Okay – LOVE Susan Posnick’s COLOREYEDEFINE! It is my favorite mineral eye pencil de jour, and here’s why: It is uniquely shaped so (kind of rectangular), so it’s very easy to create either a super-thin or a thicker eye line. It’s also safe to use on the inside rim of your eyes. The kicker is that there’s a tiny eyeshadow with a rounded sponge applicator on the other end of the pencil. The shadow compliments the color of the pencil. So, I chose the Jet Liner/moonstone shadow, which creates a smoky, sexy eye in seconds.

Hunting for a perfect summery gloss? I’ve found it! 100% Pure makes the BEST lip gloss ever!

This is why I love it:

1. It’s non-toxic – filled with just the good stuff

2. Contains real fruit pigments

3. The color is so saturated, that unlike many glosses – you’ll actually see a gorgeous shade

4. Tastes great

5. Stays on.

I know you don’t love me posting reviews on items that are financially way out of reach for most of us BUT….I can’t resist getting you to have a peek at Mink Shoes. I know the designer Rebecca Mink very well and she is the most a super duper Gorgeously Green girl who is an extraordinary designer. Her shoes are admittedly, very pricey, but she’s now going mainstream with her mouth-watering vegan designs and they are finally available at Zappos. They are beautifully handmade in Italy out of completely eco-friendly materials. I’ll have to show them to my husband because the thinks my choice of daily footwear (Teva’s and Birkenstocks) are the most un-sexy shoes he’s ever seen. Maybe he’ll be tempted to whip out his credit card for a pair of these one-of-a-kind shoes.

An inexpensive and lovely mother’s day gift would be some simple, elegant fresh water pearls.

We love the simple pearl bracelet (pictured right), or a delicate pair of earrings

with 3 freshwater pearls. Fresh water pearls are simple, elegant and very eco-friendly – so you might be just in time to order them for your mom!

What I love about natural product companies is they usually have a great back story of how they began. Small businesses and startups have a special place in my heart because they take a risk going after what they love to do and try to make a difference in the world by making ecologically responsible products.

When I heard of Level Naturals, a downtown Los Angeles company founded by two best friends who started making soap in a garage to spend more time together, I was intrigued. Owners Jonathan Dubuque and Sabrina Roberson have a passion for making things by hand out of the most high quality, natural ingredients.

The two settled their company in the famous artist complex of lofts at The Brewery in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, which is definitely worth checking out on a Downtown LA art walk night. This company also has a heart for charity, and donates a portion of their income to United Plant Savers, Talk About Curing Autism, and A Place Called Home. I have researched and tested their line and here are some of my favorites of their unique products:

Level Naturals Soap

It all started with this soap. The owners researched and experimented with different natural ingredients to create a wonderful soap that not only leaves your skin clean but also very moisturized. The bar is a combination of nourishing oils, natural essential oils and extracts. It is very large and quite slippery because of the oils and comes in a variety of lovely scents.  I love the active bar for men and the white lavender soap for women.

Shower Bombs

When I was suffering through a sinus infection a week or so ago, these shower bombs definitely helped me on the road to recovery. These small little white bombs are filled with menthol, eucalyptus, and tea tree extracts. When you drop one by your feet in the shower, they steam up the bathroom to create a wonderful at-home spa experience. Breathe deeply and enjoy! The tea tree oil is also a great antibacterial for your feet as you shower, which we all need! They are so cute and come in a pack of 4 in an egg carton design, making it a great gift.

Body Polish 

Need a serious exfoliator for your hands/feet/elbows and other rough spots? This is the product for you. It really is a lovely polish, made with natural sugars and essential oils. After soaping up, scoop a handful of this thick sugar and rub in circular motions on those rough spots and watch them disappear. The polish is rough at first then extremely moisturizing like a butter, so the longer you let it sit on your skin, the more it soaks in. I love the Grapefruit Bergamot scent, but it also comes in yummy scents like coffee, blood orange, lemon sage ginger, and lavender chamomile.

Body Butter 

This body butter goes great with the body polish. It is thicker and more moisturizing than most body butters I have tried. I am particularly fond of the Forest scent, which would be attractive to either sex and would also make a great gift. The ingredients speak for themselves: shea butter, coconut oil, cocoa butter, joboba oil, rosehip oil, rosemary, ylang ylang, patchouli, cedarwood and rosewood. Now that is the good stuff!

