Last weekend R and I went to The Hague. I realized that I was going to need another Lush Jungle solid conditioner before I left and I wanted to try their dry shampoo, No Drought, since I left my home-made one at home and read some good reviews about it. I also was looking for some aloe vera for my hair - I put some of the after sun fluorescent green stuff in my hair with pretty decent success, so I was looking to find something a bit more natural to try!

When I first decided to start reducing my waste in 2011, I did a whole bunch of reading about zero waste options for hair care. At the time I opted for the Soap Work's Shampoo & Conditioner bar followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse, and was generally pretty happy with it - it was cheap and worked well for me. The shampoo bar contains palm oil, unfortunately, and I the more reading I did about it, the less I wanted to use anything that used it as an ingredient.

I decided to start using the Jungle conditioner and the Karma Komba solid shampoo bar that R bought me for my birthday full time, rather than just while I was travelling. The thing I like about Lush is that even though some of the ingredients are listed as moderate hazards on EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and they put a bit too much fragrance into their products for my taste, they're completely open about what ingredients they use. Plus, the staff don't look at me like I'm crazy for bringing in my own containers - often they're quite excited about it!

I also stopped using soap on my face. I use water and a washcloth now, and my face looks and feels better than before. Full disclosure - I've always had pretty good skin, but I find I break out even less now. I use jojoba oil and my homemade microfibre make-up pads to remove any make-up, and a moisturizer from Dr. Hauschka.

The jojoba oil comes in a glass bottle, and when it's done I will see if I can have it refilled rather than buying a new one. I bought it at Selsi at the St. Lawrence Market and they seem pretty cool, so I am hopeful they'll be on board. The moisturizer comes in a glass bottle with a plastic pump. I bought the larger bottle so I'm producing a little less waste, but I need to look into another, lower waste, option. When I first bought the moisturizer they sent me a sample of oil for my face from Suki which I really liked.  After making my own hand and body moisturizer was a success, I may try to make something like it on my own!