COOLA SPF 30 Matte Finish Cucumber for Face

Hey everyone, finally the sun is coming out and brightening our environment with its rich goodies. I was recently introduced, by a lovely friend, to her favorite mineral moisturizer that also protects you from the sun (how awesome is that). It has everything that we all need in a daily SPF.

Naturally enhanced chemical free sunblock with a silky matte finish.
Plus, COOLA uses a proprietary method to maximize the effectiveness of their suncare products. The updated formula features two active ingredients—titanium and zinc dioxide—suspended in a moisturizing base to ensure a smooth, even application. Age-reversing antioxidants like evening primrose extract and borage seed oil deflect free radicals, while naturally water-resistant plankton makes the formula extra-durable.

How to Use:  Smooth on a thin coat all over your face. Follow with makeup, or wear alone. (I find it also evens out my skin tone)

Get it now here.

4 spring beauty launches we love

Spring brings buds on trees, daffodils in the parks, and skin-care launches on the shelves of beauty stores.

We perused the natural newcomers, and found four especially fresh-faced options that make us feel renewed and luminous just looking at the labels. (And, during a test-run, they also proved their mettle.)

Here are the spring debuts we’ll be cleansing with, dabbing on, and beautifying with for clear, bright, and healthy-looking skin all season long. And beyond…. Have you tried any new products for spring?

3. TRES PURE

When you have a science background and love beauty products, but go into banking, sometimes your heart calls you back. That was the case with Shahnaz Hussain, the founder of Tres Pure. The pretty (and still ambitious) New Yorker supports cooperatives in Uganda to farms in Tunisia, when sourcing the ethical, clean, and often super-expensive ingredients (we’re not going to lie) that make up her luxe line. (The popular product trio above is $145.) And while Tres Pure is made in New York, it has fans from London to the UAE, and has just started to catch on at home.

The natural products are simple—rice and adzuki bean is used in the scrub, carrot seed in the toner, and a blend of marula, chamomile, and other plant oils hydrate and brighten skin in the face oil (a best-seller). As Hussain says, “The simplicity of quality ingredients is the secret behind beautiful skin. And I think that’s what people really want.”

www.trespure.com

4. W3LL PEOPLE

The performance-based “hippie tested, diva-approved” makeup brand just got a white-hot makeover—both the packaging and what’s inside it.Now the entire handcrafted, natural line contains skin-calming organic aloe, which “adds amazing luminosity, and a creamier, more blendable texture,” explains color director, Shirley Pinkson. You can really see the aloe’s magic in the foundations that absorb excess shine without disappearing your glow. (No mannequin skin!)

Spring brings three new multitasking Universalist Colorsticks ($33) for cheeks and lips (we heart the blood-orange No. 6). And we’re not the only one loving the brand reboot: W3LL PEOPLE will have pride of place in H&M’s new luxe retail stores, called & Other Stories, in London, Paris, Milan, and beyond, reaching scores of healthy beauties across the pond.

www.w3llpeople.com

See the first two picks here!

Priti Nail Polish (Review and Giveaway)—-Closed

A nail polish that gives you that glam look that every pretty girl desires. I am here today with one of the top brand called Priti NYC.

Priti NYC are all completely non-toxic and free of formaldehyde, dibutyl phathalate (DBP), toluene, and camphor, vegan and cruelty free. These luxury polishes contain UV inhibitor, and are fast drying. They go smooth and look very bright and glossy. Here are the 2 colors I got to try:

Flame of the Forest

Lovely coral with shimmer. It gives you the perfect orange color and is perfect for Spring season

Swan River Daisy

A bright navy color

Now the giveaway details: If you want to win Priti polishes then write me an email at rubybeautyorganics@hotmail.com with Priti in the subject line, and include your name, your address and telephone number. A winner will be selected randomly. Send this to me by the end of the day Thursday 7th, 2013.

Note: This contest is only open for my US and Canadian followers.

Sponsored by:

Product Review: Arcona Magic White Ice Lotion and Eye Dew

By Siobhan O’Connor for NoMoreDirtyLooks.com

You know how you know it’s love? You get just a little taste and you want more. You find ways to work the object of your affection into conversations that have nothing (nothing!) to do with the topic at hand. Your thoughts kind of loop.

