Greening my beauty products.

I'm not a huge beauty person. I really don't have loads of products, especially not a lot of make-up, but I still feel that the amount that I do have is more than I actually need with a lot of it brought on a whim, put to one side and then never used.
Here are some pictures of all the products I have:

 My lotions and potions on my vanity, with a selection of my nail varnishes.  Some of it is 'green' but a lot of it isn't.

 The make-up I have on my vanity.  Apart from my eco tools none of it is really that environmentally friendly, though I do have some cruelty free Urban Decay products.  The items on the front are those I'm trying to use up.....more on that later.

 The little goodies I have beside my bed.  Lavender to try and help me sleep (it's not really working), foot lotion I'm trying use up, lip treatment and cuticle treatment.  Again, not really that eco.

 The spare stash I have in one of my draws.

 My shower stash.  The shower gel in the clear bottle is actually Tea tree shower gel by Faith in Nature, I like it but it's a little bit drying, and that's not a Neutrogena shampoo it actually has my Tea tree shampoo in it by Faith in Nature.

My face products hiding in my bathroom cabinet.... and the shampoo I use to clean my make-up brushes.

So as you can see I don't have a lot of things, but I do have a lot of spares of items, especially make-up of the red lipstick variety.  I don't really want taht, I just want to have one of each thing and then buy more when it's almost or has run out.  So now I'm working through my stash and slowly using everything up, especially with the make-up.  While I like it I don't tend to wear it all that often and quite happily walk round without anything on, spots or no spots, so having a number of different types of the same product just doesn't make sense.

The next step I want to take is to make my skin care and make-up far more natural and animal friendly then it actually is.  There's no point in actually trying to be green if what I'm putting onto my body (and down the sink when I wash) is full of chemicals.  So when I'm finally needing more products I will start reseaching into more eco products and testing them out to see if they work the way I need to.  I also want to start making some of my products, especially my skin care, myself so that what I'm putting on my face is pure and has a little extra chemicals as possible.  I thought this part was going to be the most difficult part, with all the research etc needed to be done to know what the best oils and essential oils to buy, but thankfully youtube has come up with a little bit of help here. Pink So Foxy has started making videos on her natural skincare regime and the information she's given has definitely made it seem a little less scary.

I will keep up-dating this blog on what I find and what using it is like.

Recycling Plastic

Ok, not the most exciting thing to talk about, but environmentally recycling plastic is so important!  The weird thing is it can be really difficult to find where you can recycle this stuff.  One of the biggest issue is the cost for the council; as plastic is light weight, and can be bulking, and they get paid for recycling products by the tonnes so there's not as much incentive to make a priority on the recycling front.  Where I live there are loads of places you can recycle glass and paper, almost every street has a point, and a number of easily reached places for cans and cardboard, but plastic is a little bit more difficult to find.  So I had a little search, online, and found Recycle for Scotland. There's apparently a spot about 15 mins walk from me so I'll be checking that out next week.  Hopefully all my recycling worries will now be over.

Update:
I had a little wonder over to the recycling point today and  found the site I'd been looking at. It recycles cardboard, glass, cans, clothes, book, and - most importantly - plastic.  Perfect! And it is literally 15 mins walk from me. 
I've now set up a new recycling station in my kitchen.

Not the most exciting set up but it works for me.  Not so small that I have to head over constantly, but not so large that I can over fill it.
The jute bag on the left is for cardboard and paper as that's what I recycle the most, mainly junk mail.  The blue bag on the right is going to be for everything else.  With them so obvious it shouldn't be too difficult for me to remember to recycle things.

Getting back to green

I've started this blog a few times now but have never managed to carry it on past the first post. I think its because I never really knew what direction I wanted to go in or what it was I really wanted to write about. But now I do.

I'm going to use this blog to help me get back onto being 'green' and sustainable, and to document the route I take as well as the reasons behind my decision. It'll be a way of me keeping a track on what I'm doing.  And if it's useful to anyone else that's good too.