Green Beauty: 4 Tips for Eco-Friendly Beauty Routine

Finding and perfecting your personal beauty routine is a very satisfying feeling, and everyone deserves to look and feel their best. But unfortunately, the beauty industry is not one that’s good for the planet. Being known for generating a large amount of plastic waste and for using sometimes harsh chemicals, it’s easy to see how a temporary beauty can cost many more problems down the road. Fortunately it doesn’t need to be like this, and green values and sustainability are coming into the beauty industry. So today let’s look at 4 ways to be eco-friendly with your beauty routine

1 Limit the water

Every minute the faucet is on you lose about two gallons of water, and the average america uses 17 gallons of water in a shower. Simply being conservative with your water and shaving off a couple minutes on your shower can save hundreds of gallons of water over a year. Furthermore, long showers can be counterproductive to your beauty routine, as showering for too long breaks down your skin’s protective barriers and dries you out in winter months. And if you want to be a real water hero, look for an aerated shower head, such as this Earth Massage Handheld from EarthEasy. These showerheads use air pressure to give you the same water pressure needed for your shower but with considerably less water.

2 The Reusable Straw

Kill two birds with one stone by opting for a reusable straw. While a perfectly shaped lipstick stain on a cup can make for a great instagram pick, less retouching your makeup means less lipstick packaging used, and using a straw will preserve your looks. It also gives you a great excuse to finally by a reusable straw, a perfect edition to any zero-waste lifestyle. Check out Simply Straws for a great selection of stainless steel straws from a fellow women owned brand.

3 Multi-use products

Speaking of doing two things at once, buying multi-use beauty products always means less individual packaging. Many good beauty products are made with similar or the same ingredients, so why get a coconut gel for your hair and a coconut moisturizing cream for your skin when you can just get a bottle of coconut oil for both. The best part is you can then buy it in bulk to save even more plastic, and can even possibly shop around at a zero-waste shop.

4 Reusable packaging

Thankfully, companies are starting to catch on to the zero-waste trend, and so more and more companies are trying to find low waste solutions for their beauty products. Whether it’s Axiology using only recycled tin and paper, Elate Cosmetics bamboo and refillable tin packaging, big brands like lush offering shampoo bars in reusable tins, or small brands like Clean Faced Cosmetics who will refill your containers for you and give you a discount, there are plenty of options out there for limiting or eliminating plastic waste in you beauty products. Don’t forget to keep it all in an upcycled bag!