Boston Green Beauty Bloggers

Boston may be a small city, but there are local bloggers and vloggers covering an incredible array of topics, and luckily for those interested in sustainable living, there are some awesome green beauty bloggers in the city. So if you are interested in detoxing your collection of cosmetics, learning DIY treatments, or get the details on what ingredients to watch out for, add these blogs to your reading list:

Boho Chic Meets Organics
This blog is a great place to find product reviews, gift ideas, and holistic wellness tips. The author, Yeiza, is  Boston based wellness coach with a passion for healthy beauty and sustainable fashion.

The Green Queen
Andie the Green Queen is a vlogger covering vegan, natural beauty, diet, and women's health. The great thing about videos is that Andie is able to show you exactly how to use products and you viewers can see the real results.

L'Amour et La Musique
Another vlogger, L'Amour et La Musique is a great channel for makeup tutorials featuring organic, non-toxic products. She covers some lifestyle and music topics as well, and is perfect for eco girls looking for a little glam.

Non Toxique Voyage
Shirley is a Boston based vlogger (who, sadly, is moving to North Carolina this winter - we will miss her!) that uses video to share her journey of learning healthier alternatives for both skincare and diet.

Notes on Lifestyle by Georgina
Georgina is a popular lifestyle blogger in Boston that recently discovered green beauty. She covers a lot of healthy living and fitness topics and is a great place to start for those that are new to non-toxic cosmetics and veganism.

Short, Small & Sweet
This is another great blog to find product reviews, DIY beauty recipes, and some delicious food recipes. Inspired by "The Story of Cosmetics," the author, Ru, documents her green lifestyle through her blog.


BONUS - these are commercial brands that have great blogs!

Moringa Connect
Learn about moringa, the next big sustainable ingredient in healthy beauty.

Organic Bath
Boston's favorite skincare startup shares their process.

Spotlight: CBS Local Ecowatch

As many of you know, I recently started writing for CBS Local as a green living contributor. The CBS green living section is known as EcoWatch, and it is a great resource for Boston-specific sustainability content. I am quite impressed with the other authors on the site and look forward to reading future articles and getting even more inspired to make Boston green! 

Column for CBS Local

I have some exciting news: I'm now a contributor to the CBS Local Boston blog. I'll be focusing on green living in Boston (duh!). The posts will include how-to tips, news, and best of Boston lists. Click here to see my posts so far and to follow the column.

Thanks for your support!

Spotlight: BostonEco

So you want to get more involved in sustainability initiatives but don't know where to start or even what you're particular interest is? Start by following BostonEco on twitter and facebook. BostonEco is a social media community that centralizes information for all green initiatives in and around the city. Following BostonEco is an absolute must for green-minded people in Massachusetts.

BostonEco's mission to further healthy, sustainable ideas and initiatives locally and globally. The community is knowledgeable on the basics of healthy, natural living. BostonEco supports and promotes green initiatives, news, and events happening in the Boston area and suburbs from like-minded local organizations.

BostonEco was one of the first feeds I began following when I started Boston Green Blog. Through them I learn about upcoming events, job openings, local policy issues, and more. 

Huffpost Goes Green

I've always been impressed with the Huffington Post's coverage of "green" issues. They are a must-follow on twitter and a great resource for breaking eco news. They recently featured a great piece (including a video) about water scarcity on their main site. This week, Huff Post announced it would continue this type of content under the expertise of Jem Joaquin of Ecofabulous! I am so excited about this collaboration, and look forward to seeing how the Huff Post Ecofabulous page develops. 

New Perspectives: Shape up your house with high-efficiency plumbing fixtures

We’ve all probably had that bill that made us really take a step back and examine where our money is really going. Unfortunately, I’ve had that happen, and it was on a water bill! Turns out that for a while, I had been feeling the effects of lagging plumbing fixtures. In addition, water conservation is an increasing global concern, so I wanted to do my part to remedy this problem.

Here are some quick replacements that will help conserve both water and money:

TOILETS
It makes sense that the toilet is the most popular choice among consumers when it comes to going green. In fact, most of the time, the other fixtures in this article are favored in the other direction, with low-efficiency setting and builds. Toilets often flush up to six gallons of water per use, which can account for up to 30 percent of a home’s total water usage. Here are some options to lower that number.

Dual Flush Toilets:  This kind of toilet allows you to choose between flushing for liquid or solid waste.

Composting Toilets: This is exactly like an outhouse, except it is sanitary and comes without the smell. These toilets store waste for one year to allow it to decompose naturally. The smell is eradicated with a
special mixture, and VOILA! No water in your toilet.

High-efficiency Toilets: Even the EPA is getting in on this action, releasing their own WaterSense labeled toilets. It’s said that these toilets save people around 4,000 gallons of water each year.


