Last minute Easter gifts!

Easter weekend is only days away! Do you need a last minute gift that has minimal impact on the environment? Well, look no further, I've rounded up a few of my favourite alternatives to the standard Easter Egg. But hurry, time is running out!

Support the production of organically certified and fairtrade chocolate in the Peruvian Amazon with a gift card from The Rainforest Foundation UK.

I adore these handmade, fairtrade felt slippers from Sew Heart Felt, they come in a range of children and adult sizes! - 20% off ends midday tomorrow!

Eco-friendly, sustainable, yummy chocolate tea from Teapigs! At only 5 calories cup it's a great chocolate fix for those on a diet!  

Need to buy for someone with dietary requirements? Choc chicks Chocolate Making Kit is organic, and free from dairy, gluten, soya, egg, additives, and processed sugar. There's a version for kids too!

If it simply has to be an Easter Egg, then it simply has to be the delicious, fairtrade collection from Divine - the company is co-owned by the cocoa farmers in Ghana.

Product Review: Skin Blossom Shampoo and Conditioner

At least once a fortnight (we’ll see how this pans out!) I plan on reviewing ‘green’ products with an aim to showcase companies that are at least making an effort to help the planet. When I talk to people about boycotting the mega corporations, their first reaction is almost always “well what else am I supposed to buy?” or “but everything else is way too expensive”. Hopefully I can show that there are other options out there if you search hard enough (and because I’m doing the searching for you, that step just got a whole lot easier!)

Skin Blossom Shampoo and Conditioner

Verdict:
4.5 out of 5

The blurb:
“At Skin Blossom we believe everyone deserves beautiful, healthy skin and hair. That’s why we create effective natural products using the finest organic ingredients, without the high price tag.”

Green credentials:

• Made in the UK
• Organic, natural ingredients (Certified by the Soil Association)
• Ingredients from sustainable sources (where possible ingredients come from the local community)
• Vegan friendly – no animal ingredients, no ingredients tested on animals (Registered with the Vegan Society)
• No harsh chemicals or synthetic colours or fragrances
• Packaging can be recycled

Palm oil: 
I asked Skin Blossom to clarify whether or not they use palm oil in their products. Their response was prompt and polite. Here’s the important part:
“We do not use Palm Oil directly in any of our products, however, some of the natural emulsifiers are derived from vegetable oils and this can include Palm Oil. However, this would always be from sustainable sources. As our products are certified by the Soil Association all ingredients have to meet very strict criteria to ensure they are not harmful to health, or to the environment.”

Smell:
A strong citrusy scent. Somewhere between Corona and lime on a hot summers day, and lemon scented cleaning products. Perfectly pleasant.

Application:
The worry with natural beauty products is that they won’t perform as well as the leading brands. But Skin Blossom shampoo produces a gorgeous silky lather which is a joy to use! (I never thought I’d use that phrase in reference to shampoo, but there it is.) I was however disappointed with the feel of the conditioner, it is not very creamy and seems to just dissolve into wet hair.

Results:
I can’t speak for the shampoo or conditioner as individuals as I always use them both together, but OH MY GOSH MY HAIR HAS NEVER FELT SO GOOD. Even after the first wash I could feel the difference. My hair is naturally dry and super frizzy, some days I really struggle to tame it. But my hair is now soft!!! 

Sorry, I didn't intend to get so over-excited during my first ever review - I don’t want to lose credibility here. It just really is that good! Of course everyone’s hair is different and these products might have different results for you. But I do urge you to at least give them a try!

Price:
The Shampoo retails for about £6.95 and the Conditioner about £7.95 – granted they’re not the cheapest products on the market, but considering the costs involved in producing organic products, the price is very reasonable indeed.

Stockists:
For a full list of stockists click here.

This is not a sponsored post and I am in no way affiliated with Skin Blossom.

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Earth Hour 2015!

Only 4 days until Earth Hour. Are you taking part???

http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk

The Weekly Links - Week 1

Welcome to the first Weekly Links!
 I'm planning for this to be a regular feature - every week I will compile a short list of links to my favourite, or the most important things I have read/seen that week. 
Please share your own links in the comments too!

Quote of the Week:

"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace"

-Michael Franti

Photos of the Week:

"Earlier this week, the most powerful solar flare in 20 years hit the Earth’s atmosphere, and the results have been pretty goddamn spectacular." - Click photo for more.

"The first visitors have stepped foot on Earth’s newest island that formed earlier this year from underwater volcanic eruptions." - Click photo for more.

Inspiration of the Week: 

In L.A. you can now use city land for a free vegetable garden
Britain's Bio-Bus is the first of its kind to be powered by poop!

Good News of the Week:
World’s largest single marine reserve created in Pacific

Infographic of the Week:

How recycling helps save Eastern Lowland Gorillas

Petitions of the Week:
India's farmers are at risk from Monsanto
Help save Japan's Dolphins

Show of the Week:
Free Speech - BBC Three

Organisation of the Week:
Roots of Peace
"Roots of Peace provides economic empowerment for peace through agriculture in war-torn lands."


New here? Click to find out what this blog is all about!

Palm Oil 101: Why is it bad and what can I do about it?

