By Sarah Sarway
What the heck is “green beauty,” anyway?
A few months ago, we asked Alden Wicker—the eco-living expert and smart, stylish founder of EcoCult—to share some tips on making sure our healthy lifestyle habits are good for Mother Nature, too.
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Wicker shared many eye-opening hacks that seemed pretty doable. So many, in fact, that we thought her advice on how to transition to a more eco-conscious beauty routine was worth sharing as another story.
Don’t worry, green beauty isn’t complicated. Keep reading for a few small tweaks you can make to your skin-care product choices and practices.
4 Simple Green Beauty Tips
1. Don’t use wipes
First off, ditch those disposable wipes. “They are not flushable, no matter what it says on the package,” warns Wicker. “Toilet paper disintegrates within 10 seconds, while these cotton wipes clog sewers in every major city in the whole world.” Instead, use a washcloth that you can reuse over and over again.
2. Buy greener products
Next, take on your skin-care collection. Tons of indie beauty brands have come up with more responsible ways to make products using ingredients and packaging that are actually clean. Apps like GoodGuide or Skin-Deep by the EWG make it super simple to find them.
Start small and nix any cleansers that have microbeads in them. “They wash right past water treatment plants and into the water, where they are eaten by marine life, and then, eventually, by us,” says Wicker. “Beauty companies have a myriad of other options, like coffee grounds, sugar, salt…too many to name.”
3. Use natural deodorant
Test out natural deodorants that don’t contain harmful ingredients like triclosan, which end up harming marine life and the ecosystem. “I use Meow Meow Tweet natural deodorant in a glass and metal pot,” says Wicker.
4. DIY your products
Consuming less is always a good choice for the planet. Plus, when you make beauty products on your own using ingredients in your kitchen, you use up food scraps that might have gone to waste and eliminate packaging.
Before you know it, you’ll be toting around a recycled make-up bag filled with high-quality skincare products that do double-duty in keeping both you and the planet safe.
(Featured Photo: Shutterstock)