Tweet, tweet, tweet

The Mean Green Beauty Machine is now on Twitter! Check out the 'Follow Me' button to the right to see The Mean Beauty Machine's page. I'm still kind of figuring out how Twitter works, but it seems that other bloggers use it as a way of updating their readers about what's on their blog, so I'm going to try and find the time to do that!

The Body Shop Delipscious

In her lifetime, the average woman may ingest more than four pounds of lipstick! Bearing that in mind, The Body Shop’s new range of lip colours, Delipscious, contain 100% food grade ingredients. The Delipscious Sheer Lip Color, $28, is available in six shades, and the Delipscious Tinted Lip Balm, $24, is available in two shades. They are infused with blueberry and pomegranate fruit seed oils, and contain Community Trade cocoa butter, Community Trade organic beeswax, and Community trade organic virgin cold-pressed coconut oil. They do not contain any artificial colours. Plus, the packaging is great – silver tubes with pictures of cute little apples!

I already have quite a few lipsticks and tinted lip balms, but I’m majorly tempted to get one (or more!) of these...

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

You may notice things looking a bit different here. Blogger has a new design feature, and I've given The Mean Green Beauty Machine a makeover. Its sister blog, The Mean Green Fashion Machine will probably also be given a makeover at some point.

Favourite products of summer and autumn

It’s now officially winter, and I realise that I never got around to posting about my favourite product of summer. It is Karen Murrell Absolute Luxury Face Moisturiser, $45 for 50ml, available for Farmers. It’s a great light, non-greasy moisturiser. For more information, check out my review here, and http://www.karenmurrell.com/.

My favourite product of autumn is Beautiful Skin by Renee. Great for nourishing dry skin, check out my review here and http://www.beautifulskinbyrenee.com/.

Aurora Spa Rituals

New to Mecca Cosmetica stores (in Ponsonby, Auckland and at Kirkaldies & Stains, Wellington) is the Aurora Spa Rituals range, from Aurora Spa, Melbourne. The products contain botanical extracts, and are free from synthetic fragrances, colours, sulphates, and parabens. Check out the range at www.meccacosmetica.co.nz.

Fair Trade beauty

We are coming to the end of Fair Trade Fortnight. There are a number of brands which make natural beauty products using Fair Trade ingredients. Trade Aid has a range of Fair Trade soaps, made in the Palam Rural Centre in southern India using sustainably sourced palm oil. They cost $3, and are available in ten scents (Cinnamon, Clove, Coconut, Cucumber, Green Apple, Honey, Jasmine, Neem, Rose, and Sandalwood).

Lush uses Fair Trade cocoa butter from Northern Ghana and Fair Trade shea butter from the Ivory Coast. Dr Bronner’s products are certified Fair Trade by IMO, and use the following fair trade organic ingredients: olive oil from Palestine, coconut oil from Sri Lanka, sustainable palm oil from Ghana, and hemp oil from North America. The Body Shop uses a number of community trade ingredients: organic virgin coconut oil from Samoa, marula oil from Namibia, cocoa butter from Ghana, and aloe vera from Guatemala. They also use hand crafted accessories from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Note: I know that some of the ingredients used in products from Lush and The Body Shop are not all that natural. However, there are some of their products that do contain all or mostly all natural ingredients, such as Lush’s Les Cacas Henna Hair Dyes and Therapy Massage Bar, and The Body Shop’s Natures Minerals makeup range and Sugaring Hair Removal Wax, and it is products such as these that I mention on this blog.

The Mean Green Fashion Machine

Currently we are in the middle of Fair Trade Fortnight. This has led me to think more about where products come from, what they are made from, and who makes them. Particularly clothes, shoes, jewellery and other accessories. Ethical, sustainable fashion is not something I have really paid a lot of attention to in the past, but it's now becoming increasingly important for me to start making better choices when it comes to fashion.

I could start posting about fashion on this blog, but I really want this to be a blog about beauty products. So I have started a 'sister' blog, The Mean Green Fashion Machine, which will focus on ethical, sustainable fashion. And of course, I will continue blogging here about natural, eco-friendly beauty products.