The new rule for choosing a sustainable beauty product? If you can’t pronounce its ingredients, don’t put it on your body. After all, it’s not so easy to feel fabulous when you’re wondering about multi-syllable petroleum-based contents and potentially harmful chemicals. (Read Cosmetics Conundrum, - July/August 2009, for a list of what to avoid.)

Following the rule is easier than you might expect: Ditch the drugstore in favor of locally made lines. The beauty of buying from an area artisan is that you can talk to the source about the ingredients, all the better for finding natural products that are good for your skin as well as the Earth. Here are four sources worthy of your pretty pennies.

Herbal Art
Bryan Paffen’s line of soaps, lotions, and candles serves as a reward for finding his underthe-radar shop in Fishers (he recently moved to 116th Street and I-69, near Target). The North Carolina transplant with a chemistry background has received a lot of love from the ecofriendly community since he introduced Herbal Art, entirely hypoallergenic and handcrafted by him: “Like Granny Clampett in a cauldron,” he says. It also passed muster with the discriminating Indiana Artisans jury to earn the program’s seal of approval.

Honey and shea butter are the main—and almost only—ingredients in Herbal Art products. Paffen makes soap in 40-plus fragrances, scented with essential oils, plant extracts, spices, and even the pulp of wine grapes—all from Indiana, and all organic if available. Paffen makes loaves of soap and slices off bars in the
store, which cuts down on packaging. From his summer collection, he recommends eucalyptus and spearmint, “a great morning soap,” he says. Other products include hand cream, exfoliating shower gel, shampoo, soy candles, and unscented products popular with men and those with sensitive skin.

EyeMax Cosmetics
No parabens, no dyes, no fragrances, no petroleum-derived mineral oil—the Eye-Max Custom-Blend Foundation by Kiralee Hubbard is not only whipped up specially for each customer, it’s made for green goddesses, too.

Hubbard, a local makeup artist, worked for Estee Lauder and MAC before launching her own business, EyeMax by Kiralee Professional Makeup Studio. Her line has remained a bit of a secret because it’s sold exclusively through the studio, which is open by appointment only. In July, Hubbard is expanding EyeMax into a retail shop in Broad Ripple.

The foundation stands out as a supremely natural product. It’s available in a variety of finishes—dewy, matte, sheer, full-coverage, or anywhere in between—and Hubbard keeps each customer’s recipe on file for easy re-ordering.

EyeMax’s expansion also makes room for new products, and Hubbard is most excited about offering Dr. Alkaitis skincare, nationally recognized as a top all-natural line. A favorite of supermodel Gisele Bündchen, it’s made only from organically grown or wild-crafted plants, unpolluted sea life, pure water, certified organic grape alcohol, and vegetable glycerins.

Ambre Blends
Many top boutiques in Indianapolis not only sell this fragrance line, but also love it so much that they use the room spray to scent the store. Open the door to Frankey’s, Uber, or Pillow Talk, and you will most likely catch a whiff of Ambre Blends.

The line of essential-oil fragrances by Ambre Ashley, a former massage therapist, has grown more than 500 percent in the last year—with only three scents on offer and without a dime spent on marketing. It’s now sold in 100 stores around the country, including more than 30 Indy-area boutiques, spas, and salons. Each of the scents—sensual Ambre, fresh Invoke, and calming Solace—is available as a body spritzer, pure olive-oil soap,
body cream, and pocket-sized, refillable roll-on perfume. The spritzer is versatile: “We have customers who spray it on their hair, their linens, their dog beds—even their dogs,” Ashley says.

Be Bliss
Aromatherapist and certified rawfood chef Audrey Barron relied on sleeping pills until she developed her own unusual remedy: a pillow spray called Be Rested. Made with organic lavender, organic rose, purified water, and vodka (a preservative), it’s now the most popular item in her line of aromatherapy products.

Another personal favorite is her salt scrub that exfoliates and moisturizes. “When my husband liked it, I knew it would have wide appeal. He’s pretty picky about what’s on his skin,” she says. “It’s a pampering part of your shower. Rub it on at the end, and it leaves a very thin layer of oil as you’re drying off. You don’t have to use lotion.” To make five varieties of Body Glow, Barron uses Dead Sea salt, organic dried herbs and flowers, organic bamboo silk, and natural base oils like coconut, avocado, and almond.

Barron creates scents based on “not just what smells good together, but what facilitates certain kinds of healing.” Her products are available at Be Boutique. She also delivers locally, which has an advantage: a $1 credit for returning bottles to be recycled.

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