There are probably so many of these posts online, but this one is about my personal experience and mainly for my regular readers who have asked me about this!

These options might not easy or available to you based on where you live, but being conscious of our plastic consumption is the beginning.

ps. affiliate links are used.

“The booming $500 billion per year global personal care industry relies on plastic.” - National Geographic

Plastic Free Bathroom Cleansing Routine:

WATER. Muslims and people from the Eastern part of the world usually use water to wash themselves when they go to the bathroom. In the Middle East, all bathrooms have a specially designed water hose that is fantastic! Sadly, it’s not the case in the UK, so I have a metal water container in my home bathroom and sometimes take a mason jar with me when I am out to use that or a paper cup to fill it with water. To dry myself though, I have been using “who gives a crap” toilet/loo roll and it’s great! Not the softest type, but it is good enough and you are not only causing forests to die, there is no plastic involved and some of their proceeds go to charity!

“Producing recycled paper involves between 28 to 70 per cent less energy consumption than making virgin paper, and uses less water.” - The Ecologist

I have seen some re-usable wipes instead of the tissues, but I haven’t tried them yet, but I might give it a go just to see how it goes and that would lower my waste in general.

Plastic Free Teeth Routine:

“Plastic used -in toothpaste tubes- is also not biodegradable and can take anywhere from 500 to 700 years to break down. That is why today’s toothpaste tubes have mostly linear life cycle – and not a circular one.” - Open IDEO

I miss the fresh and very minty toothpaste, but oh well, I am getting used to the Georganics less minty paste I have been using. I have been using mine for a month now and I am still not even half way through it with two brushes a day.

I got the tablets too, but they were a bit annoying that I had to chew them first. The same brand does mouth washes, but I haven’t had a chance to try them yet.

I use a bamboo tooth brush that I got from Amazon. They are starting to sell some at boots and that made me happy! You see, little changes can really impact the way brands provide their products.

“Every single toothbrush made since the 1930s is still out there in the world somewhere, living on as a piece of trash.” National Geographic

Plastic Free Hair Routine:

“There are so many products out there, like shampoo and conditioner and moisturizer, that are 90 or 95 percent water,” she says. “So we’re really just shipping tons of water around the world in plastic containers, which is bad for the carbon footprint, the water footprint, and also the plastic footprint.” - National Geographic

I use three products: Lush Bar Shampoo + Lush Bar Conditioner + Coconut or Argan Oils.

I store the dry bars in metal containers that I got from Lush themselves, but you can get them from anywhere. That shampoo bar has lasted me good six month for three hair washes a week! The conditioner bar is harder to use and I switched between two types from Lush and I am still using them. Hopefully they will improve their formula in the future. There are other brands on Amazon that follow the same concept, but I haven’t tried any different ones, but you can experiment.

Plastic Free Shower and Body Routine:

Soap and luffa during the shower and I am trying to use oils after my shower (the same ones above) rather than lotion. I keep changing the oil types to see which one works best for my body because the dryness of my skin changes based on the season and weather.

I also use the solid deodorant from Lush. I tried the two they have the one with the musty smell and the other one with the orange smell. You have to use them more than the usual stick to keep the sweaty smell away. They are alright, but I am still looking for something better and will be trying different solid types and reporting back!

Plastic Free Period Routine:

“Tampons, pads and panty liners along with their packaging and individual wrapping generate more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per year, and they all contain plastic – in fact, pads are around 90% plastic!” - Organic Cup

I love the Lunette period cup for heavy days and I have a few under pants from Thinx, where you bleed directly to them. I have been using both for over a year and a half and they work really well for me. If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend that you do. The cup might get more getting used to because a lot of women find the process of insert and removal tricky, but there are lots of useful information out there on how to do it and it takes a little bit to get used to it like two periods.

If you want a third alternative, you can use the reusable fabric pads as well. I think I might get a couple in the future, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that.

Extras: Two more things that I use: bamboo cotton buds and a towel to dry my hands, face and body.

I also travel with most of these items and all the dry things make my liquid allowance last longer, so win win!