Eco-friendly living is currently on the hype. Corporations such as Starbucks is campaigning for less plastic use and aims to eliminate their global plastic waste by 2020. The beauty industry is also following the eco-friendly trends, such as by banning the use of microbeads commonly used in exfoliators, making natural and organic ingredients as the new norm, and ensuring their products are processed cruelty free.
From the consumer side, the ways we consume our daily needs are also seeing a change. People are massively switching their plastic straws to metal or bamboo straws or using reusable shopping bags in lieu of plastic bags as attempts to curb our waste production. But, how can we as consumers make our beauty routine more eco-friendly? Here are four ideas to help you love yourself and the mother earth at the same time.
1. Switch to Zero-Waste Products.
Take a look at your makeup bags. How many of your beauty products are made for single-use? We’re looking at you, cotton buds and cotton pads! Unfortunately, we are still relying so much on cotton buds to repair that failed attempt on eyeliner we made.
To help with this, we can switch to cotton buds that use paper instead of plastic so that we can compost them after each use. As for cotton pads, we can switch to washable cloth cotton pads. Not only will it save the earth, our money is also saved from repeatedly buying disposable cotton pads as opposed to buying a pair of washable cotton pads that will surely last longer. We can also look for sturdy and long-lasting beauty tools so that we don’t have to dispose them every so often and to buy products with aluminium packagings or even better, refillable beauty products.
2. Donate Your Makeup Waste.
You might be aware that many of our beauty products does not last forever. In fact, products like mascara would only last as long as three to six months after opened. Those who might not wear makeup as often might feel bad in disposing their barely used yet expired makeup. But, worry not! Because there are in fact people and organisations that accepts expired makeup or makeup waste donation.
For expired makeup products in general, many mortuary makeup artists will happily accept your expired makeup products. Appalachian Wildlife Refuge has a program called Wands for Wildlife, where your old mascara wands will be repurposed for removing fly eggs and larva off of wild animals’ fur. Find out if your local wild animal conservation facility would also happily accept your old mascara wands.
3. Make Your Own Makeup.
This is probably the most fun way to reduce beauty products waste, because it allows us to customise our makeup to our own taste, perhaps making our own signature lip colour? There are plenty of tutorials readily available on the internet on how to make our own beauty products or repurpose our old (and still good to use) makeup in different ways. Examples of this can be using reduced beetroot for lip stain or mixing sugar and honey to make a lip scrub. Do find out other beauty products we can make at home for cheaper (and of course more eco-friendly) alternatives.
4. Use Multi-Purpose Makeup.
As many beauty products don’t last forever, this tip is suitable for those who do not wear makeup every so often. By using multi-purpose makeup, we can make sure that we use every last bit of our lipstick/blusher or eyeliner/eyeshadow before its expiry date.
Other than using products that are intentionally made to be multi-purpose, we too can use a single product for multiple purposes. For example, a neutral coloured brown eyeshadow can be repurposed into both eyeshadow, eyeliner, contouring, even to fill your eyebrows at the same time.