The one with the zero waste beauty routine

I've had a lot of requests from friends for zero waste beauty swaps, so let's go. Personal care is an area where we are always using up and replacing products, so it is a great place to make some plastic free swaps. 

My (mostly) plastic free swaps

Here's a little update of where I am in my journey to plastic free personal care. I am still definitely a work in progress.  Note that this post includes my affiliate links to some items because my classroom can always use more books. You'll pay the same price either way, but if you use my links, Amazon will have to share some of the money with me 😎

Dental Care: 

I've already written about dental care options. I still love my biodegrade-able dental floss and bamboo tooth brushes. Since that post I found some toothpaste tablets I like. Weldental Chewtab Advanced Whitening Toothpaste Tablets with Nano Hydroxyapatite They come in paper packaging and get stored in a metal tube. They use nano hydroxyapatite instead of fluoride for remineralizing tooth enamel and they are also a pretty good whitening agent. I linked to a lit review about it above. 

Hair Care: 

And, I am still loving my shampoo and conditioner bars that I wrote about in March. At the time I was ordering them directly from The Earthling Company, but I found out you can also get them from Amazon. Which, I admit is more convenient for me. 

I don't really use any other hair care products. Today I posted a bunch of samples on our local gifting group because they have all been sitting in my drawer since before I started this blog and I just won't ever use them. It was nice to get the space back in the drawer. 

Skincare: 

Skincare has been the most interesting low-waste adjustment, mostly because I had, okay still have, lots of back-stock and samples. I really went a year without buying any more sunscreen for my face in plastic bottles and I still have some of that left. I decided I really wanted to try out some sunscreen in glass packaging before I ran out of my existing stock. I told myself I needed to find out what I liked and what would work for me. 

My favorite face sunscreen that comes in glass is from The Mad Hippie. It has a glass bottle with a plastic pump on top. I checked their website to see if I could order refills without the plastic pump. You can't, but they do partner with Terra Cycle where you can order a free small take back bag to send back any plastic parts from Mad Hippie products. (I just ordered mine.) The sunscreen itself is great. You have to shake it before you use it, but it goes on really well. It's thin, more like a liquid than a cream. I like that I can buy this at my local Sprouts grocery store. 

My second favorite sunscreen packaged in glass is ECLIPSE Sheer Mineral Sunscreen from Earth Harbor. Their products are available from Amazon or their own website, but the sunscreen is not on Amazon. One thing I like about this one is you can order refills (only through their website) that come without the plastic pump. Then you just move the pump from your empty bottle to the new bottle. The glass bottle is recyclable of course. This one is thicker, more like a traditional sunscreen, and I think it made me break out more, but that was not a well controlled experiment. 

Face Wash:

In either case, if you are wearing sunscreen during the day, you need to wash your face at night. I've been using the same bar from The Earthling Co. for an embarrassing number of years. Yeah, I mean the exact same bar. The thing just lasts forever. It's their tea tree and oatmeal facial soap. And now I'm worried because I can't find it on their website, so I guess I am glad that it looks like I still have a few years left on it. I keep it on a wooden soap dish and I never pick it up. I just run my wet hand over the top of it and then wash my face. A gentle bar of facial soap can last years longer than anything that comes in a package. Since Earthling co. doesn't seem to carry mine anymore, I'm going to suggest these are a close dupe. They come in a two pack so give one to a friend. 

Face Serum:

As a woman of a certain age, face serums are often part of my routine. I've tried some from Mad Hippie, and I really like Celestine from Earth Harbor, but the one I keep coming back to is Good Genes by Sunday Riley. It comes in a glass bottle with a plastic pump. It is pricy, (for me) but I think worth it. 

Make Up: 

Let's talk make up. I don't wear a lot. The less you wear, the less you need to buy. Two things I need (or think I need) are mascara and lipstick. Mascara most often comes in a plastic tube. My first solution was from Lush, and that was great until they changed their take back program for mascara. (Very disappointed in them for that one.) But with a little research I found Izzy. Their mascara comes in a metal tube, and in a re-useable mailer. Every three months they send me a new one and I send back the old one for reuse. Reuse is even better than recycling, so I'm feeling like that's a win. They also have a lot of other zero waste cosmetic solutions. 