If you have any interest in the environment, chances are you'll have heard about palm oil. There is a lot of (often conflicting) information already written on the subject. When I first found out about palm oil I remember feeling confused and overwhelmed - Why had I not heard of it sooner? Is it really as bad as people say? What exactly can I do to help? If you have ever experienced these thoughts then the following may help...

(Maybe your environmental knowledge isn't the best - "What on Earth is palm oil?" - but you happen to think orang-utans are utterly adorable? In that case you're still going to want to read on....)

This is a short introduction to palm oil. It's unlikely to answer all of your questions, but it should help to condense some of the most important points into one handy place. I've tried to keep this as simple and concise as possible. I will likely expand on many of these points in later blog posts. This isn't 'Everything You Will Ever Need To Know About Palm Oil', this is simply 'Palm Oil 101'...

What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil, produced from the fruit of oil palms. Palm kernel oil is produced from the kernel (seed) of the fruit. Both types are high in saturated fat (bad fat!). Palm oil is found in roughly 40 to 50% of all supermarket products. From bars of soap to bars of chocolate, from margarine, to shampoo, to baby food. Most processed foods, health/beauty and cleaning products contain palm oil in some form. It is cheap and produces high yields, so is usually favoured over other types of oil. 85% of palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia. 

Why is it bad?
Deforestation - Vast swathes of forest are destroyed every day in order to make way for palm oil production. This is causing habitat loss and threatening critically endangered species such as orang-utans and the Sumatran tiger. If deforestation continues at current rates, these beautiful creatures could be extinct in the wild in as little as five years.
Climate Change - Forests are often cleared by burning, which releases smoke (carbon) into the atmosphere. Much of Indonesia's forests are over peat bogs, which are drained for palm oil production, releasing up to 10 times as much carbon as an area without peat bogs.
Social - Palm oil production has been linked to illegal immigration, slave labour, terrible working conditions and child exploitation. Land is often illegally stolen from indigenous people to be cleared for plantations. The indigenous people must either move on, or become plantation workers themselves.
Animal Welfare - Deforestation makes it easier for poachers and smugglers to capture animals for the illegal pet trade, for tourist entertainment, as souvenirs/trophies or using body parts for medicinal purposes.
Health - Palm oil is high in saturated fats and several studies have linked palm oil consumption to health issues such as cardiovascular disease.

What can I do? 
This is by no means an exhaustive list. I encourage you to do your own reading on the subject and form your own conclusions, but if you want to stand up to unsustainable palm oil production, here are some ways you can help:

• Avoid processed packaged foods wherever possible, especially snack foods.
• Always check the ingredients. In the UK it is now illegal to list 'vegetable oil' rather than the specific type of oil, so you will actually see the words 'palm oil' on a lot of products. Look out for alternatives such as sunflower, rapeseed or coconut oil etc
• Learn some of the other names that palm oil can go by including Sodium Laureth/Lauryl Sulfate, Palmate, Palmitic Acid, Glyceryl Stearate, Stearic Acid. Unfortunately there are at least 30 different names for the stuff, so if in doubt, ask! It only takes a minute to google a company and send a quick email. Or post to their facebook/twitter page so your question is public and will help others make informed decisions too!
• Avoid the mega-corporations and snack food giants. The likes of Nestle, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble always put profits before the environment.
• Don't just boycott, let the companies know your reasons. If enough of us boycott, the companies might notice a dip in sales but how will they know WHY sales are down unless we tell them. The first email might take some time but after that it's a simple copy-paste job.
• Adopt an orang-utan: http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk
• Volunteer abroad: http://www.thegreatprojects.com

One final thing I must mention - there is an organisation known as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) whose members use only certified sustainable palm oil (you will see this mentioned on packaging, look out for it next time you are shopping), but there is currently debate raging over whether they are actually doing enough to help, or if they are just there to justify the rapid expansion of the palm oil industry. That is definitely another post for another time, but I felt it was important to at least mention!

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What is this blog all about?

"We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully, nor for much longer, unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody."

- Buckminster Fuller

Hello and welcome to in.this.together!

I am a 27-year-old female from England. 

But already that’s more than enough about me! 

This is about us. And how Earth as we know it depends on us.

The aim of this blog is not to preach, to put down, or to point the finger. 

The aim is to inform, inspire and involve. Because we're in.this.together.

• inform – by providing simple, jargon-free, interesting information, articles, product reviews and interviews related to helping the planet. 
• inspire – by highlighting what could be achieved if we all pitch in, and what might happen if we don't.
• involve – by demonstrating different ways we can make a difference, from making small lifestyle changes, to signing petitions, to volunteering abroad, and everything in between!

I (sorry for briefly returning to the ‘I’ word) am by no means an expert. I am learning as I go. I am not a dread-locked, vegan, tree-hugging hippy but I do care deeply about this beautiful planet of ours, and I’m fed up of believing that few people feel the same way. I know you all care too! So this blog is also about finding like-minded people, sharing ideas and opinions and educating myself as well as others. P.S. Dread-locked, vegan, tree-hugging hippies, you are very welcome here!

If you spot any errors, omissions or misleading information please let me know! I’m only human.