6 tips for giving up plastic in the bathroom (besides our bars) | Ethique

6 tips for giving up plastic in the bathroom (besides our bars)

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Looking to lighten your impact? You’re in the right place!

One of the easiest places to start is by reducing single-use plastic in the bathroom. From shampoo and razors to makeup wipes…there’s a lot of single-use plastic we use daily, that can easily be avoided.

Here are six of my top plastic-free tips (besides our products, of course 😉) to help you out: 

6 tips for giving up plastic in the bathroom (besides our bars) | Ethique

1. Makeup wipes and sheet masks

There’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that you don’t need makeup wipes and sheet masks to look after your skin.

The bad news is that makeup wipes and sheet masks actually contain plastic.

Sadly, most sheet masks and wet wipes are made from cotton (a big super-polluter) and often contain propylene and butylene glycol – a petroleum by-product and totally unsustainable. THEN they’re individually wrapped in, you guessed it, plastic!

My recommended eco-friendly alternatives (okay I lied, here’s a quick product mention!) are our Deep Green Deep Cleansing Face Cleanser and Bliss Bar Gentle Face Cleanser as both of these bars double as makeup removers, minus the plastic waste.

To replace a sheet mask, opt for a home-made face mask instead. Try one of our DIY recipes — Brightening Summer Face Mask, Hydrating Winter Face Mask or, find other recipes online.

You’ll be surprised at what ingredients you already have that can be used for a face mask (we’re looking at your coffee). 

2. Toss your eyebrow gel and use soap instead

Love a fluffy brow look? Same.

The great news is that soap brows are not only trendy, they also can help you save plastic.

This new grooming method uses an eyebrow brush and soap... that’s it!

Simply put a little soap on your brush, and comb and style your brows how you want.

This soap trick will keep you from having to spend money every couple of months on a new eyebrow gel AND prevents those plastic tubes from ending up in landfill.

3. Ditch the aerosols and make your own dry shampoo instead

This is another swap that will save you both money and waste!

Dry shampoo is essential for a lot of people’s haircare routines. I totally get it — we all get oily hair and don’t feel like restyling every day.

Swap out your single-use dry shampoo bottles for our super easy DIY dry shampoo recipe that works just as well as your holy grail store bought version.

4. Wave goodbye to single use plastic razors

Shave the plastic and switch to a reusable metal razor with stainless steel blades. There are plenty of options available online.

Single-use, plastic razors are now a thing of the past.

6 tips for giving up plastic in the bathroom (besides our bars) | Ethique

5. Reuse the packaging you already have

We’re all human and are trying our best to lighten our impact, but we aren’t perfect.

It’s totally normal and understandable to have some products in your bathroom that contain plastic pottles, tubs, or bottles.

But with studies showing that only 9% of all plastic ever made actually being recycled, it’s important to reuse packaging before throwing it in the recycling bin.

Our top tips? You could use your plastic pottles or tubs to store a DIY face mask or pack your little pieces of bars to travel with. Have plastic bottles around? Try one of our concentrates (powder or bar-to-liquid bathroom solutions) and use the bottle you already own. 

6. Use up what products you have under your sink

It’s great to want to kick start or level up on your low-impact journey! But before getting the urge to buy a bunch of new eco-friendly products, use up what products you already own first —once you’ve bought it, you should use it.

Take a peep underneath your sink (yup, right in the corner wayyy down the back). We all know there are probably some goodies hiding out there.

Use up what you have first and before you run out, ease the pressure and look for an eco-friendly version to swap to and plan to purchase it *before* you run out. Otherwise, you might be tempted to go the easy (and usually plastic) route instead. 

A low-impact lifestyle is a journey, and one sustainable swap makes a difference!

Don't believe us? When we first started in 2012, we had a crazy dream to save one million plastic bottles from being made or disposed of in landfills around the world. Now, you’ve officially helped us to save over 30 million of them!