Earth Day is a movement started in the 1970's to diversify, educate and activate the movement globally. Working with 75,000 partners, they aim to drive positive action for our planet. The beauty industry alone contributes 120 BILLION units into landfill globally each year. Everyone can play their part in the reduction of plastic usage and so I have outlined 5 earth friendly beauty swaps you can easily make to help create a cleaner planet for us all. Plus my promise as an eco friendly beauty salon in Aldershot, to continue improving my green practices.
1. Bamboo Baby
There are so many beauty and personal care tools that are made from plastic and many are single use. In many cases there is a bamboo/ glass/ metal alternative for that product. Why is bamboo better baby? Well I'll tell you. It is very durable, which makes it a good alternative to plastic yet instead of taking 1000 years to biodegrade, bamboo is 100% biodegradable. Bamboo is also highly sustainable, needs very little water to grow, does not require fertilisers or pesticides and contains no harmful toxins. It's a win win situation. So next time you need a new toothbrush, cotton pads or hairbrush; choose bamboo. Check out https://thewildnettleco.com/product/natural-bamboo-comb/ for bamboo hair combs at a very reasonable price. Or follow this link for glass nail files.
My Eco Friendly Beauty Salon Initiative and The Hair & Beauty Artist Promise. Salons throw away 1.3 million single use beauty tools every month. I have chosen to swap all my single use mascara wands, lip brushes and micro-applicators to bamboo from plastic. And I aim to swap to bamboo or re-usable metal waxing spatulas by September 2021.
2. Wipe The Floor With Face Wipes
I have never been a fan of face wipes and especially baby wipes as a form of makeup removal, as I always believed them to contain ingredients that can irritate the skin and eyes. Now more than ever I am against their single use and harmful contribution to landfill. There are two possible alternatives to face wipes and cotton pads for removing makeup and cleansing the skin. Bamboo cotton pads are lovely soft alternatives to traditional cotton pads. They can be used wet or dry with your usual cleanser and toner and can just be added to your usual wash and dry cycle. Or if you want a truly product-free alternative, try a micro-fibre cleansing cloth. Jane iredale's Magic Mitt just uses warm water alone to remove all makeup including mascara. It is then washed at the sink with your hand soap and hung up to dry. Both of these options can be used time and time again and can just as easily be thrown into your gym bag or travel bag.
My Eco Friendly Beauty Salon Initiative and The Hair & Beauty Artist Promise. I have been using bamboo pads in my facials and Magic Mitts in my makeup services since 2019 and only use cotton pads when I have to for tint or nail polish removal. I aim to find a supplier of organic/ sustainable cotton pads by August 2021.
3. Refills Rock.
Until the time comes when all plastic is banned forever (fingers crossed) then we may still have to use beauty products made from plastic packaging. However we can make smart choices. A number of beauty brands are not only producing packaging made from sustainable sources but they are also creating items that can be refilled. I am seeing these changes mainly in makeup but I'm sure the changes will spread to other cosmetics. jane iredale have made refillable options for their Purepressed bases for many years, so you don't need to throw the compact away when empty. In 2020 they repackaged their dry sunscreen Powder-Me SPF so that they could be refilled when empty. Click on this product page to learn more about this brand.
My Eco friendly Beauty Salon Initiative and The Hair & Beauty Artist Promise. Where at all possible I buy the largest bottle of nail varnish remover, wax cleaner, acetone, hand sanitiser etc. to refill my smaller ones to reduce the amount of plastic overall.
4. Bottle It for Bottled Goods.
I'm excited at the prospect of seeing more refillable options on the beauty shelves. In some cases you may not need a bottle at all. I came across these shampoo bars recently and personally can't wait to try them out once my own shampoo and conditioner runs out.
5. Re-use or Re-cycle. Respect!
If your local council is anything like mine, there are certain items that cannot go into your recycling bin even though the packaging is recyclable. Consider whether the packaging could be re-purposed. Check out how the Advanced Nutrition Programme pots could be used in your home after the supplements have been consumed. Is there an innovative way you can re-use your used packaging? If not then you could try a company called Terracycle. You can either drop off items to them or purchase boxes of varying sizes for your home/ office that can be filled with all your empties. The link is for beauty products but they will take any item type that cannot be recycled using traditional methods.
My Eco Friendly Beauty Salon Initiative and The Hair & Beauty Artist Promise. One of the brands I use called Environ introduced the Terracycle scheme in 2020 here in the UK so I encourage my customers to give me back their Environ empties for recycling. My aim is by Autumn 2021 to have a recycling system for 90% of salon consumables including PPE waste such as non-biodegradable gloves, masks and visors.
I hope these points have inspired you to make at least one swap to a more sustainable material or eco friendly beauty option and thereby reducing your landfill waste so that we can all live for a cleaner future. What swaps have you made already? I would love to hear about your eco-friendly beauty swaps.
If you are considering a trip to visit my eco friendly beauty salon in Aldershot that I have been harping on about, you could read my blog 5 Awesome Reasons To Visit My Home Beauty Salon in Aldershot
Or if you would like to learn more about the products I mentioned please get in contact here.