The Greenmystyle.com team loves the knitwear on offer this season and much of it is stocked at Ascension, with favourite brands People Tree, Giggle, Frugi, Kuyichi and Karen Cole.

As we are getting cosy for Christmas, we decided that ethical knitwear deserves a week of attention, and so we will be featuring our favourite knits from 8 – 15th December.

This includes a VIP Get Knitted in-store event at Ascension next week, with short presentations from Anya Pearson of Frank & Faith on Made in the UK, Ascension’s own Sury Bagenal on Trends in Knitwear, and from our sister glossy site QueensofVintage.com, Editor Lena Weber on Knitwear design from the 1920s to 1950s!

Selected local Ascension shoppers will be invited to attend the VIP evening.

But here at Greenmystyle.com we want all our readers to join in the celebration by taking up Ascension’s offer of 20% off all its knitwear. Remember: the offer only runs from 8 -15th December!

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We love this gorgeous dress as it hits the spot for style while being made locally from end-of-roll, reclaimed taffeta.

With its sexy sweetheart neckline and tulip skirt, it oozes feminine glamour. And it’s designed by BBC3′ Blood, Sweat And T-Shirts star, Tara Starlet, right in the heart of London. What’s more, it comes in both festive red, the colour of the season, purple, and a gorgeous tartan.

An Equa exclusive, the boutique is offering the chance for one Greenmystyle.com reader to get their hands on a bespoke Tara Starlet Tulip party dress designed just for them, in whatever colour and size they wish.

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To celebrate, Starbucks is giving away 10 Starbucks Cards loaded with £25 each to greenmystyle.com readers which can be redeemed from any Starbucks across UK & Ireland.

CLICK HERE TO START THE GALLERY

20 Beautiful Eco Objects is compiled and written by Lisa Cugnetto. Production by Daniel Giralt.

“The people against dirty”, as they like to be known, Method produces cleaning products for your home as well as beautiful hand-care products and body washes for your whole family. Non-toxic and smelling gorgeous, they are perfectly safe for the environment as well as any household. They’re also not tested on animals.

One of the newest products to join the Method range is the Almond Flower Natural Hand Wash, which is said to make your hands feel really soft as well as smelling absolutely divine. Other products include glass and leather cleaners, shampoos for your child or baby and even speciality marble, granite and stainless steel cleaners.

If you fancy doing your bit for the environment on a budget, then get yourself onto BigGreenSmile.com. The offer runs until the September 5th and don’t forget to use your discount code when ordering online.

Shop for Method at BigGreenSmile.com here

Discount code: BIGGREENOFFERS15

Our eco agony: “Food gets thrown away a lot in my house, and not because we’re always on a diet! Are there any easy ways of turning this into compost instead?”

Ben says: You can turn anything into compost that is organic. The problem we have is that we are in central London so although we have a few pots on the balcony I am not sure we could get through enough compost.  The best thing for food leftovers is using them again.  I appreciate that this can’t be held true of all leftovers but so many can be wonderful either heated up or cold the next day, made into soups even or of course Bubble & Squeak.

Our eco agony: “I need to use nappies for my baby, but disposable ones can’t be good for the environment. Are there any eco-friendly nappies besides washable ones?”

Ben says: Did you know that the UK adds three billion nappies to landfill each year?  It is a number I can barely comprehend – to break it down, every child uses approx 6,000 nappies by the time they are two-years-old.

The two choices we face are disposables and the cloth nappies.  Cloth nappies are much better as they don’t end up in landfill, but they have added cost both to you and to the environment in the amount of washing  they need.

There are more eco-friendly disposable nappies on the market that don’t use harmful chemicals such as chlorine  and are made from a high content of bio-degradable material.  As a new father myself  I have decided to chose the more eco-friendly disposables such as the Moltex nappies which I have found to be superb, and because they don’t contain chlorine they are far kinder on sensitive skin.  At the end of the day though you should chose whichever best suits your little one!

