How To: make your beauty routine more eco-friendly - part 2

Alas, today we continue on the journey to a more environmentally conscious way of being with part 2 of How to make your beauty routine more eco-friendly. Check out part 1 here.

Greening your beauty routine is not actually a selfless decision. In fact, when you cut back on plastic usage by buying in bulk, or create demand for organic beauty fare by purchasing only USDA certified organic, you're also treating your skin to a delicious prettifying cocktail devoid of sulfates, parabens, GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), and phthalates. It's a win-win situation.

In the long run, this means you'll be reducing your chances of developing hormonal disorders as well as cancer, which all of these chemicals have been linked to. So be kind to the planet and to yourself by reading the following list of ways you can look lean and mean with minimal green (green moolah, that is). 

4. Make It Good to the Last Drop
You know that annoying last mote of body lotion you split hairs over trying to wrench out? Err no longer with a paint tube wringer - yes, seriously.

Dr. Hauschka Tube Wringer ($15.95, Saffronrouge.com) may have been designed to wrestle paint from paint tubes and caulking guns, but it's just as effective in squeezing out that last ounce of Victoria's Secret body butter.

You can also gain the sticky molasses of eco-friendly experience by dipping an eyeliner brush in your near-empty eyeshadow pan and then mixing the shadow with Visine for instant eyeliner, or by declumping a mascara past its glory days by running hot water over the tube to re-liquify and reassert its normal, balanced vitality.

5. Be A Label Hound
Don't be fooled: Advertising execs eat people and poop money. So why would they give a damn about honoring up to their promises, so long as you think you're getting what you paid for?

These creatures of the dark have especially burgeoned from silent trickery in the green beauty market, where they're slapping "organic" and "natural" on products that are no more natural than Heidi Montag.

Avoid bizarre little effigies of nature by looking for the USDA seal—any lipstick, lotion, or serum that has it complied with USDA standards to be officially labeled organic.

If you're a fan of Burt's Bees, play Where's Waldo with Burt's Bill Natural Standard seal, a joint effort by Burt's Bees and the Natural Products Association to ensure contents are at least 95% renewable and free of synthetics.

And to cut risks of death by beauty product, cut these yucky endocrine system-disrupting toxins out: Parabens, sulfates, phthalates, triclosan, synthetic fragrances, GMOs, and petrochemicals.

Try: 100% Pure Organic Honey Pear Nourshing Body Cream ($17, Shopsagebeauty.com).

6. Don't Shampoo
Aside from wearing boldly worded sandwich boards, the human body communicates through its feelers and its mane.

Unmute the follicular discourse made popular by '80s metal bands by reshaping your head's silhouette into an atomic Aquanet explosion, your hairs perfectly malleable and nubile from lack of hair washing.

Because when you go a few days without shampooing, you're not only saving on your water and electricity bills, but you're also gaining a sexy, easy-to-sculpt texture.

But if you soon find yourself entering Grease City, Population: You, pepper your strands with a powder shampoo to absorb oil.

Try: Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo With Oat Extract ($18, Sephora).

7. Recycle the Empties
That subway ride home where you met Him. Cocktails at Blue Goose Lounge in Santa Monica. A (soy candle) candlelit dinner at home with Steely Dan.

Our lipsticks have accompanied us through some of our most treasured memories, so do their loving memory justice when they run out by returning them to their origins.

The earth mommas at Aveda are taking plastic caps of all geneses, from caps on toothpastes to two-liter bottles of soda, and hammering them into sparkling new toppers.

And the perfectly painted mavens at MAC will toss you a free lipstick for every six empties you bring to the counter.

The best way to usher in the new season is through springtime cookie designs, but a new (and gratis!) lip look comes in at a close second.

Check out part 1 here.

*A piece of this article was first published on Examiner.com by moi. Link here.