If you suffer from dry skin, moisturisers are an essential part of life (particularly if you're no longer in the first flush of youth!). But that doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to putting obscure chemicals on your face every day; here, Kiss and Makeup's Zara and I test some natural and organic skincare products that will quench and nourish your skin.

Fairtrade recipe books are a great way to learn more about where your food comes from -- and on which products you should look out for the fairtrade label.

And to coincide with Fairtrade fortnight, the officially-endorsed Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook is now available, full of mouthwatering treats to tempt you and those around you to get into the habit of making truly feel-good food; food that benefits others as well as those lucky enough to enjoy the results of your cooking. Some of the recipes here are by top chefs, including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sophie Grigson, but some of the best have been sent in by dedicated fairtrade fans who've been making this stuff for years. £11.04 at Amazon.

To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, Ethical Superstore are offering you the chance to win one of these unusual and very stylish-looking 'tsantai' armchairs from the Fair Trade Furniture Company.

All you need to is name your favourite fairtrade product here and say and why you love it so much, and you'll be in with a chance of winning this fabulous chair, which is handmade from mindi wood with beautiful hand-woven seagrass panels. A real statement in your living room!

Spring is nearly here, and to celebrate the longer days and warmer nights, why not get yourself some of these cheery, colourful recyled lanterns? The story behind the lanterns starts in aerosol and soda-can production factories in India, where mis-printed pieces often get discarded. Who would have thought a typo could look so pretty?
The lanterns hold a standard votive or tea-light candel for a gentle glow to add oodles of ambience to your garden or patio. If you want extra greenie points, why not replace standard candles with soy-based ones? You can find them in the right dimensions here. Lanterns from £16.95 at Ecoutlet.

This really does seem to be the week for discovering little-known British companies making amazing, eco-friendly stuff!

With her label Soremi jewellery, Deb Price designs funky, indie-style accessories using vintage and pre-worn materials. Pictured, is one of her vintage fabric corsages with re-claimed button; £16 on the site. Each is unique, and colours are tastefully matched. I'm absolutely in love with the little poodle button on this one! If you want to really glam it up, there's even a tiara made from vintage finds. Perfect for a green wedding!

PETA's latest gentle request to members of the public to renounce their meat-eating ways has seen a visibly pregnant woman climb into a replica farrowing crate like the ones used to house sows when they are expecting and nursing their young, in London's Covent Garden. Other protesters held up the banner ‘Unhappy Mother’s Day for Pigs, Go Vegetarian.’

Personally, I think it's a fair point -- albeit graphically made -- since the pracise of putting pregnant sows in these confined spaces is one I find pretty repugnant. However, I fear that PETA has shot itself in the foot once again here with a stunt that many people happily going about their shopping in Covent Garden will take offense of sneer at. If you'd like to make up your own mind on this issue, there's more information on the use of farrowing crates here.

Envirosax alredy has a dazzling array of plastic-bag-busting shoppers to choose from, but for the true green, there's now an even more eco-friendly organic series featuring bags made from bamboo (left), linen and hemp.

Envirosax has been a huge hit in Australia, where the company was founded by Belinda and Mark David-Tooz, who live an impressively green lifestyle, complete with solar hot water and photovoltaic cells for electricity. They are about to launch a UK version of their main website where you'll be able to buy direct, but at present, Envirosax area available at Oliver Bonas, Mojo London and Ebags.

Related: Going to Marks and Spencer's? Don't forget your bag for life

We're big fans of LED technology here at hippyshopper, and once again, Philips has really immersed itself in low-energy light technology to create pretty, soothing environments. The company has now expanded that to provide an interactive light display for the brand new Mercy Medical Centre in Rogers, Arkansas.

This installation, displayed in the Women's and Children's waiting area, is a 14-ft long, 6ft-high canvas that uses touchscreen technology to animate 1,420 LEDs. Each 'painting' a visitor produces last for a few minutes before fading away, and up to six 'artists' can make their mark at a time. Despite the apparent power of the canvas, it only uses the same amount of daily energy as a toaster!

Related: Philips Simplicity Event: Dynamic, eco-friendly lighting for the office | Drench yourself in low-energy light

In a surprise move this week, sugar giant Tate & Lyle has announced that it is to gain fairtrade certification for all of its cane sugar, starting with its best-selling product: the white, granulated stuff.

