Plastic Free July – Hitting the Beauty Bars
One of the biggest things I sought to change during #PlasticFreeJuly was my beauty product consumption. So, this month I cancelled my beauty subscription box and started looking at plastic free, low packaging and eco-friendly alternatives when my current bottles of potions run out.
I don’t believe that environmentally friendly lifestyle changes should be done by simply buying a lot of shiny new eco-friendly things and throwing out your old, but perfectly good, plastic bottles of shampoo or tubs of cleaning products. It’d be incredibly wasteful of me and a large part of moving towards a sustainable lifestyle for me is learning not to buy new things – make do and mend, find alternatives, borrow, share, create. I am obviously nowhere near making my own soaps and such but you get the idea! I thought it best to use up what I had first.
That being said… I had conveniently run out of shampoo and so off I trotted, having done some research online and read loads of reviews, to buy my first bar alternatives. Cleansing, shampoo, soap, conditioner. All plastic free and eco-friendly.
Shampoo Bar
The shampoo bar took some getting used to – it doesn’t lather up the same at first, so I wasn’t sure I was even getting all my hair covered. However, once rinsed and dried, it felt soft and clean. My hair was fluffy, but manageable and lasted the same amount of time as my previous shampoo before needing washing again.
At the end of the day I wasn’t looking for a miracle hair product, I was looking for a plastic free alternative and this hit the mark – while smelling great. It did make my wet hair feel slightly sticky on it’s own, but this went when it dried. I had been advised that the bars react differently depending on water hardness so expect to trial one or two!
Conditioner Bar
The conditioner wasn’t as successful. Conditioners aren’t supposed to lather anyway but I didn’t feel I was getting enough product off it to cover my hair. However, it did tame the fluff more than the shampoo bar alone and again smelt delicious. I shall persevere a bit longer but may look for another type – there’s so many out there to choose from! Any ideas?
Cleansing
My favourite discovery however was the shea butter cleansing bar for my face. It was perfect for my sensitive and dry skin. A colleague had recommended using coconut oil instead of make up remover too, so I rubbed a little on and then washed off using this bar and the konjac sponge (I’d had this little black face sponge for months and found it’s a great alternative to make up wipes – can just use water or a little facewash and worked great with the bar!) Saves water, super soft and clean feeling skin, without make up wipes, cotton wool pads or harsh make up remover, even on waterproof make-up. Result!
Coconut oil also has a multitude of uses too – hair mask, face scrub, moisturiser, some people even use it as a base for DIY toothpaste!
Refillable Facial Oil
Another plastic free alternative I’ve been using is this face oil – it was an old dropper bottle I’d used up which I refilled from a zero waste store with brazil nut oil. I use it morning and night for moisturiser and when I mixed a few drops with leftover coffee grounds, it made a great face scrub! So far, so good, I’ve found a lot of products can be multi-functional, therefore saving me money and cupboard space!
I’ve yet to try plastic free alternatives to products like make up or anti-perspirant, so if you’ve got any recommendations for me to try please contact us!
Been neglecting the housecleaning during all this excitement, so next post I’ll be putting plastic-free cleaning products to the test, including some DIY recipes.
