The essential toiletries are sustainable and economical alternatives to things most of us are using daily.
On top of questionable ingredients included in prepackaged items, you’ll be avoiding all that unnecessary and wasteful packaging that would otherwise just be going to landfill.
Recycle at home or away to avoid wasting resources
Estimated CO2 Saving: 17kg per month (200kg per year)
Recycle everything you can. When making these products give a thought on how you will be storing them, an upcycled tin or jar is the best option to reduce your carbon footprint.
Make your own green tea toner
Ingredients:
3 organic green tea bags
5 drops organic tea tree oil
2 drops geranium oil
1 drop eucalyptus oil
Method: Steep your green tea bags in 1 cup of water for ten minutes, or leave tea bag in cup until lukewarm. Keep the cup covered to hold steam in.
Then simply blend all ingredients together well and store in the fridge. Will keep for at least 1 month.
Make your own Shampoo
Basic Shampoo
Ingredients:
Tablespoon baking soda
1 and 1/2 cups of water
Cornstarch (optional for thickening)
Method:
Mix baking soda and water, you can vary amount of water depending on how thick you want the shampoo. Want it even thicker? Add cornstarch until desired thickness is reached. You can also include essential oils for a variety of lovely smells.
As an added bonus use cornstarch, dry on its own for a dry shampoo alternative.
Cucumber and lemon rinse
Ingredients:
1 organic lemon
1 organic cucumber
Method:
Peel lemon and cucumber, put them in a blender and mix until desired consistency is reached. Great for fine hair. It's that easy!
Make your own conditioner
Avocado Deep Conditioner
ingredients:
1/2 mashed ripe avocado
1/2 tsp olive oil
3 drops lavender or rosemary essential oil
Method:
Mix all ingredients together and use straight away. Leave on hair for at least ten minutes.
Oil Hair-Conditioning Treatment
Ingredients:
2-4 tablespoons of jojoba, olive, or coconut oil
Essential oils of choice (optional)
Warm the base oil and mix in any other essential oils in. I used a glass jar in a pot of hot water to heat mine.
Dampen hair. A basic guide would be: For long or thick hair, use 1-2 teaspoons of the oil mixture, and for fine or short hair, use 1/4 teaspoon of the mixture - when it comes down to it though, just use as much as you feel is right.
Heat will facilitate the conditioning processes so if you can, sit in the sun.
Ideally leave on for 1-2 hours and then shampoo out and rinse.
Feedback from a reader
Jenna, a 1MW community member shared these tips on our Facebook. If you are going to try any of these DIY's have a quick read of this advice first:
"As someone who uses bi-carb soda as shampoo and has been using it for the last 8 months I know that tbose with dry hair should not use it or bair will become brittle and start breaking - literaly strands can break in two. Needs to be rinsed completely as Bi-carb residue can start to change scalp pH and this can lead to scalp irritation or even flaking Lastly using any acid including lemon solutions as a rinse/conditioner after washing with bi-carb means completely rinsing one's hair first as if there is any bi-carb residue on the hair when acid is applied it will create a chemical reaction which will cause hair damage (there is a reason why bicarb and vinegar are used to remove stubborn surface stains)"