Thursday, December 28, 2017

Ooh Shiny!

This girl loves glitter. It could be for a festival, or a party, or Halloween, or a Tuesday. I like glitter makeup, embellished outfits, crafting.

So of course I'm totally crushed when my zero waste peeps remind me that glitter is actually just micro-plastic. Buzzkill.

OK, you're going too far with this eco-warrier stuff, you say. However, micro-plastics are far from a foreign concern. Several countries, including the US, have already banned or started phasing out microbeads in beauty products. Now, research scientists are starting to suggest glitter should be banned as well, and one chain of UK preschools has proactively banned craft glitter. The concern is that these tiny plastics quickly get into our water and are a pollutant to sealife including seafood. Plastic is now also found in the large majority of our drinking water.

Fortunately, we can still sparkle on. There are plenty of people who both love glitter and the planet that are making affordable, alternative products.

 (Image via ecostardust.com)

Almost all of these are made from cellulose from sustainably farmed eucalyptus trees! They are vegan, cruelty-free, biodegradable, compostable. Here are just a few examples:

UK
Eco Stardust - Each pot of cosmetic grade glitter is under $5.

Eco Glitter Fun - Individual glitters run around $5 with kits costing around $10-30.

NY
Greenpoint Glitter - Fine and chunky glitters starting from $12.

Found on Amazon
Minke Bio Cosmetics

Found on Etsy
The Sparkle Party - a shop from Australia offering a variety of chunkiness/sizes.


and a ton of other options searching tag "sustainable glitter".


Now that we know how to safely source all the sparklies, shine on! :)


Monday, December 18, 2017

Holiday Fail

Well, dears, I've been meaning to make reusable gift bags out of all that lovely fabric I got from Seattle ReCreative. I've cut the fabric, gotten all lined up with my sewing machine, and... it jammed. Repeatedly. For hours.

I think it just needs to be cleaned well, but in the meantime, I'm going to give myself a gift: a little patience.