BEAUTYCYCLE those Bottles, Tubes, and Palettes

Did you receive a new eyeshadow palette for the holidays with 2023's hottest new shades, and want to move on from last year's colors? Or are you taking advantage of the new year to clean out your bathroom cupboards for a fresh start? Or perhaps there was that moisturizer you tried that you didn't like, so it just got stale in the back of the drawer?

Beauty products are often super hard to recycle correctly or at all. If you're thinking that your shampoo bottle is entirely plastic, and therefore gets recycled, check again. 

Take a look at both your item's package and review your municipality's rules. Do they limit you to certain markings (ex. #1 and #5 plastic)? Or certain container shapes and sizes (ex. greater than 3" diameter round bottle)? 

You may find that your package isn't just glass or plastic, or it has no recycle marking, or is too small. And if you threw it in the recycling, you were Wishcycling. Or like me: you've given up on anything without a marking and threw it straight in the trash.  

Nordstrom wants to help. They've created BEAUTYCYCLE, a program that involves take back boxes for your empty makeup, hair care, and skin care packages. Then they do the hard work of sorting, cleaning, and separating to make sure the materials get recycled. You'll find these boxes in the beauty departments of Nordstrom stores, and you may also find them at the entrance of your local Nordstrom Rack.

The boxes are labeled with what all they take, so do one last check before depositing your empties in the box. (Yes, please get your containers mostly empty first.)

As examples, this type of eyeshadow palette could go in! (A mix of plastic and metal and too small for traditional recycling.)

Or this small primer tube. (Multi-layer plastic and foil.)

Or even this larger moisturizer pot. (Large enough for standard recycling, but thick multi-layers and no marking.)

They are taking aggressive goals to take back 100 tons by 2025, and per Nordstrom Cares, they've made good progress as of 2021:

Why does it all matter? Because over 120 Billion (yes with a "B") of beauty units are made every year. 

So best possible option? Choose products that come in cardboard packaging; this may mean switching to products like solid shampoo and soap bars. 

Have a favorite brand that you don't want to switch from? Message the company to appeal to them to switch out their packaging. If they don't hear from customers, they don't know if matters to you. We're starting to see more and more brands switch to updated options like "less plastic" and "refillable", and it's because of consumer appetite for better options.

In the interim? Bring your glass, plastic, and metal, and mixed material packages to a Nordstrom near you and BEAUTYCYCLE. Learn more here.

Flax FAIL

Friends, it's been a crazy month with everything going on in the world, but I'm back. I try to only post good recommendations here, that are tried and true, but my friend Tatiana pointed out, you can learn just as much from my fails. Not all products or projects will be successful, and you can either bypass my mistakes, or avoid it altogether. So, here's one *not* to try. :)

For those with curly hair, you are probably well aware of the challenges: one side may dry curlier than the other, we're prone to frizziness, there are 8000 rules about how to not damage the curl (you should wash in cold water, sleep on a silk pillow case, never use a regular towel, only microfiber)...

On a good day this is how my curls dry naturally with no product. I have a bit of frizz, and would like more definition. On a less good day, well... there's a reason I revert to straightening my hair vs leaving it to chance.

Now that I'm working from home for the foreseeable future (thank you zombie apocalypse), I have a lot of flexibility for experimenting with my hair. I've been intrigued to try this DIY hair gel recipe, that's touted as both a miracle for curly and kinky hair as well as low waste. It's made with just water and nutrient-rich flax seeds, full of fiber, proteins, and Omega-3.

There are dozens of how-to videos and blogs online showing soft defined curls, a nice thick hair gel, and an incredibly simple process, so I'm excited to get started. I mean just look at this one:

I jump right into step 1: boil 1/4 cup flax seeds with 2 cups of water, on medium for about 10 minutes.

Each of the various videos have different cooking times resulting in different thickness of gel, so cook down to your preference.

Next, cool the mixture. Then strain though a knee-high stocking, or a mesh strainer. The seeds will be strained out, leaving a translucent gel.

Wait, what? I'm left with an oatmeal-y sludge! No viscosity after cooling, just grainy, soupy sludge!

I think I figured out the problem, yet none of the recipes clearly call it out: you need to use WHOLE flax seeds, and I used ground.

30 minutes lost but not wasted. I've learned one way to *not* make hair gel! If you end up trying a home hair gel recipe, let me know what works for you.