By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World What’s a hat got to do with it? The Kentucky Derby would never be the same without them. Other than a royal wedding, no event is more strongly associated with the wearing of ostentatious hats than the Kentucky Derby. Alternatively [...]

By Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of the Resplendent Repurposing series
I found a black leather unisex blazer from the Gap: $20.00 at Goodwill in Van Nuys. Someone recently told me he owns the identical blazer. He paid $300.00 for it. by Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant You are terrified and frantic. You cram yourself, with six other women, into a three-foot by four-foot bathroom in a remote corner of your neighbor’s house. In order to survive, you will remain in this space for the next 91 days, with little to eat or drink, hardly room [...]

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World   Have you ever had a center stage moment when you are the envy of every woman (and even a few men) in a room? Even if the room happens to be one of many at the spectacular and historic [...]

Candice Held dresses have inspired us at LuxEco Living to think outside the box when it comes to sourcing eco-conscious materials. Saving the environment is not just about finding rare and exotic eco-friendly materials. In fact, sometimes it can be as simple as extending the life of the clothing already in our closets.

By Nancy Chuda  founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Spring is here. You feel like you need a break. A two-night stay, somewhere not too far from home, a place once discovered, you will want to return to every year. You can stretch it! The dollar goes a long [...]

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World.   In Paris, fashion takes on new heights when it comes to the exquisite work of Alber Elbaz. For years the French couture house Lanvin had lagged behind some of the greats, Chanel and Yves St. Laurent to mention just [...]

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Health World Lead in her Lipstick? Not Meryl! Not in real life. But as Margaret Thatcher it seems to fit the character. According to a new FDA study, the media highlighted a federal analysis revealing that approximately 400 shades of popular lipsticks contained [...]

By Dow-Yung Kou, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Vintage is a very affordable eco-alternative, because it is giving clothes a second life, while reducing the amount of waste both during production and post-consumption. What it boils down to is good old fashion recycling. An average American throws out 65 pounds of clothing a year, and cumulatively as a country we add 11.8 million tons of clothes to landfills a year.

By Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of the Resplendent Repurposing series
Even wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at your local thrift store? About how your donations are used — are they really helping people? How the charity decides what to charge? What happens to the stuff that doesn’t sell? And just how Green an operation is it, anyhow?
I got an inside peek into the operation of what is perhaps the best-stocked, best-run chain of thrift stores in the greater Los Angeles area when I spoke with executives of the National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles at the Fairfax Avenue headquarters.

By Sahar Ghaffari, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
There’s a new trend in hair fashion that’s sexy, earthy, and may actually be easier on your pocket book. It’s called ombre, which in French means shaded or graduated in tone. The look involves darker roots which gradually become lighter as you go down the hair; giving a natural, sun-kissed look.

By Nancy Chuda, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
I took a break over the holidays and went to Florida to visit family and friends. I packed light. And I was glad I did, having discovered a true treasure: A prestigious consignment store called Circa Vintage in Tequesta, Florida (near Jupiter) in The Village Shops on U.S. Highway 1. It’s an upscale, glamorous consignment boutique of current designer and vintage fashions – and shoppers are flocking to it! If you’re in the area you won’t want miss it. Fortunately, you don’t have to fly all the way to Jupiter — you can shop here online.

Owner Carol Wright was just twelve when she recognized that collecting old dresses could someday bring in green – which in the world of high-end vintage means big money.

By Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEcoLiving Editorial Assistant
“In donning this well-preserved classic dress, I believe the First Lady is not merely paying homage to a long-forgotten American designer. She’s accessorized this exquisite black lace cocktail dress with an understated Green brooch.”

By Dow-Yung Kou, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Have you ever been at a loss for what to do with tissue paper or wrapping paper that you get during the holidays. It usually just accumulates, and by the next year, the wrapping paper looks too tattered to reuse and you end up throwing it away. Well here is a perfect solution! Make ornaments out of them!

by Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
A future gift, recycled in a thrift store, made from recycled materials. Now that’s a LuxEco Resplendent Repurposing triple header! by Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEcoLiving Editorial Assistant

By Dow-Yung Kou, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
If you are looking to explore your eco-friendly sense of style, look no further than La Bomba Vintage clothing in Long Beach, CA! La Bomba is a vintage store located on an urbanizing block that meshes a little bit of new with a lotta bit of vintage. The up and coming area is full of vintage inspired salon’s, restaurants, and clothing stores, but hands down, the jewel of this block goes to a little shop by the name of La Bomba.

By Amanda Nisenson, Opera Singer and LuxEco Advocate
“Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore.” These are the first two phrases that Tosca sings in her famous Act 2 aria, “Vissi d’arte.” The English translation means, “I lived for art, I lived for love.” Puccini’s Tosca was one of Maria Callas’ most infamous operatic roles and the prime example of life imitating art. Callas’ life ended on September 16, 1977 in a Paris apartment. It is said that she died of a broken heart as did opera singer Floria Tosca at the end of the opera. Callas had an extra special gift which was reflected in the art form of opera. Transforming passion through music for the world to hear was what she sacrificed her life for.

By Sahar Ghaffari, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
The cosmetic market today is saturated with thousands of products that claim to tighten, moisturize, and smooth your skin; but usually these claims come with a hefty cost, artificial ingredients, and not necessarily the results you were hoping for. However, the answers to some of your skin problems could be secretly hidden right in your very own kitchen.

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

Sophie Uliano is the guru of all things green that coincide with feeling and looking gorgeous. An advocate of eco-friendly living without the sacrifice of beauty and glamour, she is the New York Times best-selling author of “Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life,” “The Gorgeously Green Diet,” and “Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products.” Her breadth of knowledge is tremendous, ranging from non-toxic skin care, to gardening, to eco-friendly home restoration.

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
Fashion design is an art, and just like other art forms such as writing, cooking, and painting, you need to scrap the first drafts and unruly pieces before producing your masterpiece. But with these scraps come a never-ending contribution to landfills and further pollution to our environment. This awareness has fueled designers in the fashion industry to attempt “zero waste fashion.”

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

Have you ever wondered how your shampoo fulfills its magnificent claims to give you “shinier,” “sleeker,” “frizz freer,” “blonder,” “brunetter,” (…the list goes on) hair? Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff and The Story of Bottled Water, wondered this of her personal favorite, Pantene Pro-V. She looked at the ingredients on the bottle post-lather and thought, “Sodium laureth sulfate? Tetrasodium EDTA? Methylisothiazolinone? What is this stuff?” After doing some research, she found the truth behind her shampoo was disheartening, to say the least. In her most recent short film installment, The Story of Cosmetics, Annie Leonard tells us how it’s not just shampoo, but many personal care products that contain toxic ingredients. From sunscreen to lipstick, there are disease-causing chemicals in our daily product regimen responsible for cancer, learning disabilities, and much more.

by Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Green is in and it is here to stay.  Eco-friendly products have blossomed on the fashion scene and are growing in popularity and diversity every day.  One love child of sustainability and fashion is the reusable shopping bag.  Originally a modest reducer of plastic bags in grocery stores, you [...]

by Jessica Borges, LuxEco Editorial Assistant As you’re staring blankly into your “so last year” closet full of drab clothing that you just can’t bear to don again this summer, why not make some wardrobe changes that make both you and the earth look good? Over the years, eco-conscious clothing has seen its ups and downs. [...]

By Molly Cimikoski, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Here at LuxEco Living there are lots of things we like to indulge in (I write this moments after devouring Uncle Eddie’s Vegan Cookies…) and three of the big ones are eco-friendly products, helping others, and shoes. In an all-star combination of these profound loves, we couldn’t be more excited [...]