So the links this week are a little heavy on the makeup, because that’s what’s on my mind. I promise to be all butch again next week. On to the links:

• Organic Personal Care Products – Focus Organic. Guest poster Jeff McIntire-Strasburg points out that personal care products are allowed to use the term “organic” without being certified in any way.
• My Personal Care Products – The Conscious Shopper. Erin talks about the personal care products that she uses.
• Simplify Your Life with the 60 Percent Solution – It’s Frugal Being Green. I think I have to admit to a girl-crush on Erin from The Conscious Shopper. I didn’t even realize this was her until after I’d already included it here.
• Green Paints Top Consumer Reports List – It Pays to Live Green. Does this mean low-VOC paints have come a long way or Consumer Reports has?
• Celebrating MOO – Bar Harbor Times. Maine dairy farmers cut by Hood make their own organic co-op.
• Boston “Bike Czar” Nicole Freedman Talks Bike-Share & Urban Cycling – Boston GreenScene. This is for you, Elisabeth.
• Adventures in Vermicomposting – The Greenest Dollar. Since I’m still starving my worms (who are, oddly enough, thriving) to get rid of flies, I’m vermicomposting vicariously.
• How to Sew on a Button Correctly – The Digerati Life. I know, I know—who doesn’t know how to sew on a button? Me.
• Ten Uses for Hydrogen Pyroxide – One Green Generation. Still collecting cleaning info…
• RIP, Hummer – Boing Boing. We win! Woo-hoo!

That’s all for this week. As usual, if you see anything interesting, send it my way.

I’ve never been a girly girl, but I decided I couldn’t hit 30 without even knowing how to wear makeup. So this week I made an appointment for a consultation at Sephora. I chose Sephora not just because they’re across the street from where I work; they also have a “natural” label for some makeup lines.

Now, natural can mean a lot of different things—or nothing. In this case, Sephora defines it as “formulated to exclude a minimum of six of these eight ingredients”:

• GMOs (genetically modified organisms) – I really have nothing against GMOs. Humans have practiced animal husbandry for hundreds of years, and I think this is just another step further.
• Parabens – These are endocrine disruptors, linked to breast cancer and reproductive problems.
• Petrochemicals – Used in lip gloss and such. I try to decrease oil in the rest of my life; why not cosmetics, too?
• Phthalates – These are also endocrine disruptors, like the BPA behind the whole plastic scare last year.
• Sulfates – Mostly used in shampoos. Can potentially irritate skin.
• Synthetic fragrances – Potentially can cause allergic reactions. But if you (like me) don’t usually have allergies to scents, I don’t see much of a problem with them.
• Synthetic dyes –  Potentially made of toxic chemicals, like dioxins, and heavy metals. I’ve never really considered this before, and I’ll have to think about it more.
• Triclosan – An antibacterial chemical usually found in soaps. Helps create antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Potentially leads to liver and thyroid problems.

Brenda post-makeup doesn't actually look all that different than Brenda pre-makeup.

I’ve started with the bareMinerals line, which includes a foundation, bronzer, mineral veil, and lip gloss. The good thing about powders like these is that they aren’t absorbed into the skin as much as liquid makeup, and the worst thing they contain is the sunscreen zinc oxide. The sun is probably worse for me than that. However, I also got Fresh chapstick (excuse me, lip treatment), which includes oxybenzone, and Blinc mascara, which does contain parabens. I feel bad about that, but since it’s my first time trying mascara, I want something won’t irritate my contacts. Maybe I’ll graduate to something better for me later on.

The most important thing (for me) is that none of these products have been tested on animals. Animal welfare was what started my environmental path years ago, and it’s still one of my top priorities.

By the way, many people recommend the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetic safety database, but I’ve never found their product search very useful. It’s fine for looking up more information on particular chemicals, but in their ratings they give as much weight to perfumes that might cause an allergic reaction as to chemicals that might cause cancer. That brings down ratings and terrifies people about perfectly harmless products.

I know there’s probably makeup out there that’s more “natural” than what I’ve chosen, but I really needed the tutorial. And it was actually helpful! Afterward, putting on makeup in the morning was relatively easy, if a little more time-consuming than my normal morning ritual. I’m sure I’ll reduce it even further after I’ve played around for a few weeks, but for now I feel a little bit like I’m in middle school again.

