Hello Angels,
After my 6 week long trip to Europe last year (2018) I remembered that I had trouble with not taking enough shampoo or conditioner for the trip and hotel and hostel products were just not doing the trick.
I was persuaded to turn away from my usual bottles of shampoo and conditioner because I was seeing more and more posts and videos on social media and in the news surrounding the issue of single-use and wasteful products in the bathroom, especially pointing out the harm of big bottles of hair products on the environment.
I was sceptical about shampoo and conditioner bars/solids for a while, thinking to myself “How on earth do they lather up and how on earth do they even clean your hair?”
I decided to go ahead and purchase a shampoo bar and a conditioner bar from Lush, to test it and see if it would be something I could benefit from.
From day one I loved the shampoo.
I found that it lathers up easier than my normal liquid shampoo and it leaves my hair feeling even more clean than usual.
I chose Jumping Juniper; it contains a vegan mix of ingredients such as juniper berry, lemon and lime scented oils, rosemary, and lavender essential oils.
Not only does it smell good, but it leaves my hair feeling fresh and my scalp has never been so clean.
The downside to this product is that I bought the round tin that was recommended to me to keep the bar in, however, I can’t get the bar out of the tin so I have to try to rub the shampoo on my head whilst still inside the tin.
That does not stop me from LOVING it though!
Now, the conditioner I just haven’t warmed to yet.
I purchased Sugar Daddy-O; also a vegan solid infused with linseed and argon oil. It’s made for blonde locks to keep the brassy tones at bay, with notes of violet, bergamot and rose.
I really wanted to like this but I don’t. And the reason is that when I use it, it feels like I’m getting no product on my hair. It feels useless.
I also don’t enjoy the scent. I tend to love floral scented products but this one smells like a lip balm I had as a kid (probably filled with nasty chemicals) that I didn’t like AT ALL!
I try to rub it just on the ends of my hair, not through my roots, yet it doesn’t give me any shine or softness at all. This is a product I will not purchase again, however I will try some more from Lush or even another brand.
Another thing to mention about the conditioner is that it doesn’t have a tin that it fits into perfectly, therefore I purchased a tin that I thought would fit the oval shape, but the tin was meant for products double its size.
With this in mind, I will try to find a tin from somewhere else so that it’s not so bulky for my travels later this year.
My next eco-friendly purchase was something I wanted to get for a couple of years now.
A bamboo toothbrush.
I got mine from Flora and Fauna, an Australian website.
I bought it as a kit with its own cylindrical bamboo case instead of just the toothbrush and I love it.
It looks cute, and it’s “saving the seahorses”.
The bristles are not as hard as I would like them to be, yet the only options I had were soft or medium and I chose medium.
I find it strange to go from a Colgate toothbrush with a tongue cleaner and a nice grip to hold onto, to brushing my teeth with a piece of wood, however, I know it’s cleaning my teeth AND helping the environment as well.
I do tend to feel as though I’m brushing my teeth for twice as long to achieve the same “clean feeling” I get when I brushed with my old toothbrush, but I think it’s a good thing to brush for longer.
I don’t mind not having the tongue cleaner on the back of the toothbrush because I already have a tongue scraper to do that job anyway, so I never used the tongue scraper on the toothbrush anyway.
As for my old toothbrush, it’s currently being repurposed as a grout cleaner in the shower.
The final change I made was to stop using single use plastic bags.
This one was pretty easy due to the fact that most stores have caught onto the fact that the plastic bags have been boycotted in all supermarkets in my city.
A big step, but it makes people so much more aware of what they’re doing, and most of the time people do bring their own bags because who wants to be seen trying to juggle 10 cans of beans, while not squashing the bread or the bananas?
I know it’s not much of a change to my everyday life, but it is a change after all.
I’m sure I’ll be adding to my collection bit by bit as the years go by to try and give Earth her groove back.
I hope you can take a leaf out of my book and take a step towards a better society.
“We don’t need one person doing it perfectly, we need everyone doing it imperfectly” -unknown.
Lots of Love,
*All photographs are not my own and taken from Lush’s website and Flora and Fauna’s website, and stock images on Google.
BABYGII 