My Favorite Bathroom Swaps - And a Little Confession.

Sustainable Swap Sunday

The market for bathroom products is a vast one, especially those marketed towards women. 25 minutes in a Buzzfeed shopping spiral and I find myself thinking, “maybe I DO need this $45 moisturizer specially formulated for the inside of my left elbow”. If that sounds like you at all, know you’re not alone.

For me, the bathroom was a hard place to start on my eco-conscious journey. I have always been a self-care obsessed person. I would always hit up the semiannual Bath and Body Works sales, stalked new Lush bath bombs online, and was constantly trying the newest body washes and lotions. To this day, I am still going through my stockpiles of body products.

My lotion shame pile (kidding! mostly)

I have to keep telling myself what I know to be true: it’s better to go through what you already have before buying new things. It’s really difficult for me to go through my daily routine of mostly plastic products when I’m chomping at the bit to buy ones that are better for the earth. I have a deep desire to have my surroudings reflect my values.

But the truth of the matter is that using up your old Bath and Body works lotions is the greenest option. And it’s also true that you don’t have to have that bamboo-everything, ultra-minimalist, 1000-plants-in-my-bathroom aesthetic that a lot of zero-waste bloggers promote. There’s nothing wrong with having that look, or wanting it, but we should all remind ourselves that being low-waste is not about looks.

Now, since I’m sure you’ve opened this blog hoping for actual suggestions about bathroom swaps, so here they are:

Shampoo bars

I am calling this an easy swap for a few reasons. One, the actual use of a shampoo bar is not that different than using liquid shampoo, so I didn’t feel like I had to learn how to wash my hair again. Two, shampoo bars aren’t that hard to find, compared to some zero-waste products. And three, they aren’t overly expensive. I have been using shampoo bars from Ethique which are $15 per bar, and they definitely last longer than my old $10 bottles of shampoo when stored correctly (draining soap dish OR jar lid with a grid of rubber bands over it).

Deodorant

Switching to a more natural, plastic-free deodorant was a little bit of a journey for me. I tried Schmidt’s regular and Schmidt’s sensitive skin - the former burned me and the latter didn’t work that well. Then I tried Meow Meow Tweet’s baking soda free cream deodorant, which kind of worked, but wasn’t effective if I was super active and I applied it at least twice a day.

Now, I am using Ethique’s Rustic deodorant bar ($13), which is plastic-free, easy to apply, and has a light citrusy scent. I have found over the past few months that this deodorant works just as well as my once tried and true Old Spice. I’ve only used half of one bar since November, so I think it’s a cost-effective swap!

Reusable Cotton Rounds

This was one of my earliest attempts at zero-waste swapping, circa 2017 or so. Instead of buying disposable cotton rounds for makeup removal and toner application, I use cloth ones that can easily be thrown in the washer in a mesh bag. I also set aside 2 specific ones to use for nail polish remover, since that stains pretty terribly. I bought mine from some random place on Amazon at the time, but you can also buy them local from Marley’s Monsters in a variety of colors and prints.

Alternative Moisturizers

My skin care routine has changed a lot over the past few years, and currently it incorporates both low-waste and drugstore products. It’s not precisely one swap, but I have experimented with using shea butter and jojoba oil as face moisturizers, both of which have worked well for me! I like to use jojoba oil to oil cleanse, and use shea butter on my most dry and irritated skin at night. I’ve slowly been phasing out store-bought facial moisturizers because I’m finding I don’t need them as much as I thought I did.

To make your moisturizing the most sustainable, research where you’re buying from to ensure you have ethical products - packaging is not the only part of sustainability. Some bulk stores offer refillable oils, but if you don’t have this option, try reusing your glass bottles around the house.

Safety Razor

This swap was probably the easiest one for me. You can get a decent safety razor for $30-40 and buy bulk metal blades for cheap too. I loved that this was something I knew would last for years and years - I have had mine for four so far. Safety razors have a slight learning curve as you don’t need to apply ANY pressure like you would with a plastic one, but they shave much better for both face and body.

Realizing Shaving Cream Is a Scam

Okay maybe not a scam, per se, but in my humble opinion, something you definitely don’t need as a separate product! For shaving your body, bar soap, body wash, coconut oil, and castile soap (that you’ve lathered in your hands) all work well! I like using cocout oil because it doubles as a moisturizer, but beware of a slippery tub afterwards.

Hand soap

I think the simplest swap for single use bottles of hand soap is using bar soap. I remember when I was younger, my grandmother was so adamant about good handwashing habits that she would always tell me to wash my hands right when I came over after school (a good habit I’ve held onto) and always used Palmolive bar soap in her bathroom. Despite what I thought then, bar soap isn’t just for grandmas.

If bar soap doesn’t cut it for you, refillable soap options like diluting castile soap or bulk soap are still better than individual bottles!

As I continue to use up old bathroom products and replace them with sustainable ones, I will update everyone with my new recommendations! This post was meant to reflect what I think are some of the easier swaps to make, but there’s no pressure to try them all at once. When you start running low on one product, try researching ways to sustainably replace it - soon enough you can apply this practice to more than one thing in your bathroom cabinet!

Happy swapping,

Grace Kennedy

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For clarity, none of the brands or websites linked in this blog were sponsored.