When it comes to cosmetics, I like anything that goes near by eyes to be as natural as possible. So I was thrilled to see that Tarte's fall cosmetics line was packed with eco-friendly eye products. From eye primers to femme naturale eye palettes, the entire line was made from chemical free materials and put into reusable packaging. By far the best product of the line is the multiplEYE natural lash enhancer. I was a bit skeptical upon receiving a sample. The clear liquid, applied nightly claims to increase the appearance of your lash length by 152%. MultiplEYE is made from a HydroPlant Peptide which includes soy and amino acid proteins, the plant-thickening agent cellulose, and vitamin C. After six weeks, my lashes are longer, thicker, and most importantly feel much healthier after years of mascara abuse. The wand retails for $65 and is avaialable at Sephora, Henri Bendel, and Bergdorf Goodman.

Indulge your taste for luxury handbags without sacrificing the planet -- no guilt when shopping Matt & Nat as all of their creations are made with recycled plastic water bottle linings and some even have recycled material exteriors as well. The bag shown above, for example, made of 100% recycled materials and according to the website's count (they give you a bottle count for every bag) it took 49 bottles to create -- that's a lot of plastic kept out of the landfill. It's the Davis Green Vegan Handbag and features green faux suede on the outside and khaki faux suede on the inside, decorative stitching, antiqued brass hardware, and of course the Matt & Nat logo bar. $215

See more Matt & Nat creations in the gallery below.

Today is Blog Action Day, a day to celebrate greenness and highlight the need for a focus on climate change. To wit, small changes start at home, and can involve pet products too. Here are a few "green" brands that make pet products:

Eco-Me: products to keep your dog clean as well as with which to clean up, plus treats; more here

Natural Woof: exercise products, cleaners, toys & treats, beds & bowls, collars & outerwear, travel items, and homeopathic remedies; small-home dwellers, try this

Dress My Pooch: the name says it all -- clothing for dogs plus all kinds of other essentials

Zia & Tia: organics for every member of the family (humans too); pet lovers, go here for toys, beds, and apparel

Urban Leash & Treat: smaller, lower-priced items, but still all the essentials as well as some fun things (cat stuff too)

Metro Dog: all you'd expect for city dogs. Tip: keep them off your one sofa by giving them their own bed. You also can meet some real city dogs, who are allowed on the furniture, in my friend Shira's blog, Saving for Sesame. Follow The Real House Whippets of NYC on all their adventures!

If you need even more info on luxury pet products, some green (let's hope lots green), save the date for the Luxury Pet Pavilion, March 12-13, 2010, Los Angeles.

Organic wine has become more popular in recent years but for some wineries working in harmony with the environment is nothing new. Spottswoode in Napa Valley has been farming organically since 1985, and have been certified by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) since 1990. The winery also makes use of cover crops, beneficial planting and many other organic farming methods.

Beth Novak Milliken of Spottswoode says that they have done many things to be the "best possible stewards of our 45-acre estate property." In addition to organic farming they have also installed solar panels at the winery and vineyard. They also actively conserve and recycle and use have bees and bird boxes on the property. The 25th anniversary 2006 Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $130 a bottle and the 2008 Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc is $36 per bottle. The winery is also a member of 1% For the Planet, a group that has pledged to contribute one percent of sales to environmental groups around the world.

I have to confess that I have a lot of cynicism about hotels and their efforts to help the environment. There's hardly a hotel that I visit that doesn't give me the opportunity to save the earth by opting not to have my sheets and towels replaced, which does indeed save on water and detergent, but, I know it also saves the hotel serious dollars. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against win-win situations, I'm just not getting too many green good vibes if doing less laundry is the only earth-friendly step that a hotel takes.

In fairness, it's often hard for a guest to tell what a hotel is doing for the environment, because most of the heavy lifting comes behind the scenes -- in the hotel's construction, energy supplies and so on. Here are a few fabulous properties that are also doing right by the planet, in ways you might not recognize.

• The Nines in Portland, Oregon. In the renovation of this hotel from its previous life as a department store, 90 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills for reuse or recycling. In addition, housekeeping employs green cleaning products and the hotel gets 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources including wind power and carbon offsets.
  
