Toiletries I'm Using at the Moment

Trying to ensure that the products that I use on a daily basis are as ethical as possible is still very important to me and a process that I will continue to work on.  Whilst I was in New Zealand there was a lot of research I needed to do as I wasn't familiar with the products there, but now I'm back in the UK it's been a little easier as I've been able to go back to the items that I knew whilst researching others.  These are what I'm using at the moment.

Dental Care

This hasn't changed much since the last time I wrote about the toiletries I'm using.  My toothbrush is the beechwood toothbrush from Georganics, along with their refillable dental floss (old packaging).  I've been able to go back to toothpaste tablets now for my toothpaste, which is not only less wasteful but I actually now prefer using them.  The tin is actually from Eco Living, which we originally got the tablets from and which I would really recommend, but I've refilled them with tablets from Georganics as it was the only place we could get 6 months worth in one go at the time (everywhere else was sold out).  We're not as keen on the Georganic ones, so we'll probably go back to Eco Living once these are finished.  I'm quite happy with how my dental care is at the moment, so I don't see myself needing to change anything any time soon.

Body Wash

I've used soap as my wash of choice for quite a while now, going for companies who produce cruelty-free, vegan, SLS free, and hand made products in recyclable packaging whenever I can.  Right now I'm using the Faith in Nature Lavender Soap.  It's a really nice product and I will buy it again, but really any soap that fits into this criteria would suit me.  I can't see me using anything other than soap from now on. 

Face Wash and Moisturiser

When I'm not wearing makeup I just use the bar soap for my body to clean my face.  I know that's not something people usually recommend, but my face tends to be quite dirty after work so the bar soap is what's needed.  When I do wear makeup I use jojoba and avocado oil with a flannel to remove it, and then second wash my face with the soap.  I can't see me changing this any time soon.

As for moisturising, I still use the oils that I make up myself (my recipe contains jojoba oil, avocado oil, rosehip oil, and a few drops frankincense essential oil).  I mostly get these oils from Naturally Thinking as I like the ethos behind the company (vegan, paraben-free, cruelty-free, grown local products) and I can't see me changing this anytime soon.  I have been finding that I need some extra moisture for my face at the moment, which is not unusual for this time of year.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find exactly what I looking for right now (mostly due to lack of stock), so I just picked up this face cream from Aldi whilst I was shopping.  It will help my skin until I can find something else, but it's not really something I would normally choose - though it is cruelty-free.  I'm thinking of something like the Pixi serum I've used before, but we'll see what I can find.

Sunscreen

This tends to change all the time and is based on what I can find with the finances I have at that moment.  Right now I'm using the Holland & Barrett Nature's Block 100% Natural Mineral Sunscreen.  It's vegan, cruelty-free, and (very importantly when it comes sunscreen) reef safe as it doesn't contain Oxybenzone and Octinoxate.  My face hasn't reacted to it, which can sometimes be a problem when I'm using a generic sunscreen on my face, but it is quite thick and does need to be rubbed in quite well.  It also leaves a bit of a white cast on your face.  Otherwise, it's pretty good and I would think about buying it again when I need to get more sunblock in the future.

Lip Care

Right now I'm still using the Ecostore beeswax lip balm I got from New Zealand, and my Mum got me a Burts Bees lip balm for Christmas, so I'll use this next.  Once these are both gone I'm going to look for a lip balm that's in more sustainable packaging.  I don't really put lip balm on during the day, usually just before I go to sleep, so having to use my fingers isn't really going to be a problem for me and means I could probably go for something in a metal tin.

Shampoo and Conditioner

I've now used up the shampoo and conditioner that I brought in NZ and have been looking for products with a lot less packaging.  However, I still want them to be SLS free, hopefully vegan, made in the UK and are cruelty-free.  I had gotten a shampoo bar from Gruum, which I wanted to try once my liquid shampoos were gone, and really liked it.  It cleaned my hair without drying it out and hasn't left that weird waxy layer that some bars do.  So, I decided to order the conditioner as well to see how that works (I've actually never used a conditioner bar before) and it does seem to be working pretty well.  I don't see me changing this any time soon and, even if I don't use these particular products, I think I'll stick to shampoo and conditioner bars rather than liquid versions.