SHOWERHEADS
Toilets are water hogs, but so are showers. These account for about 20 percent of a home’s total water usage, and that probably doesn’t include those people that take hour-long showers…Typical showers use about 2.5 gallons of water per minute, but bigger showerheads can use up to 20 gallons of water per minute. I shudder when I see these types of stats. Ultra-low-flow showerheads reduce the shower’s water output by about 70 percent, which means less strain on your overall plumbing system.


FAUCETS
Faucets are routinely left on to run at-will. Just like with anything else on this list, this puts a toll on the water heater. If you can’t break your habit of leaving the faucet on, check out high-efficiency faucets. They use 1.5 gallons of water per minute. Not bad at all. It’s a small change, but it adds up in the long run. Now imagine with me for a moment – every person in America (just America) made the switch to these types of fixtures, the country would save three trillion gallons of water per year and around $1 billion per year. If one out of every 100 homes made the switch, 80,000 tons of greenhouse gases would  be eliminated!


Author: Diane Kuehl is a home improvement professional and owner of DIY Mother. She lives in Springfield, Illinois with her husband and two kids.

Green Tip Tuesday: Eco Event Ideas Inspired by David Stark

image

David Stark is an amazing party planner to the stars. I first heard about him while listening to Grace Bonney of Design Sponge's radio show, After the Jump. He caught my attention when he mentioned during the interview that he tries to make his events sustainable! The image above is a “bottle”  created from hundreds of recycled wine bottles for an editor’s preview event for the Eco countertop line. For more of his eco-aware large scale event ideas, check out his blog: http://www.davidstarksketchbook.com/

LED candle pillars add ambiance to the Metropolitan Opera's Gala in 2011

Cacti made of recycled cardboard at West Elm's Broadway opening

Upcycled newspaper table decor for NRDC Gala in 2011

Boston Green Blog Content Survey

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Green Tip Tuesday: Apartment Therapy's Guide to Socially Responsible Shopping

Apartment Therapy  is one of my all-time favorite blogs. Its full of both aspirational and practical decor ideas. And as you may have guessed, I get really excited when my favorite design, decor, and shopping blogs feature sustainability tips! In June, Apartment Therapy came out with its 6 Steps to Socially Responsible Shopping. It is a great read - I highly suggest checking it out.

Green Tip Tuesday: 7 Steps to Shopping Ethically via Refinery 29

image courtesy of Refinery 29

I regularly check Refinery 29 for the best girly-girl stuff: shopping and style advice. Just a couple weeks ago they featured an article with some of the best shopping advice yet: 7 Steps to Shopping Ethically.
Their steps, which I briefly summarize here, are great basic principles to keep in mind whenever you're at a store of any kind.

1. Educate yourself.

2. Pressure brands to reform.

3. Go for quality, not quantity.

4. Go vintage/used.

5. Shop local.

6. Give back.

7. Choose goods from eco manufacturers and brands.

BGB Gets a Content Makeover

image courtesy of lynneknowlton.com

So, up until recently there has been no real rhyme or reason to the content of my posts - but now, to make Boston Green Blog more manageable for all you readers, I am going to post certain types of content on specific days of the week. Hopefully this will make BGB more navigable. I am very excited about this new format, and would love to hear your thoughts!

Mondays - New Perspectives. Each Monday I will feature a post from a guest author.

Tuesdays - Green Tip Tuesdays. Fresh green living ideas coming at ya every Tues.

Wednesdays - Review Wednesdays. Product reviews, business reviews, event reviews and more.

Thursdays - Pencil It In. Notable events happening in greater Boston.

Fridays - Fun Fact Fridays. A mixed bag of informative green topics.

Recap: NEWIEE Social Media Success in the Energy & Environmental Sectors

image courtesy of blogs.technet.com

The panel discussion hosted by NEWIEE at Digitas last night was great - each of the four speakers gave good practical advice on successfully spreading the message of sustainability through social media. Social media is becoming increasingly important as word-of-mouth is becoming digitized, but the many ever-changing nature of internet communication can be overwhelming, so it was great to hear the panelists share some tricks of the trade.

The audience was made up of people from many different sectors  - non profit, government, media, small business, etc., and they had some interesting questions for the panelists. I actually wish the question & answer segment of the event was longer because the panelists gave interesting answers and sparked some good discussions. Here are a few of the key points of the event:

Building an Audience:
-Use all different types of media to build an audience (radio, anyone?)
-Use images/graphics to draw attention to your message
-Think about who is invested in your project, and cater to their interests when possible
-Find out who the "influencers" in your field are and follow their example
-Use eye-catching/shocking statistics
-Become an expert in your subject
-Don't just push out information, engage your audience in genuine communication (see below)

Maintaining & Engaging an Audience:
-Give people a reason to come back to your facebook page (deals/discounts)
-Engage your audience by encouraging feedback (quizzes/polls)
-Keep track of what types of posts get the most hits/retweets/likes
-Keep track of what types of tweets bring the most traffic (questions, facts, jokes)
-Listen to what people want, make it a two-way conversation
-Ask others to share their stories and feedback

Glitter Guide's List of Earth-Friendly Cosmetics

A friend of mine (an avid blog reader) recently sent me this Glitter Guide post about eco-aware beauty brands. Expecting it to be the same-old list I always read on eco-beauty blogs, I was pleasantly surprised when the list featured some brands I haven't heard of (or tried) yet! I now consider this Glitter Guide post my new shopping list!! (Although, it looks like some of the products might not be wallet-friendly...but I at least need to hit Whole Foods and read the labels).

