Every little thing you do to minimise waste makes a difference. Everything.
Landfill is simply a vast (and smelly) collection of individual wrappers and packets and pieces of junk. Without our ongoing contributions, landfill would just be land.
Not another product 😱
It’s easy to forget that the fourth R in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is Refuse – and refusal is a powerful weapon we can all wield in the ongoing war on waste.
We’ve had plenty of requests to create travel cases for our shampoo and conditioner bars, but after umming and ahhing we ultimately said yeah, nah to creating yet another product – even though it would be convenient (and good for business?) to sell a metal or plastic or otherwise ‘enviro friendly’ bit of kit to keep your products dry and cosy as you travel.
As they say, every no is a yes! to something else. So today we invite you to take the challenge of finding your own perfect beauty care travel case from within your existing stash of stuff at home. You in?
Oh, cruel and wasteful world!
Have you noticed how hard it is to stay low waste while you travel?
Travelling can be a time when all your efforts to avoid single-use plastic and unnecessary packaging fly out the window. Between takeaway meals and individually wrapped knick knacks in hotel suites (not to mention flight miles) it’s enough to leave the conscious globetrotter feeling defeated.
While we don’t have The Solution to swanning about the place without a trace, we do have A Solution for minimising your travel waste trail when it comes to beauty.
Change starts with us
As a business who makes stuff, we are committed to making the most thoughtful, low impact, long lasting, high purpose stuff imaginable, taking a less-is-better stance on just about everything (we wrote about this a while back).
At the same time we acknowledge that consumers get a pretty raw deal, always being told to ‘be less wasteful!’ when actually it’s businesses, governments and huge multinational forces who are the ones polluting our planet at an alarming pace. *shakes fist*
Refusing to create another product is one small way that we, as a business, can be part of the positive shift away from an extractive paradigm and towards local, low-impact offerings that put the brakes on waste.
Go on a scavenger hunt
The second prong in our two-part travel-waste-reduction protocol is sending you on a scavenger hunt.
Remember those from school?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to rummage through your tumble-down Tupperware drawer (everyone has one) and locate a choice specimen that will, with a bit of love and hot soapy water, become a sacred vessel for Beauty and the Bees soaps, shampoo bars or conditioner bars.
The best container is the one you have
There are so many reasons to pat yourself on the back for repurposing an existing container as a travel case, including:
🌿 Literally producing no waste!
🌿 Honouring the energy embodied in everyday household objects.
🌿 Embracing versatility. There’s a container for every occasion!
🌿 Enjoying extra durability. Ironically, most food containers you have at home will be stronger and longer lasting than for-purpose travel cases.
🌿 Saving a buck by buying nothing.
🌿 Flexing your creativity. Finding and designing your own perfect DIY travel case is far more fun.
We’re confident that most people will have a suitable somethin’ somethin’ to store beauty bars while travelling, and our favourite options include:
✈️ Snap lock silicone pouches
✈️ Takeaway containers (secured with a rubber band)
✈️ Small-ish snap-lock containers (shatterproof plastic)
✈️ Miso tubs (seriously, such a great size!)
We generally avoid glass while travelling as it’s heavy and wrecks havoc if it breaks.
Do you have a love affair with a specific style or size of container? Are you a master at upcycling household items for higher purposes? Have you foraged your own travel cases from within your existing stockpile of containers? We’d love to hear your suggestions, so feel free to share in the comments.
I simply wrap my bars in a face washer and pop in a travel beauty case I have had for years. Simple , easy .
Hi Charmaine, thanks for that.
When I went travelling with the bars, I just re-used the packaging they came in. After use, I left the bars on the hotel’s sink to dry, and when it was time to pack up and go to the next place, in their boxes they went. Worked well for me. Was gone for a week, and both the boxes and the bars were completely fine.
Thank you for the tips Erica!
I do love your soaps and bars. However, can you help me with the baby soap bar please?. I’ve used it in a cotton mesh bag in the shower hanging it to dry well but I’ve found it’s disappearing too quickly for the lovely soap that it is
Hi Felicity, you’re doing the right thing by keeping the soap bar dry when not in use. Since we don’t add any hardeners (or other additives for that matter), our soap can be a bit on the softer side because we cure it naturally. If you buy the soaps in bulk, please leave the boxes open so they continue to cure & get harder, which make them last longer.