Environmentally friendly cosmetics used to be tough to come by and most women usually had to settle for the best of the worst when it came to toxin-filled makeup. Now that "green", or environmentally friendly, is in, many women are looking to get rid of their old cosmetics like lipstick, nail polish, eye shadow, blush, and foundation, and replace them with new ones that aren’t full of toxic chemicals and don’t harm the earth. Companies are eager to serve consumer demand for environmentally friendly makeup and personal care items. What can you do to find them?

First you need to know what you don’t want in your cosmetics. Familiarize yourself with the toxic ingredients used in cosmetics. Some of these ingredients are parabens, phthalates, petroleum and its byproducts, and formaldehyde and its byproducts. There are many websites devoted to listing toxic ingredients found in many popular cosmetic brands, such as planetgreen.discovery.com, safecosmetics.org, Many of these ingredients are difficult to remember, much less pronounce, so be sure to write them down or otherwise make a list of them and keep it in your purse for convenient access.

When you go shopping for cosmetics, use your list to eliminate the cosmetics that contain the toxic ingredients you’ve written down. Look carefully at the labels of all of the cosmetics you consider buying. If any of your normal cosmetics contains a harmful ingredient, it’s not truly green.

If you are unable to find cosmetics without toxic ingredients at the stores where you usually shop, try to browse in new stores. Your local health food store should have some green cosmetics in stock. Many of their products are certified organic, which means they do not contain artificial ingredients. Be sure to ask the store staff for their recommendations for truly environmentally friendly cosmetics. You can also order organic or truly natural cosmetics online from websites organic-skincare.com, and organiccosmetics.com, among many others. As the green revolution continues, products like these will be easier and easier to find, which will help the peace of mind of the environmentally conscious consumer.