Hello, my name is Luzana Costa and I am an addict.
That would be my first admission at a cosmetics and skin care addicts meeting. I am indeed what the internet calls a product junkie. On my (seemingly never ending) quest to simplify my hair and skincare routine, I find myself always going for the next product — what would help me manage my hair better? What is the best face wash? And the list goes on and on. Granted, I have no major skin issues and my hair, well, it has a life of its own, so I will not make excuses for all the products I believe I need. My husband’s products have now been relegated to two shelves, out of the two full cupboards we possess in the bathroom. He shaves his head, so he is very understanding of my needs :)
But for the past two years my problem with cosmetic substance abuse has taken a healthier turn. I try my best to use only (mostly) natural products from brands that take care in consciously sourcing their raw materials.
Being sustainably aware is not only about the environment and how we use our natural resources. It has a lot to do with ourselves, what we put into our bodies and how we interact with the world around us. With the severely consumerist society we live in (hey, myself included), it is sometimes difficult to think beyond turning off the lights, and not spending an hour in the shower.
I have taken to truly researching what brands and chemicals I use on myself and around my home. Recently I have started mixing my own body lotion. It has become a fun little routine, which enables me to know exactly what goes in it, and where it comes from.
I can proudly say that about 80% of all the cosmetics I use are either Soil Association (a charity centered around the issue of intense farming) certified, Ecocert (an organic certification organization) approved, vegan, produced 100% carbon neutral, donate to developing areas, or create foundations to protect the environment and general human health.
This isn’t something particularly new in my life. I grew up listening to stories from my mother about her and her sisters extracting the essence of roses to make their own lotions. Or the natural oils the Mucubal women (ethnic group in the Namibe province in Angola) used on their hair and skin to grow and moisturize them.
As I became more curious, I learned of the now extremely popular shea butter, sourced from the middle part of the African continent, used in skincare for centuries by African women. I also learned about the Indian tradition of Ittars, oil based “perfumes”, which is now becoming a lost art. I started using Jasmine oil as a perfume and it is amazing.
For those of you interested in seeing the environmentally and human friendly options for your cosmetics, I recommend a brief trip to your nearest health foods shop (not really sure why they call them that… food should not be categorized, but that’s for another post). Check out the natural oils, the soaps and other products with a list of ingredients you actually know. If you are interested in more established brands and can’t be bothered to make anything, one good place to start is Content Beauty — www.contentbeauty.com — a boutique organic skincare store and salon in London that specializes in organic and environmentally conscious cosmetics. If you start there, there is a plethora of products you can start with. Bonus: they ship free almost worldwide.
Price and availability of many of these kind of products is still not ideal. And I will be the first to admit, sometimes a girl just needs her lipstick to last for a while, and so my arsenal will likely never be at 100% organic or environmentally friendly. But I will push as far as I can.
So, let’s be kind to the planet, and be aware of what we do to it. But in the process, let’s take an introspective look on the small things about ourselves that we can change, to be kind to ourselves as well as the earth.
Note: Article originally published on Green Design Thinking — www.greendesignthinking.com