So what do you think of my choices so far? What do you wear?

We finally washed our car this weekend. After three trips to Maine in a month, it really needed it. I’m happy to report that, much like with dishes, the most environmentally friendly way to wash is also the laziest.

That’s right—a commercial car washing facility is the best way to wash a car. Why?

• Less water use – Washing a car by hand at home uses between 80 and 140 gallons of water; automatic car washes average just 45 gallons. They do this by mixing air with the water to get a high pressure spray, as well as reusing filtered waste water.
• Better waste water disposal – Driveway car washing allows the waste water to flow directly into storm drains, where it contaminates waterways. Commercial car washes by law must filter their waste water before directing it into the sewer system.

It looks like the absolute best solution is actually to wash a car by hand at a commercial facility, which uses the least water (around 15 gallons) and prevents pollution from washing into storm drains. That’s awfully cold this time of year, though, so we’ll compromise by using a drive-through car wash until it warms up.

Some interesting local news this week. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

• Cambridge Board Denies Appeal to Keep Chickens and Ducks – Cambridge Chronicle. I guess backyard chickens aren’t going to happen as long as we’re in Cambridge…
• How to Store Produce without Packaging – Green Phone Booth. I didn’t know a lot of this, especially the damp cloth trick. More vegetable storage tips, please!
• “Wait, Does This Go in the Recycling Bin?” – Slate. Rule of thumb: If you don’t know, throw it in the trash. (But do your research so you do know.)
• Slow Trip Across Sea Aids Profit and Environment – New York Times. This reminds me that I should drive slower in my car, too. (I’m kind of a lead foot.)
• Not Grass Fed, but at Least Pain Free – New York Times. I’m for anything that reduces suffering, but I think I’ve read too many dystopian sci-fi novels to be entirely comfortable with this.
• U.S. Imports 20,000 Primates Per Year – Veggie Revolution. Why are we still doing this?
• Big Gift for Local Climate Efforts – Boston Globe. Let’s end on a good note: $50 million to fight climate change in the Boston area.

Elsewhere, my How to Clean Up a Broken Thermometer post was featured in the Carnival of the Green over at Eco Street. As always, if you see anything you think I might be interested in, send it my way.

I got a slow cooker weeks ago but haven’t had the chance (or the guts) to make anything with it yet. Since I often have more energy first thing in the morning than directly after work, I think it’ll help me actually cook on weekdays. And compared to the oven, slow cookers use such a low wattage that they save energy. Bonus!

This weekend I finally worked up the courage to experiment. But to be safe I chose probably the easiest thing imaginable—potato soup. Actually, Pesto-Potato Soup with Toasted Pine Nuts from the book Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, with potatoes from our CSA, pesto from our porch-grown basil, and the first homemade stock from our freezer. And you know what? It was pretty good. A little bland, but I like bland. And easy! The only thing we needed to do to finish it was give it a whirl with the immersion blender and mix in the pesto and pine nuts.

It was so easy that we tried cooking two more things: oatmeal and acorn squash.

The oatmeal turned out awfully jelly-like. It’s edible, but not something I’d look forward to. I’ll try it next with steel-cut oats in the hope that they hold up better. But I do want to try again. There’s something really comforting about waking up to warm oatmeal.

And they even look pretty, too.

The acorn squash was amazingly simple to cook in the slow cooker. Just pop them in whole, add a couple tablespoons of water, and cook for 4-9 hours. Then we scooped out the flesh and made it into winter squash soup with gruyere croutons, which was absolutely delicious. I thought the croutons would be the best part, but the soup stole the show.

I think the slow cooker will be a nice addition to my root vegetable arsenal. Things like squash usually take so long to cook that I don’t bother, but with this I can get the pre-cooking out of the way.

I’m worried that I got the wrong size, though. I’d read that a 6-quart slow cooker would be the most versatile, and I was really happy that it fit all four of our acorn squash. But it seems awfully large for just the two of us. Both the pesto-potato soup and the oatmeal only filled it halfway, but made more than two meals for us. So what do you slow cooker veterans think? Should I downsize?