Naturally Pretty

INDIA HICKS PARTNERS WITH CRABTREE & EVELYN

If you're lucky enough to wash ashore on the island in the Bahamas that India Hicks calls home, it won't be hard to spot her house. It's the one with no A.C., even on the hottest day, and a big rainwater tank that her family of five uses for its washing, cooking, and bathing water. There is no lush stretch of sprinklered lawn. "If it can't survive in the natural, native habitat, it should not be there," says Hicks, a former model and the face of the new Crabtree & Evelyn Naturals collection of botanical bodycare products.

Her love of nature comes naturally. "I'm a country girl," she says of her Oxfordshire upbringing. She's also an ocean-lover, and her book, Island Beauty (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), which embraces seaside beauty and lifestyle and was published this spring, captured the attention of Crabtree & Evelyn as it prepared to launch its eco-savvy line.

There are 19 products made from more than 68 botanicals in Crabtree & Evelyn's Naturals collection. Hicks's favorite, which she also uses on her three boys, is the Naturals Pink Grapefruit & Cucumber (Detoxifying) Botanical Shower Mousse. The line is made without parabens, mineral oil, synthetic dyes, or various sulfates, and it is free of landfill-clogging secondary packaging.

Currently, Hicks is also developing her own line of ultra-natural Crabtree & Evelyn products; due out next year, they will have minimal environmental impact and will help her fund the charitable and ecological causes she believes in.

MARIA RICAPITO