We joined the thousands of book lovers who descended on the University of California, Los Angeles campus for the 14th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books April 25 and 26, where many of the authors were famous for things other than writing. At panel discussions, speaker stages and book signings, the biggest draws were Hollywood celebrities moonlighting as novelists, memoirists and kid-lit writers. (Photo credit: Stefanie Keenan)
It’s becoming easier to find products that don’t sacrifice style for eco-friendliness — our most recent get is Green With Glamour, a shopping site that offers environmentally sound fashion, accessories and home décor. Offerings include travel bags, eye-catching recycled-glass jewelry, recycled-content throws, and clothing made from bamboo and organic materials. We also feel good knowing that Green With Glamour is a member of 1% For The Planet, so a portion of sales are donated to environmental organizations worldwide.
A girl can never have enough closets, which is why we use the trunk of our car as an annex to our kitchen pantry, storing nonperishables like detergent and paper goods. These days we have a lot of extra room — for, say, a spare tire and out-of-season shoes — since we gave up paper towels and replaced them with Sponge Cloths from Twist, an eco-friendly Boulder, CO, cleaning-tools company.
After editing a story about adopting green practices last year, we decided to purge our bathroom shelves of products containing ingredients ending in -paraben and -phthalate — man-made additives that have been linked with disrupting hormone function, neurologic and reproductive damage, and cancer. That’s scary, considering the number of beauty products that contain one or both chemicals. In fact, the project gave our bathroom a very minimalist look, complete with naked shelves. These days, we do our best to stock our cabinets with all-natural creams, lotions, balms, sprays and makeup. Our latest addition? Deep Steep Bubble Bath.
We’ve praised the health benefits of chocolate and featured confectioners who use socially responsible practices. Now there’s another reason to indulge your sweet tooth guilt-free: New Zealand chocolatier Bloomsberry & Co. recently joined forces with TerraPass, a U.S. company that sells and markets carbon credits, to create Climate Change Chocolate. We went looking for the bars at our local Whole Foods (this was research, mind you) and found they came in milk and dark chocolate. Of course, we had to try both!
We carefully separate our bottles and other recyclables and load them into the collection bin each week. We take our reusable grocery bags whenever we shop. Every time we do something green, we feel great — which is why we decided to search for other ways to help the Earth. Click on the full article to discover our three new favorites for saving time, money and natural resources.
With Earth Day celebrations planned, we’re thinking of saving trees, recycling trash and lowering carbon emissions. But 70 percent of our planet is covered by water, and our oceans are home to aquatic life — some of which ends up on our plate at our favorite restaurants. We know to avoid Chilean sea bass — overfished with practices dangerous to albatrosses — not to mention upsetting to fashion designer Nicole Miller when served on an episode of The Chopping Block, during the cooking competition show’s brief stint on NBC. But how do we get our protein and omega-3 fatty acids without guilt — or pollutants? Thanks to the Environmental Defense Fund Seafood Selector, available as a printable PDF pocket version or accessible by mobile phone, we can look at seafood in three categories: Eco-Best, Eco-OK and Eco-Worst.
Spring finds us cleaning out our makeup drawer and tossing melted lipsticks, cracked blushes and other products past their prime. But the exhilaration of this cleansing ritual is marred by the guilt of throwing these items in the trash. Luckily, Origins has launched a cosmetic-container recycling program. Simply bring any brand of empty tube, jar or bottle to an Origins counter or retail store, and the company will send them off to be washed and ground up, then reincarnated as bottles, jars, closures, paint cans — and even park benches. Throughout the month of April, recyclers will receive a special gift: a sample of A Perfect World intensely hydrating body cream with white tea.
Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis is an undisputed American fashion icon, but the new HBO original film Grey Gardens, which premieres Saturday at 8 p.m., shines the spotlight on her cousin “Little” Edie Bouvier Beale (played by Drew Barrymore) — and her unique (and sometimes outrageous) style. Beale and her mother “Big” Edie (depicted by Jessica Lange in the film) were immortalized in a 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles that took a six-week look into the lives of the reclusive former Manhattan high-society mother-daughter duo living in a decaying mansion in East Hampton, NY. Click on the full article to see the HBO featurette.
If the words “concept salon” bring to mind unnerving images of extreme hairstyles, banish that thought. The newest in concept salons — ROB/B in Studio City, CA — focuses on nails, not hair, and the only thing extreme about it is the luxury experience it offers.
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