• The Westin Riverfront Beaver Creek, Colorado: This hotel just received Silver LEED certification, and it's saving energy in a variety of ways, including a building control system that allows the front desk to adjust the temperature in guest rooms so unoccupied rooms aren't heated or cooled unnecessarily. The hotel also donated a 5 acre zone along the Eagle river as a permanent public open space.
• The Ritz Carlton Highlands, North Lake Tahoe: This soon-to-open hotel was built with environmental factors in mind, from careful site planning designed to spare as many trees as possible, to the introduction of underground parking, which reduces the use of asphalt, allowing snow melt and rain to return to the water table. What's more, Northstar Resort, which the Ritz is a part of, is the first ski resort to be entirely LEED certified.
• Harbor View, Martha's Vineyard. One of the most luxurious places to stay on Martha's Vineyard also has a serious commitment to the environment, from its use of low-flow plumbing, to energy efficient appliances, to an active recycling program that includes replacing the distribution of plastic water bottles with reusable water bottles and water stations.

Our sister blog, WalletPop recently interviewed the fabulous Bette Midler on her New York Restoration Project. The non-profit, which works to revitalize parks and public spaces throughout New York City, built a community garden in one of New York's toughest neighborhoods, in the Bronx. The garden opened October 6 and will also host cooking demonstrations, gardener workshops, summer concerts and community movie nights.

Most of the plots of land will go to school children at neighboring P.S. 73 so they can learn more about gardening. Midler is working on establishing green jobs in New York City and the New York Restoration Project has a goal to plane one million trees in New York in ten years. They recently celebrated the planting of the 250,000th tree. Target has funded the project, backing both the Target Community Garden in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn which opened in 2007 and the Target East Harlem Community Garden which opened in 2008 Target also established a fund to help maintain the gardens. Check out more from Midler in the video above.

Can modular and concrete be luxurious? The picture above shows the construction of Cheeca Lodge's green, four-story Main Lodge in Islamorada, Florida. The Cheeca Lodge & Spa is set to re-open on December 15. The 840 square foot suites were delivered complete to Cheeca Lodge with fully-equipped bathrooms including marble tile floors, granite counter tops, bath fixtures, and marble and glass rain showers and all electrical wiring and cabling throughout the suite. The fire-resistant modules are highly insulated, energy efficient and made of 30 percent recycled materials. High impact glass windows will be added along with luxury finishes such as mahogany crown moldings, doors and cabinetry, textured walls, carpeted floors, original art and twenty-four foot wide balconies along with an open air round tub for two with an overhead tub filler.

In addition to the new suites, Cheeca's transformation will include an indoor-outdoor lobby lounge, meeting room, two new restaurants, a club floor with a sun deck and 2400 square feet of retail space which includes a Cheeca signature store featuring Tommy Bahama products.

Packing lunch is not just for kids anymore, as the budget- and health-conscious know. But there's no reason it can't be done in style and in a green manner, whether for the kids or for you. Kids Konserve's waste-free lunch kit was designed by two environmentalists and comprises a recycled cotton lunch sack, cloth napkin, stainless steel beverage bottle, food cozy, two stainless steel food containers with plastic lids, and a recycled aluminum name tag. The stainless steel is made from safe, certified food-grade materials, much of it recycled. All Kids Konserve products are non-toxic, non-leaching, and BPA-, PVC-, phthalate-, and lead-free. Lunch kit, $40 - $42

If you live in the NYC area, as I do, you are bombarded with radio and TV ads for Sleepy's, "the mattress professionals." Their never-ending self-promotion and "one-day sales" (until the next one, tomorrow) get on my last nerve. So why am I mentioning them? Because when I walked past a Sleepy's store last week I saw an ad in the window for the Spaldin Soy Bed. A soy bed? Really? I was intrigued.

Turns out that Spaldin, a Spanish company, makes its soy mattresses in four types: Aircell-Soy, Biocell-Soy, Sensitex-Soy, and Memory-Soy. All are made from biodegradable materials that are cultivated without pesticides and processed without harmful chemicals. Read more here.

Quality rest and environmental peace of mind are not inexpensive, however. While prices are not listed on the Spaldin site, this page at, ahem, Sleepy's, gives an idea of the price range of Spaldin beds. Original prices run from $1,400 - $5,000. As of this writing, Sleepy's has all four models on sale. Alas, green costs now but saves the planet for later.

To save the environment is to save your ass, and a new underwear company is making both more comfortable. PACT, which launched last month, integrates organic materials and a low-impact manufacturing, shipping and shopping process to deliver comfort and style ... but not at the expense of the rainforests and ozone layer. Premium organic is poised to become the next iteration of conspicuous luxury (if it's not there already), and hiding a PACT product under your jeans could someday supplant a Patek-clad wrist.

Well, maybe that's wishful thinking from an ol' tree-hugger, but there is no doubt that the premium associated with environmentally friendly products is already beginning to carve out its own space in the world of luxury products.

