Friday, October 6, 2006
Beauty Shop written by Daphne Gordon (The Constant Shopper)

Article from The Toronto Star

	Juice Beauty organic skin care is available at www.lilou-organics.com, a new Ottawa-based web store that features organic body products.

THE COST: $31

WHERE TO BUY: Online at http://www.lilou-organics.com

Organic is the new black.

All-natural skin care is a huge trend these days, even at the mass-market level. But products labelled "organic" aren't necessarily pure. Though some of the ingredients may be produced without pesticides, the ingredient list can sometimes include other offenders - such as preservatives and foaming agents - that can be just as disagreeable as pesticides to health-conscious consumers.

Those questionable "organic" products are easy to find at the drugstore, but truly organic and all-natural bath and body products can sometimes be hard to shop for here in Canada.

But now there's a new Canadian source of organics online called Lilou, where the selection is edited for integrity.

Ottawa-based owner Lisa Schmidt, 30, launched Lilou after she was frustrated in her search for organic baby products for her daughter, now 17 months.

"We started looking at the ingredients of what we were putting on her. We Googled some of the ingredients and found the results rather disturbing," she says. "I started realizing that most of the `organic' products have other ingredients in them that are toxic."

Naming parabens and sulfates as the biggest concerns, she started seeking out products that didn't contain those ingredients.

"I found it was hard to find truly organic, non-toxic products that looked good. I didn't want to buy granola products that don't look nice. I found some good companies, but they were American or European and getting them here was hard.

"It evolved into this business because I thought other people might be looking for this, too."

In the end, Schmidt chose product lines for moms and dads as well as babies. The selection covers a range of body products, skin care and cosmetics, sunblock and hair care, and even a few natural dental products.

I like the ingredient lists of Juice Beauty's fresh Green Apple skin care range, with natural hydroxy acids for maturing skin. The California-based brand's products feature formulations that are free of parabens, sulfates, petroleum and pesticides, and all of the products begin with anti-oxidant rich juice bases made from apple, pomegranate or orange. Yum!

For moms and moms-to-be, there's Mama Angel Baby, a certified organics line created for pregnancy, new moms and babies.

Young girls will love TweenBeauty, which was started by a mother and brother of a pre-teen after they realized that most body products aimed at a young consumer were filled with questionable ingredients.

And the funky cosmetics brand Peacekeeper is a particularly cool discovery. Believe it or not, the brand is a non-profit! All the proceeds from sales of the brand's lipstick, lip gloss and nail polishes go to women's advocacy groups and human rights organizations.