Juice Complex (Kamut Grass*. Alfalfa*, Oat Grass* and Wheat Grass*), Sea Vegetable Complex (Chlorella°, Dulse°, Spirulina°, Ainu-Wakame*, Sea Palm° and Red Algae°), Goat’s Milk Protein*. Vegetable Complex (Carrots*, Cabbage, Sweet Potato*, Kale*, Broccoli*, Asparagus, Brussels Sprouts, Cucumber, Ginger*, Onions, Cauliflower, Beets*, Tomatoes* and Parsley*). Organic Seed Complex (Pumpkin*, Sesame*, Amaranth*, Flax*, Soy*, Oats*, Rye*, Buckwheat*, Millet*, Barley*, Brown Rice*, and Sunflower*).

you really could eat this!

What do you think the future will be like for eco skincare?

I think the future of it is here already in a sense, we will just have more people follow it. I truly belive that Raw Skincare is the way to treat our skin.  But, we must also treat the insides of our bodies as well by eating really properly. And we are also fooled into thinking what healthy eating is.

I wonder too that if in the future because of all the problems we are facing now, that it will be something like out of a science fiction movie, in that we will all be so particular about what we eat and what we put onto our skin. Because research will show that we need to treat our bodies like machines and to have them run perfectly, we need exact amounts of this or that so that we avoid all the diseases we are getting today.

What about make up, this is an new area but it seems to be hard to find natural make up which functions as well as the current leading brands. Are there any new developments in this area?

Yes , it is very hard, I actually went to meet Dr Alkaitis’s daughter Trish, who said that her father thinks that all makeup is not good for our skin, no matter how pure it claims to be!

I personally have to use makeup as my own skin is still not as great as it should be! I like to use mineral makeup, foundations, blushes, eyeshadows etc and organic mascaras. The quality of them are fabulous but stay away from Loreal and those kind of brands, they still aren’t as pure as they like to make out they are.

My personal favorite is the french brand Elysambre. It is mostly 99% organic and have fabulous colours.

What one thing can people do to start switching to a better beauty routine and where should a complete novice start?

In terms of makeup I would suggest making sure you use a good mineral foundation, from a range like Lily lolo.  And also very important is a natural eyeliner and mascara as you do not want chemicals getting into your eyes and causing dramas later in life!

You actually can make your face and skin look good with just a few products. No need to buy 100 different things, just work out what colours are best for you and choose a few items and go from there.

Anything else you’d like to pass onto the readers..?

Yes, my advice is read up on anything and everything in terms of health and skincare from reliable sources. I am always suprised at how little people seem to know about how their skin functions and rely on what the media tells them.

Do not be fooled by what you see on TV and read in most Magazines, the skin care industry is full of lies!

One other important  must have thing is this, a shower filter! We are all pretty smart when it comes to drinking filtered water but its very important to filter the water we shower and bath in.  You only need to look at what it does to the shower area, all that lime and toxic deposits end up in our bodies too and over time…..well you know the answer! I use a shower filter from www.pureshowers.co.uk  it makes your skin and hair so much softer. you can really notice a difference and gives you piece of mind that you are blocking out as many toxins as possible.