There are recycling plants in the pipeline that will recycle disposables which I think is a great idea, although it needs to be nationwide to make real inroads into the nappy landfill problem.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER: Get 15% off all Method purchases at BigGreenSmile.com until September 5. Offer code: BigGreenOffer15

Our eco agony: “I used to use bug spray repellent in the summer to protect from mosquitoes, but it can’t be good for the environment. I’m off on hols again soon. Is there a natural alternative to seeing off the little critters?”

Ben says: When I was on my travels in South America and Africa I used the Jungle stuff in the green bottle and had those plug-in things for the hostel, neither of which was particularly environmentally-aware I know!  The repellents I used all contained a substance called DEET which was for years the only known substance to repel mosquitoes, which it does by blocking receptors that detect human sweat. It’s also able to dissolve plastics!

Although there is nothing conclusive on the human side-effects of DEET, it has been known to cross the placenta if you are pregnant.

There are natural mosquito formulations on the market now that use natural citronella which  shield the mosquito-friendly smells from your body (kairomones), deterring the pesky creatures.

Our eco agony: “My friend uses natural toothpaste and mouthwashes that are alcohol-free, but do they really keep your mouth as fresh? Tell the truth please – I’m online dating right now!”

Ben says: We sell quite a range of natural toothpastes and mouthwashes and so I have tried a lot of these and most are approved by either the British or the American Dental Associations, so have been scientifically proven to work.

Some, I have to be honest, I didn’t get on too well with; there are some interesting flavours out there!

Natural toothpastes use substances that have been used for centuries such as Propolis which helps guard against oral diseases.  The big benefit to me of the natural toothpastes are that they avoid artificial colourings and flavours.

Our eco agony: “I use my laptop all day (Greenmystyle.com, Facebook and shopping mostly) so I have it on charge most of the time. I must use a lot of electricity, so is there an eco-friendly alternative?”

Ben says: You can get solar chargers for laptops which are great if you are out and about but not as practical if you are in the home or office.

I would say just charge your laptop when it needs it, this helps prolong battery life as well, and when you are not using it turn it off.  It may seem like a very small change and one which will not make a big difference. You would hardly notice it on your electricity bill.  But start thinking of it in terms of savings over a year and the collective benefit of everyone turning their laptops off when they weren’t using them. All of a sudden those small changes have made a big difference. 

Our eco agony: “My bamboo towels were pristine until my boyfriend got his mitts on them. What could I use instead of bleach to get rid of tough stains, but which is less harmful to the environment?”

Ben says: There are lots of products out there but we use the Ecover Laundry Bleach which seems to work a treat.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER: Get 15% off all Method purchases at BigGreenSmile.com until September 5. Offer code: BigGreenOffer15

To celebrate the launch of the much anticipated film Coco Before Chanel (UK release 31 July 2009) starring Audrey Tautou, QueensOfVintage.com will be hosting,  the first ever Chanel fashmob (altogether more stylish than a flashmob) in homage to one of history’s greatest fashion designers.

Fashion lovers and vintage queens will gather in their finest attire to wave at the Eurostar and share their enthusiasm for the legendary Parisian label. The first 5 to join our get-together will be receiving Chanel biographies, while the first fifteen can bag themselves the exclusive soundtrack to Coco Before Chanel.

Meeting point is the statue of the lovers kissing on the second floor of the station at exactly 18.00.

See you there!

Event promotion by Gossip PR

Boy meets girl, Boy falls in love. Girl Doesn’t.

From the moment Tom Hanson (Joesph Gordon-Levitt) lays eyes on Summer Finn, he knows he’s found the one. Beautiful, charming and witty, she’s the perfect woman.

Except for one little problem. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) doesn’t believe in love – relationships are messy, so why not just have fun? Over 500 days, Tom experiences the euphoric highs and agonising lows of love in a sharp, funny comedy that tells it how it really is.

This post modern love story is never what we expect it to be – it’s thorny yet exhilarating, funny and sad, a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn’t quite go where we think it will.

Released across the UK on September 4, this film really is a must-see for unrequited-lovers, hopeless romantics, not to mention girls who love pretty dresses.

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