The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

Category Archives: cosmetics

May 1, 2014

Plastic-Free Vegan Lip Balm from Juniperseed Mercantile

Tiffany Norton of Juniperseed Mercantile tried different kinds of packaging for her delicious lip balms until she found the right one.  She sent me one to try in its brand new cardboard tube, and I love it.

Here’s what Tiffany has to say:

Now packaged without plastic and made without beeswax!! I am super excited to share my new paper tube lip balms! They are more than three times the size of a typical little plastic tube, so they will last you quite a long time. And since there is no plastic involved in the packaging (even the label is made of recycled paper), you can recycle or compost the tube after use, and feel good about reducing your plastic impact on the earth. This is absolutely, without a doubt, the greenest way to purchase lip balm. We will even ship your package without plastic tape!  

I make and sell breakfast burritos sometimes at school. I just make them the way I like them. Turns out, everyone else likes them just like I do. I’m always… Read the rest

June 10, 2013

Take Action — No More Plastic Micro-beads in Facial Scrubs!

Six years ago, I posted a rant about the fact that many commercial facial scrubs contain tiny plastic (polyethylene) beads meant to exfoliate the skin.  These beads are too small for water treatment plants to filter out, so they end up in our waterways and eventually the ocean.  In the ocean, tiny plastic pieces mix with the zooplankton to enter the food chain.  What’s more, plastic in the ocean acts as a sponge, absorbing and concentrating toxic chemicals.  It’s one thing when plastic ends up there inadvertently, but it’s inexcusable for companies to produce plastic products intentionally meant to be flushed down the drain.

Now, it turns out, plastic particles aren’t just in facial scrubs, and they aren’t only made of polyethylene.  According to a recent position paper (PDF) (PDF) published this year by a coalition of ocean advocacy groups lead by 5Gyres:

Microplastic particles and microbeads can … Read the rest

March 1, 2012

Plastic-free Mascara and Other Cosmetics from T.W.I.N.K. Beauty

Mascara. It’s been the downfall of many a plastic-free blogger. For Envirowoman, the very first plastic-free blogger who inspired me back in 2007, mascara was the one thing that made her break her plastic-free pledge. Taina Uitto of Plastic Manners, on the other hand, discovered the joy of going without mascara. Personally, I have never been a big fan of mascara in the first place, but I know that many women (and some men) won’t leave the house without it. So I was psyched to learn (via several readers of this blog) about the lash tint from T.W.I.N.K. Beauty, a cake mascara that comes in a metal tin.

03/28/2012 UPDATE:  Special Offer from T.W.I.N.K. Beauty to MyPlasticFreeLife.com readers: If you are ordering for the first time, use coupon code “noplastic” to get 10% off your first order.  If you have already ordered from T.W.I.N.K. Beauty in the past, use coupon code “noplasticagain” to get 15% off your… Read the rest

August 4, 2011

Remove Hair with DIY Homemade Sugar Wax: Cheap, Plastic-free, and Dangerous in the Wrong Hands

The BlogHer conference is this weekend. Time for my annual eyebrow wax and pedicure. You know the saying that women dress for each other? When it comes to BlogHer, that saying couldn’t be more true. All other days of the year, I’m a pretty low maintenance gal. I mean, how often do I write about cosmetics on this blog? Almost never.  But when the BlogHer Estrogen Fest rolls around, I get all self-conscious about my neglected feet and crazy eyebrows.

Witness the crazy eyebrows for yourself.  Don’t see what I’m talking about?  That’s okay.  I see the crazy, and that’s what matters.

This time, instead of paying $15 for someone to slather paraffin wax (a petroleum product) on my face and rip it off with half my skin, I decided to save my money and inflict the pain on myself.  I found some ancient wax strips and a sugar waxing kit in the bathroom cabinet.  I can’t remember buying them, so I’d guess they… Read the rest

July 20, 2011

How to Make Your Own Mint Julep Masque without Plastic or Toxic Chemicals

Queen Helene’s hugely popular mint julep masque is widely considered to be a safe product. I mean, it’s found in all the health food stores, so it must be okay, right? Or is it? And is there any actual mint in it?

I’ve had this same plastic tube of the stuff sitting in my bathroom cabinet for years and had pretty much forgotten about it until a few weeks ago when I noticed my face was getting dirty from all the work in the garden. (For those who don’t know, mud masks are used to suck out the oil and dirt clogging your pores and leave your face baby soft.) Following my resolution to use up the plastic-packaged stuff I already have before looking for alternatives, I dug out the Queen Helene and got ready to slather it on my face… until I read the ingredients.

