Green Beauty: Save Time, Money & The Planet

If you do three things at once, shouldn't your beauty products? EcoStiletto found spring's best "green" beauty products that multitask as well as you do.

Can you talk on the phone while simultaneously texting a friend, Tweeting an update, typing an email, and watching TV? If you're like most of us, you've gotten pretty proficient at combining at least a few of these activities: According to Nielsen, last year 57% of us went online while watching TV, averaging nearly three hours doing both.

And while a 2009 Stanford University study found that people who multitask are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to completing psychological tests, nobody seems to be making a move to stop any time soon.

Multitasking saves time. Time is of the essence. That's the bottom line.

So if you're time-crunching by multitasking, but spending tons of it applying single-function beauty products, you're squandering the essence, ecoista. We scoured the land of eco-beauty to find products that multitask as well as you do, so you can spend more time text/tweet/type/TVing — or maybe, just maybe, taking a break?

Where to begin? How about the shower, where we narrowed it down to essentials—shampoo, conditioner, face wash, body soap and shaving cream — then went on the hunt for stuff that performs at least two out of three. (Two birds and all that.)

We're absolutely in love with SEED's Conditioning Hair Shampoo Bar, which lathers up like crazy to shampoo and condition short hair (sorry, Rapunzel, you're outta luck), plus you can use it like regular bar soap, too. All of SEED's products are infused with grape seed oil, eschew parabens, petrochems and other nasties, come in recyclable and/or biodegradable packaging and are made in the U.S. No more plastic bottles in your shower and of course, no sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, which makes for suds in most shampoos.

We're suckers for anything Italian (except maybe Daniel Day Lewis' accent in "Nine"), so Belletare had us at ciao. Infused with botanical extracts and essential fatty acids, their new all-organic, all-the-time Intermezzo body polish sloughs off dead skin cells and then magically transforms into a slippery-slidey shaving lotion. Bellissima!

Okay, turn off the water. You're out, you're dry — which first: Toner or lotion? Try both! Blissoma's new Amend Antioxidant Sprayable Lotion can be used from head (well, face) to toes to hydrate and protect the skin. Infused with free-radical fighting antioxidants acai, pomegranate and rooibos tea, spray it on before sunscreen to prevent UV damage and/or after sun exposure to soothe burns. Amend has an unusually beautiful, strong geranium scent (hence the toe reference, as it makes even stinky tootsies smell sweet). One ecoista we know even tried it out as deodorant. (Which may just be taking this multitasking thing a tad bit too far.)

For many of us, dark circles are less about getting sleep (though that would help) and more about heredity. That's why the one-two punch of HydroPeptide's Eye Anti-Wrinkle Dark Circle Concentrate is so fantastic: You think you're putting on your run-off-the-mill puff-reducing, line-minimizing eye cream, but this light-refracting miracle cream works on discoloration, too, with no petrochemicals, parabens or pesky artificial fragrances to worry about.

Why use moisturizer, SPF and base when you can get all three with Josie Maran's best-selling tinted moisturizer, which racks up a solid SPF 30 while delivering flawless coverage and moisture just where you need it? But we digress. The most versatile multitasker in the JMC family is the Finger Paints Palette in Sweet, which is housed in a chic rose gold biodegradable compact and fragrance, petrochem- and paraben-free. Dip your fingers into the creamy multi-tasking quad of peach, bronze and gold hues to accent eyes, cheekbones and lips. Go on, have some fun!

Guilt-free glam — that's Revolution Organics' motto, and we're stealing it. Petrochem- and paraben-free and created with 85% certified organic ingredients, their fat little tube of Freedom Glow Beauty Balm is the perfect thing to toss in your bag when you know you'll need a little boost later in the day. In three shades to complement any skin tone, the all-in-one balm infuses lips, cheeks, eyes, and decolletage with a natural, dewy radiance. Our tip? Make a fish face and apply the balm to the inner crease of your cheeks. Grab a flat brush and spread the color up onto your cheekbones, then smile to accurately hit the apples of your cheeks. Et voila! Perfect blush.

What's with the boring lip balm in your back pocket? As long as you're going to take the time to hydrate your pucker, you might as well give it a little swipe of color, to boot. Eco Tints by Eco Lips are made with 90% certified organic ingredients and come in a veritable rainbow of colors, but our favorites are the brand-new, super-shimmery Rose Quartz, Plus Red and Mocha Velvet which seriously look amazing on every single person who's tried them.

Think multitasking ends at beauty? Think again! We're all fantasizing about jumping on a plane to anywhere, just because with these go-anywhere eco-essentials in our carry-ons, we wouldn't have to pack.

Earth Creations' organic cotton Infinity Skirt/Dress can be wrapped any number of ways, from halter dress to belted skirt to tunic — really, the possibilities are endless. Plus, this company is the first to revive the ancient, eco-friendly practice of clay dyeing, which yields rich, eco-friendly colors throughout its entire line.

Need something to hold all this stuff in? Try one of Christy Coleman's new organic canvas makeup bags, which are cute enough to double as a clutch. Christy is the tried-and-true natural makeup artist to eco-minded celebrities like Emmy Rossum, Marisa Miller, Amanda Peet and Sheryl Crow. What in her makeup bag? Nvey's multitaskers like organic Moisturizing Mascara, which in Vibrant Blue is bright enough to stand in for liner, or their magical Lip Plumper, which also enhances the lip's natural color, both available in the new EcoStiletto Shop, where a percentage of each eco-friendly sale goes to charity.

Story: Copyright 2010, Shoestring LLC & EcoStiletto.com. Image: Courtesy of Josie Maran.