Kelly Tirman » green

Five Fabulous Eco-Friendly Shopping Tips

kellytirman — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:16:35 +0000

When possible buy local and from the source
Locally made products and ingredients have a much lower environmental impact than purchasing the same thing from another continent.

Shop online
Buying online and using standard ground shipping reduces the environmental impact of shopping by utilizing about a third less energy than traditional retail.

Leave the car at home
If you live walking distance to your favorite stores or have access to public transportation consider leaving the car at home. Not only will you get your workout in, but since you can only buy what you can carry, it will help you from purchasing things that you don’t truly love.

Forgo the pretty packaging and spend the money on a higher quality product
Mainstream companies often spend more money on packaging then on the product itself. I often find that some of the best products aren’t in the prettiest packages and some of the earth friendliest products don’t come in any packaging at all.

Buy what you love and favor multipurpose products
If you only buy what you will actually use you will not only save money but reduce your overall waste. Also products that are multipurpose and/or can be utilized by multiple members of your family will help ensure the products don’t go to waste.

Do you have any eco-friendly shopping tips to share? I would love to add them to this list.

About Kelly Tirman

Kelly Tirman is the mom behind kellytirman.com and serves as Sr. Manager of Operations for Walmart’s Global eCommerce User Experience, Insights & Analytics teams. Kelly’s blog focuses on sharing ideas on urban living; including general lifestyle, raising multilingual children and organic beauty.

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Judith’s Herbals and her Beautiful Blue Bottles

kellytirman — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:59:16 +0000

On a recent trip to Bolinas I stopped into Judith’s Herbals and purchased the following products:

Jojoba Hair Conditioning Oil
Organic Avocado Oil
Morningdew Moisturizer
Golden Seal & Myrrh Mouthwash

These products are great but what I fell in love with was the packaging. I am a total sucker for beautiful blue glass bottles and old school labels. Not only does colored glass block UV rays, which helps increase the product’s shelf life, but they can be redeemed at Judith’s when you are done with them. Organic ingredients, Glass containers and bottle deposits might seem right out of the 1920′s but these three things makes Judith’s Herbals an amazing eco-friendly find, even more so if you are willing to ride your bike from San Francisco to buy them.

About Kelly Tirman

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Eco-Friendly Organic One Minute Manicure – Perfect for Moms

kellytirman — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:09 +0000

I used to be a big fan of a specific product called One Minute Manicure. It lived up to its name by literally giving me a naturally looking manicure in one minute. So why am I no longer a fan? I realized that this natural looking product was actually full of nasty toxic parabens such as isopropylparaben, isobutylparaben, and butylparaben which aren’t good for me or our environment.

Luckily I have found something the works even better. Not only does this combination of products provide a better result but because these products are organic they are free of nasty toxins.

Step 1: Grab a small dollop of this Organic Brown Sugar Scrub and rub it into your DRY hands while holding them over the sink. Don’t forget to pay extra attention to your cuticles!

Step 2: Rinse your hands with water and pat dry with a towel.

Step 3: Since hands often age faster than the other parts of your body; apply a dime size amount of Golden Mica Organic Shea Butter Facial SunBlock (SPF 30). This will provide you the sun protection you need to keep your hand looking young and healthy. Plus the golden mica bounces the light off your skin and makes you look young and radiant.

Additional Tip: One of my favorite things about Sweet P’s products is how multi-purpose and reasonably priced they are which means you can easily repeat the above steps on your feet, face and rest of your body.

About Kelly Tirman

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Earth Day Promotion: Four Fantastic Reasons to Shop My OpenSky Store this Week.

kellytirman — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:00:40 +0000

REASON 1 – A FREE GIFT
Purchase any product this week from my OpenSky Store and receive a FREE STORYBOOK full of fabulous earth friendly tips. This digital storybook was authored by myself as well as other Earth Friendly OpenSky Shopkeepers and is our special gift to you. We hope you enjoy it.

REASON 2 – SOMETHING WORTH WINNING
Purchase any product this week from my OpenSky Store and you will also be automatically entered in a chance to win a FREE BEAUTY PACKAGE from one of my favorite Earth-Friendly suppliers, Sweet P’s. This package includes Organic SunBlock, Hand & Body Wash, Therapeutic Bath Salts, Organic Hand & Body Lotion and Hand & Body Whip flavored in your favorite scent.

REASON 3 – A GOOD CAUSE
Also, this week 15% of ALL OpenSky’s profits will be donated to Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting water from polluters.

REASON 4 – IT IS GOOD FOR YOU
Earth Day is not only about saving the Earth for future generations it is about improving your overall health and the health of your family. Did you know that the use of common personal-care products expose the average American to more than one-hundred different chemicals each day, most of which are toxic? So why not “green” your family’s personal hygiene buy picking up a few organic beauty products? Do you really want to wash your baby in nasty chemicals like propylene glycol?

Not sure where to start? Here are three simple suggestions:

This shampoo is not only perfect for the whole family but is also works great as a body wash. It is not technically “tear-free” but we have not had any issues when we wash our baby with this product.
This Organic Jojoba Sunscreen is fragrance free and completely safe for the whole family
Organic Jojoba oil is a great multi-use product. I use it to wash my face. We use it to give our baby her infant massages and my husband uses it instead of body lotion.

Still not sure which products are right for your family? Drop an email to kelly.tirman at yahoo dot com and I will help find you a great product.

About Kelly Tirman

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Pure Organic Shea Butter from Organic Essence

kellytirman — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:21:34 +0000

This is my all time favorite Organic Essence product for the following reasons:

High quality cold-pressed, organic, pure shea butter that is truly a multi-purpose beauty staple (note: watch the video below to find out how I use it)
It is natural and “baby safe” since no solvents or chemicals are used in its production.
A biodegradable jar that functions just as well as glass or plastic, but will break-down via home composting.
Fairly traded – by purchasing this product you are helping support 600 women in Ghana.

Still not sold on how great this product is? One of my fellow blogger, Truth in Aging, wrote an amazing review of this product which you can read here. This gal knows her stuff!

About Kelly Tirman

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