BYO Toiletries

We don’t often stay in hotels that supply toiletries but they are common in Iran and you only have to be staying in a cut above grotty, t be offered them in abundance. I recon it’s a combination of the Iranians love of plastic disposable products, and being hospitable….and the better the hotel the more you get. We have been offered everything from sewing kits to shower hats to shampoo.

Poor Village Boy he so loves a freebie and its hard for him to say no – but he loves the planet more so we refuse these complimentary products and use our own stuff.

Yup! The easy way to avoid plastic crap in hotel rooms is to bring a wash bag full of your own products. This works wether you are in Iran or Huddersfield…. we have a set of reusable travel bottles which we fill up with home made products, we leave them in our wash bag along with spare wooden toothbrushes and hey presto, ready to go, anywhere, anytime.

Of course you dont have to make your own stuff you can buy your toiletries in bulk bottles then decant off into smaleer bottles as needed.

You can get sets of plastic bottles from chemists like Superdrug though be warned the cheaper bottles are not very durable.

Muji also do a good range of handy pretty bottles.

Camping shops have some great hard wearing options though they are more expensive.

If you really don’t want to use plastic you can get metal bottles though please note they are not so good for backpacking. They tend to crumple under pressure.  You can read about our choice of bottles, and plastic versus metal, here

If you want to make your own plastic free cosmetics have a look at this

For more posts on plastic in Iran read up here

Find lots more pictures of Iranian plastic pollution here at Planet Trash and Flickr Plastic Is Rubbish

Inspired to give up plastic? Check these plastic free products sourced as part of our plastic boycott and listed here the >>>A-Z plastic free index

Want to travel plastic free – check out the plastic free backpack

Home made cream, suntan lotion and the rest

Its is so easy to make your own creams and lotion that once you start you will never look back. The advantages are huge not least of which are you get to control what goes on your skin, be way more eco friendly and you save a whole load of cash. You can make almost anything the cosmetic companies sell but without the palm oil, dodgy chemicals (have you read what goes into this stuff?)and weird colours. Though you can have all those too if you want.

Bases

Start by making a base creams, moisturizer or lotion

How do you make cosmetic creams and lotions the basics

The Aromantics cream making starter pack some more details

Specialist Creams

Once the base is made you then you add active ingredients to make specialist creams such as:

Suntan Lotion

- add Microfine Titanium Dioxide OR Zinc Oxide to make a suntan lotion

Self Tan

- Add DHA to make a fake bake that really works – find out what DHA is right here

Magic, age defying, cellulite busting potions

- scour the internet for all the gubbins, the AHAs, enzymes and crushed pearls that are supposed to grant instant beauty and add them too. I can’t promise results, but it’s fun experimenting.

Making creams while travelling

You cannot carry a years supply of home made cream in your rucksack so here are some ideas about making your own home made creams in hotel bedrooms.

Making cream in Bangkok

a years supply of sun block

PLASTIC SPOILER
Some of the above will come plastic packaged. As I get huge amounts cream out of one small bag of ingredients so I consider it a worthwhile compromise. It still represents a huge decrease in plastic consumption.

Suppliers

I love aromantics and buy most of my stuff from them but there are loads of good guys out there.

Other plastic free health and beauty products can be found right here

You can find out HOW TO …do all sorts of other things… plastic free right here

Find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Hairbrush and comb update

Flat hairbrush (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just been re-checking my hair care data and, yes, you can still get plastic-free hair brushing products  here

Find more plastic-free products (sourced as part of our plastic boycott) here – the >>>plastic-free resource index

Plastic micro beads

Why we exfoliate plastic free……..

Other plastic free health and beauty products can be found right here

You can find out HOW TO …do all sorts of other things… plastic free right here

Find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

My adventures with Dr. Bromner's Soap

Reblogged from stephaniegetsridofhercrap:

My family understands me. That's why I got soap for Christmas. Dr. Bromner's All-One soap. I was quite pleased with the gift. It was even wrapped in a brand-new homemade knitted dishcloth. Love that! I unwrapped the first bar and placed it by my sink. Then I noticed it had the words All-One stamped into the bar. My brain clicked on.

Read more… 395 more words

Other plastic free health and beauty products can be found right here   You can find out HOW TO …do all sorts of other things… plastic free right here   Find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Clean Exfoliation

Microbeads…. the newest way to exfoliate. These tiny particles, or microbeads, scrub away at the skin supposedly leaving it wonderfully cleansed.  These beads may well deep clean your skin but guess what? Unless otherwise stated, they are almost certainly made from plastic.

After using, they are washed off your face and down the drain and into the ocean where they become pollutants that don’t biodegrade. Truly, plastic is rubbish!