Not only does this “natural” product come packaged in plastic, but it contains enough questionable ingredients to rate a 5 on Environmental Working Group’s… Read the rest

May 20, 2011

Reusable cotton rounds beat cotton balls in plastic or paper packaging.

Cotton balls come packaged in plastic. So do cotton facial rounds. And even organic cotton balls come in plastic. So I’d pretty much given up using either of them after my last bag ran out a few years ago.

And then, in March, I discovered cotton balls in a cardboard box at CVS. I checked inside the box to make sure there wasn’t a plastic bag hiding in there. Nope. A paper bag. I got all excited and bought a box.

But as I walked home, I started to think. And the more I thought, the less excited I got. First of all, the packaging might not have been plastic, but there sure was a lot of it. Double packaging — box AND bag. It didn’t seem like such great alternative to the plastic after all.

The problem with cotton

And then I started thinking about the cotton balls themselves. I could get organic cotton balls in a plastic bag, but the cotton in this box was not organic. And, according to the Organic Trade Association:

Cotton is considered the world’s… Read the rest

July 29, 2010

The Story of a Headache

Flying home from Maryland on Saturday, I sat next to a really cute guy. Unfortunately, the plane was completely full, so I couldn’t switch seats to get away from him. Well, not him. He was cute. But his Axe cologne, or whatever heinous product he was wearing, made my eyes water, nose itch, throat close up, and left me with a throbbing headache.

I reached for a handkerchief to cover my nose, but sadly my very helpful dad had tossed in a Bounce dryer sheet when he did my laundry, and my hanky just made me sneeze even more.

While on vacation, I caught a nasty cold/flu, which I can deal with because my body will fight it off.  But the body doesn’t fight off the effects of environmental chemicals the way it does an infection.  Instead, it becomes more and more sensitized with repeated exposure to allergens. In fact, I just recently noticed my nose itching from Michael’s stick deodorant that he has used for years. How can I get away from the onslaught… Read the rest

December 11, 2009

100% Pure: Great on the Inside; Working on the Outside

Guys (meaning readers who identify as male), here’s another post about cosmetics. So unless you’re into makeup (and really, why shouldn’t you be?) you can forward this one to your female friends. I promise I’ll have a post just for you next week!

I frequently get asked about what I do for plastic-free makeup, and honestly I haven’t had the best answer. As you know, I continue to use the products that I already had before I began this project and generally only replace them with plastic-free alternatives once they are used up. But after reading about lead in lipstick and other unhealthy chemicals two years ago, I checked out all the cosmetics I owned against Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database and ended up doing a huge purge of most of my makeup.

What I kept: one combo eye shadow/liner stick, two colored lip gloss sticks, and one twist blush. Pretty much everything else went to the Hazardous Waste facility.… Read the rest

December 9, 2009

Plastic-Free Organic Essence Lip Balm & Body Cream

I have another treat for you that I discovered at the San Francisco Green Festival last month: Organic Essence plastic-free cream and lip balm. As far as I know, Organic Essence is the first company to develop completely home compostable containers made from cardboard for such products.  Materials include Forest Stewardship Council (FSC #SW-COC-001530), Post Consumer Waste (PCW), 100% recycled paper and organic adhesive and glaze.

The lip balm tube is ingenious. It’s made with a squeeze bottom which pushes up the lip balm instead of a twist bottom. What’s more, the products contain USDA certified organic ingredients with no petro-chemicals, preservatives, parabens, or artificial fragrances.

I asked Organic Essence to send me some samples to review, and I can tell you that they work very well. The lip balm, surprisingly, does not get crushed in my purse. The cream is very thick and concentrated: a little goes a long way, and in… Read the rest

December 5, 2007

Thinking about cosmetics sooner than I’d planned…

This is the makeup bag I carry around in my backpack or purse. I know I said a week ago I’m a low maintenance kinda girl and rarely wear any makeup at all. I just carry this stuff around in case the need arises, like an unexpected group photo at work or a special night out with Michael (to whom I’ve been married for 3 years as of yesterday!) It’s all plastic, of course, but I bought it all before I decided to go plastic-free and figured it would take me so long to use it all up, I wouldn’t have to worry about finding plastic-free alternatives for quite some time.

And look at this drawer full of plastic. It’s the makeup drawer in my bathroom. Don’t know how a low maintenance girl ended up with so many pots and trays and tubes and bottles. A few of these things I’ve had since the early 90’s. The only time this drawer gets opened is for Halloween or the occasional 80’s dance party, when even Michael will wear a little… Read the rest