Dematerialization: Buy Smarter Part 2 The Bathroom
People don't realize how much of their money and space and time and life is thrown away in the bathroom. By people I mean generally women and by bathroom I mean the whole scope of beauty, toiletries, makeup, haircare, (half the drugstore)
I recently started dematerializing the crap that accumulated in my bathroom/makeup area: you should too.
Shampoo/Conditioner
- Unwanted mini samples can be brought to women's shelters
- Only buy one set at a time, (one shampoo and one conditioner) you never know when you may want to switch brands
- There are many EXCELLENT brands which do not test on animals, and many that are also inexpensive. My favorite is Down Under Naturals which unfortunately is not sold in the US. How to tell: ANY PRODUCT NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS WILL SAY NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS otherwise it is. Down Under Naturals is also biodegradeable!
- A solid shampoo and conditioner will avoid the need of ancillary products (i.e. leave in conditioner)
Makeup
- I'll start off by saying I personally don't wear makeup (I do own some) but I encourage you to own as little as possible and where you do, again try to buy products that are not animal tested
- Some replacements:
- Lip balm/gloss will bring out the natural color in your lips minus the lipstick (which men find gross and also women eat 1 lb of each year or something like that)
- Vaseline can substitute for mascara (naturally lengthens your lashes)
- Sunscreen will keep your skin nice so you don't have to put on so much makeup when you're older
Other
- My favorite toner is Burt's Bee's Garden Tomato toner (non-animal tested + kind of wakes you up)
- Anti-perspirant has lots of aluminum in it but the spray has less than the bar (7-8% v. 22%)
- Don't be fooled by advertising, you are beautiful and the key to beauty is preservation which is generally found in a bottle of sunscreen, a good diet including lots of fruits and veggies, and water.
- Shaving cream is an unnecessary advertising gimmick (especially if you're not shaving your face) soap + loofah do fine beforehand
- A loofah, unlike a sponge is biodegradeable, also a cotton cloth is better than a sponge but not made of an animal like a loofah (plastic sponges are evil)
- Skip the blowdryer. Especially if you have curly hair you want to keep curly.
- Resist the temptation to throw away money on little makeup bits when you go to the drugstore. Have you noticed how large the makeup/beauty isle is growing? Stop making those impulse purchases!
Try to minimize your toiletries to the barest essentials (here are mine)
- Soft & Dri Spray Anti Perspirant (8% aluminum and I will be graduating to a non-aluminum brand asap this container is done)
- My favorite perfume
- My gentle cleanser
- My daily facial moisturizer with SPF 15
- Burt's Bee's Milk and Honey Lotion
- Burt's Bee's Garden Tomato Toner
- Burt's Bee's Beeswax Lipbalm (even the boys own these)
- Shampoo and Conditioner (down under naturals)
- Non-animal tested Aussie brand hair gel
posted by arisu @ 6:08 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Rock/crystal deoderant is good - (eg. http://www.crystaldeodorantprotection.com/) I can't remember where I bought mine, but it came in a little cloth bag, no plastic container.
Instead of deodorant at all, I use rubbing alcohol where I sweat--it evaporates quickly and kills the bacteria so there is no odor.
its mad easy.
Thanks for the wonderful comments: Unfortunately though the crystal works in theory, I haven't had any luck with it in practice, it's not very good at getting rid of the smell or preventing perspiration. The alcohol however I will try, though it's probably not a very good idea to use post a fresh shave.
Don't listen to Leon, he lives in a box and likes the play warcraft.
I highly recommend (and exclusively use) Seventh Generation products. I often find that AMZN has the best prices on these products.
aussie and actually animal tested since its own by clairol. everything that's distributed by clairol is animal testes.
also, you can't trust that its not animal tested by a label saying its not animal tested. sometimes its a maketing gimmick since the WHOLE product isn't animal tested but pratically all the ingrediants except one are animal tested but the whole product itself techinally 'isn't animal tested'.
Hmm, only partially true.
You can't simply put 'not animal tested' on a label and have that be untrue. There are certain guidelines and requirements that are government mandated. You can't put it on there for fun or marketing purposes.
While it is true that individual ingredients may have been tested on animals while the final product has not, at one point, all ingredients have been tested on animals. There is therefore a master list of 200 or so that are deemed safe, and as far as I know they don't retest them.
As for clairol's labeling (assuming the products are made by clairol) in Canada, Clairol's herbal essences state that they are not tested on animals (their old product line) their new 'fruit based' product line is devoid of this claim. Therefore since there is no 'not tested on animals label' we know that it is.
You're fairly safe in trusting the label. Products are labelled according to strict industry and gov't standards.
If you would however, like to list companies that you believe do meet your stringent requirements, feel free! We're listening. Simply stating that i'm wrong but offering no suggestions as to what is good, is akin to Naomi Klein's No Logo. Anyone can state the problems, but this blog is about solutions. I encourage solutions that accompany problems.
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