In my continued effort to experiment with green living, I’m trying naked cosmetics. I’ve traded in over-engineered pump-action pots for slices of soap wrapped in paper, and chunks of “solid” shampoo in reusable tins.
I’d have liked to have spread my experiment around various brands, but when it comes to solid beauty there’s only one serious player on the high street: Lush. What it lacks in sophistication the brand makes up for in non-conformism – 35% of the product range is deemed “naked”, devoid of both synthetic preservatives and packaging. Lush says that last year it displaced more than 15m plastic bottles through global sales of its shampoo bar.
This will seem like lunacy to the mainstream beauty industry, which uses packaging not so much for function but for marketing. As Bob Lilienfeld, author of the Use Less Stuff Report, puts it: “The cosmetic industry is in the perception business. The environmental industry is in the reality business. It’s perception versus reality.”
The reality is a dependency on plastics – 280m tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year and 8m tonnes of plastic waste finds its way into oceans. Then there are greenhouse gas emissions from producing plastic feedstock. According to Stanford University, one tonne of recycled plastic saves 16.3 barrels of oil.
Great, but in terms of recycling I’m constantly outwitted by personal care products in complex plastic containers. My tins and wrapping paper represent a reprieve. There are some negatives. My hair is crying out for a more nuanced conditioner. On the plus side, Lush’s famously pungent perfumes make my gym bag smell great. And the ingredients in these simple products are more straightforward, meaning fewer chemicals in my life.
The big picture: migrating with swans
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s Sacha Dench of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. From September she will follow a flock of endangered Bewick’s swans on their 4,660-mile migration from Siberia to the Severn Estuary using a paramotor. Suspended from a paraglider with a propeller on her back, she’ll visit essential breeding, wintering and passage sites for the swans and other migratory birds (wwt.org.uk).
Well dressed: Camper Camaleon collection
The Mallorca-based footwear company inspires devotion among fans for its naive styling coupled with technical prowess. Now it is adding social justice to the mix. Last summer, Camper cordwainers and leather specialists began working with Ethiopian artisans in partnership with the Ethical Fashion Initiative, set up to utilise the skills of marginalised artisans in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti. The Camaleon collection represents the fruits of their labours. Camaleon was actually one of the brand’s original designs, based on a traditional Mallorcan peasant shoe typically made from scraps of leather, canvas and tyres. This time the shoe gets a material upgrade: it’s manufactured from bati goat leather in Ethiopia using historic tie-dye techniques to get the distinctive patterns. The Camaleon range is available in selected CamperLab stores, or at camper.com
Email Lucy at lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @lucysiegle
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