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

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• Baking Soda Scrub! (skincarebydonna.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

How to keep pretty plastic free

People are always asking me how I stay so young and lovely looking with no plastic in my bathroom cabinet.

Easy I say – I get all Blue Peter and make my own products. Its quicker then  trying to choose between a hundred different shampoos and its really simple, fun to do and, best of all, I get to control what goes on my  body, where it comes from and what environmental impact it has.

Incidentally have you seen what goes into commercial cosmetics?  Try toxic chemicals in cosmetics, safe cosmetics website and the ewg database of all the chemicals you are rubbing in daily. If you are of a nervous disposition you might want to skip these and just resolve to reform.

For the most recent posts on beauty check here

Older posts can be found  sorted below by category

Accessories
Cotton Buds

Nail brush

paper tissues in a box

toilet roll

Dental Care

plastic free oral hygeine

General Beauty
Bicarbonate of soda

Cream Hand body etc – home made Including specialist lotions like suntan self tan and eternal youth serum.

Deodorants 

Lip Balm

Skin Cleanser skin toner

soap

Hair Care

Combs

Conditioner

hair gel

Hairbrushes

hairspray

Shampoo

Plastic- free menstruation –  sanitary Protection

You can find out HOW TO …do all sorts of other things… plastic free right here
Find out more about plastic here why boycott it here
Check out other plastic free products sourced as part of our plastic boycott at  the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index.

Home made sun block

Oh the risks I take for you… this year I am going to make my own sun block. If I end up looking Methuselah you will be to blame….

First you need to make the base cream or lotion – more info here – then add sunscreen stuff – either Microfine Titanium Dioxide OR Zinc Oxide .

I bought all the ingredients from www.aromantic.co.uk

The following information is from their website.

Microfine Titanium Dioxide

Microfine Titanium Dioxide is accepted as a safe Sun Barrier all around the world. This is because it is inorganic and has a record of having no adverse reactions to it. This makes it ideal for products used on a daily basis.

It can be used in Sun Screens, Moisturisers, Powdered Make-up, Lip and Baby products and virtually any Skin Treatment product.

Adding 5% Microfine Titanium Dioxide to a product gives it a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of approximately 10 and protects against 90% UVA/UVB and UVC radiation. Adding 10% gives it a SPF of 15-20.

Add during the heating of the Vegetable Oil in the Fat Stage of making your product.

OR

Zinc Oxide

When you apply zinc oxide sunscreen the particles are said to stay on the outermost layer of your skin, where they scatter and absorb ultraviolet radiation, protecting your living skin below. Zinc oxide is considered a broad spectrum blocker, protecting skin from UVA, UVB and UVC.

For more visit the website

I have found both easy to work with and, despite initial misgivings,equelly as effective it stopping burning.

If you want your lotion to be self tanning as well you might want to add some DHA

NB the above products come in a plastic bags – booo… but the bags are polythene so easily recycled . As I get huge amounts cream out of one small bag of ingredients so I consider it a worthwhile compromise.

Other plastic free cosmetics can be found here

The photo is called wrinkled old woman – natch – and is part of a great series by jbpics

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

Fake bake plastic free

Every year they, the fashionistas, say that pale is interesting – well up here in the windswept north of England where the sun dont shine,  pallid is the norm and we hate it.

So refusing to bow to the indignities of our location we paint our selves with coffee and draw lines on our legs with eyeliner – no sorry that was the war. We stain ourselves brown with self tanning lotion.

But that comes in a plastic bottle and you know what I think about plastic bottles so I make my own

Home made self tan

Add self tanning addative DHA to a base cream.

It works – though you might want to play around with the percentages – the first batch I made was rather strong for my glow- in – the – dark, white, white skin.

For details on DHA – stockists and amounts needed to turn you into a sun kissed deity click here

NB I added this to my home made lotion but I see no reason why you couldnt add it to a bought lotion. However making your own is really easy – for more details click here.

You ca also add it to your home made suntan lotion to get a golden glow while NOT burning.

NBB the DHA comes in a small plastic tub. You can make loads of the stuff from one tub. So while the base ingredients come packaged in plastic this represents a massive reduction in plastic consumption as one small tub replaces a number of bottles.

