The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (55 page)

One hour after lunch:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Two hours after lunch:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink and eat a light snack of five strawberries, a half cup of blueberries, and one sliced banana topped with nondairy whipped cream such as Natural by Nature Organic Whipped Cream.

This is a great day to spend time doing what you really like to do. Meditate, read, walk, tidy up your garden, write in your journal, practice some yoga—please yourself anyway possible to direct thoughts away from possible caffeine or sugar cravings.

Three hours after lunch:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Dinner:
Prepare and eat Vegetarian Chili (recipe follows). Finish the dinner with one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink.

One hour after dinner:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Three hours after dinner:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Before sleep:
Take a purifying hot bath. Fill the bath with hot water, add 1 pound of Epsom salts and 1 pound of baking soda. Let the salt and soda dissolve completely. Apply a homemade hair treatment from the assortment of green recipes in Chapter 12 and place a glass of cool water nearby. Soak in the bath until the water cools down. Do not shower! Dry off, wrap yourself in cotton pajamas, and get ready to sleep.

Warm
Avocado Reuben

2 slices whole-wheat, rye, or pumpernickel bread

1 avocado, peeled and sliced

¹
/
4
cup sauerkraut

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil

Splash of balsamic vinegar

A dash of black pepper

Yield:
1 sandwich

1. Place the bread slices in a lightly oiled skillet. Place avocado on one slice and sauerkraut on the other.

2. Over medium heat, warm the sandwich until lightly browned and hot.

3. Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over the avocado and add black pepper to taste.

Vegetarian
Chili

3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium-sized white onion, diced

3 medium-sized carrots, peeled and finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, chopped

³
/
4
cup celery, chopped

2 teaspoons chipotle puree or ½ teaspoon chili powder

1 lb. white mushrooms, cut in half

14 oz (400 g) can organic diced tomatoes in own juice

14 oz (400 g) can organic kidney beans, drained

2 cups sweet corn or 6 to 8 baby corns, broken in half

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

¹
/
4
teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons toasted cumin seed

Yield:
2 servings

Drink lots of sparkling mineral water with this chili—it’s
hot! This recipe feeds two.

1. Sauté the onions, carrots, and garlic in olive oil in a large stainless steel or cast iron saucepan until tender.

2. Stir in the yellow and red peppers, celery, and chipotle puree or chili powder. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about six minutes.

3. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook for an additional four minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, kidney beans, and corn. Add cilantro, mint, and salt, and stir thoroughly. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium.

4. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Bedtime snack:
A medium apple or a medium-sized orange or two tangerines, plus 10–15 almonds. Keep a glass of water on your bedside table.

Day Three: Face Detox

Today you are going to reward yourself for all your efforts of the previous two days. Most likely, you have already noticed that under-eye circles have diminished greatly and many skin problems are now less visible. Seal the deal with facial pampering!

Upon rising:
Drink one 8-ounce glass mineral/filtered water.

In the shower:
Wash your face with Sugar Mommy Scrub (Chapter 8).

After showering:
Apply a deep cleansing Kinky Oatmeal mask. Relax until the mask is dry. Wash it off with tepid water and give yourself a light facial massage with ten drops of jojoba or almond oil. Do not wear makeup today.

Breakfast:
Banana French Toast (recipe follows) with green tea and one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink.

One hour after breakfast:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Two hours after breakfast:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink.

Lunch:
Green Fettuccine Alfredo (recipe follows). For dessert, drink one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink.

One hour after lunch:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Two hours after lunch:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink and eat a light snack of sliced apple on top of one slice of whole-wheat toast covered with a generous amount of almond butter.

Three hours after lunch:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Dinner:
Green Chow Mein (recipe follows) followed by one 8-ounce glass of Green Detox Drink.

One hour after dinner:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Three hours after dinner:
Drink one 8-ounce glass of mineral/filtered water.

Before sleep:
Treat yourself to a spa-style facial. Start with an herbal steam bath. Boil a kettle of water and pour it into a shallow basin. Throw in a handful of dried chamomile flowers and three tea bags of green tea. Lean over the basin and steam your face for ten to fifteen minutes. When the water cools down, pat your face with a towel.

Apply a White for Sake Scrub (Chapter 8) and massage your face with circular movements for at least three minutes. Rinse off the scrub with warm water and pat your face dry.

Apply a nourishing, rich homemade facial mask of your choice. Relax for twenty minutes while reading or meditating. Rinse off the mask with warm water, pat your face dry, and perform a calming facial massage with Soothing Face Oil (Chapter 9). Let the oil soak in completely.

Bedtime snack:
Eat a cup of strawberries, a small packet of rice crackers with hummus, or one apple. Keep a glass of water on your bedside table.

This program is a simple and completely green way to detoxify your life and adopt new skin care and hair care methods. Hopefully you learned that you can survive without animal fats and protein and still feel great. Try this detox twice a year, and enjoy any part of it whenever you feel like your life needs a little bit of cleaning up.

Green
Fettuccine
Alfredo

4 ounces fettuccine pasta

1 cup sweet corn

1 cup soy or almond milk

2 tablespoons hummus

14 oz (400 g) can green beans, drained

Salt and black pepper

Yield:
2 servings

1. Cook the fettuccine in a large pot of boiling water until tender.

2. While the fettuccine is cooking, blend the corn, milk, hummus, and black pepper with a stick blender until smooth.

3. Heat the mixture in a small saucepan and stir in the beans. Continue heating and stir often until beans have warmed through. Season with a pinch of salt.

