Zero Waste Blog

The holiday season is a great time of year to let your crafty side go wild and make all your gifts! Homemade gifts can range from the super complex to the last minute emergency gifts you whip up the night before. If you are wanting to give thoughtful gifts this Christmas, making something yourself is a great place to start! Something homemade can carry a lot more love and meaning than many of the gifts under the tree. These gifts will also cost a lot less to make yourself tha

I'm a huge fan of long soaks in the tub and always prefer a bath over a shower (I know - I'm weird!). If you're like me, you might enjoy having some lovely scent in your nightly soak as well! Adding a bath salts mix to a hot bath can really set my mood and help me fully relax after a stressful day at work. The Main Ingredient The most important part of any bath salts I create is the Epsom salts. I love including Epsom salts because of the therapeutic benefits they have on my

There are so many different types of lotions and moisturizers out there! This new one I've been trying out is not your standard liquid squeeze-bottle type lotion though. Instead, this lotion is actually solid and in the shape of a bar! Solid lotions are beneficial for a variety of reasons. One, if you travel a lot you don't have to worry about whether or not you are over the three ounce limit on your liquid lotion - it's a solid bar! Camping is also super easy because it can'

Did you know that every year in the U.S. we throw out enough plastic wrap to cover the entire state of Texas? Yuck. The silly thing is, plastic wrap is totally avoidable and easy to replace! There are so many ways to avoid keeping plastic wrap in your kitchen without leaving your leftovers open in the fridge. My favorite option? Beeswax wraps. Designed to imitate plastic wrap, beeswax wraps are 100% natural, 100% plastic free, and 100% compostable at the end of their lives. M

Every winter the wind and rain do a number on my skin. My hands start to crack and my lips feel dry all the time! Thankfully a simple moisturizer can usually do the trick! This Hibiscus Rose Body Butter is has a fun twist on a traditional moisturizer, colored pink to brighten things up! If you're looking for a Valentine's Day gift for a friend or partner, this is a cute way of saying "I Love You!" as well! This recipe is really simple and easy to whip up in just a few minutes

Aloe Vera is a truly magical plant. It's gel is amazing for intestinal and gut health (I drank it a lot after messing my system up in Mexico a while back). It's also amazing for cuts, burns, sunburns, and bites. I also use use aloe vera as a main ingredient in my hand sanitizer. What you might not know though, is that aloe can be added to your moisturizer too! I love a good moisturizer recipe, especially ones that aren't too greasy and help heal any facial scabs I have going

If you haven't yet incorporated dry shampoo into your hair routine, it's time to start. Dry shampoo is a zero waster's and water conservationist's best friend because it allows your hair to stay nice without washing it every day. In a sense, dry shampoo soaks up the grease build up and adds body to your hair just like washing it would do. Now granted, it doesn't totally eliminate the need for you to wash your hair eventually. But it does make it so you can easily go five, six

DIY always seems like a fun option for skin care, house decor, or reinventing clothing. But what about makeup? Makeup is not the typical outlet for DIY’s as the final product may seem unrealistic or unusable. However, there are many DIY makeup recipes that work wonderfully and are extremely cost effective! Many people choose to make their own makeup for health reasons, being that totally organic, natural makeup that is affordable is hard to come by. Creating your own makeup c

Sunburns are the absolute worst. Getting one is the fastest and easiest way to ruin a fun vacation and wind up laying in a bed unable to move. Not only a sunburns extremely painful, they also increase the risk of developing skin cancer. That is why it is super important that we stay safe when having fun in the sun! There are a variety of ways to keep yourself from getting sunburned that don't involve putting sunscreen on your skin. They are great options if you are able to ac

As anyone in a profession dealing with children knows, sometimes hand sanitizer can come in really handy. Now normally, I hate putting the Purell stuff on my hands because it kills off not only the bad bacteria, but the good bacteria too. If we are going to keep our immune systems working, we don't want to kill everything we come in contact with. What most people think of as hand sanitizer is labeled as "antibacterial" which means it actually kills what is on our hands whethe

