Flowers, gift cards, cakes… You’re out of creative gift ideas for Mother’s Day? No need to panic, Surfrider will help you overcome your potential lack of inspiration. Why don’t you go ahead and spoil your beloved mom with some selfmade natural cosmetics this year?
The best way to make her happy, to take care of her but also of our oceans at the same time, is to give her cosmetics that respect the environment and don’t contain plastic micorbeads! There’s no need to be creative or an expert on the topic to get started with making your own product: This year’s Mother’s Day will be organic and fun!
Super soft organic cosmetics
Surfrider presents you some receipes to produce your own cosmetics without microbeads but full of love! As beauty products are very common gifts especially on Mother’s Day, we focus on natural products and ingredients.
For all those who are out of ideas and on a low budget, Surfrider invites you to create a responsible and always useful Mother’s Day gift: a lip balm. This care product is very easy to make.
It’s only composed of the necessary ingredients for the hydration and the comfort of the lips, ideal to take care of your mother and as well of the environment. Just add three components (coconut oil, beeswax and a few drops of vitamin E) and that’s it! Take a look at our DIY-tutorial for a perfectly successful manufacture of the gift. If you want to go one step further and offer your mom the zero waste beauty package, you may also find recipes for shampoo, exfoliating soap or toothpaste.
Some simple actions can easily be adopted by everyone for an everday zero waste routine. With these cosmetics, you contribute to the reduction of plastic and chemical pollution of the oceans!
One wrapping… zero waste
Watch out for slip-ups! Once our cosmetics are made, there‘s no need to wrap them in unnecessary packaging. For example, in France, 20 000 tons of gift wrap are consumed per year. Gold, plasticized and colored with chemicals, industrial gift wrap is not recyclable. However, it is very easy to wrap your gifts differently than with paper that ends up in the trash.
The most simple alternative to industrial gift wrap, which is also cheap and recyclable, is kraft paper. This type of paper wrapping can easily be closed with paper clips or staples, wool or cotton thread. Try it out and let your creativity flow!
You can also surprise your mom with an even more elaboarte wrapping straight from Japan: the furoshiki. Made out of fabric, gifts can be wrapped in an original, fashionable and ecological way. Real furoshikis, square fabrics with traditional designs, can be bought in shops but also made from old scarves, worn clothes or pillowcases.
Finally, why don’t you put our self-made cosmetics in a nice organic cotton tote bag? Reusable, useful and trendy, this bag is an extra gift on top!
Surfrider promotes these homemade gifts to fight against small plastic particles in cosmetics, which heavily pollute the environment. Let’s take this year’s Mother’s Day as an opportunity to rethink our own personal habits.
Microbeads in cosmetics: Where do we stand?
Short reminder: Microbeads are very small plastic particles which can’t be filtered in the process of wastewater treatment. They often end up in the oceans, where they can’t degrade themselves. Therefore, they remain in the environment for a very long time, leading to the risk of being ingested by marine animals first and humans afterwards.
Nowadays, every country in the European Union is starting to adopt legislative provisions regarding the presence of microbeads in cosmetics. For example, in France, the 2018 biodiversity law banned the use of polyethylene microbeads in various products since January 1st. In Belgium, the ban of microbeads in detergents and oral care products is scheduled for 31 December 2019.
To protect the marine environment but also avoid economic discrepancies between countries and problems of launching products on the market, the European Union wants to intervene. This intention was notably affirmed in the plastic strategy by the European Commission.
Requested by the Commission, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is currently conducting a study on the need to restrict market launches and / or the use of “intentionally added” microplastic particles in products, which fall in the scope of the REACH regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals). ECHA therefore has launched a call for evidence to gather all information on the impacts of microplastics on the environment and human health, on possible intentional use of microplastics in products, but also on existing alternatives to the use of microplastics. The collected information will be used to determine whether the use of microplastics pose an EU-wide risk and to evaluate and assess the socio-economic impacts of any kind of further potential restrictions.
Faced with these concerns, Surfrider promotes self-made ecological cosmetics to take care of your mom while limiting your impact on the planet at the same time. A simple gesture and a small change which everyone can adopt in their everyday beauty routine!
