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July 2020 | REDONLINE.CO.UKOonagh Brennan,
Fashion Director
I’m trying to take better care of my things
and have a ‘make do and mend’ attitude
rather than give in to the desire for newness,
which is a hazard of my job. I use
the-restory.com to restore worn-out shoes
and bags. It’s so easy; you book a slot
online and your item is collected from
anywhere in the UK the same day. It’s
particularly good for designer pieces you
still love and want to wear again and again,
which justifies the initial outlay, too.
The average lifetime for a piece of clothing
in the UK is estimated at 2.2 years, with
£140m worth of clothing going to landfill
each year. If we extended the lifetime of our
clothes by just nine months, it would
significantly reduce the environmental
impact. I buy second-hand clothes and sell
garments and accessories of my own that I
don’t wear any more through The Vestiaire
Collective (vestiairecollective.com) or
Thrift Plus (thrift.plus). It’s a great way to find
designer pieces you may have missed out on
at discounted prices, and you can make
money back on things you no longer want.
It makes me feel good to think something
I have owned is bringing joy to someone else.Eve Cameron,
Beauty Director
Beautifully fragranced liquid handwashes
were one of my simple pleasures, but as so
few are currently refillable, I have swapped
to soap bars in an effort to reduce our household
plastic consumption and waste. I adore Claus
Porto Soap, £20 (Liberty London), as much for
its stylish wrapper designs as its beautiful scents.
Atelier Cologne’s Bergamote Soleil Soap, £19,
smells like sunshine, while Dove’s classic
Original Beauty Cream Bar, £1.85, ticks
the good-for-every-day box.
I’ve stopped using cotton wool, too, and have
bought reusable pads made from either bamboo
or organic cotton, such as Tabitha Eve’s, £12
(contentbeauty.com). I’ve never used make-up
removing wipes, not just because they’re
environmentally unfriendly but because I don’t
think they do a good job of cleaning your face.
Give me a washable muslin cloth any time.
A face mask is such an easy add-in to any
beauty routine and can make a visible difference
to your skin. Single-use sheet masks are banned
in my house and on the beauty pages of Red,
too, as they are so wasteful. They come in
hard-to-recycle plastic packs and most are not
compostable under normal household conditions.
Instead, I stick to masks in tubes and tubs (plastic,
so not ideal, I know, but at least they are not
single-use), such as Caudalie Instant Detox Mask,
£22, for a pore-tightening deep cleanse or Kate
Somerville’s hydrating Pink Plumping Mask, £48.
Lush has always championed minimal
packaging and now sells almost anything you
can think of (from body lotion to foundation and
face oil) in solid form, needing nothing but the
paper, cardboard and potato starch packaging it’s
transported in. Storage can be challenging but, if
you’re serious about a low-to-no-waste bathroom,
Lush leads the way; the 37.9m shampoo bars
sold in the past 13 years equates to a saving of
2,850 tonnes of plastic packaging, says the brand.
I can recommend its Everything Naked Glow Stick
Solid Highlighters, £12, too. No brand is perfect,
of course, but so many are making steps to
becoming greener that I feel I, and we, should
support and applaud them.
Retailers could do more to actively support
sustainability, too, which is why I like to shop at
sites such as Cult Beauty, which has been working
with tech platform Provenance to publish the green
and socially responsible credentials of beauty
brands sold on its website. So far, 20 brands
are listed, with more coming soon. GETTING
GREENERPH
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