Enjoy a Green Halloween

Make-up Alternatives

Buying products from safety-minded companies (or using some creative home-cooking!) will allow you to say "yes!" to scariness and "no!" to scary makeup. Aveda, Real Purity, Logona, and Sante Kosmetics produce make-up products that can help your children achieve that coveted terrifying look without risk to their health. You can find Aveda at retail outlets and at make-up stores, salons, and spas. The other products may be found at natural supermarkets and health food stores, or online at NaturalBeautySolutions.net.

Craft magazines and the Internet offer many homemade Halloween makeup recipes. With a bit of ingenuity you can create blood, bruises, and other dramatic wounds without all the pain and agony of the real thing! These concoctions tend to use kitchen and bathroom staples such as cornstarch, syrup, shortening, cold cream, and food coloring.

Vinyl Unmasked

Many Halloween costumes and masks are made from a truly horrifying substance: PVC, or vinyl. Vinyl wreaks havoc at every stage of its life cycle, from fabrication through disposal. Moreover, soft vinyl products usually contain phthalates, substances that pose potential risks to human health and to normal fetal and child development.

Given that they cover the face and may send off fumes that the wearer can't avoid inhaling, vinyl masks are especially hideous. Most masks are made of vinyl or latex. A quick sniff test can help you tell them apart. Vinyl smells like a shower curtain, whereas latex smells like a balloon. Watch for that shower curtain smell! Most retail outlets sell a mix of vinyl and latex masks—so ask your retailer, or take a whiff before you buy. You can also find an all-latex mask collection online at HalloweenMasks.com. (Caution: some people have severe allergic reactions to latex, and ought to avoid latex masks as well.)

This is a story from The Green Guide.