Eco Friendly Solutions

Face, Hands and Feet Eco-Friendly Skin Care

07/17/2011 by admin

You love to work in your garden, and really like the outdoors, unfortunately both activities will end up with your poor body suffering from dry facial skin, rough out hands, split nails, cracked heels, and smelly feet. So how do you enjoy your favorite outdoor activities while protecting your body and the environment, and without having to take a second mortgage on your property? Fear no more, there are plenty of eco-friendly ways to get your skin and your body back in optimal condition, you just have to start from the top.

Face:

Artificially made face creams and body lotions create a coat in the skin trapping the moisture beneath and this can cause mild to moderate irritation because the skin cannot breathe normally.

Oils from plant based creams and Shea butter will soothe and hydrate dry skin by nourishing it with vitamins and minerals, building up strong and healthy skin cells that will show up in just a couple of weeks.

Vitamins E, A and C are important to healthy skin and have been shown to prevent untimely aging and wrinkles and can repair sun-damaged skin and minor skin problems like an uneven skin tone. The minerals Selenium, Copper and Zinc have also been found to improve the look and health of skin. The nourishing oils of rose hip and evening primrose can rejuvenate the skin, while elements such as spirulina stimulate tissue regeneration and cucumber can aid in clear blemishes.

Hands:

Natural made hand and nail creams containing ingredients that reinforce the skin’s own protective functions such as Shea butter, avocado, macadamia, apricot and almond oils, vitamins and aloe vera will not only moisturize the hands but also strengthen the nails, fade age spots and smooth the skin. Hand scrubs can speed up cell regeneration on the hands and should be used weekly to remove dry, flaky skin and dead cells.

An easy hand scrub to make at home is with sugar and olive oil. Just mix together to a pleasant consistency and gently massage the mixture on the hands for a few minutes. Rinse and apply a good natural hand cream.

Feet:

Cracked, sore heels and smelly feet can be a constant problem in many households with people of all ages, but a little natural care taken weekly can help heal and prevent further complications. Soaking the feet in a bucket of warm water to which is added a cup of bi-carbonate of soda will soften and deodorize the feet. After fifteen minutes gently use a foot scrub to remove the dry skin and then dry thoroughly. Apply a little natural foot cream that contains anti-bacterial essential oils and then cover with socks to let the cream penetrate deeply into the skin. This easy routine will prevent fungal infections and keep your feet smelling fresh and clean.

Getting into the eco-friendly mode of natural skin care will keep you looking good and you will also be doing your body a great chemical free favor!

Eco Friendly Baby & Family Products

07/17/2011 by admin

These minimize the impact on the environment and by taking actions such as recycling you can set a good precedent for the future generation. You can now buy most things in a ‘green’ version for babies including organic baby clothes. There is an increasing movement to return to the old days and use cloth nappies instead of the disposable ones which add to the land fills. Imagine how many of these nappies you can get through in the first years of the babies live? Hundreds if not thousands! Many of these cloth nappy companies are stating ease of use, financial benefits, less rubbish and the comfort of natural cloth over paper and gel against delicate skin as some of the many reasons for making this change. See the GuideMeGreen for companies that offer cloth nappies and other eco products for babies and the home.

I want to enable parents to choose and use products which will benefit baby and his or her family now and protect his her future environment. GuideMeGreen is essentially a result of my own search for natural and eco-friendly products for my family and offers a service that makes it far easier for other parents to find the right products for them. I often receive requests from teenagers asking for ethical clothing shops and other products of interest them. If teenagers are interested, GuideMeGreen must be doing something right!

Cleaning Green

07/17/2011 by admin

Toxicity. Do we really know what this means? Can you even say it ten times really fast? What ever it is we know it has become a way of life.

It is a fact that we are exposed daily to an incredible array of toxins in our normal lives. They are toxins and each one has a certain degree of toxicity to it. Toxicity can be determined in a variety of ways.

With an interest in a sparkling house you need to know a little bit about it to protect yourself, your family and anyone else whose house you clean.

The next question then becomes how can you respond and what can you do?

Well, you can do a lot as a dedicated house cleaner. First, limit your exposure. Read labels carefully. Use nontoxic cleaning products. Avoid using indoor pesticides.

Secondly, limit the exposure of the people around you. Happily for you and your house there are plenty of effective, earth-safe cleaners that you can buy or make. Borax mixed with lemon juice will take out toilet-bowl stains. White vinegar is useful for disinfecting bathrooms and kitchens. Bon Ami, a borax-based powder cleanser sold in supermarkets and hardware stores for more than 50 years, safely cleans pots, pans, sinks, oven interiors along with other corroded surfaces.

Using these alternatives will reduce the toxic load in your house and beyond. Using environmentally friendly cleaners will also safeguard your health and that of the community. It reduces air, water and ground pollution in the big picture.