Enjoy this guest post by Sania from The Smart Women Blog! Fall is here and so is dry, dull and itchy skin. With the change in weather, we must update our skincare routine and incorporate the right ingredients to mitigate the bad effects of the climate change on our skin. However, we do not always have the budget to invest in new skincare products. In such circumstances, you need not to fret and only head to the kitchen where you can make nice and fruity masks for brighter and

Have you been looking for alternatives to your cosmetic routine? This brief overview will give you a place to get started. If you want more detail on a certain item, follow my links to specific products or recipes. You can always email me for more information too! (Please note that although none of the mentioned brands have paid to be featured, some have sent me free samples to try. I only though recommend those that I truly love - sponsored or not!) BLUSH - Try combining bee

If you haven't heard about the microplastics in your body wash, it's time to do a little research. Many common bathroom products (especially body washes and facial scrubs) are filled with microplastics that act as an exfoliate. The problem with these tiny bits of plastic is that they don't degrade once sent down the drain. Animals like fish each them up thinking they are food and they build up in their stomachs. Many fish nowadays can be cut up to find plastic inside of them.

If you're anything like me, those horrible aerosol air fresheners in public bathrooms make your head hurt and start you sneezing like crazy! Aerosol cans are also nearly impossible to recycle and often times have to be disposed of in hazardous materials sites because of the pressure inside. At the same time, I'm not a fan of a stinky room either...To avoid spraying nasty fragrances in my own home, I've started making my own air freshener. You'll only need four ingredients to

This recipe has been a long time coming! I’ve tried many different mascara recipes all to no avail (and some burning eyes and smudgy marks!). Mascara is especially hard because you want it to be liquid when you put it on, dry hard after just a minute or two, not smear on your face, and come off easily at the end of the day. It can be a tall order to make something so complex using natural ingredients I can get in bulk! Just one example of how it looks when done wrong! After q

Setting Powder Ingredients: Cocoa Powder Corn Starch Start with mostly corn starch and add in pinches of cocoa powder at a time. For my complexion, I need very little cocoa powder and have to be careful not to add to much. Once you find the right mixture it gets easier and easier each time you mix it! Depending on your shade, you can also add in beet root powder or make an easy blush with corn starch and beet root powder alone! If you don't have corn starch or want an alterna

Cute, colored lip balms are always a fun thing to have around! And with these dry, cold winter months, my lips are chapped constantly. Rosy Lip Balm colored with mica powder. Ingredients: 1 ounce Coconut Oil 1 ounce Beeswax 1 ounce Sweet Almond Oil 5 drops Rose Essential Oil 1/8 tsp. Coloring* Pinch of Powdered Stevia (optional) If you don’t have all the ingredients on-hand for this specific recipe, try googling for substitutes. If you have an allergy to nuts, you can substit

Let's start off by confronting all of your fears that DIY recipes made at home just don't work - FALSE. They do. I think I've made my point with the toothpaste, deodorant, toners, etc. that I have posted about and personally tried myself. But in case you are still doubting that this recipe will work, let me assure you, it does. No tricks. No lies. It works. (and yes, it is okay if you still don't believe me because I couldn't believe it worked either!) Hair products have been

Let’s talk about underarms and body odor. It impacts everybody. Daily we smear deodorant on our bodies in the hope that it masks the smell (or maybe you don't!) but we don’t usually think about the impact it's having on our health and the environment. Although deodorant may seem a tiny thing to focus on, something that we use daily has a big footprint. Deodorants come with lots of chemicals and lots of plastic - so we need a solution! Toxic Chemicals Parabens and aluminum com

I have to admit, I am a face product junkie. Everyone in my family knows that I can’t go near lotions, scrubs, toners, or moisturizers in a store without drooling over them like candy. It’s actually kind of hilarious if I look at it from an outside perspective. Since starting my zero waste journey however, I have not bought any more facial products and am slowly using up the ones I currently have. Some of my bottles have been in my bathroom for five years! I realized that I w