4. Drain the fettuccine well and return to the pot. Pour in the hot sauce mixture and toss. Serve immediately. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Banana
French Toast

2 medium bananas

1 cup soy milk

2 tablespoons maple syrup

¹
/
8
teaspoon vanilla extract

4 slices whole-wheat bread

Yield:
2 servings

1. Blend bananas, soy milk, maple syrup, and vanilla with a stick blender until smooth. Pour into a shallow dish and soak the bread slices for two minutes until all liquid disappears into the bread.

2. Carefully transfer the bread to a lightly oiled skillet. Cook each side for two minutes or until browned.

3. Serve with organic whipped cream, berries, and almonds.

Green Chow Mein

4 ounces fresh egg noodles

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

½ red bell pepper

¹
/
4
cup snow peas, trimmed

1-inch piece of ginger root, sliced

3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry

3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

1 cup soybean sprouts

1 cup mung bean sprouts

1 teaspoon sesame seed oil

Black pepper

Yield:
2 servings

1. Cook the noodles three to five minutes in a pan of boiling water. Drain and plunge into cold water; drain and toss with a little sesame oil. Set aside.

2. Heat a wok until it is very hot. Add one tablespoon olive oil. You can add a few drops of chili oil for an extra sparkle. When the oil is very hot and slightly smoking, add the garlic and stir-fry for 10 seconds.

3. Add the bell pepper and snow peas and stir-fry for one minute; transfer to a plate.

4. Return noodles to wok and add soy sauce, rice wine, and shallots, and stir-fry for two minutes. Add snow peas and peppers to the noodle mixture.

5. Add the sprouts and continue to stir-fry for three to four minutes until the sprouts are soft. Stir in the sesame oil, and add black pepper to taste.

Gorgeous Green Finale

If there is one lesson you learn from this book, make it this: scientists have yet to discover exactly what kind of damage paraben preservatives, phthalates, triethanolamine, and DMAE do to us, and we probably won’t find out in the next twenty or thirty years. Well, many of us have already celebrated our thirtieth birthday (or as I prefer to call it, twenty-tenth), and we are still alive after fifteen to twenty years of rubbing esters of para-hydroxybenzoic acid and formaldehyde into our faces. Luckily, today we have everything we need to adopt a healthier attitude toward our looks. We exercise and make efforts to eat less junk food, so why would we put up with “junk beauty”? Remember, skincare is the food for our skin. Just like junk food is loaded with refined wheat and sugar, hydrogenated fat, and artificial additives, so is junk beauty loaded with synthetic chemicals, petroleum-derived fats, and artificial flavors. Do your health a favor, and don’t eat junk food. Do your skin a favor, and ditch junk beauty. It’s bad for you; it’s bad for our planet.

You are your only hope. Science does not have all the answers to everything. Neither do government regulators. If you want proof, ask your dermatologist when you go for a yearly checkup of your moles and freckles what she thinks of mercury whitening cream. Watch her face go pale and ashen, and her voice turn reproachful. Only fifteen years ago, mercury bleaching creams were widely recommended. Today, mercury in cosmetics is banned. What will be the next mercury? Phthalates? Lead? Formaldehyde? Parabens? Do you really want to wait to find out?

Set yourself apart from the rest by going green. Learn to spot the dangerous chemicals that undermine your health and put your family and children, now and tomorrow, at a higher risk for allergies, autism, or cancer. Pass on buying anything proven to be carcinogenic, even in animal studies. That’s right, humans are not rodents—but then again, DNA is DNA. If a substance is damaging a living creature’s DNA and causing it to mutate, there’s a very high chance it will mess up human cells, too.

Your common sense is your best guide to sorting through the organic hype. Remember that the cosmetics industry spends billions of dollars each year to sell you one myth or another. Many of the so-called organic products give you a false sense of safety. Spend a second or two scanning ingredients lists and refuse to buy anything that doesn’t comply with your understanding of truly pure and natural cosmetics.

You can influence the industry by making smart buying choices. You may think that one bottle of conventional shampoo won’t really change the world, but stop right there and think for a moment. If a drugstore sells ten fewer bottles of shampoo in one week, the store manager will become curious. If a drugstore chain sells a thousand fewer bottles of shampoo, the supplier will take notice. If ten thousand bottles of chemical goo are left unsold, then the manufacturer gets the message. Every bottle counts.

You can make your point every time you open your wallet to buy a toxic cosmetic product. You can buy the chemical, fruity-smelling goop and support the current twisted state of the cosmetic industry. Manufacturers will get more proof that the public buys their products, as is, without batting an irritated, swollen eye. And they will keep churning out shampoos that make our hair fall out, toners that burn and sting our faces, and baby powders with ingredients that cause lung cancer. So the next time you reach for that pretty bottle, stop for a second, read the list of ingredients, and ask yourself: would I eat any of it? Think about it for a moment. Then close your wallet, head on to that humble health food store, and grab an unpretentious bottle of herbal body and hair wash. Your hair will be just as clean. The only difference is that you may sleep a little bit better.

I have seen the future of beauty, and it looks rosy and green.

appendix a
recommended resources

Online Green Beauty Shopping

Online shopping is the most time-efficient and money-saving way to shop for organic beauty products or ingredients to make DIY green cosmetics. Here are some of my favorite online shopping destinations:

Saffron Rouge (
www.saffronrouge.com
)

What started as a humble yet stylish online store with Dr. Hauschka and Jurlique in stock evolved into a comprehensive information portal on all things pretty, green, and eco-friendly. Kirstien Binder handpicks organic brands to represent, and her roster now includes Pangea, Dr. Hauschka, Jo Wood, Weleda, Primavera, Erbaviva, Balm Balm, Dr. Alkaitis, John Masters Organics, Jurlique, Nvey Eco, Santaverde, Suzanne Aux Bains, and Florascent. Everything you buy here is guaranteed organic or biodynamic. The website offers tons of samples, a no-hassle return policy, and reasonable shipping charges.