Image credit: Vladislav Sabanov.

These are some little things that you can help save the environment, and yourself:

• Brighly coloured cosmetics are likely to contain a lot more chemicals than natural-looking shades. Choose colours sparingly and go for fleshy ones and browns.
• When buying make-up, choose refillabe palettes, particularly for lip and eye colours or powders. You will have less packaging, less wastage and it will be less expensive in the long run!
• Limit perfumes to special occasions because 95% of chemicals used in fragrances today are synthetic compounds, including some toxins capable of causing serious health problems, e.g. cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders and allergic reactions.
• Choose plant-based rather than petroleum-based body products to use in the bath or shower because plant-based products are more natural and require a lot less manufacture.

2 Comments

• At February 22, 2009, Will wrote:

  Hi Pelf! Nice writeup. Brings back the memory of a few posts I wrote long ago about the horrible ingredients in some cosmetics. Also the post I wrote, linked above, about organic cosmetics. (Worth looking at just for the made up face in the image!) Glad to see someone is keeping this issue on the front burner!

  -Will

• At May 14, 2009, Krista wrote:

  Hi Pelf: Yup, I agree. Since working with Paul Penders, a client who makes organic skincare products, I've become a lot more aware of what chemicals that go into my face and skin and the thought is absolutely scary! We put lipsticks on each day. We put face powder on each day. We put so many chemicals into ourselves each day and that is a sobering thought. So now I am using organic lipstick and facial wash and shampoo. I am hoping to be get my client's makeup range soon...By the way, not only do the chemicals go into our skin, they also go down our drains and pollute the earth. (By the way, Paul Penders Company is located on Langkawi Island and uses our tropical pegaga herb in its products.They used to be in the USA but relocated as they are highly interested in local herbs and plants.)

Photo credit: The Bitten Word.

• Try to minimize your food miles by choosing seasonal and local food. For example, kilo for kilo, a kiwi fruit from New Zealand will have created 5 times its own weight in carbon dioxide emissions by the time it arrives in the UK!
• If you buy non-organic fruits, peel them. The peel is often the most nutrient-rich part, but unfortunately it is also the part that holds onto the residue from chemicals.
• Reduce wine waste a vacuum cork so you don’t have to throw away surplus wine if you don’t finish a bottle. You can also buy special champagne stoppers to help preserve the bubbles.
• Next time when you’re buying fruits and vegetables, put them into your basket loose rather than into a plastic bag.
• Visit local farm shops or the farmers’ markets for local produce. Not only will it be fresher but you will also be cutting down your environmental costs.

I introduced theme-blogging recently, and I blogged about plastic bags in December 2008. In January and February, I’m sharing some tips on the little things that we can do to save our planet.

1 Comments

• At February 15, 2009, Maya wrote:

  Great tips! I often wonder why people eat kiwis, strawberries, apples when we have good old papaya and banana sold cheaply and without all those pesticides. Or better stiil, plant your own fruit trees if you have the space. I am moving to a new place this year and yes I have a bit of garden so I hope to plant a papaya tree and hopefully some spring onions and greens!

I went off for Chinese New Year a day after I wrote my last post, and Chinese New Year being Chinese New Year, was spent with lots of family members and mandarin oranges but without internet connection. I could only check my emails using my phone, and that is going to cost me probably one or two red packets :)

Anyway, since I did not write much about the little ways to save our planet in January — with my blog being down and me being away and all that jazz, I am planning to extend that to February as well :) Which means, yes, we’re still going to talk about how we play our roles in saving the planet. How does that sound?

A few days ago, I found another local company and Sam, the ever patient technician, helped me transfer my domain and webhost to this new company and in 2 days *poof* my blog is online again! But unfortunately, I did not manage to salvage any of my stuff or files from the old server, so I now have a brand new server and lots of space :)

Oh by the way, how do you like my new theme? :) This is a premium theme — Edge by Blog Design Studio — which I won when I participated in one of Liz Strauss’ contests last year. I have not used this theme since then because I spent quite a lot of time customizing the previous theme, Content Cream by Blogging Bits, hence I wanted to use it for as long as possible :)

Anyway, normal blogging will resume in a day or two :)

2 Comments

• At January 23, 2009, Mayank Gupta @ Blog Design Studio wrote:

  I'm glad that you liked the theme and that you are using it.

  It feels good to see that bloggers are using this theme.

• At February 1, 2009, Jessi wrote:

  Good to see you're back up and running?

Don’t stop at dusting your mantle piece and shelves. A dusty and dirty light bulb emits 20% less light than a clean light bulb.

Keeping your light bulbs dust-free could help save energy as it will increase output and make them more efficient.

* Check out this “How to clean a light bulb” video on YouTube.
* These are also some instructions on cleaning a light bulb @ LifeSpy.

I introduced theme-blogging last month, and I started by blogging about plastic bags in December 2008. This month, I’m sharing some tips on the little things that we can do to save our planet.

1 Comments

• At August 7, 2009, Carl Wongtw wrote:

  Thanks for sharing :]!