The aim is to make all of Tate & Lyle's sugars fairtrade by 2009. As you might imagine, this is one of the biggest certification projects in the entire history of fairtrade, and will benefit 6,000 growers in Belize. In fact, converting Tate & Lyle's products to fairtrade will involve certifying ten times more sugar than the total volume of fairtrade sugar currently sold in the UK. That's an awful lot of cups of tea, even for builders...

Laptop thigh burn is a common ailment, and there is a definitely a market for designing devices to reduce the heat emitted by computers. However, this invention makes the most of a necessary evil by using the heat to power a wireless mouse.

Instead of having to use a recharging dock, you could just place your DORmino mouse on the mousepad; this extends from under the computer, channelling the power of the heat into the mouse. Sounds a bit like a prototype, I know, and, well... it is, but the design has been submitted for the Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008; if it wins, surely its chances of being made go up?

[via Shiny Shiny]

They've been going on about it long enough, and now it seems that Marks and Spencers are finally going to bite the bullet and start charging food customers for plastic bags.

The 5p bag charge will be brought in to all stores from the beginning of May, but Chief Exec Stuart Rose is softening the blow by giving away free bags for life throughout April. A trial taking place in Northern Ireland and the South West of England has already proven successful with bag consumption down 70% in participating stores, so a similar story playing out in all 520 Marks and Spencers UK stores could lead to a massive overall reduction.

Fashion and animal welfare have always had a turbulent relationship, but UK fashion house WildlifeWorks has been working with the RSPCA to redress the balance and "design a dress that puts animal welfare at the top of the fashion industry agenda". Basing the company philosphy upon consumer-powered conservation, CEO Andrew Smith created the ethically-made dress after winning Fashion Retailer of the Year 2007 at the RSPCA Good Business Awards.

Having debuted during London Fashion Week as part of their "global traveller"-inspired A/W '08-9 collection, the RSPCA dress is a concoction of delicate georgette silk and chiffon. It go on sale for £350 from mid-July, £40 of which is donated to the RSPCA. A further 3% of total sales will go towards funding WildlifeWorks' eco-factory and wildlife sanctuary in Kenya. What do you think of this example of high fashion with a conscience? [Via Catwalk Queen]

If you can't get enough of ethical fashion, here's a label that's been lurking too long in a dark corner. Utani UK is a small but well-formed collection of stylish womenswear made as eco-friendly as possible under ethical conditions by designer Joy Thomsen.

The designs are mostly classic pieces, but many reflect current trends like these fabulous high-waisted nautical trousers, a steal at £38. As with all garments here, they're made from 100% organic and fairtrade materials. Thomsen's passion for ethical trading was piqued during her own experiences in East Africa, where she took part on development projects. Her intention with Utani is to support existing fairly traded fabric, jewellery and fashion accessory projects wherever possible. So, if you'd like to give your wardrobe an ethical re-vamp with an as yet mostly undiscovered label, check out the collection here!

If you're already looking forward to your easter break but need to replace those old suitcases, you'll be pleased to see that more exciting designs are starting to appear in Stella McCartney's eco-friendly luggage line for Le Sportsac. And as you'd expect in a range designed around Stella and her friends' globetrotting lifestyles, there are some really desirable travel bags here.

They include the Carry-on case, pictured left, which is made from 100% recycled polyester available in four funky designs including 'pop print', shown here. The bag is small enough to fit into overhead luggage compartments on planes (or trains, if you're keeping to your green principles) but big enough to fit everything you'll need for a weekend away. Its outer bits fold away to make a neat carry case, but when extended, it wheels along like a dream. A larger version is also available; check out the full Spring/Summer '08 range here.

I can't decide what makes me love these toys the most: that they're gorgeous, the prices, the fair trade principles, the eco-friendliness or the fact that this is not mass-marketed plastic TV-branded crap. These beautiful wooden toys are made with sustainably sourced materials - primarily chemical-free rubberwood and non-toxic water-based paints - in factories that are located close to communities so that craftsmen can "maintain quality relationships with their own children while they make toys for others".

ImagiPLAY also claims to visit every factory to ensure there is a safe, clean, respectful working environment, no child labour and only a local workforce paid a fair, living wage. The mark-up on the products isn't huge, however. The Noah's Ark or Day at the Zoo playsets, to give two examples of many, are $99 and only $26.99 respectively, the latter being budget-friendly for many even if the exchange rate isn't working in your favour. Imaginative, long-lasting, sustainable, ethically-produced toys; can you get much better than that?