Photos by: Don Idio
How did you celebrate Earth Day? Maybe you used your cute reusable water bottle. Maybe you pulled out your stainless steel reusable straw at lunch. Or maybe you just posted a picture of yourself in nature with an Earth Day hashtag. Becoming more environmentally friendly has been a trend for a while now. Because of this, there are many companies and brands releasing products which are eco-friendly and cruelty-free. This is an especially exciting time for us as a society because these types of products are now readily available. This provides us with alternatives that could help save our planet, the only one we have might I add.
While it’s nice to tell everyone they should save mama Earth, it’s even better when you take daily responsibility to make a change for the greater good. We’ve heard an endless amount of times how plastic, straws, and nonbiodegradable products and materials are damaging our planet. A startling prediction states that by 2050 the mass of plastic in the oceans will exceed the mass of fish that inhabit the oceans.
Pollution, harm to animals leading to death, and mountains of plastic buildups foreshadow a scary future for us humans if we don’t start to make some real changes. Lucky for us, there are countless affordable products on the market that don’t damage our planet! Before we get into those let’s review why certain products are bad for the environment.
Sunscreen
Sunscreen is essential when attending a music festival. Long hours out in the sun without much shade leaves our skin a prime candidate to receive the powers of the sun. However, many sunscreens are damaging to the environment and surprisingly humans as well. Scientific study results reveal oxybenzone and octinoxate, two major ingredients in many sunscreen brands, are the cause of coral bleaching and a decreased rate of growth for coral reefs. Not only is oxybenzone damaging to coral, but it also causes DNA damage which can potentially lead to developmental abnormalities or cancer. Do your research and read labels to save the environment and the health of our bodies!
Animal Testing
Animal testing on cosmetic products has been going on for many decades. In 1938, The United States Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was signed which allowed companies to test their products on animals. Animal testing for cosmetics is extremely painful for the animals. Thankfully we can do our part to help end animal testing by buying cruelty-free products. This article is informative as to over 30 brands that still animal test. In addition, the article provides alternative cruelty-free brands similar to those which still animal test.
Makeup Wipes
Makeup wipes also have wasteful effects on the environment. They are known to take years to breakdown in landfills. They are composed of many materials that aren’t biodegradable. There are a few makeup lines with biodegradable wipes, but the majority of makeup wipes don’t degrade. Although they are convenient for when you’re feeling extra lazy and don’t want to get up to wash your face, they are damaging to our environment. Lucky for us, we live in a time where eco-friendly products have become a trend. Therefore, they are now much more accessible than ever before!
Glitter
Glitter is a microplastic and microplastics are known to leak into the environment. Microplastics are found throughout our oceans. According to National Geographic, many animals including fish, plankton, birds and more eat these microplastics. The consumption of these microplastics causes them to die of starvation. It’s upsetting knowing these animals suffer from plastic that’s distributed across our oceans, but also concerning because humans eat these fish which are eating plastic. This means that humans too can consume plastic when eating fish.
Microplastics don’t degrade and can remain in our oceans for hundreds of years. It’s important to take responsibility for our product use and switching over to eco-friendly products is a great step! There are 61 forward-thinking festivals in the UK who are apart of The Association of Independent Festivals’ ‘Drastic on Plastic’ campaign. This campaign bans non-biodegradable glitter fully effective by 2021.
We Can Make a Change!
Below is a list of 6 eco-friendly products you need for this festival season! Although some may seem pricey, even though there shouldn’t be a price cap on saving mama Earth, most of these products are very reasonably priced. Join the movement of switching over to environmentally friendly products to keep mama Earth healthy and clean so she can keep spinning in space housing humans for thousands of more years to come.
- Tarte Vegan Mascara: Tarte Cosmetics is a cruelty-free makeup line. Many of their products are vegan as well. This mascara, in particular, is my favorite vegan mascara! It doesn’t dry up, flake, or make clumpy eyelashes.
- Makeup Eraser: The Makeup Eraser is amazing! This product is the #1 reusable makeup remover in the world. You simply add water to the cloth and voila, your makeup is gone without stinging your eyes from chemicals. The best part is these makeup erasers have a 3-5 year guarantee and up to 1,000 washes!
- Eco Stardust Biodegradable Glitter: This brand has so many beautiful color combinations available for purchase. In addition, if you want to test out the product there are 1g sample bags available for a very small price.
- All Good Sunscreen: This sunscreen is made with organic green tea, rose hips, and oils that help repair skin damage. It also is vegan and biodegradable coral reef friendly!
- Mongo Kiss Eco-Friendly Chapstick: Chapstick is so important especially during hot, dry days at music festivals. This chapstick is made with cocoa butter and oils that lock in moisture.
- Diamond Dew Liquid Eyeshadow: Contrary to other glitter eyeshadows, Diamond Dew Liquid Shadow has little to no fallout. This shadow provides a long-lasting look and doesn’t crease in your eyelid!