Body Moisturiser

I had started looking for a more ethical moisturiser once mine had begun to run out, but then I realised that I still had quite a bit of jojoba and avocado oil left for items I was going to make but never actually got round to.  These oils do go off so I decided it would be a good idea to use them up.  These were the same oils from Naturally Thinking which I use to make my face oils.  So, after mixing them together into one bottle, I am now using it to moisturise my body.  If I'm honest, it doesn't really give me the full amount of moisture that I need for these winter months, but that has just meant that I have to moisturise much more often than I normally do.  Once this is used up (which might be a while - it's a big bottle) I'll start looking for a thicker moisturiser, similar to the body bar I got and really liked from Lush.  I do have a separate hand moisturiser (also thanks to my Mum), but once that's gone I probably won't get another one straight away and just use my body moisturiser.  Whether I stick to that will depend on how my hands fair, as they do sometimes need something thicker.  In which case I might just get the Welsh Lavender Ltd Farmers' Hand Cream I had before.

Deodorant

At the moment I'm still using a normal deodorant for when I'm at work as I just can't find a natural deodorant that works when I'm doing this amount of physical exercise and I'd rather be able to wash my clothes less.  I do have a more natural deodorant I like by Bull Dog (it's a man's deodorant), but I only wear it on my days off.  This one is still a work in progress and I'll keep hunting until I find a good one.

Hair Removal

Waxing is my usual method of hair removal, but that isn't really an option at the moment, so for now, I'm using wax stripes to remove most of my unwanted hair.  This really isn't the most waste-free way of doing it and I'm hoping to be able to change this as soon as I can by buying a pot of wax with re-useable stripes (once we have a place of our own).  I do also use a razor and, for this, I've been able to be a lot more sustainable as I use a safety razor where I only need to change the blade.  I've recently brought this blade container by the Zero Waste Club that should take up to 300 blades before I can put it in the recycling with all the blades safely inside it, which is an additional plus.  I do want to look into laser treatment for something more permanent (and with a lot less waste), but that will need to wait until our finances are a bit more stable.  

And that's it.  My toiletries are very close to being where I want them to be, with only just a few changes in the future to have a fully functioning, as sustainable as possible 'beauty' /hygiene routine.  I'm hoping it won't take me too long to get there, perhaps just one more cycle of some of the items I'm using, so this time next year I should be able to show a complete routine.  Apart from the deodorant, I think we might still be a little while on that.

Toiletries: What's Left & What I'm Aiming For

There was a time when I had a ridiculously large amount of toiletries.  I'd never intended for that to be the case, but I had become very good at 'storing' them to the point where I'd actually forgotten what I had.  It wasn't until I pulled everything out one day that I realised just how bad it had become.  That was a few years ago now and since then I have worked through all of those products, as well as starting the process of experimenting with different types of toiletries to find the most sustainable items that fit what I need at the moment.  Right now I'm still here in New Zealand, so a number of the items I have are New Zealand brands and aren't necessarily in keeping with how I'd like my toiletries to look just because I don't know enough about what's available here just yet.

So, this is what I have left, by category, and how I intend to have this category in the future.

Dental Care
I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss my Georganic toothbrushes and toothpaste, they are just really good quality products and pretty much all of the packagings were re-usable or recyclable.  However, it has been really easy to get bamboo toothbrushes here, which we've been composting, and I'll definitely keep buying wood-based brushes in the future.  I love the Georganic floss that I've been using and will keep buying the refills (or equivalent if I can find it) as long as they keep selling them.  The water where we're staying right now has fluoride in it, so we've been buying the fluoride-free Red Seal toothpaste.  This toothpaste has a lot of good point about it, however, the packaging is still not great and I want to get back to either the pot based or tab based toothpaste I've used in the past as soon as I can.  Time to do a bit more research on those, so if you know of any good brands please let me know.

Hair Care
I'm now down to just two brushes (I'm not entirely sure why I had so many before), one for wet hair and one for dry.  I do seem to be having a bit of bad luck with my Kent Head Hog brushes though.  The last one fell apart around the bristles and had to be replaced, and the end of the handle on this one has fallen off.  Thankfully, I don't really need that part for the brush to function, but they still don't seem to be lasting as long as they used to with my first one lasting about 10 years before it gave up the ghost (when I dropped it down some concrete stairs).

