Eco Friendly House And Garden

I Checked My Own Toiletries Products To Prove I was Below Average……..

……and the results were a shock to me!

Now, I hardly use any toiletries on a daily basis.  By this I mean that I don’t wear perfume, style my hair or wear make-up every day.  It’s rare to do these things once a month even - but I was still amazed at my chemical usage!

After writing my recent article: 7 Tips For Eco Friendly Health & Beauty, I went to bed as usual and actually remembered to put some night cream on my face (not something I do every night - but that night, I looked at the ingredients:

41 there were in total!  In 1 tiny product.

That is almost unbelievable for what I thought was a simple anti-wrinkle face cream - so I took a good look at everything else toiletries-wise that I had used that day:

Shower Gel:             19
Anti-Perspirant        10
Dandruff Shampoo  35
Sore Neck Cream      13
Hand Soap               28
Night Cream             41

Total:                    136 ingredients!!!!!!

10 more than the average!  I dread to think what my friends use, what with nail varnish, make-up, hair care products, perfumes, body lotions, shaving creams and cleansing products!

Surely, we are just too accepting of the advertising or the packaging on the shelf.  Why have I never wondered why these products need so many components?

I have often wondered why the food I eat - like flavoured crisps or cakes - have so many added ingredients, but never my toiletries which ultimately enter my body through my skin.  And here I haven’t included toothpaste (16) and washing up liquid (10) or the washing powder I use that stays on my clothes (15) amongst others.

But do more eco-friendly products actually have less ingredients, the same number but ‘better’ ingredients, or just less and better ingredients?

The Competition:
Well, I had a peak at some eco friendly products to compare, and here are some of the results:

Ecover Washing Up Liquid: 10
Same number of ingredients but more plant-based ingredients.  But I suppose that even daffodils are toxic to humans, right?

The Body Shop eau de toilette: 5
One of these is water (aqua) anyway, but the first (and therefore the largest) ingredient is described as ‘ethanol which has been rendered toxic!’.  However, we know it wasn’t tested on animals!

Ethical Superstores Lavera Anti-Dandruff Shampoo: 23
Quite a few less, but still quite high I think.  It’s vegan friendly and has some organic ingredients.  All of the ingredients were either plant extracts or not on the ‘dangerous’ list when it comes to chemicals!

Neals Yard Night Cream: 17
Well, it hasn’t got the anti-aging claims of my current face cream - but then I still think I look wrinkly - so maybe it’s not worth all the extra chemicals anyway!  Most of these ingredients are known herbal ingredients to help with skin, etc.  It all looks very nice on the packaging!

Mine has many ingredients that I cannot pronounce and includes a muscle relaxant, several known irritants, an ingredient used in paint solvents, an ingredient used to repair roofs and make basketballs, a lubricating oil and a fuel additive!

Maybe I will think twice when I buy my replacement products!  And a future article will no doubt show my findings on which ingredients to avoid in your own toiletries and cosmetics!

What about you?  What’s your worst product in terms of number of ingredients!  Add up your normal days worth and let us know!

Here, we continue from yesterday, with the final 3 tips on making those small steps to running a healthy eco friendly house!

5) Don’t Do Disposable!  Try to reduce your consumption of disposable items - they are everywhere.  Pens, sticky note pads, razors, toothbrushes, cotton-buds, cotton wool balls, facial pads, tissues, baby wipes, hygiene wipes, even personal ‘lady’ items.

Try to find the longer lasting equivalent - it’s not less hygienic if you do it properly.  For example facecloths instead of wipes or cotton wool is perfectly clean and gets the job done - then gets washed - and does the job all over again!

Toothbrushes with changeable heads and razors with replaceable blades all go towards reducing waste - and reducing your consumption of new materials.

Feminine hygiene products now come unbleached, and in smaller sizes to help reduce waste and resources - but now even come in washable versions.  There is even the menstrual cup today (a small insertable item that will ‘contain’ rather than ‘absorb’) that does away with the need for cotton products altogether!

Similarly, the contraceptive device known as The Coil (an IUD) works perfectly well as a contraceptive device for most women - reducing the need for wasteful alternatives.

In sexually active individuals and couples, one Coil could reduce the need for a continual supply of ‘the Pill’ - filled with either/or both oestrogen and progesterone (which eventually leave our bodies and enter the water system and affecting animals and plants) and could stop the rising tide of used condoms filling landfills or floating down the beach!

