It’s easy to be kinder to the environment while travelling if you and your family use eco-friendly personal care products instead of hotel toiletries. Notwithstanding the advantages of reduced plastic use, going natural benefits not just the environment, but people too. Here are five greener personal care products that can work well, both in carry-on or packed in your luggage:



Skin Yum

Skin Yum bars are nutrition for the skin. Made in Edmonton from a base of beeswax, organic coconut oil, organic extra virgin olive oil, and either almond, avocado or hemp seed oil, they can be used as everything from a moisturiser to makeup remover, shaving aid, after-sun calming cream and aromatherapy. The bars are either all-natural (plain) or infused with a variety of essential oils.

“They can replace a lot of bottles,” says Skin Yum founder, Leanne Nightengale, who also makes custom bars infused with customers’ favourite essential oils. For example, lavender, an essential oil that’s popular for relaxation and sleep. “There are a lot of things you can do with that one bar. The bonus is the bars are not liquid, so you don’t have to worry about having them in your carry on.”

Essential oil-infused bars are suitable for children age three and up and the base bar can be used on children of all ages, Nightengale says, “because it’s only carrier oils and it’s really, really mild.”

“I really believe in the bars to help everyone support their skin and overall health, and in their self-care regimen.” Nightengale has been using her bars in her own skincare regimen for many years. On a trip to Mexico, she used a bar every day to nourish her skin, protect herself from sunburn, remove makeup and shave, as well as to exchange massage with her partner at the end of a long day of sightseeing.

Skin Yum bars are wrapped in wax paper with a dissolvable label that is compostable or recyclable. “Every morsel is consumable – the entire bar – there is no waste at all.”

Skin Yum is available at Studio Bloom, 10991-124 Street, Edmonton and online at skinyum.com.

 

Ruby’s Healing Garden Skin Repair Salve

For hands, feet, and any kind of moisturising, Ruby’s Healing Garden Skin Repair Salve is an all-natural handcrafted skin moisturiser alternative made in Calgary. It comes in a pocket-sized glass jar and contains calendula that creator Ruby Martin grows in her garden, beeswax, plantain, lavender essential oil and olive oil. The salve smells like summer and absorbs quickly.

Rubys Healing Garden

“It’s great for moisturising dry, chapped, flaky, itchy or rough skin,” says Martin, who is a practical herbalist certified through Wild Rose College.

The salve is suitable for just about everyone, Martin says, including children ages three and up. Ruby’s Healing Garden Skin Repair Salve is available at the Light Cellar, 6531 Bowness Rd. N.W., Calgary and online on Amazon and at  www.beinspiredlivewell.com

Crush & Brush Toothpaste Tablets

Crush & Brush Toothpaste Tablets, made by Nelson Naturals in Nelson, B.C., are compact, ‘convenient, mess-free, precisely portioned, perfect for travel.’ Flavoured with menthol, spearmint and peppermint, the tablets are packaged in a little cardboard tube – no plastic. For travellers, they’re an excellent alternative to toothpaste and easy to use: crush one tablet in your mouth and brush. They are available online at Well.ca, Amazon, and more.


Bamboo Toothbrush Travel Case

Calgary-based [GREEN]STER Zero Waste Store offers eco-friendly, sustainably sourced and crafted plastic-free alternatives to help you reduce your waste, with a variety of natural products that would work well for travel. For example, a Bamboo Toothbrush Travel Case designed to keep a toothbrush clean in a light, 100 per cent bamboo case that is naturally anti-bacterial. At the end of the product life, you can compost it, and the cardboard packaging is recyclable. [GREEN]STER also carries compostable bamboo toothbrushes designed by Canadian brand BamBrush, based in Victoria.