Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Green Beauty Guide Book Tour Plus a Giveaway too!


The Green Beauty Guide by Julie Gabriel

Description:

Go green and get gorgeous

The promise of beauty is as close as the drugstore aisle—shampoo that gives your hair more body, lotions that smooth away wrinkles, makeup that makes your skin look flawless, and potions that take it all off again. But while conventional products say they'll make you more beautiful, they contain toxins and preservatives that are both bad for the environment and bad for your body—including synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, and even formaldehyde. In the end, they damage your natural vitality and good looks.

Fortunately, fashion writer, nutritionist, and beauty maven Julie Gabriel helps you find the true path to natural, healthy, green beauty. She helps you decipher labels on every cosmetic product you pick up and avoid toxic and damaging chemicals with her detailed Toxic Ingredients List. You'll learn valuable tips on what your skin really needs to be healthy, glowing, and youthful.

Julie goes one-step further—and shows you how to make your own beauty products that feed your skin, save your bank account, and are healthy for your body and the environment, such as:

• Cleansing creams and oils • toners • facials • under eye circle remedies • anti-aging serums • lip balms • scrubs • exfoliators • clay and cleansing masks• moisturizers • acne treatments • makeup remover • teeth whiteners • shampoos, conditioners • fragrances • sun protection • bug repellants • baby products • and much more!


With her friendly, thorough, and helpful advice; fabulous beauty recipes; product recommendations and ratings; Toxic Ingredients List; and a complete appendix of online resources, Julie Gabriel gives you all the information you need to go green without going broke and become a more natural, healthy, and beautiful you.

I am thrilled to be hosting a book tour for Julie Gabriel's book The Green Beauty Guide from TLC Book Tours. I have been consciously working on changing my cleaning products to more greener and safer products. I am also attempting to change our food choices to more healthier, organic foods. It's a challenge to make changes and for me, it is small changes, one step at a time. My son has food allergies and I have learned a lot over the years about checking ingredients to make sure that foods are safe for him. I have realized that there are so many unnecessary additives and preservatives that are added to make these products last longer on our shelves. I have often wondered if the extra shelf life these products provide for our convenience is worth the health risks we may be exposing ourselves and our children to. I was excited to be part of this tour and read Julie Gabriels book to learn more about Green Beauty products. Ms. Gabriel emphasizes in The Green Beauty Guide, that what we put on our skin is just as important as what we eat as it is absorbed by our skin and we shouldn't put anything on our skin that we wouldn't be able to safely eat.

The Green Beauty Guide is chock full of wonderful information to help you choose safe, organic and natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup and Fragrances. I believe it is a must-have resource for anyone interested in learning about going green and choosing safe products for your body from head to toe. Not only do you learn why you should choose safer products, but you learn how to do this. This Guide is thorough and jam packed with detailed information and it includes 12 pages of references.

I appreciated that Ms. Gabriel goes into such great detail and thorough explanations in each chapter. Especially early on in the book where she describes the specific ingredients that are in most beauty products that are toxic and unsafe. One study the author refers to found that about 90 percent of cosmetic ingredients have not been analyzed for their health impacts. I went to my cabinets to check my own beauty products and found that most of my products contained many of these offending ingredients. Even products that I "thought" were more natural had some toxic ingredients. Ms. Gabriel writes that even products labeled organic and natural may still contain toxic ingredients or byproducts. That is another reason why this book is so important...it is a reference and guide that you can look back on and check these important details as you shop for beauty products.

Ms. Gabriel recommends that if you start with only one organic beauty product, that it should be your moisturizer. She explains that moisturizer stays on your face the longest and that would mean that your body is absorbing what is in the product that you choose to use. In a sidebar, the author points out that the skin can absorb up to 60 percent of substances applied to its surface. You can also develop allergies to cosmetic products. The toxic ingredients can worsen your acne or cause allergic reactions that look like acne or pimples. There is concern that the toxic ingredients may also lead to other serious diseases.

There is a green leaf product guide that rates products and takes into account more economical choices and products that may be more readily available in some grocery and drug stores. Not only does Ms. Gabriel give examples and names of specific products that she recommends, she also gives many recipes to make your own beauty products! She also gives simple tips and techniques to solve skin troubles using foods and products that you may have right in your own home or are easy to get. Personally, I am looking forward to trying some of her home facial routines and green solutions for dark circles under my eyes. I learned what causes my dark circles and plan to try some recommended techniques that are natural and easy to incorporate into my life.

Yes, some of the products are quite expensive but there are other options that are more economical. Ms. Gabriel understands that not everyone can afford the expensive options so she is very thorough in providing alternatives. She includes product recommendations as well as many recipes for things such as lip balms, sugar scrubs, facial masks, acne zappers, baby wash and wipe solution, bath salts, bug repellant and more.

