If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

What is it about washing your car that seems like so much….work? The water, the soap and finding a place to wash it that doesn’t cost and arm-and-a-leg on top of that just seems like too much work. I usually wait for rain.

Except I live in California. It doesn’t rain much these days.

Eco Touch has a great solution to my ails. Their Waterless Car Wash works without water. Just spray, wipe and your car is clean. I think you might have to scrub to get that bird poop out.

It’s made of water, some natural cleaners based from soy and coconut and an organic solvent. A bottle will run you $10 and is good for about 4-8 washes, depending on how big your car is.

Get the Eco Touch Waterless Car Wash

Share This

I’m really no-fuss with my hair, my stylist will tell you. I don’t like a lot of product, I don’t want to style my hair.

I want to sleep in, and wake up to decent hair. Most of the time that happens.

But sometimes, I’m in a rush and I can’t wait for my hair to air dry. I have to blow dry. For a few years now I’ve been subsisting on this very sad travel dryer that I bought to save space. The power cord retracting button broke about 6 months in and it took forever to dry my hair. Thick Asian hair is not conducive to drying quickly.

So, some nice people took pity (or just noticed I write about green products a lot) and asked me to review the new Barbar ECO 8000 dryer.

Dryer details

It only has 1000 Watts of power, which made me think it was going to be weak, as you are supposed to look for 1800 watts. 1800 watts are not really energy saving though.

The heating element is also all ceramic, which is supposed to emit no toxins as compared to metal heating elements. The ceramic, as you can tell by the plethora of ceramic hair straighteners out there, is also safer for your hair. The engineering of this little sucker is supposed to also emits less EMFs (electro-magnetic fields) than other dryers. I had n idea I was supposed to be concerned about that.

So I was skeptical going into this. Just because I get sent an item for review doesn’t mean I’ll like it and I was ready to ream this thing.

How it works: really well, actually

I dried my hair a few times already. This is unusual for me, but I did it for the sake of ethical journalism or something.

I was impressed at how quickly my hair dried. For being nearly half the wattage of commercial dryers, the Barbar dryers packs a punch. My hair dries quickly and doesn’t look worse for wear.

I still don’t know how this ceramic element is different than any other ceramic dryer, but it seems to do the job. The dryer heated up quickly and stayed that way.

It’s not super noisy, but this isn’t meant to be a super quiet dryer either. I noticed that it doesn’t have the high pitched whine that you often hear in dryers. I’m not sure if that has something to do with the unique engineering or not. I hate that noise, though, so I was happy.

Just a few hang-ups

I didn’t like a couple of things.

It’s a tad heavy. That’s not really a huge deal, since you’re not holding it near as long as you would some other dryer.

I also got irritated at the placement of the buttons for heat and dryer intensity. They’re switches, and they’re placed right in the middle of the handle. They’re kind of clunky to get around, so it makes it kind of hard to hold the Barbar comfortably.

However, you won’t find yourself accidentally turning the thing off, which I suppose is a plus.

Overall: a good dryer option

This isn’t your bargain basement dryer at $150, but you would really aim to keep one for a few years anyway.

If you’re serious about greening your life, but can’t stand to get rid of your blow dryer, this is a great option.

You can get the Barbar eco 8000 here.

Share This

I was pretty excited when I found and was offered a review copy of “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.”

The book is a intense look at the safety concerns that many beauty and skincare items, from the point of view of one of the co-founders of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Stacy Malkan.

Bringing Out Concerns

I’ve swing between wanting effective products and wanting the greenest possible products. As I’ve tried to green my life I’ve gone through tons of “green” and “safe” face products. Lots of them were mislabeled. Many of them didn’t’ work. Some of them were fantastic.

I found a big list of ingredients that I wanted to stay away from because of health concerns. It was slightly disturbing to learn that some of the brands who sport a pink ribbon for breast cancer also have products that contain pthalates and other concern causing ingredients that have been linked to cancer.

Let’s take a step back here. I will agree with the notion that some natural and green brands will use this type of information to fear-monger. In reality, a lot of natural-based ingredients can make people with sensitive skin freak out. Just because it is natural doesn’t mean that you can’t have an allergic reaction to it.