So why isn’t everyone doing it? The reality is, few people actually check labels. Start now. Take time to read the lable. Distinguish yourself as a green cleaner. You can start a trend. You can actually become a product toxicity home specialist.

The first thing to know is that not all green products are created equal. Again, read. Catch the ones that have been prettied up with essential oils. Check labels for irritating chemicals such as chlorine, ammonia and artificial fragrances and dyes.

Many people who think green are just now applying their philosophy to the dirt at hand. Eco-friendly cleaning and laundry products are the next frontier of environmentalism, says Marci Zaroff, former publisher of Macrocosm and CEO of Under the Canopy, an organic-fabric clothing company. It’s an inexpensive, easy and effective way to protect our planet and commitment to life.

Select An Earth Friendly Product: Good For Your Health, Good For The Environment

07/17/2011 by admin

Our earth is everyone’s responsibility. We all want to have a healthy environment to pass on to our children, but it can often seem like eco-friendly behavior is difficult to attain. Environmentally conscious consumers will be happy to hear that more and more earth friendly product lines are being developed to make healthy living simple and convenient.

Living an earth loving life is not just good for the environment in the long run, it is also good for your health immediately. The chemical products that have become so ubiquitous in our society’s day to day life are making people very sick. Research is now linking chemicals found in everyday household products to a prevalence of allergic reactions, occurrences of asthmatic attacks, and even the rise of cancer. An earth friendly product provides a healthy alternative that will work great and not make people sick.

There are many harmful aspects of our homes that we have little control over. It is unfortunate, but many of us live in homes that were built in ways that are not ecologically friendly. Although many people are not aware of it, their homes are filled with pollutants in the form of paint, fabrics, and the very building materials that hold up the roof. These products emit fumes and gases that actually cause the air inside a house to be more polluted than the air outside.

Although homeowners tend to start in an environmental deficit, this does not mean that they cannot make their houses healthy over time. Natural home products have been developed for all aspects of life, including home building materials, chemical free cleaning products, organic foods, natural beauty products, and environmentally friendly fabrics. By always selecting an earth friendly product, consumers can ensure that everything new entering the house will contribute to the overall good of the family’s health and the environment’s future.

There is now no excuse for using chemical based products. First, it is easy to find retailers that carry natural products. Shoppers no longer have to go to specialty stores because the earth friendly product they desire is likely stocked on their local store’s shelf and can even be found online. Second, as the products gain strong fan bases, clear favorites are starting to stand out. Next time you are out shopping, look to see which products most people are reaching for. Finally, unlike before, natural products are very competitively priced, making them affordable for all budgets.

Eco-friendly Ways To Reuse And Recycle Books And Magazines

07/17/2011 by admin

As more and more old-growth trees are cut down, and we face the reality of having to wait close to 100 years or more to replace them, the need to recycle paper becomes increasingly important.

Paper, of course, includes books and magazines. Although paper products are nearly 100% biodegradable, it is pointless to send these resources to the dump to rot in the landfill when we can recycle and reuse them.

More than any other material we hope to recycle, books and magazines represent knowledge. We find wisdom in the pages of old books, and learn about culture in the pages of old magazines. Because of these factors, the best thing to do with old books and magazines is pass them on.

Your local library or college library will accept donations of old books, and sometimes magazines in good shape. This allows other people to benefit from the publication as well. Once you have enjoyed your book, donate it to a library rather than letting it sit on a shelf to collect dust.

The second choice, for both books and magazines, is to sell them to a used bookstore, at a garage sale, flea market, or on eBay. Other people may be looking for the exact book or magazine you have passing it on is a win-win scenario for you and the new owner.

If you wish to reuse publications in a creative way, magazines make good colorful craft supplies for children and adults. You can cut out parts of pictures to make collages by pasting the picture pieces to a cardboard backing or make hanging mobiles by cutting out shapes, stringing pieces of thread through holes at the top, and attaching the strings to a clothes hanger.

You can also cut out whole pictures to construct a dream board or a vision board, which helps you to think about and visualize the goals and dreams you want to achieve for instance, a Hawaiian vacation, a certain type of job, or a new sports car.

As for traditional recycling, some areas will let you place books or magazines in your blue bin for pickup as well. Many publishers print magazines on glossy paper. It is more expensive to recycle glossy paper because the demand is low for this type of paper. This will change in the future as the need to recycle paper becomes more important.

The biggest challenge with recycling books and magazines is separating the paper from the adhesives or staples used to bind the pages. Forward-thinking recycling companies have a way to remove the waste from the bindings magnetically in the future we should begin to see growing opportunities to recycle all kinds of paper products.

Next time you’re thinking about throwing away some books or magazines, think first about how you can pass them along for others to enjoy. If that doesn’t work for you, try to reuse them creatively. If you still can’t find a use for them, look for places to take them where they can be recycled into new paper products, so we can save more trees.

« Previous Page