6) Buy Big!  Make sure that you buy the largest pack size of your products that you can.  Not only does this reduce packaging per unit - it should also save you money and reduce your weekly trash pile! 

Therefore, not only will you need to shop less as a result, the container is more likely to be re-used for storage.  (You can keep a smaller bottle for decanting into if space is an issue).

Don’t be tempted by promotions or buy-one-get-one-free offers for the smaller products.  They usually work out the most expensive way to buy your products, weight more with the extra containers, use more ink and labels with their individual wrapping or information, take up more room in your house and create more waste.  Therefore their overall ‘cost’ is not actually any cheaper!

And Finally (7):
Try something new if it’s eco credentials impress you.  Remember that advertised brands in commercials and magazines, pay $$$$$$$’s to advertise - and it’s you who pays for it.

You pay for that model to walk along tropical beaches for an ice cream, or that famous person to fly a plane for some anti-aging cream, or a mountaineer to climb a high mountain for a washing powder.  That must mean that they are making a huge profit from you somewhere - and that means that their products are made a lot cheaper than the price you pay!

Unadvertised products usually put a lot more into their products as they sell by word of mouth saving advertising costs.  And, in all honesty - noone recommends a product that doesn’t work, taste good or fit properly. 

So trust a brand that has been recommended by people you know sometimes instead of just believing what you are told on the TV!

Let me know how you get on, or have any other tips…….

Several continuous small steps are better than one big single one.

I have put together some simple steps in the ‘beauty & fashion’ department that can help you make a move over to more environmentally friendly products without too much hassle.  And it can be a bit of fun too.

Many people are worried about which brand of this they should chose or what brand of that is better - but really the answer is to change bits of your lifestyle not just swap one thing for another.

It is always easiest to Reduce - this is the key to sustainable and eco friendly living.  Reuse comes a close second and of course never forget to Recycle - but focus on the life cycle of the items you are buying or thinking of buying and follow it from production, through use and then to disposal.

This brings me to the first fashion tip:

1) Stop Shopping!  The greenest products and clothes are those items you already have.  They have already been made - and it’s up to you to use them or recycle them.

If you decide to become ‘green’ overnight and go and buy something ‘organic’ or ‘bio-degradable’ instead - you are wasting all the energy, transport and ingredients that have gone into the one you already have, but are going to leave on the shelf.  Wasted.

We need to Reduce our consumption, so make sure that you keep wearing all your old clothes, use the last of that old shampoo or bubble bath, and don’t throw something away because you want something new.  Or, try Tip 2:

2) Have A Swap Party. There are many people like you who grow tired of the same shoes/top/beauty products/etc - so why not give them to your friends in exchange for something they ‘don’t want’.

You could come away with a whole new outfit, and change of facial regime or some household ingredients that your friends would otherwise have wasted.  Similarly, your ‘waste’ finds a second life!

3) Simplify Your Life.  Another things to consider when going to purchase a new item, is whether you actually need it right now.  I mean, rather than buying some nutritional supplements - why not actually consider eating more healthily instead!  Buying fresh local fruit and veg produces far less waste that factory-made tablets in tiny plastic bottles!

Similarly, technology out-dates itself overnight it seems - so rather than make that rash purchase - think about ways you can make do with what you have until you really have to upgrade.  Otherwise, you could be disposing of something that was perfectly usable for something that will be out-of-date in 3 months anyway!

And, most technology and appliances come ‘eco friendly’ these days.  With low energy rating listings and reduced-chemical electronics readily available and at a similar cost to the short-use energy-hungry models we brought last time!

4) Back To Basics.  Why do we need everything so perfumed and highly specific these days?  Can’t we just use unscented nappy-sacks, hygiene products and ‘exotic’ air-fresheners?  Use natural instead: tea-tree oil, lavender, along with other plants and herbs all have their uses - and without the chemicals!

Try Aloe for sun care, oats for facial scrubs, cucumber slices for eye recovery - and many many more.  I have seen quotes that ladies apply, on average, 126 ingredients and chemicals in daily beauty regimes!  That’s amazing really - and seeing as so many of those are potentially harmful to us.

Babies are particularly sensitive to chemicals yet we use an array of man-made (and potentially hormone-affecting) toiletries for them without any real reason - other than ‘we saw the advert’ and it said ‘this does this…..’.  Well warm water and an organic cotton cloth cleans even the dirtiest of bottoms!

See Part 2 tomorrow for further eco friendly tips…….