For lipstick I still have a back stock, and I have a favorite that comes in a small plastic tube. I don't know yet if I'll be able to give that one up. I am pretty sure I will rationalize my way to buying more with a justification that I have cut so much other plastic packaging out of my life already. But I'm still considering options.

Occasionally, I need some concealer and I found some good options on Etsy. Just search Etsy zero waste makeup for lots of options. You'll find everything from organic herbal eyeshadows, to foundations and mascaras. You name it, someone on Etsy is making a small batch organic version of it. I got my concealer from River Organics. I think I got the full size, but I recommend the sample size if you don't use it that often. It comes in a cardboard dish like thing. it's far better to support small businesses than the larger beauty industry anyway. 

Body Wash: 

LOL, I'm still using up soaps I've brought home from hotels over the years. Someday I may actually get to buying soap for myself. There are lots of ways to buy soap package free, from the farmers market to my local Sprouts and even some nice options at Lush. Soap is not a problem. 

The challenge of zero waste and personal care is just the sheer volume of personal care products stashed in my bathroom. For years I subscribed to one of those services that sends you samples ever month. I used a lot and gave away many, but there is still a lot left. All of it needs to be used up, given away, or trashed as I simplify what I keep and what I use. 

I added a compost collector to my bathroom so that compostable things like hair, q-tips, and my favorite dental floss don't need to go in the trash. 

I switched the family to bamboo toilet paper (that's not wrapped in plastic), first through Grove and then Amazon. It's way better than buying a giant plastic bag at Costco that had six smaller plastic bags of toilet paper inside it. 

I still use up some plastic packaged item every few weeks and then I look at my options. Do I need to replace this product? (Sometimes I really don't.) Can I make a version of it myself? (I'm looking at you sugar scrub.) Is there a plastic free or refill alternative? Often the answer to one of those questions will keep me from buying another plastic bottle. I hope some of the options above will help you do the same. 

The one with less recycling in the blue bin

Recycling is one of those things that makes me feel good. I've always considered myself very good at recycling. Our blue bin has never contained trash and always had clean, dry recyclables. I regularly checked the flyer from the city to make sure the things I put in there really were recyclable. I broke down boxes so I could fit more in. Our recycling cans, yes I have two, were often full on pick up day. 

Folks who know about zero waste, say you should do a trash audit, so you can see what you are throwing away and then take steps to reduce those things. I kind of skipped that step, but I know pretty well what we are throwing away. 

The things is, our trash production is actually quite small. At this point we are usually trashing one thirteen gallon white plastic trash bag a week. Sometimes two, but mostly just the one. 

But the recycling 🙄. In the days before I started trying to reduce waste, we regularly filled both blue trash cans on the weeks our recycling was picked up. At the time I actually thought this was a good thing. "Look how much of our waste we recycle!"

Now, I know better. I shop differently, and I have found some other ways to divert things from our recycling bins. Reuse for the win!

Cardboard

We are happy online shoppers. I don't see that changing. We like our weekly meal plan box. (I'll write more about meal planning at some point, but the meal plan box is less wasteful than it sounds.) We order pet food online. Buying just the one thing I need online is better than going to a store and talking myself into buying more things. So we have boxes. I used to break them down. I still do that for some small ones, but now I make sure to remove any plastic packing tape first, so they can actually be recycled. 

What I discovered, is that I can give away boxes in our local gifting group. (I wrote about the gifting group here.) There are always people getting ready to move, or moving things into storage, or in need of a shipping box. The trick I found, is to wait until I have 5-6 medium to large boxes. This typically takes about 3-4 weeks, and I'm lucky to have an out of the way place to stack them. No one wants to come pick up one box, but they do like a solid collection. Once I have a critical mass, I take a picture and post it on the gifting group. A grateful person, who doesn't have to buy as many brand new boxes, picks them up from my porch the next day. The boxes get reused and I don't have to break them down or fit them in my recycling can. 