Here’s a really easy way to avoid this problem.

Totally plastic free exfoliation

Cotton Flannels – the old school way to clean up. Rub away the dirt and dead skin…it works, honest.

Want tougher love? try a luffa. These dried fibrous vegetables will buff up your blackheads and polish your butt.  I got mine, unwrapped, from TKMax. I cut off smaller pieces to do my face with. Gently scour.

Then there are natural bristle brushes for body brushing. This is exactly as it sounds. Brushing your body and I love this. I have had my brush for ages and I can’t remember where I got it, but these look quite nice – sustainable beech body with pig bristles – vegans and vegetarians you could try these with tampico fibres. 

Then there is, as always, the wonderful and versatile bicarbonate of soda. Its particles are rough enough to scour off dead skin but not so brutal as to leave you weeping. Grab a handful and rub it on. I use this on my face and body. You can get plastic free bicarb here.

Some plastic elements

I can only get the following products in polythene bags. These bags are simple plastic, can be easily recycled and, it is claimed, are safe to burn. So, not as bad as other types of plastic packaging, but still…..

Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For truly brutal exfoliation try pumice powder…arghhhhh. Best suited to hands, feet and really grisly elbows.  Use up to 10% in a moisturising cream base (find out how to make your own right here). Do not use the pumice scrub on sensitive skin. Do not use in a plastic bath – it may take off the surface.

Sea salt is good and scratchy and makes a good deep cleaning scrub. It  is not as harsh as pumice, and you can use it in a plastic bath. I like it for my oily body but would not use it on my face.

I buy both of the above from Aromantics.  

Oatmeal – soothing, exfoliating, soft (no scratchy edges) and known for its gentle, skin-healthy effects. It also contains vitamins B and E. To use, grind the oatmeal up in a food processor, or buy the really fine stuff to begin with, add enough water to make a paste and use all over. I use this on my face where it works really well. I got my oat meal from Goodness (and I use it to make biscuits)

Oatmeal chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Suppliers

I love aromantics   and buy most of my stuff from them but there are loads of good guys out there.

Other plastic free health and beauty products can be found right here

You can find out HOW TO …do all sorts of other things… plastic free right here

Find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Related articles

• Baking Soda Scrub! (skincarebydonna.wordpress.com)

a years supply of sun block

 I have absolutely no melamine and my skin burns even in cloudy conditions. Sure I cover up but I still have  to factor up on a regular basis.

I have been making my own sun block for years now and it does work (details below), but when setting off on our plastic free travels I had to ask myself:

Could I  really carry a years supply of home made sun tan lotion out there with me?

If so I would I carry it?

Last time I went away I took my home-made lotions in metal pots. While they are fine in the handbag they are not so good for hard core backpacking. My pack gets flung on and off jolty old buses and the metal bottles crumpled and creased under the strain. Then the lids could not be removed or started to leak.

Obviously I am not going to use glass bottles.

This is one of those times when plastic bottles are the best option so why not just buy the lotion out there ready made and packed in plastic bottles. Its not even as if those bottles would be going to landfill or end up as litter. In most of the countries we visit plastic bottles represent cash and are collected by  litter pickers.

Plenty of justifications for buying ready-made, plastic –packed lotion and yet I was not keen on that idea. Part of it is just stubbornness. I want to see how far I can go with this. Another reason is I hate  the crap they put in those creams – all those nasty chemicals and irritating perfumes.

So here’s my solution.

Back home I made some uber strong sun block cream. It’s  as thick as axel grease with a factor of about 100. I adapted an Aromantic recipe, reduced the water and upped the sun block ingredients,details below. It was all very ad hoc so there is no recipe.

Now, while travelling,  I thin down the axel grease with  homemade lotion as needed. I refill the  reusable plastic bottles I took from home. I can make a range of factors depending on how much lotion I add. So far it is working.

The logical amongst you will be looking puzzled. Surely  the problem remains? Rather then carrying a years supply of sunblock I now have to carry a years supply of lotion to thin the sunblock down with??

No because I make the lotion as I go along using the Plastic Is Rubbish backpackers home made lotion kit.

I think you will be proud of me!

Here’s how you make sun tan lotion

And here is  The Plastic Is Rubbish Backpackers home made lotion kit

Other cream related posts can be found HERE. If like me you don’t tan, you might be especially interested in Home madehfake tan

There are lots more plastic free beauty products here.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out this list of plastic free products -the >>>A-Z<<<  index

Related articles

• Great pot (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)
• Making cream in Bangkok (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)

Great pot

After you have made your own home made creams and lotions you need to store them in something. Old glass jam jars are fine for storing the excess but you  want to think twice before using glass in the bathroom what the hard tiles, slippery hands, bare feet and  shattering  potential.

