FutureNatural.com: Green Beauty, Made Easy

One of the primary challenges of "going green," especially in the realm of beauty, is, well, finding the damn stuff. Sure, the not-so-discerning cosmetics customer can troll the bath and body aisle of Whole Foods, but for those of us who want the whole nine (composted) yards—top-of-the-line products, an au naturale ethos and stylish packaging—serious questing is required. Or, it was until FutureNatural.com recently came on the scene.

Likened to a Sephora-style emporium for green beauty, Futurenatural.com welcomes an emerging category of shopper—the fashion-forward consumer who wants products that are as eco-conscious as they are design-savvy. (Amid a slew of double-barreled taglines on the website's homepage, "responsible hedonism" stands out as being particularly apropos.) Among the brands available, stand-outs include the herbal concoctions of Farmaesthetics, whose simple stripped-down packaging recalls a more whimsical Kiehl's; Jo Wood's gorgeously bottled, orange-juice-extracted skincare products; and John Masters' skin and haircare line, which uses all wild-harvested ingredients like rose, mandarin and linden blossom.

Though FutureNatural.com stocks a carefully curated list of 25 organic and/or natural brands from around the world, the site wisely emphasizes the shades of grey in the green beauty landscape—not everyone uses environmentally-friendly packaging, for instance. The site's stance is that "doing something is better than doing nothing," so they curate the best on the market and leave the rest to you. Every product comes with the option for a full disclosure of the ingredients, as well as a handy glossary to demystify tough terminology like "alpha bisobalol." (FYI: It's natural ingredient, and it's extracted from chamomile.)

—Jessica Dang