A Valentine's Gift to Swoon Over

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, really, it's time to start hinting to your loved ones or planning to "treat yo self" for that holiday filled with loooooove. Something that I've seen that I think is a fantastic little gift is the mani/pedi set from True Moringa, Meow Meow Tweet and D.I.D. For those looking to get a gift that #1 won't break the bank #2 will show a little creativity and #3 is a healthy beauty option, look no further. I love to see brands that I admire, team up for something really cool. Check out what you'll get and where to find it for purchase!

M E O W  M E O W  T W E E T   M O I S T U R I Z I N G   S O A P 

CLEANSE. Hand crafted in small batches with organic, unrefined plant oils and butters, steam-distilled and cold-pressed essential oils and organic and wild-crafted botanicals, Meow Meow Tweet Organic Soaps sponge away impurities while rejuvenating winter skin. MMT products are always vegan, cruelty free, and created with socially conscious ingredients all the way down to the whimsically illustrated packaging. Soap up and soak before your mani-pedi!

T R U E   M O R I N G A   C U T I C L E +  B O D Y  O I L  

HEAL. Anti-aging, moisturizing radiance from nature’s ‘miracle tree.’ True Moringa All-Purpose Body Oil restores essential fatty acids and antioxidants to prevent damage and dryness and radiate healthy, supple skin. Apply to cuticles daily for beautiful, strong nails and massage post mani-pedi for happy hands and feet.

D . I . D .  5 -  F R E E  N A I L  P A I N T 

GLOW. Top it off with a fun, fresh coat of shimmer from non-toxic D.I.D. Nail Paint. D.I.D. offers a host of highly pigmented, eco-friendly nail color collection that compliments the beautiful tone of your skin in 1 - 2 coats. We chose limited-edition champagne-inspired Prosecco shade for this mani-pedi box to bring out your inner sparkle (in a naturally sophisticated kind of way).

Find the Valentine's Day Mani+Pedi Box for purchase here and be sure to let me know what you think when you try these brands out!

Best Beauty Products + an Exciting Giveaway

I really want you to consider making some really easy switches to natural beauty options. At first, I found this to be a daunting task. I have had some really hard core brand loyalty in the past and I didn't know how I would be able to give it up... but once you start making yourself aware of the ingredients that are in even your most "trusted brands", you'll find it easier to start acting. I teamed up with 9 amazing eco, green beauty brands to bring you a giveaway of some of my favorite products out there right now. I can recommend these products because I have used them before; I want to share them with you. Check out why I love each and every one of these products and once you are through, jump to the end of the post to enter to win all of them! Pretty sweet deal, am I right?

What you'll win: $200 worth of my favorite Good for You Beauty products!

Laughing Tree Organics Night Nectar, $23

Minka Miracle Hand Salve, $14

Organic Bath Drenched Organic Body Butter, $29

Seaweed Bath Co Citrus Vanilla Body Wash, $13

Shamanuti Activated Charcoal Cleanser, $36

Skincando Combat Ready Balm, $22

Soapwalla Citrus Creme Deodorant, $14

SW Basics Makeup Remover, $14

True Moringa All Purpose Lemongrass Body Oil, $29

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*All items were donated to this giveaway by each of these beautiful people driven brands to help raise awareness of what we are putting on our bodies. The products that we choose to use are a decision that we shouldn't take lightly.

WomInspire: Emily Cunningham of True Moringa

In the Boston community, True Moringa is one of those success stories that we all love to talk about. It's how I first discovered the brand, actually. Another blogger mentioned that Emily and her business partner, Kwami Williams, had built a beauty brand that fit into so many of my "desirable" categories. I love to see a line of products that is not only natural (and works!) but to see that they produce things in an earth friendly, responsible way is something that you can't find in your average beauty brand. I had a quick chat with Emily Cunningham and just have to say that this is the type of women who takes the phrase "You can't change the world" and leaves it in her dust.

Is it true that you guys started True Moringa while in college? #1 How ambitious + awesome and #2 Where did the inspiration come from?

First, College is the best time to start something! The resources we were able to access through our university networks, the mentorship, the energy of the social enterprise ecosystem of Boston - not to mention the benefits of being young and naive and not taking "no" for an answer :) 

The inspiration and idea behind our brand and mission came from the farmers. My co-founder Kwami Williams and I were lucky enough to travel to Ghana through MIT's D-Lab to work on affordable technologies for developing countries. While there, we were struck by a paradox: there are 1.5 billion acres of fertile, uncultivated land in Africa and 120 million smallholder farmers living on that land earning less than $2 per day. 

Think about exactly what that means- here we are, in the midst of the tropics where some of the most beautiful and valuable botanicals grow - and farmers are struggling to get by on subsistence crops. We knew there was huge untapped potential for high-value agriculture. The farmers came to us with the idea to commercialize one crop in particular called moringa, known locally as 'the miracle tree' for its medicinal properties. We went back to Cambridge to do some market research and study the benefits and were absolutely floored. 

The seeds of the tree produce nature's best anti-aging moisturizing oil for hair and skin care. The leaves of the same tree are rich in nutrients, boasting more vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, and more protein than eggs per serving. The waste product of oil processing is an ideal organic fertilizer, poultry feed, and flocculant to purify water. The tree thrives in arid climates and produces leaves within two months and seeds within 8 months, mitigating risk for small farmers. Miracle tree indeed.