Cool Hunting
Hair washing in cold weather is a tedious burden for those of us with long locks, not to mention the health risks. I don’t have the time or patience to blow dry before braving the elements, which is where the Hair Powder “for hair on days of unwash” from Lulu Organics comes in. It soaks up the shine and leaves my hair smelling great without any nasty chemical residue.
Lulu originally created the recipe as a gift for her best friend when she realized that the talcum powder they had been dousing their hair with could be potentially carcinogenic. She read up on beauty product ingredients, and used her fashion publishing connections to set up meetings with beauty companies and eventually came up with a fragrant combination of natural and organic ingredients. The talc-free powder is made with white clay, baking soda, USDA Organic corn starch and rice powder, and Oregon Tilth Certified Organic horsetail powder and essential oils. Available in four distinctive scents Lavender/ Clary Sage, Patchouli/ Amber, Jasmine and Tuberrose each 4.5oz container is $40.
The beautiful packaging designed by Lulu, an herbalist at heart and a graphic designer by trade, is a work of art worthy of display on even the most well-curated vanity. The labels are hand-screened in Vermont by The Paper Moon Project and are made in small runs to emulate the pared-down aesthetic of the crude printing jobs you might find on import products in dusty ethnic pharmacies.
Available online directly from Lulu Organics and at Opening Ceremony in New York and L.A. and Honey in the Rough in New York.
Designed by architect Doug Patt (he's also one half of bi-coastal firm Rootphi), the Architect's Birdfeeder is made of eight interlocking polycarbonate (think bulletproof glass) pieces. Like Rootphi's Flat Pack housing, the structural elements ship flat and require no tools or fasteners for assembly. The upshot is product that's fun to put together, easy to refill and clean and eco-friendly. It also looks like a...
Since Pattern Body Washes appeared in my bathroom, each shower is a new aromatic experience. The all-natural body washes are made from the finest essential oils and plant extracts without parabens, artificial colors or dyes and are available in four scents, Cucumber, Citrus, Eucalyptus and (my favorite) Black Pepper. The spicy scent is made from herbal extracts and essential oils of black pepper, ylang-ylang...
Richard Fine, one of the founders behind the new Help Remedies that you may have noticed around recently, stopped by our office this morning to give us some of the first samples of his reinvented bandages and acetaminophen. The well-designed, eco-packages look as good in person as they do in photos and the un-boxing was a delight, with text and design accents revealing themselves...
Alessi's upcoming Spring/Summer 2008 product line builds on their reputation for smartly-designed kitchenware. This season, the Italian company employed the talents of a handful of celebrated designers to create some interesting twists on standard fare. One example is the sleekly egg-shaped “Pop-Up” bottle cap opener, which is work of Milanese designer Giovanni Alessi Anghini. The pressure-operated mechanism removes the bottle cap in one downward...
by Passa Chattra Bamboo pet company developed the dog food "Scoop 'n Lid" with its all-in-one design that both seals cans of food and helps serve the food. This handy device keeps open cans of dog food sealed in the refrigerator, along with a built in spatula to scoop wet food out of the can. Not having to use household spoons in the dog...
Mark Hampshire Keith Stephenson of the U.K. design firm Absolute Zero° recently published two new books on packaging design and paper. Packaging from DemoGraphics is one in a series of books that examines the way specific designs target audiences. Numerous stunning examples illustrate how packaging homes in on gender, age, socio-economic group, disposable income, profession and shopping habits. Case studies feature interviews with designers...

