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Vegan Makeup Brush Hairs made of Recycled Plastic

Eco-friendly, animal-friendly & especially “zero” waste are a nearly impossible combination when it comes to most human cosmetics & skincare,

Makeup brushes, in particular, must have super soft or specialized bristles for all kinds of specialty applications: liquid, powders, creams, etc... 

While I applaud the many companies who have converted to sustainably sourced wood & bamboo handles, as well as recycled aluminum ferrules (the metal piece joining the bristles and the handle, bristles are the true test of sustainability.

1. Animal hair bristles are not cruelty free: If any hair plucking/cutting farm was cruelty free, they would have videos of it on youtube, to release millions of women from guilt! They COULD be cruelty free, if they came from a kind farm where the hairs were cut from an animal trusting of its Master. That is not possible for commercial scale manufacturing AT THIS TIME. I know this can change, but have been unable to find this option anywhere.

2. “Synthetic” hairs or bristles, currently means they are made from some sort of PLASTIC. That includes nylon and specialty plastics I will not go into. The only ones I want near me are made from RECYCLED plastic. No brands advertise this, since plastic is a no-no in the marketing world. However, two EXCELLENT brands do get them manufactured this way:

100percentpure.com/collections/tools

UrbanDecay.com/shop/makeup-brushes-and-tools

3. Why is recycled plastic the best solution? Plastic is made from byproducts of Petroleum, which comes from drilling for fossil fuels. If human beings stopped fossil fuel mining today, we would have enough plastic to meet our needs for many generations to come. Though not a “zero waste” solution, if you make sure to put your bristles in the recycling bin (or even just a trash bin), they could be recyled again, and at very least won’t go directly into streams, rivers, and the ocean.

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Tapered 100% beeswax candles provide the most light, and are virtually dripless when made properly. These are made with hemp wicks as well, for cleanest possible burn with lowest environmental impact. Maker has 7″ handmade tapers that burn more than 7 hours available via email to bethany.martin@me.com. Her slightly thicker, shorter 5-7 hour burntime 5″ tall taper candles are available on her Etsy store for $12/pair with free shipping

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100% Beeswax Candles with Hemp Wicks

Purchasing Guide

* Support makers closest to you

* 100% beeswax - burns slower, cleaner & longer than any other substance on Earth. Most candles are made of paraffin, a PETROLEUM byproduct that emits carcinogens. They do emit some negative ions, but this is not thoroughly researched and probably not enough to actually “purify” an entire room

* Essential oil instead of fragrance, if you want more than very faint honey odor

* Hemp or Organic cotton wicks (conventional cotton is confirmed to diretly cause cancer in farm workers)

* Preferably without a container so zero waste (Jars & votives are cute but there's only so many One can make useful afterwards. Container tops do make a cleaner burn, by cutting off oxygen instead of blowing it out, so minor tradeoff)

CottonAndMoss.com (Nashville, TN)

PostScriptumBlank on Etsy (VA) **Tapers are the brightest of all, and dripless when made properly**

Spiral SunCandlles (Hillsboro, OR)

WellnessByAri.com (Matthews, NC)

WinterBeeShop.com (St Paul, MN)

Bee-Och.com (Fort Lupton, CO)

Rawganique.com (Montana-made, sold thru WA)

NashvilleWaxCo.com (TN)

UntoldWonder on Etsy (Washougal, MA)

There are many more offline, and I will continue to update this list with other makers as I find them.

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The company that developed this fish spent $16 million and 17 years (so far) seeking approval, but the food industry overall has spent many times that, fighting labeling of genetically modified beings.

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[The danger of slavery is] truth made so plain by our good Father in Heaven, that all feel and understand it, even down to... creeping insects.

Abraham Lincoln

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Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Einstein

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Gandhi

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What if...

God forgives me for a death I cause, each time I ignore or save a bug in the house, instead of breaking its body to flush down the toilet? I've done both in the last hour (My lovely roommate kept the doors and windows open for 2 weeks while I was on Spring break), but thinking about getting on Johnny Appleseed's level. In grade school, you might've learned that he started hundreds of apple orchards across America, but he was also a devout Christian. Legend has it that he religiously avoided harming ANY creatures, with the craziest example being waving flies away from his campfires, so they couldn't get killed in the blaze. If that's not Divine Love, I don't know what is.

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Omen of Orangeburg

Teaching in Ayiti last summer showed me my calling for learning with children, so I applied to Teach for America (TFA), a US public school-teacher improvement program for high-risk communities nation-wide. Teachers are trained and managed to raise classroom standards and achievement, often catching students up more than 2 grade levels in a single year, and putting them on-track to graduate from college.

TFA provided an opportunity for candidates living in South Carolina, to visit a few schools with these new classrooms in Orangeburg. Orangeburg is a predominately Black city in the "low country" of South Carolina, between Columbia and Charleston, where the majority of the population lives in poverty. (As a sidenote: "According to the S.C. Department of Corrections, between 1988 and 1998... the black prison population grew by 60 percent. Black South Carolinians are more likely to be arrested than anyone anywhere else in the world.") The school visits were a great experience, with several sweet memories for me, but I want to share one appropriate for the theme of my "Nature & Culture" blog. It is a bit tree-hugger-ish, but that's OK!

