The actress and activist's line of wedding jewelry is just as environmentally friendly as it is chic.

&ldquo;Sustainability, as it pertains to fashion, is kind of a turn-off for people,&rdquo; says actress Nikki Reed. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of taboo and not a lot of people want to approach that. Instead of giving up, I tried to find new avenues in.&rdquo; She&#39;s talking, of course,&nbsp;about her lifestyle brand BaYou With Love, which released its first collection of sustainable engagement and wedding rings this week.

Each 14-18k gold band is created from the motherboards of recycled Dell computers, and the downtown Los Angeles factory that manufactures the jewelry&nbsp;was handpicked by Reed for its sustainable practices. To avoid detrimental mining practices, the diamonds are made in a laboratory.&nbsp;

BaYou With Love actually started as a result of Reed&#39;s own curiosity.&nbsp;When she was pregnant (Reed and her husband, actor Ian Somerhalder, welcomed their first child last year), she became hyper-aware of all the chemicals going into&mdash;and on&mdash;her body. When she couldn&rsquo;t find products that suited her, she made them.&nbsp;Now ranging from clothing to beauty, jewelry, and home products, the brand makes products&nbsp;focused on &ldquo;creating a space for people to feel like you could shift their decision-making in the way they consume, and not in a way that feels daunting,&rdquo; says Reed. &ldquo;I think as soon as people are given a better option, they do want to choose the better option.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Photography courtesy of Joe Perri

In her daily life, Reed practices what she preaches.&nbsp;&ldquo;You can use a reusable beeswax saran wrap and have two of them and wash them, and you&rsquo;ll never have to use seran wrap again.&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Do you have to put your recycling in a plastic bag that&rsquo;s gonna go into the trash, or are you gonna use a cardboard box and just put your things in it and take it out to recycle?&rdquo;

Reed cites Bea Johnson&#39;s&nbsp;book, Zero Waste Living, as&nbsp;the inspiration for minimizing her own carbon footprint. &ldquo;Once you open your mind to the endless possibilities of ways you can contribute back to the planet, you find that it&rsquo;s actually quite easy,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all contributing to the degradation of our planet in some way, shape, form. We all are. To what degree varies on how conscious each person is of their footprint.&rdquo;

And while she loves the planet and does her part, diamonds are still a girl&rsquo;s best friend, right? &ldquo;The biggest misconception is that sustainability and luxury cannot coexist. It is an absolute myth, and as you see from our jewelry&mdash;every piece is 14-18k gold&mdash;no one is compromising on that.&rdquo;

Nikki Reed Wants You to Put a (Sustainably Made) Ring on It

L'OFFICIEL USA December 2024 - Julianne Moore Cover

L'OFFICIEL USA November 2024 - Salma Hayek Pinault Cover

Nikki Reed Wants You to Put a (Sustainably Made) Ring on It

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