A famous frog once sang “It’s not Easy Being Green.”
Oh how times have changed. These days you can’t miss labels like chemical-free, organic or all-natural in the aisles of any store. Our food, cleaning products, home décor items, cars, even fashion, boast environmentally friendly options. “Green” is trendy and it’s everywhere.
I’ve always tried to buy organic and chemical-free foods. And I love the treasures at thrift stores. I can recycle curbside from my home. It really has become easy to be green. The one place I’ve stubbornly fought the greening trend, though, is in my make-up bag, which ironically came from a thrift store.
It immediately conjures up limitations, especially to my wallet. An occasional stop at the drugstore for diapers means maybe a fun eye shadow for a few bucks. This makes me happy. My beauty routine is not subject to the same requirements I have of my food or kitchen counter spray.
Meet Tia Mazy. She’s created a whole new green for the beauty routine. Her salon, Amazyng Style & Reclaimed Jewels, is on Penn Avenue in Sinking Spring. It was as a hairstylist that she started questioning the products she was using on her clients and what she was exposing herself to on a daily basis, all in the name of beauty.
“My children were my inspiration,” she says of her shift in thinking. She began educating herself about the products and foods she was using. Losing her grandmother to cancer while pregnant with her daughter was what she called “an eye-opener.”
“I feel that a lot of cancers are environmental and I just wanted to make sure I was taking steps to protect me and my family. If I can transfer that to my clients and my business, then it’s an even better business.”
Open since September of 2012, Amazyng Style & Reclaimed Jewels features only organic hair color and all-natural make-up and skin care. There’s even a “green” boutique. Mazy started by using environmentally friendly products and considered sustainability when remodeling the space. The end result was the perfect backdrop for the all-natural salon.
“There is a lot of waste in our industry. I wanted to limit the environmental and human impact of working with those chemicals in the products we use,” she said.
Tia became certified in the Organic Color Systems line. The company carries up to 65 colors and uses heat with an oil base in the color process rather than ammonia.
“There is a common misconception that it will perform differently,” explains Tia, but she assures the outcome is even better than what’s achieved with chemical-laden color, offering more shine, and it stays put as long as traditional color applications.
Whatever her customer’s individual needs, Tia strives to meet them with a very personalized experience.
“I try to address any kind of specific concern they have with their health...allergens, post cancer, gluten intolerance, or other chemical sensitivities,” she says. “And all my products are vegan.”
And organic hair care doesn’t mean breaking the bank.
“An initial concern for me was price, but I have figured out a way to make it just as affordable as normal color,” she says. “I’m a mom of two, and, owning my own business, I live on a budget, too.”
So far, customers are thrilled.
“One of the biggest compliments I get from people that I think resonates with them is that it doesn’t ‘smell’ like a traditional salon,” she laughs. That makes it perfect for moms who may have a little one in tow when they come in for a service. On that note, she’s also outfitted the salon with a play area.
It’s also a natural fit for the mom-to-be who might have concerns about hair color chemicals. Tia feels the organic color is a safe option for her pregnant clients. She insists that any product she orders for the salon is 100 percent ammonia-and paraben-free. She also considers eco-conscious packaging.
A quick Internet search on parabens gives you the low down on what some believe are the dangers and how medical research suggests parabens may mimic estrogen, which has been linked to breast cancer. Parabens are most often used as preservatives in cosmetics and personal products. Ammonia is the culprit behind that “salon smell” and has been linked to skin and scalp irritation. Some experts also believe the fumes may have long-range health effects.
Mazy has personally seen the benefit of the organic products. “Working with chemicals for 11 years, I developed asthma and had a terrible case of contact dermatitis. Both of those things have cleared up since working with the organic products. It’s a side effect of the industry,” she says of her health issues. “We love what we do and we just deal with it. It was mind blowing to me that there was an alternative to work with.”
The salon also features two all-natural cosmetics lines and a local skin care line.
Amayzing Styles carries Honeybee Gardens cosmetics. The all-natural products were discovered by Tia’s business partner Sandi Crick while she was in Ohio. Mazy was pleasantly surprised to find it’s a local company located in West Reading. The local company sells worldwide and is nationally recognized as a leader in natural cosmetics.
“The eye shadow pigments are so beautiful; the eyeliner is long wearing and their lipsticks are very nourishing,” she says of the Honeybee Gardens products. She also loves Honeybee’s pressed power mineral foundation for its coverage and because it doesn’t set into fine lines. “It’s amazing and you don’t lose half of it on the counter like the loose powders.”
The products are surprisingly affordable. Loose eye shadows are just $7 and the pressed powder mineral foundation is $10.
The salon is also offering products from a line called 100% Pure Cosmetics. Both are paraben- and lead-free.
“I think the common misconception is that you won’t get the same applications from it or that when you go natural you will lose things like pigment, bright colors or coverage,” says Tia. But it’s not true, she says, and the benefit is you lose the known and unknown carcinogens.
Amazyng Style also carries Far Earth Creations, a skin care line created by Rachel Mummolo of Oley. The customized skin care cream contains an essential oil blend for women appropriate for a range of ages. She also makes a body and hand cream.
After you’ve “greened up” your beauty routine, you may want to visit the boutique. Crick has filled the shop with personal care products, home items, repurposed jewelry, clothing and fun upcycled gifts. Reclaimed Jewels is a treasure find full of “green.”
“It’s sustainable and vintage items in the mindset of either cleaning up what you used or re-suing something in a new way. There are some makeup lines, unique clothing made from things like old curtains,” Tia says. “It’s all about the old and making something new with it, or greening up the lifestyle with traditional products made clean.”
“It’s all eco-friendly and everything I offer I can say I’m doing the cleanest thing possible for our environment and for our bodies,” she asserts.
Amazyng Style & Reclaimed Jewels 4040 Penn Avenue, Sinking Spring | 610.741.6604 | Facebook.com/AmazyngStyle
BY REBECCA J. DOUBEK | PHOTOS BY TANIA COLAMARINO, AMA PHOTOGRAPHY
