organic/eco-friendly brands of hygiene products!

1. Poofy Organics. this brand sells completely organic cosmetics and personal hygiene products. it is a family owned company that makes all their products fresh or by hand. Also, their products are all at extremely reasonable prices! for example, one lipstick is $20, and one tube of liquid eyeliner is $18.
Eco-Rating: A+

2. Burt's Bees. probably one of the most well known brand of organic cosmetics and beauty products, Burt's Bees says that their products are, on average, 99% organic, if not 100%. their goal is to become completely 100%. They also write that they are trying to make their packaging more sustainable and use more post-consumer recycled content (PCRs). Right now their PCR content ranges from 35% to 60%. they don't sell any makeup other than tinted lip balms, which are $7. 
Eco-Rating: A

3. Lush. Lush has become very popular lately with teens because they sell organic, good smelling cosmetics and soaps. I have bought products there which I really like, they small great and have great results. All of their products are organic and use little packaging. All their products are vegetarian and they do not support animal testing. They are slightly more expensive than other beauty companies, but considering how much better they are for the environment and for you, spending a couple extra dollars wouldn't hurt. 

Eco-Rating: B

****UPDATE on American Eagle's clothing. They JUST announced the Denim X Cafe collaboration, which is denim made from RECYCLED coffee grounds. Each pair is stretchy and made with 2.25 grams of coffee. Coffee grounds are biodegradable anyway, however, I think this is still really awesome. Each pair is $40-$50, so they are pretty affordable. I am looking to get one ASAP and will then review them!

grading popular teenage clothing brands based on how eco-friendly they are!

American Apparel: one of the most eco-friendly, popular fashion brands out there, American Apparel has a section on their website that sells clothing made from 100% organic cotton. They also try to be as efficient as possible. "We try to minimize the gaps between pattern pieces when cutting our garments. We rank styles by efficiency. For really inefficient styles, we find complementary styles that, when cut together, drastically reduce the amount of waste generated," they wrote on their website. Also, they power their factories using solar panels, and have a bike program for their employees.
Eco-Rating: A+

Brandy Melville: i've read from multiple sources that the brand makes eco-friendly clothing. I'm not exactly sure what this means (organic cotton, or recycled materials?); also, since most of their clothing is one size fits all, the amount of energy expended on manufacturing the products is much less than other stores.
Eco-Rating: B-

Charlotte Russe: no eco-friendly/sustainable practices. i hate the clothes anyway. so trashy and cheap-looking. (see Forever 21)
Eco-Rating: F

Forever 21: honestly, please stop buying stuff at this store. Forever 21, along with other fast fashion brands such as Charlotte Russe, are basically just stores that want you to pay a cheap price for a crappy, poorly made piece of clothing that will get a whole in it after two washes. It's just not worth your time or your money to shop at this store. Not to mention the fact that these clothes, made in pollution-causing factories by high school age kids who are paid minimum wage, are absolutely terrible for the environment. it's a much smarter move to pay a little more money for quality clothing (from the brands that get an A+ eco-rating) and have it last longer.
Eco-Rating: F

American Eagle: no eco-friendly items. However, it donates all it's damaged clothes to charity.
Eco-Rating: C-

H&M: #1 user of organic cotton worldwide. Also has a "Conscious Collection" which is eco-friendly. I'm not really sure what this is: if all their clothes are conscious or if it's a specific collection that is. "21.2% of our cotton is either certified organic, recycled or grown under the Better Cotton Initiative. Our goal is 100% by 2020 at the latest," they wrote on their About page. They label their eco-friendly clothing items with a flower pattern. 
Eco-Rating: A

Urban Outfitters: UO has a popular brand called Urban Renewal which sells eco-friendly clothing, which could be vintage or deadstock. 
Eco-Rating: B

Uniqlo: Uniqlo made a commitment in 2013 to eliminate all hazardous chemicals from their production process by 2020. I'll keep updating you guys on that. 
Eco-Rating: A

Victoria's Secret: they have reduced energy and paper use; however, they don't have any eco-friendly items. They have also been accused of using cruel sweatshops with very tough conditions for the laborers. The laborers are paid about 4 cents for every $15. Think about that next time you want to buy a $40 bra. 
Eco-Rating: D-

i was just at my new school's freshmen camping trip for the last 3 days (2 nights). and, well, there was no service there! anywhere! what a nightmare.

but being in the woods was very peaceful. i really love forests, i love them much more than the beach, because i feel like they are so much more serene, and you can feel alone yet surrounded by living creatures at the same time. so it was night to spend a lot of my time outside, and being able to hear the sounds of nature- crickets, owls- at night, as opposed to sounds of cars, airplanes, and people talking. so that was good.

however, the food here was unfortunately terrible. and even worse for people who ate meat. the first dinner we had some sort of horrible steak. the vegetarian option was fake meat, which i decided not to eat. I might try it another time, but I had already lost my appetite enough that day. 

next day's lunch was fried fish. a bunch of people who ate it got sick, so I'm glad I stuck with the sweet potato fries. other than the food, though, I had a pretty great time. 

keep recycling,

yasemin

New Foods #1: Veggie Burgers

so I don't know if y'all know, but I became a vegetarian about a week ago and I guess it would be cool for me to document my experiences. i've had no problem not eating meat, because 1) i never really liked meat in the first place, and 2) i feel disgusted whenever i look at it because of the reasons that made me become vegetarian in the first place (and i'll do a blog post about that later).

anyway, today we had a labor day barbecue (happy labor day!!) which meant a lot of... barbecue. and meat. and i decided this would be a good time to try out veggie burgers!

i went to trader joe's a couple days ago and got this:

"Quinoa Cowboy
Veggie Burgers
with black beans & roasted corn"


so that's what i ate today. for all those people planning on becoming vegetarian, here's what i'll tell you:
1. veggie burgers... don't really taste like meat. so don't have false expectations.
2. they also (at least this brand) tend to be extremely crumbly, so it's pretty impossible to eat it with a fork.
3. also, it was pretty spicy.
4. they taste a lot like quinoa.
5. it was honestly pretty yummy! i really enjoyed it. it's also good for you:

important numbers:

serving size: 1 burger

calories: 180

sugars: 2 grams 

protein: 5 grams

also, there are no bad ingredients like corn syrup. all organic!

all in all, i enjoyed my first veggie burger experience! i'll tell you all about new foods i try :-)

keep recycling, 

yasemin

so you know how I said I had a lot of new ideas for this blog? well, the first one is to incorporate/merge my youtube channel and my blog. that way, I'll get more recognition on both my youtube and on here. on my channel I'm going to be posting mostly DIY's, and videos on how to reuse. i'm pretty excited and i have a lot of ideas for it!  and, well, here's my most recent video (which is from today):

please watch it, like, and subscribe to my channel! it would mean a lot :-)

i'll post soon! 

keep recycling, 

yasemin