Most stores now have a line of “natural” beauty products. Unfortunately, they often come with a big price tag attached too. Often times many of these products are not actually “natural” so it does pay to do your homework to ensure you are getting what you pay for.

Fortunately actually making beauty products yourself isn’t too difficult. So if you want beauty products that you know are natural and are also inexpensive, just make them yourself. Here are 5 quick and easy recipes you can make at yourself.

Face Mask
Eating good food helps give you the right nutrients you need to look good.  You can get more of these vitamins and minerals by putting the good stuff right on the skin.

Combining a mashed carrot, mashed avocado, and a beaten egg with a half cup a few tablespoons of honey creates a great face mask that provides vitamins, and improves the tone and texture of your skin. Just stir well, apply, let sit for about 15 minutes, and then wash off with cool water.

After you’re washed and nourished your skin, you can use grated cucumber or diluted lemon juice as a toner to help tighten your skin and close up your pores to close your pores and keep your skin looking great.

Hair Conditioner
Many people pay a lot of money for a conditioner that actually makes your hair look and feel good. Here’s a great natural recipe to save you money and help your hair.

Just mix an egg yolk with a tablespoon of castor oil and apply to hair. Let sit for about ten minutes and rinse out. You can use this every so often as a conditioning treatment for healthy shiny hair. If you like being experimental, you can try mixing other kitchen items, herbs, and natural items with eggs for healthy, shiny hair.

Hand and Foot Cream
A quick face mask will help make you look great in not a lot of time, but hands and feet require extra care.

Use 1/2 cup of olive oil mixed with natural sea salt and massage into your hands and feet. Leave a few minutes to soak and then rinse off with warm water.

When it comes to natural beauty products, these recipes are just the start.  You can find hundreds of different combinations in natural beauty books, magazines, and on the internet. Or you can go to your kitchen cabinet and make your own special creations.

Every year, thousand of chemicals are poured into the environment and millions of gallons of water are needlessly wasted.  How? By growing plants. Sure, most of this is done by large agricultural producers, but some of it is still done in personal gardens. And that means that you can make a difference by changing your gardening practices. There are many agricultural producers who have done it, and you can use the same tricks to help your own garden, and the planet.

Pick appropriate plants.
Not all plants are appropriate for the area you live in. While you might be able to control the temperature, humidity, and rain conditions inside your house, you can’t do it out in the garden. If you pick appropriate plants for your area, you may be able to avoid using fertilizers and saving on water too. Research, what plants are native to your surrounding areas and try planting them in your own garden. Wildflowers, are just that, they can pretty much be left alone and will thrive in most areas.

Pick natural repelling plants.
You don’t need to rely on poisons to keep away garden ruining pests. Many plants produce chemicals that repel these animals naturally. By putting them in or around you garden, you can keep your garden safe with little effort and no chemicals. Plus, you can pick parts of these plants and use them to make products to keep them away from you too.

If you don’t want to plant natural repellents in your garden, you can use them to spray your plants without harming them or adding artificial chemicals to your garden. Many herbs like hot pepper, vanilla, and lavender can help repel insects from your garden.

Pull weeds.
We’re all looking for a quick and easy way to safely get rid of weeds without chemicals, but the good old fashioned way is still very effective.  It you take time every day to pull the weeds you can find, you’ll only take a few minutes so it doesn’t seem like a lot of work.  You can even get the kids involved, just be sure to do it properly so you don’t spread the seeds around.  There are even some common weeds that are edible, just make sure there are no pesticides that could have gotten on them.

Crop rotation.
Farmers all over the world use crop rotation to naturally fertilize plants. The concept is to change what crop you’re putting in a certain field each year. Plants use different nutrients and put other nutrients back into the soil. If you rotate crops that replace the nutrients the other plants use, you will have to fertilize the soil less.

You can use this same concept in your garden by planting different plants every year, or just rotating where you put specific plants in the garden.

So, you’ve made all these changes and are using a low-water, chemical free garden?  Well, you still haven’t done the most important thing: pass it on! One garden can make a dent, but more can make a bigger difference. Tell your friends, teach your kids, you can even visit their school and teach your kids friends! Every little bit helps make a better world.

Use less water.

Saving water is all about small steps, here ar

e a few that will help save big.

- Shut off the water while you brush your teeth
- Take showers that are a minute or two shorter
- Only run full loads of laundry and dishes
- Buy from sustainable producers. These are farmers, ranchers, and other producers that use techniques that pollute less and use less water. You can do some research online or ask at your local organic market to find these products.

Use less energy.

If you don’t have the money to buy a hybrid car or convert your house to solar power, you can make a big difference with small changes.

- Buy energy efficient appliances. They may be more expensive, but make up for the increased cost in lower energy bills.
- Unplug chargers when you’re not using them. Cell phone and other chargers use up powers even if there’s nothing attached to them.
- Put devices with remotes, like T.V.s, VCRs, and stereos, on a power strip and turn it off when you’re not using them. These devices use a lot of power to run the remote receiver even when the device is off.
- Walk or ride your bike for short trips.
- Buy local products. It takes energy to transport food and other products across the country. Buying local not only supports your local economy, it helps them use less energy.

When it comes to saving energy and water, it’s a great idea to get the kids involved. You can even make it a game. Have them track how much water and electricity everyone is using. You can compete to see who uses the least water. You can often count on your kids to help keep you on track when given the task.

Reuse.