For me, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a thorough book that will help you transition to more greener, safer beauty products. I know that I will be referring to this often as I choose my own personal beauty products and routines to make it more safer and green. I will also use this information for my whole family as well. This information is not only for women but for men, babies and children. We all use soap, shampoo, moisturizer and many other things that are important to be safe products for us all.



***

About the Author: Julie Gabriel


Julie Gabriel is a passionate advocate of green lifestyle, a holistic nutritionist, and a new mom of a 18-month-old Maria. A professional journalist and former magazine beauty editor, Julie pursued her lifelong dream and have studied at Canadian School of Natural Nutrition in Toronto to become a Holistic Nutritionist. As a Canadian living in the UK, Julie has a deep knowledge of environmental issues both in Europe and in North America. To help new moms save time and money, Julie has launched her own skincare line for mom and baby, Petite Marie Organics. Formulated exclusively with certified organic plant ingredients, all multipurpose products can be used by mothers and babies thus helping moms jump-start green living on a budget. The products, So Pure You Can Eat Them®, are freshly handmade, and every ingredient is scientifically proven to be safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Petite Marie Organics mom-and-baby skincare products are available online at petitemarieorganics.com, and in fine health food stores in the UK, the US and Canada since January 2o09.

Be sure to check out Ms. Gabriels website The Green Beauty Guide for even more information.
She shares more tips and tricks, recipes, product reviews and even features Green Beauty Makeovers.

You can purchase your own copy of The Green Beauty Guide HERE. I must add that I believe that the list price for this book at $16.95 is an amazing value for this HUGE book of 400 pages with a wealth of information.

If you would like to visit other stops on the booktour, you may find them here.

This is the Tour schedule for this week:

Monday, December 8th: Red Lady’s Reading Room

Monday, December 8th: She is Too Fond of Books

Tuesday, December 9th: Savvy Verse and Wit

Wednesday, December 10th: Bookopolis (will also be posted as
a Guest Review at Books on the Brain)

Thursday, December 11th: B & B ex libris

***GIVEAWAY***
I have great news to share with you!!! I was fortunate enough to receive 2 copies of this book from the publisher. I couldn't bear to part with my copy so I am happy to say that I am able to give away a copy of The Greeen Beauty Guide to one very lucky reader!!

Here are the details to enter the giveaway for a chance to win this book:
  • For one entry: Leave a post and comment about this review.

  • For a second entry: Comment about a favorite green beauty product that you use or would like to try.

  • For a third entry: Go to Ms. Gabriel's website The Green Beauty Guide and share something that you found helpful and/or interesting.

Please make sure that you post your email or there is a way for me to contact you via email through your blog/contact info. Otherwise, I cannot enter your name into the drawing. I will use random.org to pick a winner of the book.

This giveaway is open to US and Canada only(Due to the high cost of US postage) apologies to my overseas readers. This will be open through December 13th, Midnight, EST.

33 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the review and the giveaway. I've heard a lot of wonderful things about this book lately. I've been trying to live a greener life lately and I think this would be a wonderful book to read.

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  2. Bonnie, what an interesting book. Toss my name in for a chance to win please. I'd like to find an inexpensive 'green' moisturizer.

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  3. That sounds great. I would love to read about what ingredients are in beauty products so I can be a more informed consumer. milou2ster(at)gmail.com

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  4. I had an ARC of this book but it was unfortunately missing many of the chapters that seemed most interesting to me. I would love to win a finished copy and find some good, green hair care recipes.

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  5. I really want to try out some of these recipes! I already use a green moisturizer (I have VERY sensitive skin)

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  6. This book sounds wonderful! I would love to learn how to find or make healthier, non-chemical laden products.

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  7. I would love to win this book. I seriously need to start somewhere. I looooove make up and don't know the first thing about it. I also have sensitive skin. I need a good moisturizer that won't burn my face.
    Great Giveaway.. thanks!

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  8. I am dying to write a book of organic, purely green recipes that I've inherited from my vegan Mom, grandma, and sisters. If you have trouble handling all those preservatives and petrochemical fillers, drop me a line via www.thegreenbeautyguide.com. I will trawl through my database of ingredients and come up with something you could use without damaging your skin or hair.

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  9. Bonnie, great review. I'd LOVE to read this book! Especially after reading your review, as well as Dawn's!!!

    I use probably 75-80% minteral make-up, and I love it. I'd love to learn more about making my own exfoliating scrubs.

    Definitely enter me!!!

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  10. I found a recipe for avocado + vinegar exfoliating mask that looks pretty simple and easy on Julie's website.