So on one hand, I was throwing out freaky old nail polish, but I took all of the book with a grain of salt. Thankfully, the author does point out that a lot of the ingredients that she talks about may not have a huge affect in the small quantities that you see in cosmetics. However, there is the idea that there is no reason to expose yourself to that to begin with, no matter the risk.

Like anything, the ideas in this book are something to weigh in your mind. Yeah, I threw out some nail polish and I will continue to avoid SLS (sodium laurel sulfate) and similar ingredients because I am person that would rather not take the risk.

But, and it’s a big but, I will not get rid of products like my Avene Retrinal, which works perfectly well and is so effective that it is worth the risk to me.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

One slight thing to keep in mind. Malkan, like I said above, is a co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. A good portion of this book is spent on the story of the CFSC, which really is an intriguing story. You are not really signing up for a book like The Skin Type Solution, which gives you specific things to go out and buy.

You’re getting the story of a worthy cause and why they are working for it. I am glad I read it, because I’m a big fan of researching your purchases and I do use the database set up by the CFSC.

Overall

A great quick read at just over 150 pages, if you’re concerned at all about what you put on your face every day, I would get the book. Prefer to stick with what you know and not get alarmed by all the things that could cause you cancer? Keep walking.

Bonus!

Want to read the book after listening to my rambling? Like a true greenie, I’m going to pass on my copy. It’s got some dog-ears, but totally readable. Just tell me your favorite beauty product (green or not) in the comments and why you’ll use it regardless. I’ll randomly pick someone on July 18 and you’ll get this lovely copy.

Share This

This is a good read, especially since I plan to have a review of a book about green beauty up later this week.

See what the Beauty Brains have to say about organic, natural and green.

Share This

I have mostly rechargeable batteries, but I still have some normal batteries around. Bad, I know.

I guess I should have been recycling them.

Share This

I’m in love with the color of this loyale dress. Bright, pretty, summer blue.

Oh yes, and organic cotton. That just makes it fantastic-er. Ha.

$196

Get it at Loyale

Share This

We have some boring ol’ glass coasters at my house.

These sustainable ones made from bright vintage fabrics look so much more fun….

$12 for a set of four.

Get them at the Good EGG shop.

Share This

Good is a fantastic magazine and I stumbled upon this great graphic they made. I think I need to start unplugging more.

GOOD 008 - Transparency - Vampire Energy

Share This

So I’ve read about eco hangers on my fave green sites. They seemed to be a good alternative to wire hangers, but I wasn’t completely sold. Like wire hangers, would they stretch out my clothes? Would I want to keep these in my closet?

So I got a couple from the friendly folks who make them to check them out. (disclosure: these were sent to me for free, to review. I never promise a good review, though)

Ecohangers are 100% biodegradable and made out of recycled cardboard.

They look pretty nice. So I hung up my new Target almost-J. Crew cardigan and my favorite cashmere sweater (the things I risk for you guys…). I left them there for over a week to see if anything would happen.

The looks of it

I’ll say right now that I’m not a huge fan of the advertisements on the hangers. I usually use wood hangers because they seem to keep the form on my clothes well and they’re sturdy Not the greenest things, I know, but better than plastic.

These are made more for the dry cleaning community, however, so I’ll cut them a break. You’ve gotta make money somehow.

They’re supposed to be more durable than wire hangers, meant to last up to two months. That is definitely true. The recycled paper they’re made out of is pretty strong.You could probably use these for a while.

The end result

They did not stretch out my sweaters a bit at all. They were also really slim and they could definitely add space to my closet, like this non-slip velvet like hangers you see lately.

The cashmere sweater and the pink sweater (mainly cotton) looked exactly the same after hanging for close to a week-and-a-half on these suckers.

You can get the hangers with free shipping over at The Hanger Network. They’ll run you about $9 for 12 of them. It looks like the ones sold to consumers don’t always have the ads on them, so that’s a benefit. Sold out at the moment, but bookmark and keep an eye on it.

Share This

Bamboo is my favorite material for clothing these days. Next to that super-soft jersey that only James Perse seems to have figured out, bamboo is the most comfortable thing you’re going to get.

Doie Designs is a line with a bunch of cute bamboo tops and dresses, like this comfortable tank. The silk trim makes it a little more classy, but it’s all bamboo jersey.

In black and silver or white and gold. $76

Get the tank over at Doie Designs

Share This