Manufactured in Turkey – from the farming of organic cotton to finished product, all within a 100-mile radius – PACT underwear requires a lower level of carbon emissions to produce, and every link in the supply chain, the company says, is certified to exceed the highest environmental standards. Where no certification exists, PACT uses social expectations as its benchmark (and not the expectations of a guy who clubs seals for sport). Packaging for shipping bags is compostable and encloses another bag, made from cloth scraps and reusable.
The company eschews filler, plastic and big cardboard boxes.

"We looked at underwear through the lens of 360º design," says Jeff Denby, PACT Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder. "Having fuseproject as an equity partner in PACT illuminates the fundamental importance of design to the PACT brand. Our collaboration is key to generating what we believe are the most innovative ideas at the intersection of business, design and sustainability."

The Stave Oak Collection from Savante Wine Cellars not only looks great it uses reclaimed parts of retired wine barrels to create aged wine racks. The wine barrels, which are no longer suitable for aging wine would otherwise be sent to landfills.Wine barrels generally have a life expectancy of around five to seven years.

The Stave Oak collection uses all pieces of the wine barrel from the white oak staves, to the steel bands that hold the barrels together, to the cooperage brand on the wood. The cellars are put together using mortise and tenon construction.

Ever wonder how a wine barrel is made? It's a neat bit of artistry which requires quite a bit of preparation of the wood. It takes a craftsman about eight hours total to create a barrel. For more information check out this great summary of the process.

[via LA Times]

The Bentley Continental Supersports is otherwise a Continental GT that has gotten some face work done, gone on a diet, and gotten a new diet. We took a trip around the car in Beverly Hills with the company's Dealer Events Specialist, Jon DiVaio, who assured us this is just the beginning in a proper green strategy for the brand from Crewe. Our take on it after one go 'round was "Love the car, but the manual trunk, not so much..." Oh, and "Yes, we'll take it."

Okay, so you're probably not going to get anywhere near the Obamas on their planned August getaway to Martha's Vineyard, as the Boston Globe reports, but it's hard to imagine a nicer place to be in late summer.

No word yet on where the Obamas will be staying while on the Vineyard, but a good pick for presidential accommodations could be the newly renovated Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown. (Sidenote: I visited last September, and on a sunset cruise of the harbor on the hotel's restored center-console wooden boat Stardust, spotted Walter Cronkite's house, and Walter reading in his living room. R.I.P.)

Besides its many large suites and private cottages for staff, the Harbor View has liberal street cred, since the owner, Scout Capital Real Estate, has a focus on sustainability. It's replacing single-use plastic bottles with reusable bottles and installing water stations throughout the property, for example, using solar heat for its pool, and during the renovation, donated furnishings, cabinetry, appliances to Habitat for Humanity, among other charities.

Scout's also got a nifty sustainability laboratory property on Esther Island off Nantucket where it's playing with other green technologies that might have use at its hotel properties, which includes generating all of its own electricity through a combination of solar panels and a power-generating wind turbine. Of course, wind turbines have been something of a political third-rail in these parts, so probably best for Obama not to mention that during his stay.

According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the long-anticipated right-hand-drive Roadster is coming in the first quarter of 2010 and will be available in both standard and Sport guise. The first market that's slated for electrification is, as you would expect, the United Kingdom, and Tesla's first European showroom has already opened up in Knightsbridge.

In addition to Great Britain, Musk has also indicated that Japan, Australia and India are seen as important right-hand-drive markets for the automaker to pursue in short order. The switch from LHD to RHD is surely made easier by the fact that the Lotus Elise, which shares a large portion of its chassis with the Roadster, was initially designed as a right-hand vehicle.

Interestingly, there's already a lone Tesla Roadster in Australia, but that left-hand-drive car was imported by a man named Simon Hackett for his own personal use at a cost of about $200,000 Australian dollars – nearly twice what a Roadster costs in the States. Click past the break to watch a short video segment featuring that car.


Photo copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Go Auto]

We've been seeing more and more wine companies considering plastic wine bottles as a greener alternative to glass. The bottles are lighter and 100 percent recyclable. One Australian producer, Wolf Blass creates a line called "Green Label" that uses these lighter bottles. But a new study which was commissioned by the plastic bottle manufacturer Portavin shows that while the bottles might be better for the environment they are not so good for wine over the long haul. While wine stored in plastic or glass taste similar at first, after eight to 12 months the taste changes. The PET bottles let air in, oxidizing the wine. The cheaper, lighter bottles should be used for more inexpensive wine which will be consumed quickly.