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  11. I would so love to have this book and it sounds like this book is full of praticial applications!
    A beauty tip I'd like to share (not sure how "green" it is) is when your mascurra is low, run the tube w/ cap on, under hot water. This helps to losen up mascurra that is on the sides, so you may receive an additional application or two. Kind of like when you turn the catsup bottle upside down.
    Thanks ;-*
    Darby
    darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

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  12. Very informative review,it definately makes me want to read this book!

    Elaine R
    emrosser@shaw.ca

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  13. i'd love to try this oatmeal soak,which just involves putting oatmeal in a sock or cloth

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  14. i really liked the review you did! You brought up some great points in the book and great tips too!!

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  15. oo i'd love to try organic makeup...i've never tried it before but its on my list!

    glittergurl04(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  16. i just looked at an article that she wrote on her blog "Benzoyl Peroxide Linked to Skin Cancer" thats pretty scary! but wonder if it's true!

    glittergurl04(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  17. and a great natural recipie that i found was one that involved putting egg yolk and olive oil as a moisterizing hair mask!

    glittergurl04(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  18. wow i really liked the makeover she did using natural products! that looks lovely!!

    http://thegreenbeautyguide.com/?p=178

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  19. there are many reasons i would love to come to US ;) this is one of the reasons.. so many giveaways ;)

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  20. This sounds like an interesting book. I have incredibly sensitive skin and a very pale complexion, so many regular makeup tips and products don't work quite as well as they should. I majored in chemistry, so I already have a habit of reading labels to see what various chemicals are in products and the results can be surprising. This book is going on my to read list!

    rocket_kay AT hotmail DOT com

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  21. Interesting! I live with a vegan and vegetarian, so I know about green, but I never really thought about makeup in that sense!

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  22. This book looks wonderful! My skin is really touchy and I would love to try some different things on it. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  23. The recipe on the website for the Avocado and Vinegar mask looks great!

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  24. 1. Great review! I would love to win a copy of this book. I was really intrigued that the first thing to change is moisturizer--I would have expected cleanser.

    2. I love avocado-based masks for my face--they really make my skin feel soft.

    3. The website scared me off my shampoo! I will be looking for the Burt's Bees shampoo to replace it.

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  25. wow what a great review you did! i definetly would love to read and win this book! thanks!

    papalum AT hotmail.com

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  26. i love mashing up honey and an avacado together in order to make a great hydrating mask

    papalum AT hotmail.com

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  27. oh god kinda wish i never went on her site because now i'm scared of a lot of products out there!!
    that's not a bad thing because it makes you more aware! but let's just say i'm going to be making a lot of changes

    papalum @hotmail.com

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  28. This would be a great book to make some positvie changes that will not only benefit the evironment but my health as well!
    thanks for having such an amazing giveaway!!

    glamorchick_007(AT)hotmail.com

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  29. there is this great honey and banana mask that i make that is really great!! and if there is leftovers it's really yummy!!

    glamorchick_007(AT)hotmail.com

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  30. wow i'm eating an orange right now and look what i found in her blog?

    Citrus fruit juices are naturally astringent, so they will dry up your pimples. They will lightly exfoliate thanks to fruit acids. And they are rich in age-reversing antioxidants, bioflavanoids, and vitamin C, the potent collagen rebuilder and skin lightener.
    orange juice contains alpha hydroxy acids, and just the right type for your skin. Even the most fragile skins are safe with most fruit juices, apart from lemon and lime. Still, you can use them diluted.

    guess i won't be eating the orange for long! it's going on my face!!

    glamorchick_007(AT)hotmail.com

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  31. wow really love your review and some of the natural beuty tips that you included! I really enjoyed getting to know the benefits of natural beauty instead of using conventional beauty products! i would lvoe to be entered!!!

    swt_babe321(at)hotmail(Dot)com

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  32. Revitalizing Avocado Carrot Cream Mask

    * 1 avocado, mashed
    * 1 carrot, cooked and mashed
    * 1/2 cup heavy cream
    * 1 egg, beaten
    * 3 tablespoons honey

    Combine all ingredients in a bowl until smooth.

    Spread gently over your face and neck, and leave in place 10-15 minutes. Rinse with cool water and follow with your favorite toner.

    This mask combines avocados, which are rich in Vitamin E, with carrots, which are high in beta-carotene and antioxidants, and cream, which is high in calcium and protein. These ingredients will rebuild skin collagen, improve tone and texture, and fade age spots.

    swt_babe321(at)hotmail(Dot)com

    a really great recipie that i found and used!

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  33. i really liked her review on tarte's eco-friendly mascara

    http://thegreenbeautyguide.com/?p=155#more-155

    i didn't know tarte made eco-friendly items!! more incentive for me to buy tarte products!!


    swt_babe321(at)hotmail(Dot)com

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