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

A year of creamy bliss

Image via Wikipedia

The amount of cream I need to slather over my wrinkled frame has, not surprisingly, increased with the years. However I really don’t see why my need to keep my skin supple should result in a mountain of plastic pots that will last for centuries – far longer then my looks. A timeless, non biodegradable monument to my vanity – ooh err. So I have been running down supplies of lotion, saving the pots and have invested in the make your own cream starter kit from www.aromantic.co.uk

They are Swedish and organic but based in Scotland

It arrived with everything you need including sadly 30 little plastic pots to put it in. All the ingredients were wrapped in plastic bags as well. Hmmm.

On the plus side, the cream is really easy to make and they send you several different recipes.

For the last 3 years now I have been  I have been using it on face and body with no side effects.

The plastic pots ave ben reused a number of times  – and are still in use.

I have bought some glass jars with metal lids for best.

There is little I can do about the  plastic bags – I get huge amounts cream out of one small bag of ingredients so I consider it a worthwhile compromise.

I have noticed a big drop in bathroom waste.

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

The apple vinegar hair rinse

Then I read that Britains get through 15 million plastic bottles a day. How many? I find that utterly shocking. So I decided to stop buying hair products in plastic bottles. Which pretty much means I stopped buying hair products.

Shampoo was easy enough to replace – I used to make my own from soap flakes, now I just use bar soap which works fine.

Conditioners though were more difficult. I started with the Pure Lush solid conditioning bar.  It smells lovely and others rave about it (see http://www.purelush.co.uk for details). Sadly it didn’t work for me which was rather unfair.

The recipe for the olive oil and honey conditioner on http://www.tipking.co.uk sounded yummy so I tried it Putting olive oil on my naturally lustrous hair – ok greasy hair- was a big mistake. 3 days later and I was still washing it out. I tried other oil based mixes with improved results but I think they are better for people with dry hair.

For me its the vinegar rinse. Its really easy to make, just dilute half a tablespoon of apple vinegar in a cup of water and use it to rinse your hair after washing. Don’t be put off by the strong smell – once the hair is dry there is no odour of vinegar – honest. It works and here’s why; acidifiers (such as vinegar) close the cuticle of the hair making it shiny and less prone to tangling – and I got that from a real hairdresser so it must be true.

Tescos do an apple vinegar in a glass bottle with a metal screwtop lid. Apart from the little plasticised disc in the lid they are as plastic free as you can get… unless you decide to make your own apple vinegar. Heres a recipe for you to try

Check out these other plastic free haircare products here

	brush – hand brush
	Combs
	Conditioner
	hair gel
	Hairbrushes
	hairspray
	Shampoo
	soap shampoo

For more  plastic free products go to the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index.

Home made lip balm

Well looks like winter is finally here – again – and the need for a good lip balm has never been greater. Needless to say I takes issue with the plastic tubes and pots that commercial balms are packaged in – especially as they are used only once then thrown away. So this year I have been making my own lip balm. For the past few months I have been using it and it works

This recipe is from The Soap Tub, a firm that supply base ingredients for making balms, bath bombs and soaps
1 tablespoon beeswax pellets
1 tablespoon roughly chopped shea butter
1 tablespoon grated cocoa butter
1 tablespoon sweet almond oil
1 tablespoon castor oil
Melt the whole lot together in a bowl in a pan of hot water. Mix and pour into little pots to set. The end result is a really nice, very effective lip balm. Pots and ingredients can be bought from The Soap Tub – visit them on line at www.meltandpoursupplies.com or phone them on 01484-453453
However if like me you work out doors a lot digging mud, applying lip balm from a pot with grimy finger is not ideal. Instead I refill old lip balm tubes – you will need to wash them out and rewind them – obviously. Sometimes you have to push the base plate down a little before they will wind back. Or you can buy new, empty tubes from www.aromantic.co. Filling the tubes is fiddly and a small funnel helps.

The tubes may seem expensive but you can reuse them over and over. Now it is of course plastic but do remember Pam does not hate plastic but hates wasting plastic. It should be treated as a valuable resource like any other. So use disposable plastic bad reusing plastic over and over again and then recycling it good. Reusing lip stick tubes is treating plastic as it should be treated – with respect and of course reduces your waste creation. An empty bin and soft lips – what more could a green girl ask for?

Well not being poisoned. In addition to the synthetic preservatives and flavours white petrolatum the basis of many shop bought balms, is derived from petrol. Yuk. Everytime you put it on your lips you ingest a little – make your own and you know what you are eating.