You may have heard that beauty is pain. And sure enough, between threading, waxing, and standing in a humid office bathroom trying to perfect that winged eyeliner, we agree wholeheartedly. But you’re reading this on an environment friendly, eco-nerdy, super sustainable blog (fingers crossed)… and we’re not just talking about the pain of raccoon eyes and uprooting entire hair follicles from our skin.

Beauty, as it turns out, is a heck of a lot of pain for your friendly neighbourhood planet earth as well. So you can go ahead with the threading all you want, but when it comes to your everyday cleaning, exfoliating, shampooing, and getting to #MakeUpGoals, we have a few suggestions that will make your beauty routine a little more sustainable.

So let’s get beautiful – inside and out!

 

Squeaky clean you, Not so clean for the environment

As any beauty guru will tell you, the first step with every beauty routine is cleaning. In fact, for some of us who keep life fairly basic and minimal, this is the end of our beauty routines. And the cleaning, exfoliating and prep process is where the environment takes a lot of hits from our beauty routines.

Most regular hair, face, and body cleaning products contain a lot of harmful chemicals and substances that make their way to the water table. Not only do they affect the water, they in turn affect any plants or animals that come in contact with them through the water.

For instance, the Sulphates contained in most shampoos are not just bad for your hair, as Jonathan from Queer Eye will tell you, they’re also mega horrible for the environment.

The same applies to most of the chemicals seeping into the water table from your soaps, body washes, and such. If the exfoliating granules in your face scrub or face wash is made from plastic or synthetic materials, they end up entering the water table as tiny bits of plastic that are basically untraceable, unsalvageable, and un-recyclable.

So if you want to make your beauty routine sustainable, but you don’t have a lot of energy – your first and last step should be to change your cleaning products. And we know just the place you can start. Check out the range of eco friendly and sustainable soaps, shampoos, and more available right here!

 

Let’s get Ethical

When it comes to sustainable products, it’s not just the environmental impact we have to consider. The human impact of certain products are another factor you should be paying close attention to. After all, what’s the point of saving the world one harmful chemical free shampoo at a time, if that shampoo is made by an underpaid child labourer who’s paying the price instead?

To start out, try out some of the products over at Haushala Creatives. Happy hunting!

 

Bunnies and More

Another unsavoury aspect of the beauty world is animal testing. While animal testing for cosmetic products are technically banned in India, a lot of beauty products in the market – everything from soaps to eye shadow - are in fact tested on animals.

[caption id="attachment_10255" align="alignnone" width="300"] Nooooo! Not the bunnies?![/caption]

And the fact is, while a few decades ago, there may not have been an alternative to animal testing, there are plenty in 2018. The silver lining is that as of now, there are plenty of international and local companies that make their products without any animal testing.

If you want to go for cruelty free products, you just need a phone, the internet, and about 30 seconds. Just type the name of your brand and product along with “animal testing” in the google search bar, and within the first three or four results, you’ll have your answer.

 

Gharelu Nuska Time

If you want to go a step further, start looking for the gharelu nuska for your regular products. Replace your face wash and soaps with besan, haldi, and a combination of other natural products like honey, lemon juice, and even eggs. Shampoos are a little harder, but with a little research and some patience, you can find recipes from all over India on how our ancestors went about cleaning their tresses. Hibiscus leaf shampoos were all the rage in Kerala once upon a time, and some beauty gurus swear by the lustrous effect egg whites have on your hair.

The advantage with this is that you have control over everything you’re using, and your routine can be made mostly of organic and natural products that don’t have any untoward affects on the environment. While you may not be able to do everything we’re suggesting here (you could be vegan, or simply lack the will to find a hibiscus plant in a concrete jungle), the point of this is to take even one small step in your life to get you started.

 

This is in no way the end of your Sustainable beauty makeover. Everything from your fashion choices, to makeup decisions can be tweaked around and shifted completely to reflect a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

But is you’re just wading into the waters of the green lifestyle, our suggestions here should give you a taste of the bigger changes you could start making should you choose to.

So… let’s pretty up, eco-friendly stylez!