The shampoo and conditioner are ones that I got here in New Zealand (you can read more about the products I've brought in New Zealand here).  Whilst I do really like this shampoo I definitely prefer having a shampoo bar instead of the liquid soap as, not only is there less waste, but it's so much more compact.  I still haven't quite found a bar that doesn't make my hair feel waxy after a period of use or have SLS, it seems to be an either-or thing, but I'm going to keep looking and hopefully have found some new items to test once this liquid shampoo runs out.  I had stopped using conditioner for a while and, whilst the health of my hair overall pretty much remained the same, I had noticed that it got tangled a lot easier and was harder to brush through.  I know now that I can live without conditioner and am only using it at the moment as I want to donate my hair in the future, but if I could find a bar conditioner in the future then I would keep this product as part of my hair care routine.  So I guess I'll be doing some more looking here too.

Deodorant
Right now I'm down to only one deodorant and it's a natural one.  I used to always have a couple of deodorants with me as I would use an antibacterial one for when I was at my job, but if I wore it every day it would stop working so I would wear a non-antibacterial one on my non-work days.  As I can't go to work at the moment I'm not having to worry about that and have used up all my previous deodorants.  I actually quite like just having the one, more natural deodorant and I'm hoping I can carry on doing so once lockdown is over.  I might have to change that, but I'll just see how that goes.

Face Cleansing
Right now I'm still using the micellar water and reusable cotton rounds (which I removed the inner padding of as it was absorbing most of the product) I was using while we were still living in a tent.  It is a quick and easy way of cleaning the makeup off your face but, as the flannel I now use to do my second cleanse shows, it doesn't do a very good job of getting my skin properly clean.  Once I've used this up I want to go back to using oils to cleanse my face as I find they're the most effective without drying out my skin.  I've used up all my face toners and I'm not sure I'll bother buying anymore as I haven't really noticed any difference in my skin since.  Also, oil cleansing I normally use means I don't need the extra step to ensure I've removed all the dirt from my face.  I also don't have any face masks or scrubs left and, whilst I don't really feel I need them that much, I do miss the Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive Exfoliating Mask.  I do have a problem with dry skin on my face, which does produce flaking patches, but I don't really like using physical scrubs if I can help it.  This does a really good job at keeping that at bay and I only had to use it once every one to two weeks.  I'll be on the hunt for that once I'm able to start earning money again and I'll just have to rely on the trusty face clothe for now.

Face Moisturising
Right now I am down to just one item in this category, and that's a mixture of the face night oil I make myself (a mixture of Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, Rosehip Oil, and Frankincense essential oil) and the Pixi Collagen & Retinol Serum which I threw in with my night oil as I didn't think they would let me take it in its non-seethrough packaging in my hand luggage on the plane.  It has turned into an interesting colour and texture, but it seems to be doing the same job on my skin as when I put them on separately.  I just can't double moisturise at the moment, which is fine for now but will become a problem if I'm still in New Zealand during their winter.  I do really like the serum though, so I'll be rebuying it in the future, but only when I'm earning again.  Fortunately, I still have a lot of the oils waiting for me at my parents' house in the UK so I can just remake my own night oil again once I'm home.  I've used up all my morning oil, which was actually just Jojoba oil, and I'm beginning wondering if I really need to use it at all in the mornings as long as I make sure I moisturise my skin enough at night.  Something to experiment with in the future and anything I can remove from my morning routine would be good.  I've also used up all my eye cream and should probably look into buying some more of that as that is quite a delicate area for me.  However, I do want to make up my own form with the oils I already have, so maybe I'll leave off buying anything for now and do a bit of research on eye oil recipes.

SPF
Right now I'm using the best sunscreen I could find here in New Zealand for the budget we have (see the blog already linked).  However, in the future, I want to go back to the types of SFPs I was using before, namely more natural, coral safe, and reliably cruelty-free.  I'm also just using a body sunscreen for my face, but I've heard people say that you shouldn't really do that so I'll need to see if that's really the case and if it really makes that much of a difference.  I know the old faithful I like back in the UK, but if I'm going to be here a while longer I'll probably need to look more at the products I can get in New Zealand.  The main issue here is the price of the more sustainable ones.  Definitely need to keep looking.

