8 Homegrown Beauties

Posted on by Sacha Cohen
Grapefruit, Lavander, and Coconut Salt Scrub, Perfect Organics
Grapefruit, Lavander, and Coconut Salt Scrub, Perfect Organics

Locavores try not to eat anything that’s produced more than 100 miles away. Can beauty junkies make the same commitment?

We’ve found eight local natural beauty lines so you can get gorgeous and support homegrown companies at the same time. Many of the companies listed here also donate a portion of sales to charity.

8thstreetsoap. With almost-good-enough-to-eat scents like almond joy and sweet tangerine, these soaps are made from scratch with natural ingredients such as coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and fruit peel.

Biggs & Featherbelle. From Charm City, B&F make soaps, lip balms, body butter bars, scrubs, and more–all without synthetic dyes, fragrances, and additives.

For the Love of. Organic and locally sourced ingredients are used to make milk baths, body scrub, and our personal favorite, a 24k gold gilded bath bomb with a blueberry and orange scent. All products are packaged in recyclable, reusable containers.

Herban Lifestyle. The mint chocolate chip lip balm in a recyclable tin reminded us of our tweens, but this one is handcrafted without chemicals, preservatives, synthetics, artificial fragrances, artificial colors, or GMOs. Other goodies from the line include salves, bath oil, bath salts, scrubs, facial masks, soap, and tea.

holeco life. A new line of natural and organic skincare products and cosmetics including organic loose mineral powder inside a retractable dispensing brush made of cruelty free goat hair. Available in six glow-enhancing shades.

Perfect Organics. We love the simple, streamlined approach of these organic, vegan, and multi-use products. Indulge in shea butter lip balm, body glow (for face, body and, hair), scrubs, and more.

Sevi Cosmetics. Based in Baltimore, Sevi features vegan skincare, sulfite-free haircare products, and artisan botanical perfumes made with precious raw materials such as Boronia flowers, Orris, Champaca, and Rose Otto.

Skincando. Known for donating Combat-Ready Balm to our troops, Skincando now also offers a Combat-Ready lip balm and organic rosemary and black tea Combat-Ready soap. All products are made by hand in small batches in Silver Spring.

Get Balm-y

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

This weekend, I treated myself to a little spa excursion at Derma Hair Care Medispa. Now, you already know I’m a big fan of the spa and owner Honi Borden, who truly walks the walk when it comes to holistic treatments that are environmentally sound as well as pampering.

This time around, I also got to meet esthetician Sara Damelio, who performed my amazing facial and part of my Detox Heaven treatment. Sara has created a line of skin care products, including Combat-Ready Balm and Combat-Ready Lip Balm, and she was kind enough to let me try samples of both. The lip-balm smells yummy and doesn’t have petroleum like many others on the market. The skin balm is a creamy, delicious mixture of bees wax, black tea, shea butter, and other natural and organic ingredients.

Sara mixes all her products by hand and they’re already flying off the shelves at shops up and down the east coast. She also donates her product to soldiers in Iraq, who have found the balm helps soothe and heal bug bites, sunburn, and other skin irritation.