Better Homes Gardens USA April 2019

BEAUTY SOLUTIONS

16 | April 2019

GIVE

AWAY OLD

PRODUCTS

Contact a local shelter

to see if it will accept

unopened or gently used

products. Or send them to

Project Beauty Share,

which will distribute lightly

used products (depending

on the kind) to marginalized

women. Piper recommends

disinfecting anything that

has been in contact with

your skin with a mist or

two of rubbing alcohol.

(Put it in a spray bottle for

mess-free cleaning.)

BY DEANNA PAI PAPER ART BY REINA TAKAHASHI

USE EVERY

LAST DROP

Can’t reach the serum in

the bottom of the jar? If a

cotton swab doesn’t get it,

consider a tool designed

to keep products from

a wand with two spatulas

that fit through the neck

of small bottles ($14;

a product’s efficacy,” says

Annie Jackson, cofounder

of clean beauty brand

retailer Credo. Better to

turn a bottle over, give

it a shake, then let gravity

do the rest.

RECYCLE

YOUR

EMPTIES

Plastic bottles with an

imprint of the number 1, 2,

or 5 within a triangle are

typically recyclable. Their

caps, however, may not

be. “Cosmetic packaging

with mixed materials

like metal and plastic

are notoriously difficult

to recycle,” says Ashlee

Piper, an ecolifestyle

expert. Happily, stores

like Origins and Credo

will recycle caps, empty

tubes, and compacts—no

purchase necessary.

Some brands (like Burt’s

Bees, L’Occitane, and

Eos) have free recycling

programs through

TerraCycle, a company

that creates new products

from old packaging.

■ (^) ORGANIC
Products labeled
“organic” contain
at least 95 percent
organic agricultural
ingredients. Those
claiming “made with
organic ingredients”
must have at least
70 percent.
■ (^) CLEAN There’s no
regulated definition,
but it most often
means the formula is
free of controversial
ingredients, including
parabens (a common
preservative), sulfates
(a cleansing agent),
and phthalates (often
found in synthetic
fragrances).
■ (^) VEGAN No animal
by-products, such as
honey and lanolin, are
in vegan products.
■ (^) CRUELTY-FREE
This indicates that
the formulas and
ingredients weren’t
tested on animals.
The gold standard is
the Leaping Bunny
Program, which audits
brands’ supply chains.
PETA’s cruelty-free
seal requires a written
statement affirming
the company doesn’t
test on animals. ■

LEARN

THE

BEAUTY

AISLE

LINGO

More than half of Americans admit they

throw away beauty products. Keep yours

out of the landfill with these simple changes.

ROUTINE

Avoid hard-

to-recycle

materials by

looking for items

with minimal

packaging, such as bar soaps that often come

wrapped in recyclable paper. Lush sells solid bars

of skin-care staples like cleansers, toners, facial

oils, and serums. If you’re stuck with nonrecyclable

packaging, repurpose it. A small plastic tub that

held eye cream, for instance, could hold jewelry,

other tiny items, or even beauty products when you

travel. “I clean small containers and fill them with

my face cream when I’m traveling instead of going

out and buying travel-size containers,” Piper says.

RECONSIDER

THE

PACKAGING

YOUR