As we get ready for winter, skin care is critical. We must have moisturizer and moisturizing cleansers. They don’t have to be expensive or exotic. But we’d like to think they’re effective and safe. So how to make sure what you’re slathering on your face won’t come back to haunt you? You could read a bazillion fine print labels or…you could look up your preferred potion on the cosmetics database called Skin Deep put together by the Environmental Working Group. This handy tool compares the ingredients in some 25,000 products against 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. The EWG says Skin Deep is the largest such integrated database of its kind. The group built it out of frustration that the Federal Drug Administration doesn’t require companies to test many of these ingredients. Companies do risk the wrath of consumers if they don’t produce safe products. But many long term effects of skin care creams may not be apparent right away. (Look at how sunscreen recently morphed from protector to potential hazard.) My daily moisturizer, Neutrogena Visibly Firm, turned out to be firmly lodged in the “hazard” category rating a seven on Skin Deep’s 1-10 rating scale (with 10 being the worst), mainly due to the added sunscreen element. But several low toxic alternatives by Neutrogena (Norwegian Formula 24-hour moisturizer) and others also popped up. Burt’s Bees Primrose Night Cream, marketed as pure and natural, turned up as a comforting low-toxicity two. Most of its ingredients were listed as safe, except for some concerns about the tocopheryl acetate and the lavender oil it contains. Oy, Skin Deep is deep.

It’s not too late to strike a pose for Breast Cancer Awareness month. Log on to the swanky fashion e-house of Net-A-Porter and stock up on these limited edition shirts by Ralph Lauren. Available in five colors - turquoise, red, green, yellow and white - these fitted cotton polo shirts sport a destined-to-be-iconic bull’s-eye logo. They are a chic, simple and relatively inexpensive ($75) way to declare your support for the cause. All of the net proceeds from the sale of the shirts benefit the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Foundation, co-founded by Lauren with the Council of Fashion Designers of America. When his long-time friend and fashion journalist, Nina Hyde succumbed to breast cancer in 1994, Lauren and the CFDA decided it was time to give something back to fashion’s best patrons: women. To date, FTBC has raised $40 million for breast cancer charities in 13 countries. If polos are not your thing, keep checking Net-A-Porter’s new FTBC shop, where during the next year you will be able to peruse and purchase other exclusive and limited-edition designer pieces to benefit the cause. Never has there been a better excuse to indulge in some seriously guilt-free shopping.

If the temperature hasn’t dropped in your town, it will (unless you live in some balmy climate). There’s no better way to beat the chill than to snuggle under a real down comforter. Unfortunately, buying a down comforter is no simple matter. You must study up on terms such as weight, down type, fill power, loft, baffle box and thread count. There are several places on the web where you can educate yourself before shopping - such as Supercomfort.com and Scandia Down. A few pointers: Down is not feathers with their prickly quills - it is the soft inner plumage of waterfowl (we’re told birds are not harmed in harvesting the down). Down can come from geese or ducks (duck down is cheaper), and the more prized down comes from Hungarian geese, European geese, Eider ducks of Iceland or Siberian geese. The fancier the fowl, the more you’ll pay. Fill power is a measure of the down’s fluffiness, and the higher the fill power number, the more it will cost (around 600 is good, more than 800 is luxurious). Baffle-box comforters are superior to those with sewn-through stitching, but there are different types of baffle boxes. You can go for the top of the line stuff at Scandia Down, Eiderdown from DownStore or Down & Feather Company. Get a broader price selection from Supercomfort.com, AmbienceLinens.com or Overstock.com. NextTag comparison shopping offers 665 options sorted by maker and price. If you fear geese might make you sneeze, most retailers offer “hypoallergenic” comforters, such as those at Allergy Buyers Guide.

It may seem like an unlikely pairing, but a chocolate maker - just in time for Halloween - is offering a way for you to help protect endangered animals, eco-systems and people. To be more specific, Endangered Species Chocolate is providing support via their special bags of bite-sized chocolates. They give 10 percent of their profit to “support species, habitat and humanity,” around the world, according to their website. The company, founded in 1993, has always given away a hefty chunk of their income to support efforts to save the world’s tens of thousands of endangered or threatened animal species. They also work to promote care for the environment and to provide assistance for people in need. They note that their chocolate is 100 percent “ethically traded,” with all-natural ingredients from shade-grown cacao harvested by farmers who earn a “fair wage in humane working conditions.” In addition to the Halloween treats (a 24-piece bag is $6.72, or buy 3 bags for $18.50), the company has a variety of chocolate in different sizes. So now, you can make a trick-or-treater happy and do a little good for the Western lowland gorilla at the same time.

Got the costumes? Check. Bought the candy? Check. Hung the skeleton from the tree? Check. But do you have the uneasy feeling that something is missing from your Halloween setup? Is it just not scary enough? How about filling your doorway, garage or yard with fog, the thick white kind that rolls in when evil spirits are on the move? You can go the minimalist route with a small foggy crystal ball or smoky skull, or go all out with a professional quality fog machine. Prices range from fairly affordable to fairly steep if you want the big daddies. There’s even a website devoted to the subject of fog machines that answers any question you might have. Even Target sells one. MusicOutfitters has professional quality machines in a variety of sizes and prices, and their website has a handy user’s guide.

Post-It notes . . . Band-Aids . . . sliced bread . . . . Bookmark this one under the “Why didn’t I think of that?” heading. Take a visit to Onesole.com and prepare to enter a shoe store unlike any you’ve seen. Onesoles are a unique concept in footwear. You choose among 12 different soles that can be worn with an endless variety of snap-on tops. Created by a woman who traveled extensively, Onesoles are proof positive that necessity is definitely the mother of invention. You can literally have a wardrobe full of shoes with only a couple of soles and a handful of tops. Soles vary from the flirty and dressy Kitten ($109.99), to the flip-flop-inspired Classic ($80). With 14 different types of tops, there is something for everybody. Solids (28 different colors), holiday motifs, patterns, collegiate logos, you name it. Onesoles even offer customized options: you can send them photos, design a monogram or mail them a swatch of a pattern you want to match. Each sole comes with one top and your choice of two more. Soles range from $80 to $129. Tops start at $13.99 and go up to $29.99 for more customized looks. Onesoles also make great gifts - after you’ve bought a set for yourself, pick up some for your shoe-obsessed girlfriends. They will love you for it.