Look out for upcoming cosmetics reviews!

Green Blog Spotlight: The Green Life Online

The Green Life Online is one of my favorite Boston-based green living websites because it has a long-established history of bringing sustainability awareness to the masses. I first heard about the site after meeting their coordinator, Jeff, at Boston Green Drinks a few months ago. The Green Life was founded in 1990 and its mission is to "help the growing number of environmentally aware, health conscious Americans make informed lifestyle decisions. Through education, outreach and advocacy, we support a consumer-driven movement toward sustainable consumption, while guarding against corporate greenwashing." The blog focuses on consumer knowledge and informs people about scams that are associated with some "green" products. The blog also features some great editorial material, with current articles about eating locally in the winter months, organic cosmetics, and of course a guest post by yours truly about pina fiber. Definitely add The Green Life to your list of eco must-reads!

"Just Us Gals Boston" Launch

I am very excited to announce my new project: Just Us Gals. I've teamed up with my friends Suzanne (web designer & DIY expert) and Meredith (real estate broker & stylista) to create a new blog designed for specifically for the ladies of Boston. I hope to be the green voice of the blog, while also writing about some of my other passions like art, books, and cultural events. So if you ever get tired of reading my green living tips, definitely go check out Just Us Gals for some fun and feminine posts!

If you like it, follow us on the following platforms:
Twitter: JustUsGalsBos
Pinterest: JustUsGalsBos
Instagram: JustUsGalsBos

I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions, or questions about the new blog!

500th Post!

Thank you to my loyal readers for helping my blog evolve and improve over the past 2 and a half years. I am so excited that Boston Green Blog has reached the 500-post benchmark! 

Lots more green living tips, eco fashion, healthy beauty, and energy efficiency ideas to come over the next 500!

Climatide: Dead blog with content that lives on

I am a huge fan of WBUR. Listening for even a few minutes a day leaves me feeling informed and inspired. This morning, there was a great story about wind turbines in Gloucester, and I was searching for a copy of the piece online when I stumbled across an old WGBH blog called Climatide.

Climatide included many informative, easy-to-read articles about the impacts of climate change on Cape Cod and Massachusetts' coastline. The blog project ended in March 2012, but I am now going back and trying to read as many of the articles as possible. Some subjects include declining fish stocks, impacts of the Japanese earthquake, a look back at Thoreau's journals ...and other diverse, yet relevant stories. I highly suggest taking a look if you are interested in climate change or oceanography!

image courtesy of http://climatide.wgbh.org/

Green Gift Ideas Continued: Treehugger Guides

Only 14 days left until Christmas! So far Boston Green Blog has featured eco-friendly gift ideas from
The Nature Conservancy, The New England Aquarium, Lauren Conrad, and Jess Rizzuti  . But if you need a more comprehensive guide, take a look at TreeHugger's 2012 Gift Guide. TreeHugger composes the best  gift guides on the web, so you're sure to find something for everyone on your list!

Some of my favs that I found through TreeHugger are:

Agate Plates & Coasters from VivaTerra

Earrings from Lulu Frost

Upcycled Clutch Made from Books from Conduit Press

Best of Boston: Green Websites!

Boston Magazine does a great job of rating everything in Boston each year. We look to these lists for restaurant suggestions, salons, the best boutiques, and just about everything related to Boston lifestyle. However, there is one thing missing - in my opinion at least - a list of local lifestyle websites! There are large compilations of Boston blogs on websites like Boston Blogs and Boston Bloggers but I've decided I'm going to turn my "Links and Resources" page into a list of Boston's top 100 green websites. These websites can be blogs, government sites, nonprofit sites, online apps and more  - anything as long as they serve as an online green living resource to people in the Boston area (or people around the world, but is based/written in Boston). If you have suggestions for my list, please comment!

Ozoshare: Facebook for the Eco-Savvy

Yesterday I created an Ozoshare account for Boston Green Blog, and I am very excited to start using it. Ozoshare is a social networking site that is set up like facebook, but it is specifically for green-minded people and organizations. It is a great way to network and share articles and information. Each individual/organization has a profile or "bio" page on which they can post photos, videos, links, and status updates (all relating to environmental issues of course). Instead of "friends", Ozoshare calls connections "partners" because it implies everyone working together for the same goal. Partners can see each other's posts and comment on them. Boston Green Blog has 17 partners so far!

If you're interested in using social media to learn more about green living, you should definitely check out Ozoshare. If you make an account, be sure to become partners with Boston Green Blog! See my Ozoshare profile here.