6 ways to clean up your beauty routine this Spring
Every year when spring rolls around the corner I feel an urgent need to turn the house upside-down. Spring clean, of course, but also reconsider my consumption choices and habits. From growing my own green onions to making my bread, changes have been happening all the way around the house recently, including on my vanity.
As an effort to #shareandcare, here are a bunch of small, significant changes you can try and incorporate in your spring routine too!
1. Avoid single-use products
This should come as no surprise that single use products in general should try to be avoided. In beauty, makeup removing wipes, cottons rounds and Q-tips are all big culprits. They are easy, hassle-free options that really facilitate the (definitely horrendous) step of removing makeup or cleansing the skin.
Fortunately, all three aforementioned single-use products have a ton of reusable options. For example, eco-tao, a small Montreal woman-owned business, offers reusable towelettes made of bamboo and organic cotton, that can be thrown in the washing machine once used for minimal involvement and care.
Even better, you can create your own reusable towelettes by cutting up old or stained white T-shirts instead of throwing them out. If you’re like me and can’t even think about dinner without splashing spaghetti allover your shirt, this might be a good redemption opportunity for you and your dirty white tees. Double-whammy baby.
2. Avoid micro-waste too
A bit more subtle than obviously wasteful single-use products are formulas that creates waste so tiny, it’s barely even noticeable. Although they’ve all been mostly replaced by more sustainable and biodegradable ingredient-containing options, some beauty products still contain tiny plastic particles, like micro-exfoliant beads, that get washed down the drain and end up in our oceans. If you absolutely can’t skip a physical exfoliant with grainy particles, look for sugar granules, rice or oat powders, or even grinded fruit kernels, but please leave plastic out of it.
3. Check inside
While we’re on the topic of product composition, there are ingredients that have a much more significant ecological impact than others, and are possible to avoid. For example, petrolatum derivatives and mineral oils are polarizing because they’re great occlusive products, but their production undoubtably has a bigger carbon footprint than, for say, lanolin, or vegetable or fruit oil and butters.
Another popular switch exists for sunscreens. Some sun protecting ingredients like oxybenzone and octinoxate are believed to contribute to coral bleaching, the phenomenon through which the tiny algae living on the surface of the corals die and in turn, makes the coral white. The sale of sunscreens containing these two ingredients is even prohibited in the U.S. state of Hawaii, and other popular beach destinations are following along. So to be both sun AND planet safe, choose formulas that rather contain zinc or titanium dioxide. Or just cover up with loose clothes from head to toe, and at the same time please the planet AND patriarchy.
4. Think BIG!
When possible, go for products in bulk or family size. Travel sizes are cute and fun but they create so much more waste for the same amount of product. While I never recommend buying a bigger format you’re unsure if you’ll even like or go through, try to find your staple products in a size that will ensure the smallest amount of waste. If needed, reuse smaller containers of products you already went through to split them up and make them more convenient.
6. Refill, please!
Similarly, look for products that are actually designed to be refilled. While refillable products used to only be only available in tin or ugly plastic packaging, a lot has changed and a whole lot of brands are now offering options that are both refillable AND cute. Here’s a list of brands I have used and loved that are offer refill options but will still stand pretty on your vanity :
Oneka (hair and body)
Kjar Weis (makeup)
Lilah b. (makeup)
l’Occitane (some body products)
Kilian (perfume)
Isle of paradise (body / self-tanning)
REN Skincare (skincare)
Rituals (skincare / fragrance)
Hope you’ll find inspiration in some of these tips. As with everything ‘greenwashing’, the idea isn’t to stress you out or make you buy a bunch of new eco-friendly options, only to bring new thoughts and ideas to the table. Reducing our waste, in any sphere of our life can be expensive, both in cash and time. So try these out if you feel like they fit within what you can do and remember, if you feel like you are never doing enough, it’s capitalism, not you.