A few weeks ago, my latest order from NuboNau showed up. The new Ilia mascara, that RMS Un-Powder—and a ton of free samples, as usual. Huh! Arcona, I thought. I’ve never tried Arcona.

What kind of clean-beauty blogger am I that I’ve never tried Arcona? To be honest, I was a little scared of the line. Years ago, someone told me it was very “active,” and my skin doesn’t like “active.” My skin likes “soothing,” “calming,” and “hydrating.” But the little sample of Magic White Ice was calling to me. Also, while I’d never tried it, Arcona’s Eye Dew is easily the most tantalizingly named product under the sun. So I’d had that one on my mind for a minute, too.

About a week earlier, I’d done a TV thing for work* and the makeup artist commented on how dry my skin was. She was nice about it—as nice as a person can be when they are telling you your skin is super-dry under insanely bright lights—but I was kind of embarrassed.

I needed some help, and I was hopeful that this little tube would perform, well, magic on my skin.

After two weeks of twice daily use, the verdict is in: Hydrated, calmed, soothed. Hooray!

And the Eye Dew? It lives up to the name. I feel good about the ingredient lists, filled with botanical anti-agers and moisturizers, with lots of antioxidants. I like that the lotion has tea tree and witch hazel, preventing spots, but doesn’t dry me out. And the Eye Dew. I don’t have any words for the Eye Dew. The name says it all.

When I ran out of the samples, I bought full sizes. And like anything you learn to love, I already have a hard time remembering life (OK, my skin) without it.

Have you ever tried Arcona? Any other skin or eye serums you’re loving?

Keep reading…

Study says microgreens are the new nutritional powerhouse

By Carrie Murphy for Blisstree.com

Baby spinach and baby lettuce are de rigeur in every grocery store, but a new study says that even younger greens might give us more nutritional benefits.

Enter microgreens. These tiny leaves that are less than 14 days old can provide people with lots and lots of nutrients, possibly even more than baby or full-size varieties of leafy greens.

The study, conducted by USDA researcher Gene Lester at the University of Maryland College Park, looked at 25 different varieties of very young greens, aka microgreens. The results, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, are pretty amazing. Researchers found that microgreens generally had four to six times the amounts of vitamins as fully mature greens of the same plant. That means tiny little baby leaves, which have barely been exposed to sunlight, can potentially provide people with large amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene.

And people are already growing microgreens. Brendan Davison grows microgreens in East Hampton, N.Y., and sells them to restaurants in the area. He says:

“I deliver the greens in the tray that they’re grown in, so I’m bringing the farm to the kitchen. The chefs can cut what they want with scissors right onto the plate, so they’re live and fresh.”

Keep reading for more on these power-packed plants…

Paraben update: New research on beauty’s most problematic preservatives

By Well+Good NYC

“Parabens,” the term for a group of preservatives used in mainstream beauty products, wasn’t always a dirty word.

In 2004, Dr. Philippa Darbre, a research scientist at the University of Reading in the UK, published a small but pioneering study that showed high concentrations of parabens in human breast tumors.

Women everywhere flipped over their moisturizers to read the list of ingredients.

“That first paper shocked people because it was the first time intact parabens had ever been measured in the human body,” says Dr. Darbre. And while the study did not show that the chemicals cause cancer, it sounded a serious alarm.

Why? Parabens, which prevent bacteria from growing in beauty and personal-care products, are able to mimic or interfere with estrogen in the body, and exposure to estrogen is one of the primary influences on the development of breast cancer.

Since then, several studies have detected and reported parabens in human urine and tissue. In response, many beauty companies have eliminated them from ingredient lists, though they’re still used in many mainstream products.

Now, Dr. Darbre has published two new studies that shed even more light on the ways parabens enter our bodies and how they affect our health.

Here’s what you need to know about the latest research (and before refilling your beauty bag):

1. Parabens are getting into your body. In March, Dr. Darbre and her team published the results of a study that replicated the original study done in 2004, with a much larger sample size. They looked at the concentration of five parabens in breast tumor tissue. One or more types were found in 99 percent of the tissue samples, and all five were measurable in 60 percent of the samples. “The take-home message was that we validated the earlier study with a much more substantial study. Parabens are getting into the breast, and they’re getting in in significant amounts,” she explains.

2. Yup, your skin is letting them in. The parabens identified in the study were primarily intact, meaning they’ve bypassed the liver. What does this mean? You’re not getting them from your food, they’re being absorbed through your skin.

