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Toiletries are a travel must, but all those small plastics can contribute to your carbon footprint. Before you head on your next journey, follow our tips on how to build an eco-friendly toiletry bag.
How to Build an Eco-Friendly Toiletry Bag
Written By: Marijs Vrancken
Traveling in a more eco-friendly manner is something we love to support on Travel Fashion Girl. Building an eco-friendly toiletry bag is one great way for traveling in a sustainable fashion. Here’s how to do it!
The Benefits of Building an Eco-Friendly Toiletry Bag
First, eco-friendly products or organic products are better for your health. When there are scary chemicals in products, a part of those chemicals will make it into your body. Using organic products means that you will have to worry less!
Second, eco-friendly products are often filled with great ingredients that actually benefit your skin and hair. No more fake silicone to make your hair soft, but actual soft hair that is healthy and bouncy.
Third, organic brands avoid animal testing. That means that there are a whole lot of cute fluffy animals that are not suffering.
Last but not least, the environment will love you for it. Eco-friendly beauty products will be packaged in recycled packaging or packaging that you can recycle (or both). The production that went into making these products will also leave less of a footprint.
Comb | Bodywash | Cotton | Charcoal | Sandstone | Body Gloss | Sunscreen | Soap | Coconut Oil | Cream | Seed Oil | Travel Kit | Facial Spray | Cosmetic Bag
Eco-Friendly Toiletry Bag Musts: Beauty Items
The most important products in our toiletry bag are shower and beauty products. These are products that we use every day so they need to be durable and toxin free.
Hair
Good hair days can be a daily occurrence with the right chemical-free shampoo and conditioner. There are so many great eco-friendly hair care products on the market. A few great examples are The Honest Co., Sukin, and Lush.
A bamboo hair combs replaces the classic plastic ones. Even better, a wooden comb does wonders in distributing the natural hair oils and therefore gives you even healthier hair!
You’ll also love these natural beauty recipes for hair care!
Soap
Washing and hydrating your body organically has never been easier than with today’s products on the market. A minimal option that goes a long way is the combination of Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap and coconut oil. You can even use those in your hair care routine as your daily shampoo and your overnight hair mask.
Here’s our round up of eight incredible natural beauty products!
Lotion
If you do not like the oily feel that coconut oil can leave on your skin, there are many organically-made body lotions on the market, such as the classic Body Shop body butters. Alternatively, solid soaps like those from Lush are an awesome waste-free method that also makes your toiletry bag lighter!
Here’s our round up of eighteen useful solid toiletries for travel!
Sunscreen
Sunscreen, which contains a lot of chemicals, is easily forgotten in making your skincare routine more eco-friendly. The chemicals in sunscreen make their way into your body and often into the rivers and the ocean.
The good news is that there are several alternatives to these chemical sunscreens. The best protection against the sun will always be covering up with clothing. However, when that is not possible, choose for a sunscreen that contains zinc or titanium oxide.
Find out our list of best eco-friendly beauty products!
Face
Organic face products are usually a lot softer on the skin, resulting in a better complexion. I’m a fan of the solid Charcoal soap from Lush for acne prone skin. Coconut oil or rose hip oil are great products to replace your night cream. Additionally, rose water is the best natural toner for the skin!
Here are other popular multi-tasking body oils female travelers love to use!
Razor | Shaving Cream | Brush | GoToob | Menstrual Cup | Toothpaste | Toothbrush
Eco-Friendly Toiletry Bag Musts: Hygiene Products
Along with shower and beauty items, hygiene products are a must. You can also find durable and toxin-free options.
Dental
Taking care of your teeth is so important. Did you know that you can replace all plastic and chemicals and still have awesome white teeth and healthy gums?
The first step is finding a sustainable toothbrush! There are so many plastic toothbrushes in landfills all over the world and in our oceans. Replace your toothbrush with a bamboo toothbrush or a recyclable plastic toothbrush. Second, eliminate chemicals with a natural toothpaste, like the one from Dr. Bronner.
Shaving
Replacing your normal shaving cream with your favorite eco-friendly brand’s shaving soap is super easy. A shaver itself is also replaceable by going back to the traditional stainless steel varieties.
Read this post for more tips on shaving while traveling!
Female Hygiene
Switching from tampons to a menstrual cup means creating much less waste and saving space in your luggage. From now on, you can travel throughout countries that do not use tampons or pads without a menstrual worry in the world.
Learn about menstrual cup pros and cons to decide if this is a good option for you!
Bonus Tip
Avoid buying a lot of travel-sized beauty products. Yes, they are awesome and handy, but it’s so much better to buy one product in a big size and decant them yourself in BPA-free travel containers (like the GoToob travel tubes).
Or, don’t use any packaging at all and replace as many products are you can with solid Lush products!
These are the best travel containers you can use or travel!
What are your additional tips on how to build an eco-friendly toiletry bag? Share in the comments below!
For more eco-friendly packing tips, please read:
- 10 Tips for Eco-Friendly Travel
- 10 Eco-friendly Gifts for Travelers
- Best Eco-Friendly Must Have Products
- Natural Beauty Products You’ll Want to Take
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Author Bio: Marijs left the fashion industry to travel the world two years ago. For her, travel is all about seeing incredible nature and wildlife. The biggest bonus is meeting amazing people, telling stories, and capturing moments on her blog Rooftop Antics. 30 countries later, Marijs is now based in Australia, working remotely and traveling the rest of New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
Some decent products, but poor reasoning. What are these “scary chemicals” you’re referring to? What proof is there that organic products contribute to a better complexion? Not trying to be snarky, but it would be better to list these products and give some specific pros and cons as to why they can benefit the environment or the body (pref. with some backing). Like, coconut oil is versatile and can be used as an occlusive all over the body and makeup remover, but can be comedogenic and can easily cause breakouts; etc…