So, it’s Earth Day! Let’s get all eco-friendly. I am not any kind of a crunchy granola hippie, but I try to do what I can. We all should. I use a Brita and a SodaStream instead of buying plastic bottles of flat and seltzer water. I bring my own bags when I go to the store. I recycle. I live in an apartment, and take public transportation or walk almost exclusively. I support local and organic farming when I can. I use cloth napkins, cloth lunch bags, and special reusable sandwich wrappers. I buy mostly natural cleaning products. I even buy toilet paper and paper towels made from recycled paper. But not the tissues, those tissues are awful! I also have a weakness for real light bulbs. I only have three CFLs in my whole apartment, and I hate one of them every time. And they’re so efficient it’s going to take FOREVER for that one to burn out! So I deal with that, but in general, I think my carbon footprint is small enough that I don’t really feel guilty about having soft tissues and nice lighting.
I really do make an effort, and I’ve found some good natural products. Below is my recommendation for how to shower yourself with moderate eco-friendliness:
Sulfate Free, Paraben Free, DEA Free, Cruelty Free, Trees for the Future
The root of the Orgnx line is the “amazing moringa tree” which they say is a potent source of nutrients and antioxidants. What’s really special is that they plant a tree when you buy their stuff! Over 400,000 trees so far. Also, can I just say it took me ten minutes to find this online because I kept searching for “organix shampoo.” I had no idea they had eliminated that many of the vowels. And there is a DIFFERENT shampoo called “organix” too. Anyway, I started using this last summer after my keratin treatment. (Yes, I know. We’ll talk about the safety of keratin treatments some other time.) Since sulfate free shampoos are less harsh, it wouldn’t wash away the keratin as quickly. This is also a good bet if you color your hair. The De|Frizz Shampoo and Conditioner were the first I tried, and they were great. I’ve been using them ever since, even thought the keratin is long gone and I don’t dye my hair (yet).
Paraben Free, Sulfate Free, Phthalate Free, No EDTA, Biodegradable, No Animal Testing, No Animal Byproducts
I tried quite a few “natural” body washes before I finally found one soapy enough. I was just about ready to give up when I discovered this one from Nature's Gate. It may be a little less foamy than it’s sodium laurel sulfate cousins, but it still makes a satisfying amount of bubbles. I use the Pomegranate Sunflower kind because scent is pretty mild; they also have Papaya, Aloe Vera, and Hemp, if that’s your thing. It has a bunch of antioxidants and boasts a blend of seven moisturizers. Most importantly it works well and doesn’t have a bunch of yucky chemicals in it.
Paraben Free, Phthalate Free, 100% Vegetarian Ingredients, No Animal Testing
I like the Coconut Milk “flavor”, which we already went over in the Shave-a-colada post.
Biodegradable, Sustainable, Wind Powered Factory, 100% Agri-Waste Powered Textile Mill, Control-Union Certified Dyes, Environmentally Friendly Packaging
These are manufactured using an eco-friendly process, and are 100% MicroCotton®, (whatever that is) but are not organic, which is really weird. I assumed they were, considering that name! They are thinner than normal towels, and seem like they are not going to get you dry, but they have some magical ShamWow like properties that just seem to suck the water off. I guess that’s the miracle of MicroCotton. They claim to absorb 15x more water than combed cotton towels. They also claim to dry faster, and they definitely do that. Our bathroom has neither a window nor a fan, so it takes awhile for towels to dry. Thanks to these, we no longer have to use a damp towel if we take a second shower. Since the towels are thinner and dry faster, they take less energy to wash and dry. They are also really soft, come in pretty colors, and make an excellent towel turban.
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