Nope this is a case for an unbreakable product and aluminium  pots and bottles  are ideal and look good. Please note – all the suppliers I use line their products  with a resin ( plastic) liner. Your call.

Plastic bottle  are good in the bathroom. You can see what you have and they are totally safe. The greenest way  is to reuse the pots and bottles you  already have – my old shampoo bottle is still going after  5 years of refills. But that lives in the gym bag. When it comes to bottles that can be seen  I  am shallow and I like the bathroom to look good. So I recycled all my old bottles and  bought some  funky  plastic bottles for the side of the bath.

In the boudoir (a marginally less  dangerous environment), you can  use glass, by far the nicest product. Once again the umber green amongst can reuse jam jars  however I went out and bought simple  glass jars which I matched with aluminium lids. Which brings me to lids and closures

You can get all sorts of closures for bottles from simple screw caps to flip lids,  pumps and sprays. It really depends on the nature of your product. I tend to use aluminium caps and  lids because they look the best and last the longest.  No matter how sturdy the plastic lid anything more complex then a screw top eventually falls apart and I don’t like that.

Please note that all closures  almost always have a small plasticised paper disc inside. You can  take it out without reducing the effectiveness of the product, which makes it all the more irritating!

I have been using my bottles jars and lids for years now and they are still looking good and working well.

Labelling

Believe me you will forget what is in your bottles and you will have to label them. You can write on the bottle with a waterproof pen though in my experience the writing does eventually wash off. You can buy plastic labels from the supplier below for a very reasonable rate. Apparently they last for five years so you might think that this is fair trade off. Or you can use wooden or aluminium  labels ( try garden stores or craft stores), or even cardboard tags and tie them onto your bottles.

You can buy all the above from naturally thinking

For more on home made beauty products check out keep pretty plastic free

Check out the full range of plastic-free, compostable  products as used by us  with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Antisceptic, tooth whitener and mouthwash …

Bought this bottle of hydrogen peroxide from Boots in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The bottle is glass the cap is metal. Plastic free you might think well apart from the plastic lid liner and plasticised paper label. So massively plastic reduced is it that it is my choice of  antiseptic for my travel medical kit.

As well as cleaning wounds it can also be used as a mouth wash and helps whiten the teeth.

I love a multi-tasking product.

For a great mouthwash recipe try this blog.  And don’t stop at the mouthwash, there are lots of wonderful sounding things in there.

Other plastic free beauty products can be found right here.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of U.K based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Making cream in Bangkok

I don’t know what you do in a downtown hotel room in Bangkok but I make body lotion. I have been making my own creams and lotions successfully at home for ages now but since then of course I have packed my bags to travel the world. Obviously I don’t want to go back to using plastic packed cosmetics but carrying a years supply of creams and lotions was not an option. So I thought why not continue to make my own creams WHILE back packing.

As I am sure you know, cream, body lotion and the like is basically water and oil mixed together in varying quantities. The more oil the richer the cream. As water and fat do not naturally mix you need to use an emulsifier.

The process is simple – mix the oils and emulsifier and heat to a certain temperature. Heat the water to a certain temperature. Mix the two together to make cream.

So before I left I weighed out, mixed up and melted together a batch of oils and emulsifiers. I used hard oils like Shea so the end mix set firm – think butter in the fridge consistency. I planned to add the water at a later stage.
So when my body lotion ran out in Thailand it was time to see if my cunning stunt was going to work.
I set out my equipment.

Tiffin Tin 2
Metal cup
Heating element I had brought along to make tea (and cream) with.

Shea butter emulsifying oil mix
Let the show begin.
I put a dollop of the oil/emulsifying mix in the metal cup and some water in the tiffin tin.
I clipped the tin cup to the side of the tiffin tin with my tweezers.
I heated the water in the tiffin tin with the element.

When I thought everything was hot enough I added some of the water to the melted oils and mixed vigorously.

Not a complete success. The oil and water did emulsify but didn’t thicken quite as much as I had hoped. I had created a kind of sloppy lotion rather than a cream but it was good enough for moisturising.

I refilled my plastic bottle and went on my merry moisturised way.
Lots more information about my cream making exploits can be found on the following pages

Lots more information about my cream making exploits can be found on the following pages

All cream index

How do you make cosmetic creams and lotions the basics

The Aromantics cream making starter pack some more details

Home made sun tan lotion

Home made fake tan

Other plastic free beauty products can be found right here

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of U.K based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index