Making Changes - Sustainability - Lush

You only have to look at the Greggs Vegan sausage roll sales to see the impact that consumers can have. Veganism is more popular than ever right now. Vegans seriously lacked in the fast food department and Greggs stepped in with a trial of vegan sausage rolls which are now a permanent product across all stores due to its popularity.

We can make a different to what we see in the shops, adverts that follow us around on the internet and what comes up as suggested on Netflix. Consumer decisions and choices matter, we have the money and time that companies want us to spend with them. The word choice being a key word, we can choose what we consume. Of course this is to a certain extent as there are many other factors like disposable income that come into play which I acknowledge.

Within the fashion and beauty industry, many of us have used our voice about being inclusive. The attempts of companies to include plus size girls, to include women of colour and to give those with a disability more representation show that consumers are listened to. Unfortunately on that point, some brands try to do one campaign with a few girls that don’t fit generic white slim mould and think that’s enough. Which is probably why this is one of the things we are still demanding. We can make choices with where we spend our money, where we decided to voice our opinions on the matter. Some companies like ASOS, I personally feel do quite well, we see stretch marks, tattoos, razor rash and all sorts in photos. ASOS are listening to what is going on not just about inclusivity but also about the need for sustainable clothing. ASOS now have a drop down filter for responsibility and you can find recycled pieces.

We can keep the momentum going on the issues that matter to us even with something small. Like a reusable cup, they come collapsible now so they can fit into your bag easier. Choose not to take a straw with your iced coffee and just drink it from the cup. Carry a fabric tote back folded up for when you need to grab a few things from Tesco on the way home. Tell your house mates about an amazing vegan product. Buy your friends metal straws for your next night out. Something small.   

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Remember it is about making changes, small achievable changes. Don’t beat yourself up if you do forget your reusable cup. It will happen, there will be times you end up with a plastic take out cup (some of you will make the decision not to buy that drink and well done but please don’t make others feel bad if they don’t make the same choices as you). There will be a food shop where you realise you’ve forgotten your tote bags. You might buy something from a shop you told yourself you were going to avoid. But when things like this happen just think about a year ago, how many plastic bags did you use while shopping, how many Missguided orders did you make and did you even think about your take out coffee cup not being recyclable back then? The point is when you make these decisions to make small changes you are learning and improving – you will not be perfect straight away and probably not ever.

I am still making changes. I’ve cut back on my clothing purchases, I’ve always shopped charity shop and vintage shops but I also shopped a lot of high street clothes and I am really working on reducing this. I haven’t purchased anything from Miss Guided/Boohoo for over a year. I have metal straws that I use at home but I am yet to take them out with me. I use a reusable cup which I carry around but sometimes leave it in the wrong bag. I have a variety of net bags that I carry with me and I ditched face wipes well over a year ago.  I still on occasion use a plastic bag from if I’ve got nothing with me. My toothbrush is plastic and I still sometimes buy drinks in plastic bottles. But I am researching and trying to find out what else I can do. I am going to keep sharing what I’m doing on this blog because it might be helpful for others to see small changes that I decide to make.

The first change I am currently working on is looking into shampoo, shower gel and cleanser/toner bottles. I must go through a fair amount of plastic bottles of shower gel and shampoo. So I purchased some solid shampoo from Lush last month and I have loved using it! The shampoo lathers up way more than I thought it would so I can definitely see myself buying more of these. The other bonus is that they don’t count towards liquids for hand luggage, score. I also tried a cleanser and a bubble bar to see whether I could reduce the shower gel and cleanser bottles I use.

The cleanser I really enjoy, I used it to take my make up off but would then use some of my usual liquid cleanser to take off my eye makeup so I’m not sure I could get rid of the cleansing water I use right now but this Lush cleanser is definitely going to reduce how much I use. I also got this primer, I have to say that I have used this just a few times and I’ve been going foundation free for a while so I can’t comment on how it does as a base before make up. I can however say that it makes my skin feel lovely.

As for the bubble bar, I really enjoyed using this product. It smells amazing and lasted quite a while. This one has not however converted me, as Lush can be expensive this would be more of a treat. So the next thing I am trying is a bar of the Shea Butter soap from The Body Shop to lather up on a bath sponge. I will let you know how that goes!

So overall, this post was a little here and there in terms of tangents I went off on but the overarching theme of making small changes to my everyday life is what I really wanted to discuss. So if you made it to the end of this post – tell me your thoughts. What changes have you made for the causes you believe in? And if you haven’t, what small step could you take to help save our planet?

Chelsea Jade

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