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Root Beauty deodorant

Do you make it a point to buy and eat organic food? Do you also pay attention to what you put on your body as much as you do to what you put in it? If you do, then Root Beauty is for you.

Root Beauty is a local L.A. company that makes organic facial moisturizer, hand cream and deodorant from recognizable ingredients. For example, the hand cream contains organic shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil and sweet almond oil. That’s it.

Founder Kristin Lauterbach just launched the company in May, but she has been a proponent of living a toxin-free life for years. She started out buying local, organic food but soon realized there was so much more to think about.

“I started reading what was in the [beauty] products I was buying, and I couldn’t pronounce most of the words on the back of the bottle,” she said. “I realized I was putting chemicals all over me all the time. I wanted to know how I could reduce my chemical exposure while still maintaining my urban lifestyle.”

So Lauterbach started making her own skin care products in her kitchen. Through trial and error, and “a little art, a little science,” she came up with products that she would give to friends and family, who encouraged her to sell them. After a while, she realized this was her calling and decided to take a break from the film industry she was working in.

I took the Balance Face Moisturizer and the deodorant for a two-week trial run, both with better-than-expected results.

The Balance moisturizer, which contains organic grape seed, bergamot, niaouli, lavender and vitamin E oils, is formulated for combination and oily skin. Because it’s oil-based, I was a bit skeptical as to how it would balance my already oily skin, but almost immediately I could tell that my skin felt better and looked more balanced. It wasn’t the best option for me when it came to being a bit sweaty, as is the case in this current heat wave, but other than that, I have no complaints. I even used it with a prescription rosacea cream, and I didn’t experience any adverse effects.

When it came to trying the deodorant, I was kind of scared, actually. I’ve never not used an antiperspirant, and I was afraid I would be a sweaty mess without one. But the organic corn starch and the baking soda kept me pretty dry (under normal temperatures, not so much in this current heat), and the organic virgin coconut and rosemary oils kept me smelling almost good enough to eat (not really, but the deodorant on its own smells really tasty). Just remember to keep it cool because if you don’t, it’ll separate due to the addition of coconut oil. The fact that this natural deodorant works nearly as well as aluminum-laden antiperspirant is a welcome development for someone who’s married to the person who made a documentary about our chemical body burden.

Trying to buy beauty products that don’t contain phthalates, which often hide in the names of “DBP,” “DEP” and “fragrance” (try finding something that doesn’t contain “fragrance”!) and have been known to cause disruptions of the endocrine system, is really tough. But Root Beauty makes it easy, and it sounds as if Lauterbach is on to something here — personally and professionally.

“Root Beauty just became a natural progression of my journey,” she said. “I know this sounds cheesy, but I love when people try my products and they not only work for them, but they really enjoy them.”

Note: These products were complimentary.

Once in a while, you get some great products in an event gift bag, and you just have to write about it. Such was the case with the Star Chefs gift bag, which included a couple of really cool eco-friendly products that I’ve been obsessing over ever since.

Further: This company makes soap, lotion and candles out of the glycerin derived from distilled biofuel. According to the company’s website, Further co-owner and founder Marshall Dostal found himself with gallons of glycerin left over from making biofuel out of used vegetable oil he picked up from L.A. restaurants. His wife and business partner, Megan, saw all this glycerin and said, “You need to get this sh*t out of our house!” (OK, I have no idea if that part is true, but that’s my interpretation of the website’s “walked into the garage and became alarmed at what her husband had accumulated.”) And so Further was born.

I got a bottle of the hand soap and was immediately excited. Ever since my fiance, Rory, started working on his documentary Toxic Soup, which describes the ill effects of chemicals in almost everything we use, own, eat, etc., we have been more conscious about the stuff we put on and in our bodies. Since Further is made in an eco-friendly manner from something that would have been thrown away, is biodegradable, was not tested on animals and doesn’t contain chemicals (the scent comes from essential oils), I realize I had hit the green jackpot! The scent is great, too — made from bergamot, olive and exotic grasses, it’s unisex and not overwhelming. The only thing I wish were different about it is the price: soap and lotion retail for $12.50 each, and the candle goes for $24. Being green isn’t cheap, but this stuff would make great gifts.

VerTerra: This company makes disposable dishware out of fallen leaves from trees in south Asia. According to the company, these leaves would be burned usually, so this is another waste-turned-useful product. The leaves then have steam, heat and pressure applied to them to make them into plates and bowls without any glue. Considering how well these products hold liquids, I was shocked to learn that there was no glue holding them together. VerTerra naturally composts in two months, so you can toss them guilt-free. And they’re pretty cool-looking, too!

I’m always searching for the best beauty products for my oily skin and hair, and I’ve gone through nearly every product at Trader Joe’s on this quest, so I thought I would share my experiences with you, dear readers.

Now you may be thinking, Really? Trader Joe’s for beauty products? Well, I figure if I like the grocery chain’s food, I might like its soaps and shampoos as well. After many tries of various TJ products, I think I’ve found some that I like best.

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