Jam Jars

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are popular in our house. So is jam on toast. Therefore we have a favorite strawberry jam that I get at a local market, okay it's Trader Joes. Their reduced sugar strawberry jam comes in an adorable 12 oz glass jar with a nice gold lid. When I started shopping in bulk bins, I needed a way to store items like gummy bears, and other things that I didn't already have pantry storage for. I started taking the labels off these jam jars and they are so perfect for storing all kinds of things. The jars aren't going in our recycling bin anymore, and I keep finding new ways to use them. Peanut butter jars (we buy that in glass now) and wide mouthed salsa jars are also great reuse containers. And I have a pretty solid plan about how donate these when I have too many, but that's another post. 

Drink Bottles

In the past, my family consumed a lot of drinks that came in plastic jugs, usually the half gallon size. Lots of lemonade came into our house that way, but also iced tea, juices, etc. (See the plastic bottle in the image above? That's the last one I bought. We finally used them all up.) Then it occurred to me that it couldn't be that hard to make lemonade. I had lemons from our CSA box, and I've found that sometimes a neighbor picks their tree and leaves out a box of free lemons. I can turn four lemons into 64 oz of lemonade in under ten minutes. I'll put my recipe below. Boom, a major source of bulky plastic stopped showing up in our recycling bin. The version in the picture above is actually made with grapefruit juice because we got grapefruit in the CSA last week and I figured I'd try it. Works great with the same recipe. I got the glass jar on Amazon, so I wouldn't have to store lemonade in a plastic jug. It fits on the shelf in the fridge door just as well. 

Laundry Soap Jugs

I have written previously about my switch to laundry sheets. I've been using them for months now and I'm still really happy with that choice. I didn't have a jug of laundry soap to recycle very often, but those will no longer appear in our recycling can either.  I still want to be able to have bleach around for some uses, but I have learned I can buy it in tablets that come in a much smaller (though still plastic) bottle. So no more bleach jugs either. 

Cleaning Products

I'm not a big fan of cleaning. I'm learning now that part of my lack of enthusiasm came from really hating chemical cleaning agents. One day during the pandemic, it occurred to me to put on an N95 mask while spraying the shower tiles, it helped, but the product still made my eyes sting. No thank you. And of course those products came in plastic bottles. Even when I dutifully bought refill jugs instead of new spray bottles, I was still adding plastic to my recycling bin. 

Looking for ways to reduce plastic made me finally break down and try one of those brands where you buy the glass spray bottles and refill them with concentrates or dissolving tablets. I won't specify which one I'm trying, because I haven't tried the others and I don't feel excessively well informed about the variations. But I will say I love how well these products work, and how much they do not irritate my eyes, nose and throat. They smell good too. My cat, who used to run when I cleaned, actually comes to investigate when I start cleaning with these. I think he likes the smell of it too. My house is cleaner and there is less plastic waste in the blue bin. 

Full disclosure: I am still working through what's left in some of those plastic refill jugs. There are at least 4-5 of them still in my garage. The use-it-up part of switching to zero waste takes patience. I got serious about this in February of 2023. It's May now and we are just starting to be done using some of our plastic packaged items. Eventually, I may finally admit that I should gift things I don't want to use anymore, but in this case, that feels like passing the problem on to someone else. 

Paper

Oh, I'm going to need a whole separate post about reducing paper. It's a process I've been working on for years. 

What's still in the recycling bin? 

Well, paper, I'm still working on that. Some food packaging, mostly steel cans from pet food, and milk cartons. I tried to get my people to switch to milk that came in a glass jug that I could return for a deposit. The funny thing is the fancy glass jar milk came with a layer of cream on top of the milk. I think the dairy considered 'cream top' a feature. My younglings considered it a bug and would not drink lumpy milk. I thought it was delicious, but I couldn't drink all of a 1/2 gallon myself before it went bad. My husband has switched to getting his 1/2 and 1/2 in the pint size glass jars though, and we return it for the $3 deposit, so that's one less small carton in our waste stream every week. 

Making less recycling seems as much or more important than making less trash. The truth is we already made very little trash when I started to consciously try to make less, but we were proudly generating a lot of recycling. As I look for ways to cut single use plastics, and reuse items before recycling them, we are slowly bringing down the volume of recycling in the blue bin. We need to put it out for collection next week, but this time it will be just one can instead of two. Progress.