The second school we visited was Marshall Elementary, with about 1000 students enrolled, and new Principal Don Dogett who is responsible for saving the school from state takeover due to under-performance. Part of the school hallways are covered, outdoor sidewalks. After a short meeting with Mr. Doggett, my small group of prospective TFA Corps members, were waiting on one of these outdoor sidewalks, to begin a classroom visit.

While we were waiting, we spotted a small Black boy running across the large field in front of us.  I guess he was running from the principal's office, because as we watched, the principal and school janitor came walking towards him from the left, and the school secretary and another staff member came walking towards him from the right. The boy reached the edge of school grounds, where there is a break in the fence, between 2 trees. He perched himself there, and I could see the trees swaying and hear them begging "Come back... Come back... Come back..." in the language of the wind. As the 4 middle-aged Black men strided towards him, the child took off again, towards the middle of the field, and I took a sigh of relief as the TFA group was called inside.

As we sat down, the boy ran all the way to where we had just been standing, where he was finally cornered and caught. The men didn't yell at him, but grabbed his arms, calmed him down, and took him away. 

I don't know what this scene means. All I know is that kids need to know that we care about them enough to bring them back where they belong.

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Thank God for 'crazy'

Sister Beverly, All the Way Live! (Vegan & Raw food spot @ 6108 Germantown Ave, Philly PA) 

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My favorite fish at the National Aquarium of Baltimore. He may not look like much here, since his break-necking speed defies photography, but he's shiny pink-scaled with reddish eyes. Red eyes are usually an adaptation to see in the ocean dark, so the room's darkness is probably what made him more active than other fish. Still, to me it seems he wants out; To me, that he refuses to be resigned to fate. Mon poisson préféré à l'Aquarium National de Baltimore. Il ne semble beau ici, car sa vitesse risque causer torti collie photographie. Il est rose-brilliant avec yeux rouges. Les yeux rouges sont souvant une adaptation pour voir le noir océan, donc le noir de la salle est probablement ce qui l'a rendu plus actives que les autres poissons. Pourtant, il me semble qu'il veut en sortir de ce réservoir de poissons; qu'il refuse de se résigner au destin.

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phenomenal video by Calle 13 - Latinoamérica

"Tú no puedes comprar al viento, Tú no puedes comprar al sol Tú no puedes comprar la lluvia, Tú no puedes comprar al calor. Tú no puedes comprar las nubes, Tú no puedes comprar mi alegría, Tú no puedes comprar mis dolores"

"You can't buy the wind. You can't buy the sun. You can't buy the rain. You can't buy the heat. You can't buy the clouds. You can't buy the colors. You can't buy my happiness. You can't buy my pains."

http://lyricstranslate.com

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In wildness lies the preservation of the world.

Henry David Thoreau

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L'heure que la lumière atteigne l'obscurité

Je n'ose ni aller

ni halter.

Alors je tombe a plomb

Ou je me souviens qui "JE SUIS"

L'energie subconscient,

conduisant nos risieres, racines, rayons.

"Lachons! L èvons! Longeons la condition."

When light approaches darkness

I don't where to go

or how to stop

So I fall straight down

Where I remember who "I AM"

subconscious energy

guiding rivers, roots, rays

"Let go! Get up! Lead the condition."

(this painting is called "Garrowby Hill". I saw it in a National Geographic ad for the "Sense of Place" art gallery exhibit at the Bellagio in Las Vegas until January 8th, and it belongs to the Collection Museum of Fine Arts in Boston)

©David Hockney

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Lauryn Hill - Superstar

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Traveling Alone & A Hundred Years from Today - Ethel Waters (10/31/1896 - 9/1/1977)

Today is not only the anniversary of her birth, but also her first public performance, called up to an open mic at a Halloween party in Philly.

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The Old "New World"

The best place i've ever been to is called Dominica. It's a small island in the eastern Caribbean, which thanks to the rugged terrain and rebellious Carib "Indians", was the last one to be colonized by European nations. I could write a book about the beautiful animals, stars, hot springs, coral reefs, mountain trails and waterfalls there, but what first hit me was the air. You haven't really breathed until you've been in a tropical rainforest, and Dominica has more original forest, percentage-wise, than any other Caribbean island. The air was so sweet and pure, like God's own breathe exhaling some sense into me... At the time I was a 20 year old business major, but changed paths and began traveling for more secrets about what is truly valuable. I pity the fool Christopher Columbus, and those who came after him, who thought they were getting rich as they destroyed the Caribbean.

If that man knew what was good for him, he would have settled down, married some natives, made some smallpox-resistant babies, got old and died in peace. 

Me in the Emerald Pool, Morne Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica