made to empower - Krochet Kids

I like to carry A LOT with me. Minimalist? What’s that? But really, not everything fits inside my small purse. Krochet Kids’ Ridgeview Backpack provides the perfect solution. Made with vegan leather, it’s durable and available in multiple colors. Each piece is handmade and signed by the women who makes them. 

Krochet Kids was founded by Kohl Crecelius in 2007.  Since then, he has committed to help provide jobs and fair wages to poverty-stricken women in Uganda and Peru. Along with providing employment opportunities, each purchase also gives these women the empowerment they didn’t know they had.

Smitten!

love potion #9 - Brooklyn Candle Studio

Brooklyn Candle Studio’s candles are the closest thing to perfect that we’re willing to set on fire. Their design is gorgeous and minimalist, their scents are rich with memory, and their ingredients are American-grown and eco-friendly.  Each 100% vegan candle is made from American-grown soybeans, led free cotton wicks, and a blend of essential oils and phthalate-free perfume oils. They each hold 60 hours of burn life, which translates into some major relaxation time.

After the horrible events led by hate groups in Charlottesville in August 2017, founder and designer Tamara Mayne decided to donate 10% of every Love Potion #9 candle to the ACLU in an effort to support the legal fight for equality.  She notes she was called to share profits with the ACLU “as a woman, a mother, an Asian-American, as an employer of women and minorities, and, frankly, as a human being”.  We must have fallen under the Love Potion spell, because we love these candles as much as we love this cause.

a big yes to cruelty-free polish - ella + mila

The founders of ella + mila wanted to create an eco-friendly product, and that they did. They also wanted to keep it high-end and fashion fabulous, which they also did. Bright, colorful, chip-resistant...and uncompromising. 

Quick-dry and high-shine, ella + mila nail colors contain no Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Triphenyl Phosphate (TPHP), Xylene or Camphor, making it a seven chemical-free product.

ella + mila polishes are PeTA certified, vegan, cruelty-free, and proudly made in the USA! 

And sweet and fun fact: the name is inspired by the twin daughters of one of the founders. 

Go get this lacquer - so good, so Smitten!

hydrate that skin for a sustainable world - LUSH Charity Pots

Keep your skin hydrated, creamy and smelling of rosewood oil with Lush's Charity Pot Body Lotion.

Lush's handmade products are a prized favorite of the staff here at notablySmitten. Our first article on their yummy, nutritious shampoo bars is here. This cruelty-free beauty company donates 100% of each purchase to environmental conservation, animal welfare and human rights organizations.

LUSH products are 100% vegan.

LUSH are against animal testing and are supporters of animal rights and welfare.

LUSH are charitable and support environmental conservation and human rights.

LUSH works tirelessly to leave a small carbon footprint behind.

Smitten again!

gifting with delightfully decadent soy candles - Ames and Oates

Ames and Oates has an excellent way of collecting all the most beautiful, eco-conscious and thoughtful gift items under one storefront.  We love the Premium Lark Copper Soy Candle from Mine Design Co. because it embodies so much of the Ames and Oates mission - elegant, eco-friendly, vegetable based, and hand-poured.

We love that Ames and Oates is founded by two women who share the belief that life should be celebrated with beautiful things.  Every item from Ames and Oates comes gift-ready and with a handwritten note - how amazing is that detail?!  Their mission of celebration goes beyond material, as the “Gift Good | Do Good” model donates 10% of each purchase to Pencils of Promise.  With support from partnerships and donors like Ames and Oates, Pencils of Promise has built 322 schools in Guatemala, Laos and Ghana since 2009.

Smitten of course!

100% vegan weekender bag for the boys - Matt & Nat

My husband travels A LOT!! He's in the film industry and finds traveling with a backpack (as carry-on,) works best for him. Well, this is going to be under the tree this year, and I'm confident he'll be rockin' this re-cycled, polished, super hip Artigan bag from Matt & Nat in 2016.

100% vegan, up-cycled materials, superior craftsmanship, ideally designed...for both men and women.

notablySmitten first introduced Matt & Nat in May of this year, and we are still crazy about them.

Utterly Smitten.

vegan goodness - Matt & Nat

I would be totally remiss to not include Matt & Nat (Vegan handbags) on my shopping blog at this stage! I've recently been looking for a new summer bag...I truly have found nothing I feel good about purchasing. Then I came across this red cross body from Matt & Nat...sold!

Founded by Montreal-based designer Inder Bedi in 1997, Matt & Nat offer sophisticated styles, a delicious palette of colors, and environmentally conscious, well-designed vegan handbags to the world of fashion.

The name is inspired by MAT(T)erial and NATure, and “means exploring the synergy between the two, the reflection of one on the other."

“At Matt & Nat, we live by a simple motto, ‘Live beautifully’. Living beautifully means appreciating the humanity, creativity and positivity found in all of us. Our values include social responsibility, excellence, inclusiveness, integrity, learning, authenticity, and, of course, love. We are inspired by the textures and hues of nature, and to better protect it, we aim to constantly better our ways.”

Crafted from smooth Vegan leather and lined with 100% recycled plastic bottles, the entire Matt & Nat line is good for animals, the planet, and us two legged creatures as well.

The concern for sustainability is evident in their manufacturing process and their usage of sustainable materials such as rubber and cork. You can read about their ethics & sustainability practices here.

I am entirely Smitten with Matt & Nat's genius craftsmanship and inspirational business practices!!

Check them out on social media...they've got a lot to share! 

beauty basically - LUSH

So the brightly colored, delectable smelling party that is LUSH (created by Mark Constantine and Liz Weir) has been going strong since 1995. At that time I was addicted and dedicated to another product line and could not be swayed. But as my concern for our environment, our animals and our planet has exponentially increased over the last several years...LUSH has landed smack dab on my radar!

I feel particularly concerned about the amount of materials companies continue to use to package their merchandise. Plastic wrappers around tubes of product, that are then boxed, then sealed again with a much harder plastic...ridiculous! It's a problem, one that LUSH has been addressing for years with their innovative solid beauty products. Sold like produce at an open market, with ingredients and aromas to heighten the luxury.

Today I shine a light on their artful shampoo bars. Long lasting, concentrated, packed with active ingredients and essential oils (with 14 different flavors to choose)...and will do the job of 2-3 bottles of liquid shampoo!

No packaging whatsoever, it sits in a soap dish on the side of the tub. Perfect.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.  The bars last for up to 80 washes for lavish locks every time.

LUSH products are 100% vegan.

LUSH are against animal testing and are supporters of animal rights and welfare.

LUSH are charitable and support environmental conservation and human rights.

LUSH works tirelessly to leave a small carbon footprint behind.

Smitten!!