Keep reading for more here…

Are your omega-3 supplements fake?

By Markham Heid for Prevention.com

Your daily omega-3 supplement may be swimming with more than just fish oil. A new report from ConsumerLab.com, an independent tester of health and nutritional products, finds many omega-3 capsules don’t include all the nutrients they claim to, are loaded with extra fat, and are even contaminated with levels of carcinogens that exceed EPA standards.

“Our analysis found problems with roughly 31% of omega-3 supplements,” says Tod Cooperman, MD, president of ConsumerLab.com. Among the 35 products tested, four contained 20 to 30% less omega-3 than the label indicated, and one included spoiled fish oil. Another product that claimed just 1 milligram of fat actually contained 1,000 milligrams.

And it gets worse. “For the first time, we also found omega-3 products contaminated with PCBs,” says Dr. Cooperman. PCBs are man-made, carcinogenic compounds that are found in almost all fish products, and although every supplement tested contained some PCBs, two contained levels deemed unsafe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But don’t toss your supplements out to sea just yet, says Dr. Cooperman.

Keep reading to find out why…

My Five Beauty Obsessions: Jill Platner

By Well+Good NYC

Jill Platner is the healthy, chic New York woman’s go-to jewelry designer.

Platner’s fans, like Elena Brower and Schuyler Grant, love her for her gorgeous exacting metalworking, but also for her healthy approach to maintaining an inner and outer glow. She works out with Madonna’s former trainer and flame Carlos Leon, juices daily, and even recently hosted a Wellness Day at her Soho boutique, all of which leave little time for primping.

“I am very low-key with my hair and beauty rituals,” Platner says. We had her dish on the few products she does work into her beauty routine on a regular basis.

1. Davines Hair Products (Price varies) I love the natural ingredients and the texture they give my hair, especially since I prefer the ease of letting it dry naturally. I get them from my good friend April Barton’s salon, Suite 303 in the Chelsea Hotel.

2. Epicuren Clarify Cleanser ($25) When I work on sculptures, my skin gets coated in metal dust, and this really leaves me clean and soft. I love how nourished my skin feels after using it, and the herbal scent is amazing. I get lots of Epicuren products from my facialist Monique at Haven Spa in Soho.

Keep reading for 3 more here…

3 ways to hold onto your summer bliss

By Well+Good NYC

Jill Satterfield, founder of Vajra Yoga, the brand-new School for Compassionate Action, and a fixture at the Tibet House, gives Well+Good three tips for holding onto what summer sanity and sense of relaxation we’ve acquired. So come fall craziness, we’ll all have a few of the tricks that accomplished yogis and meditators and the Dalai Lama have at the ready. Be them, now.

1. Savor, don’t gulp, a piece of summer fruit.

Take a bite of summer fruit, like a peach or a melon, and chew it slowly, allowing it to almost dissolve in your mouth. Normally, we eat so quickly. But if we take our time, we can really be transported into an awareness of taste, the sense of taste. Plus it’s way of pausing to enjoy last bits of what summer’s given us.

Keep reading for 2 more here…

New research shows the cumulative benefits of routine massages

By Katie Drummond for Prevention.com

We’re going to guess you don’t need another excuse to get a massage. But if you can’t afford a weekly spa trip (and frankly, who can?), you’re going to have to get really good at sweet-talking your husband into helping you out now and then. Not easy, we know. But we have some new ammo—and we have a new study from Emory University to back us up.

Over a period of five weeks, study participants received a Swedish massage—characterized by long, flowing strokes—once or twice a week. Compared to those who didn’t get the lucky task of getting massaged in the name of science, those who received massage therapy had lower levels of stress hormones, including cortisol. They also experienced big changes in immunity, including increased counts of white blood cells, which play a key role in fending off illness and infection.

And it gets better: The benefits of massage lasted for several days, and each subsequent massage offered a cumulative benefit. In other words, a routine massage ritual is superior to an occasional rub.

“The act of massage itself has amazing biological effects,” says lead study author Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. “Of course, a single session will do great things for the body, but regular sessions seem to be even more profound.”

Anyone who enjoys massage should consider indulging regularly, says Dr. Rapaport, who adds that self-massage (for those of you with a reticent beau) has the potential to be a beneficial—and cost-effective—option.

Keep reading for three self-massage tips…