Guest Blogger: Organically Pretty Picks

So nice to meet you! That's me, Laurie, on the left. I started Beauty's SPOT: Spa. Product. Organics. Travel. on a whim during a cross country drive to San Francisco exactly one year ago. Since then I've bagged my 9 to 5 and started writing beauty and spa content for any website that will have me. Basically, I'm a single, 27 year old gal living the dream. Chances are I'll be visiting a beauty counter, spa, or fashion show near you soon. So check out the SPOT and say hi if you see me around your town. I'll be the one who looks like I robbed a Circuit City and a Sephora and stuffed the entire contents in my purse;)

Photo taken at Smashbox Studios during LA Fashion Week with blogger Marta Walsh (right) of Beauty Interviews.

Cult favorite Jonathan launched my new hair care darling, Green Rootine, this year. With a total of 11 ingredients the Silkening Creme (a leave-in styling creme) is redefining natural hair care with nary an -onium or -aben suffix in the mix. Eight of its eleven ingredients can be purchased in the produce section of your local market. I have the most unmanageable hair combo known to man - thick, frizzy, course, and wavy (or not depending on the weather.) This au-natch silkening cream cocoons my locks in an abundance of nature's finest fruits and flora, from avocado to orange to black cumin. My mane always emerges bouncy, entirely frizz-free, and glowing with a healthy shine a la Cindy Crawford in her Pepsi days.

Desperate for a clean, non-chalky, mineral powder I did something drastic. I took one whole day out of my life and committed myself to the Sephora in Union Square - forbidden to leave until I emerged victorious, the world's best minerals in hand. The winner? Laura Mercier's Mineral Powder SPF 15, a combination of crushed pearls, minerals, and amino acids. Upon application my skin drank in the minerals with ease, assuring me these minerals were relatively earth and body friendly. Finally, and let's not play - equally as important - Ms. Mercier Minerals's made my skin look FAB. (In beauty blogger speak that is f-ing. absolutely. beautiful.)

Trained as an architect in her native Romania, Anastasia (no last name necessary) now turns her skilled eye to designing eyebrows for everyone from Oprah to Eva. Don't you think it's time to let the world's leading brow expert into your living room? First, Anastasia will personally instruct you in these how-to videos on Sephora.com. Then please, I beg you, purchase this kit. The pretty-in-pink tweezers are as precise as a surgeon's scalpel and as durable as a workhorse's bit. The stencils make it impossible to over-pluck, and the brow highlighter doubles as the perfect concealer for any facial hyper-pigmentation. Need a new look? It's in this bag, baby.


Penchant for instant gratification? This Deep Cleansing Chlorophyll Mask from Korres provides the perfect solution, no nonsense label included. The green and white Argil clay base is a potent opponent for hormonal or stress related break outs. The sebum-absorbing properties of the zinc and phytic acid even out blotchy skin and act as anti-oxidants. In the middle of busy, on the road, business weeks 10 minutes with this mask leaves my skin smooth, supple, oil-free, and transforms me from a stressed, jet-lagged blogger into a calm clear-skinned beauty.

I don't know how it's possible that a certain color of lipstick can change my mood for the better, increase my performance at work, and make me feel entirely sexy all the time, but it is in fact possible. And I get to be of service to the planet while wearing it. My favorite shade in the eco-fabulous CARGO PlantLove Lipstick line is Kim Raver's Cherry Bliss. I honestly think every woman should have a tube.