Eco-friendly packaging for your homemade cosmetics

Over the years more and more companies in the beauty industry are rethinking their packaging style and becoming more eco-friendly. At first some beauty brands were coming up with new bio-based or 100% recycled packaging materials, then refillable fragrance flacons and companies, which take back containers and jars to be recycled became trendy (the brand Lush is very famous for this and rewards you with a  free face mask for every five containers you bring back to the store). Now beauty brands are moving from pressure-sensitive labels to UV screen printing directly on to the cosmetics container as a way to eliminate a large amount of used paper and produced waste. 

Unfortunately only some companies follow this eco-friendly and sustainable packaging path...many cosmetic companies are still making slow progress in reducing their packaging footprint.

If you have been following my blog you already know that I try to make most of my cosmetics at home and limit the amount of cosmetics I purchase from beauty brands. 

For every product that I make I need to find the appropriate packaging (whether it is for myself or as a gift for someone). Many online stores, which sell DIY cosmetics supplies, offer a wide range of packaging items. Unfortunately almost all of them not very friendly for the environment...

There are several ways of packaging your cosmetics in a more eco-freidnly way. If you are making the products for yourself it is ok to reuse containers and bottles from store bought products you once purchased. After throughly washing them with water and soap they can be reused many times. 

Also often the purchased DIY cosmetics supplies come in their own plastic containers, which can be reused for the final product instead of being thrown away. 

One of my favourite ways of packaging cosmetic products is in jars. Many fancy looking jars can be purchased in hardware stores or online. These jars can be used for years and cleaning them is very easy as they can be placed in a dishwasher without the risk of any damage to the container (I do not advise doing this with plastic containers). Personally I especially like glass jars with locking canister style lids (my bathroom cabinet is filled with these!). The most environmental friendly thing to do is to reuse the jars you already have in the house. You can add a fancy handmade label to them to make the packaging look more appealing. 

You can sometime get very creative when it comes to packaging your own cosmetic products - for example you can reuse an empty metal tin after mints for your lip balm! Just place your own label on top and you have a lovely product in a 100% reused container. I have even stored homemade shampoo in an empty gin bottle. It has a lovely shape and therefore it looked absolutely stunning in my bathroom.

The possibilities are endless.
By choosing items which you already have in the house for packaging your own products you are not only being more eco-freindly (you reduce the amount of thrown away items in your house hold and do not purchase any new plastic containers). You also save lots of money as purchasing packaging items can be rather expensive.

What other packaging ideas do you have? I would love to hear about it!