Most of us know the three R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, but when we work on conserving, we often leave reuse out of the picture. While you can often find tips on how to reuse common products from other people, what you need most is creativity. With a little thought there are many items around your home that can be reused ñ toilet paper holders can be used to sow seeds for the vegetable patch. And old yogurt containers can be cut into strip to make plant labels. Old food jars can be refilled with homemade foods or can make great impromptu vases.

Use environmentally friendly products.

When you go to the grocery store, you probably see more and more “natural” or “eco friendly” products every time. There are generally two big problems with these products: 1) Just because they’re more natural than regular products, doesn’t mean they’re entirely natural. 2) They’re often expensive.

If you want inexpensive, natural, safe products, why not just make them yourself. Vinegar is a great way to clean and disinfect glass and other surfaces. Need to remove stubborn stains? Just add some baking soda to your vinegar cleaner. Some quick searching online will lead you to hundreds of other natural safe home-made cleaning products.

We all knowing that going green means better for the environment, but it’s also better for you. Conserving resources also helps save you money, which is something most of us are happy to live with.

Why stop at home? Try these tips for creating a greener office. You can share them with co-workers, or provide a more eco-friendly working environment for your employees.

Happy plants make happy workers
It is proven that plants make people happier. They also can help clean up the air in your workplace. Give some plants a new home in your office.

Get rid of bottled water
Bring in a reusable water bottle and refill from the office water cooler. Perhaps the company can purchase reusable bottles for everyone with the company logo.

Recycle that ink
There are many options for recycling ink and toner cartridges. If you can refill your own – even better.

Reuse your lunch
Well, you lunch containers that is. Choose reusable containers or sandwich wraps and avoid the disposable plastic bags.

Go paperless
If possible, send out documents via email, rather than printing. When you really think about it, there are many times when an electronic copy makes better sense than a print copy.

These are just a few ways to move towards a greener office. If you have other tips to share, please post in the comments.

It is really quite a different world when on foot, rather than in the car. You can really take in more of your surroundings. Neighborhoods and buildings look completely different when you can take the time to really notice them. Though I have enjoyed our reduced dependence on driving, I’ve become more aware of just how much our society is vehicle based. For example, the sidewalks on our street are narrow – you can only walk single file. It’s a very busy road as well, so you feel close to the traffic. Plus, you have to be extra careful at intersections, as not all drivers are on the lookout for pedestrians.

Wouldn’t it be great if we can design more neighborhoods with wide, mixed use paths? Rather than focusing on cars – design around pedestrians and bicyclers. That is actually the idea around New Urbanism – a more sustainable method of development.

Today, while walking up to the grocery store, I only saw one other pedestrian during my trip. It was a really nice day – sunny, not too hot, however I found it interesting that I was basically the only person on foot. Cars, on the other hand, were plentiful. I’m sure hundreds, if not more, passed by on my way there and back.

If you have the chance, I whole-heartedly recommend taking more trips by foot. If you have a restaurant nearby, take the time to walk and enjoy the sights along the way. You may be surprised by how different the world looks outside the doors of your car.

In the past, I typically would choose the plastic bags. What was my rationale for that choice? Well, less chance the bag would rip and send our groceries rolling around on the pavement, and plastic tends to be easier to carry. There was no ecological rational for my decision.

Paper bags are typically thought of as the environmentally friendly choice, but actually consume 40% more energy in the production process than plastic bags. They also generate 80% more solid waste than plastic bags. However, plastic bags take at least 1,000 years to decompose (whereas paper may take as little as a month) and are made from polyethylene, which is created from crude oil and natural gas – both nonrenewable resources. Both require a considerable amount of energy and resources to be produced.

There are better choices today which can let you answer the “paper or plastic” question with an easy answer – “neither, please”. Why not pick up a few reusable bags, which can be used for groceries and other things?

It does take some time to get in the habit of bringing your bags with you into the store. We keep a few in the car, and a few by the back door (for shopping trips when not using our car). But, it can be easy to forget until you’re already in line. The great thing is that some stores, such as Whole Foods, will give you a 5-cent refund for using your own bags.

Aside from traditional shopping bags, there are also ways to reduce your use of other bags. Rather than using sandwich bags for lunch, you could bring your sandwich wrapped in a Wrap-N-Mat. It’s a reusable wrap which doubles as a placemat. I think that’s a very cool idea. See what other products you can use to green your sack lunch.

The thinking – reduce, reuse, recycle is a great way to live a greener life. We’ve become more aware of what we send to the landfill and what we reuse. Shopping bags are a great place to start.

My life took new direction a couple of years ago, when I began studying landscape architecture. I had been working in software development with a degree in business, but felt my life was missing something. I had always had an interest in architecture and gardening, so when I learned about the field of landscape architecture – I knew it was the right track for me.

Last summer I took a course dealing with sustainability. It was a foreign concept at the time, but I was soon hooked and learning all I could. If you are unfamiliar with the notion of sustainability, here is a definition taken from the EPA:

“Sustainability is the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people. Achieving sustainable solutions calls for stewardship, with everyone taking responsibility for solving the problems of today and tomorrow-individuals, communities, businesses and governments are all stewards of the environment.”

In practice, this means day-to-day recognition that economy, society, and environment are interconnected and we should make wise and innovative choices to ensure are communities are sustainable for present and future generations.

So, if you haven’t thought much about your impact on the planet, where is a good place to start? I would say the first step is to just be more aware of the world around you. For instance, start thinking about where you get your food and what kind of food you eat. Think about your transportation options – would it be possible to walk or bike more? You will begin to notice all sorts of things which you may have never thought of.

The goal of Our Greener Life is to chronicle our journey towards a greener life and share our experience with others. We’ll be covering a wide variety of topics, so please stay tuned!