We love these Military Handbags bags from Military Apparel Company, which help to support our Military by donating 10% of all their proceeds to organizations supporting the military. They also serve as a lovely reminder of loved ones who may be away in the military right now, and you can have any of them personalized. They are made of re-purposed uniform and each one is one-of-a-kind, handmade, and very cool. We especially love the Passion Purse (pictured right), and the Companion Messenger bag, which is perfect for kids and adults, especially who lug around a lap top and books. Check them out!

OOOOH this luxurious body lotion by Andalou Naturals smells good enough to eat! Vanilla & Mandarin – a perfect combo that actually makes you look forward to often laborious task of rubbing lotion all over your bod. What makes me love it even more is that it contains all kinds of fruit stem cell cultures, which help to repair, restore and nourish you skin – the whole line is based on stem cell science and I cannot recommend it more highly. I just need to order a crate now because my husbands taken a shine to it too!

The Pure by Green People is, as it sounds, a very pure and natural skin care line containing powerful natural ingredients. They have 3 different lines: The Vitamin C line, The Advanced Line, and the Botanical Line. I tried products from all three and here’s what I thought:

I have mixed feelings about the Vitamin C line. I’m not typically a huge fan of vitamin C in skin care products because it is so unstable that it oxidizes very quickly, particularly with light and The Pure Containers are not light-protected, which worries me. That being said, the products are definitely “active” because you can feel that tell-tale sting on your skin, which means the Vit C is doing it’s stuff. I like the Vitamin C eye gel, but I’m really don’t like the Facial Scrub because if you get it anywhere near your eyes, it stings like crazy – it no doubt does an amazing job of stripping your skin of dirt and grime, but the sting factor means that I can’t use it!

The Botanical Line was more up my street. The line is packed with soothing, nourishing botanicals and herbs. I particularly like the Plant Active Serum with Propolis. It felt amazing on my skin as a serum, and I’m really into bee products in skin care.

The Pure Peptide night cream in the “Advanced” line is a lovely night cream. It contains loads of hyaluronic acid, MSM, royal jelly and a peptide complex – all ingredients that are wonderful to nourish your skin through the night.

So, all in all – I’m quite liking this line, however, some of their products are better than others. If you want a really clean, but powerfully natural product, I think you’ll be happy cherry-picking a couple of items to try.

I love my jeans and soft tees/layers, but what I love about Spring is that I get to break out my dresses, skirts and tank tops. It feels like forever since I brought them out of the recesses of my closet. Most of us tend to neglect our skin in the Fall and Winter since we cover it up with clothes, but now is the time to pay a little TLC to the largest organ in your body. You can get lovely fresh skin with a good exfoliant, a nourishing lotion to restore moisture, and a body butter on those really dry areas like the elbows, knees and feet. When I’m going out in my Spring/Summer outfits I also like a little glow, and that is hard to get this time of year. I discovered a lovely product that will give you a shimmering glow all over your arms, legs and chest. It is from Madara ecocosmetics, a global Eco-cert cosmetics line with Baltic plant-based natural formulas. It is called Madara decobody flower dust  - a shimmering moisturizing lotion made with Baltic seaweed, plantain, calendula, chamomile and rose hip.  It has extremely subtle shimmer in the lotion, which comes from the crushed mineral Mica flecks. Mica gives your skin a glowing appearance in the sun without looking like you are wearing sparkles or glitter. Slather some all over your arms and legs after a shower and shine all day. For dates and dinners, put some on your neck and chest as well, for a glimmer in the evening light.

Canopy Verde bags are a new favorite of mine. They are a full-on eco-friendly company who make purses and travel bags our of truly  sustainable materials: organic cotton, animal-free “leather”, chemical-free dye and embroidery. However, the real joy of Canopy Verde is that the purses are so well-made. These bags are made to last. They are strong, sturdy and the attention to detail is exquisite. I took the Dewberry Tote on vacation with me recently and used it as a beach bag. Beach bags typically get very beaten up – dragged through the sand, loaded with drinks and greasy sunscreens etc, however, it looked at good as new after 10 days. The other awesome  plus is that each of the Canopy Verde bags are designed with a bunch of interior and exterior pockets that are so useful. You’ll always find a space for your phone, keys, numerous Apple devices and much, much more. Cannot recommend more highly.

I’ve now got my beady eye on the Cassia Mini (pictured), which is a brand new Spring design and would suit my about-town lifestyle very nicely thank you. Also – a perfect Mother’s Day gift!