Body Cleansing
This one's pretty simple, it's soap and it'll stay that way.  I'll keep using soap that has no SLS, is cruelty-free, and the most natural I can find.  Thankfully this is becoming easier and easier to do so I doubt I'll have any trouble sticking to this.

Body Moisturising
I brought a pretty big tub of moisturiser here in New Zealand and it's working pretty well, however, I do have to put it on pretty regularly to keep my skin healthy as it's usually the thicker, less absorbent types of moisturiser that work for me.  That's the type of moisturiser I'll actually look for once this is finished.  One of the ones that worked really well was the moisturising bars that you get from Lush.  I was also much easier to carry around and used a lot less packaging, so I'll look for something similar to this in the future.

And then there's hand cream and lip balm.  The lip balm is a new one I'm trying from Ecostore and it was the only one I could find at the time.  So far it's working pretty well, it's also cruelty-free which is good.  I'm down to just one lip balm, with no duplicates, and that's how I'm planning on keeping it.  I am purposely working through the hand cream, not because I have duplicates as this is now the only hand cream I have, but because I've had it for a while now and don't want it to get old before I've finished it.  I'm also not really sure if I will need to separate hand cream if I find a good body moisturiser, but I guess I'll see how that goes once I start working again.  It might be that I need something more intense to use on a daily basis to counteract the drying effect that manual labour always has.  I also want to see if I can find more solid, possibly tin-based versions of these products in the future, just for ease of travel and reduction of packaging.  The Welsh Lavender Ltd's Farmers' Hand Cream is in a tin, but as it's of a more fluid texture it can get a little bit messy if it ends up on its side.  I do really like it though and, if I need to buy a hand cream again, the messiness wouldn't necessarily put me off.

Hair Removal
I would still be using my safety razor at the moment if it wasn't for the fact that I've used up the last of my refill blades and haven't been able to find replacement ones here in New Zealand yet.  That means that I've had to resort to buying a pack of disposable razors for now, but I'm going to keep looking for the blades so that I can go back to my safety razor once these are gone.  Lockdown, budget, and tent living have also meant that a trip to the beauty salon or the use of an 'at home' tub of wax and reusable cloth stripes for waxing hasn't really been an option, meaning that the humble waxing stripe has now become my main form of hair removal.  They're definitely not my favourite way of removing hair because of the amount of waste they produce so, once we're more settled, I definitely want to go back to either the tub and reusable cloth stripes or budget in regular beauty salon visits again.  It all depends on the budget.

Sanitary Products
These are still the same as before and I will keep using these for the foreseeable future.  They are, of course, the Mooncup and the reusable sanitary pads from Bloom and Nora, which I only really use for emergencies.  Not only are these much more sustainable products, but they've also meant that I've had to carry far fewer products with me when I travel and have spent no money on sanitary products since purchasing them.

Tools
These are pretty simple and I don't think they've changed too much recently.  I still use, when I remember, the dry body brush to help exfoliate the skin, help with circulation, and deal with ingrowing hairs (a real problem when you're dry skinned like me).  I've had these Tweezerman tweezers for years and they're still going strong, though I do need to finally get them sharpened now (if I can work out how to do that).  It's definitely a good example of spending a bit of money on something that will last a long time.  Then there's the pretty standard nail scissors, file, and manicure tool, though I actually don't use the manicure tool that much so I'm thinking of getting rid of it in the future.  I do have cotton buds, which I've been able to find with bamboo instead of plastic, but I always feel bad about using these and I really need to find an alternative in the future.  Any advice on that would be much appreciated.  There's also a brush for my eyebrows as they go completely mad if just left to their own devices and, of course, a flannel (this one's from The Body Shop and is pretty cute but not of great quality).

And that's it, that's all my toiletries for now.  There are some things that I have used for ages and will continue to do so, but there is definitely going to be changes happening in the future to a much more waste-free, sustainable selection.  I basically want to have as little bulky, liquid containers in my toiletries bag as possible, especially as it's likely that I'll still have quite a nomadic lifestyle for now depending on the work I am able to get during this time.  It has been interesting though, having a period where I've been without certain products for a little while.  It's definitely shown me what items I can do without and what items have really made a difference to the health and appearance of my skin, hair, and teeth.  Hopefully, by the end of this year, I'll have a core set of toiletries that I use completely and nothing more.  I let you know if I manage it.