Packing my toiletries a short trip means shuttling between the bathroom and the kitchen to refill my containers with mostly my DIY-ed products.  Here’s what I brought along for a brief vacation recently.

++ Body scrub ++

A mixture of Himalayan pink salt + crushed rose petals + dried lemongrass (from teabags) + few drops of avocado oil mixed with few drops lemongrass essential oil.  This doubles up as my room fragrance as I leave the jar open uncovered inside the room throughout my stay.

++ Night Repair Facial Oil Capsules ++

Nothing complicated, these capsules are the same Evening Primrose Oil capsules that I take orally once a day, but they work great as well for my skin when applied topically as facial oil.  I am really thankful for my non-sensitive skin.  I have tried avocado oil, sweet almond oil, and walnut oil so far with no clogging or allergic issues.

Bring along a pair of small scissors to cut a small hole on one end of the capsule.  I like to use this oil overnight after a day’s exposure to sun, grime and dirt.  I use up less than half of a capsule for whole face and neck, so the balance goes to soften my hands, cuticles and elbows, basically wherever I like.  It has a distinctive oily smell that some might find unpleasant, I usually mix it with lavender essential oil at home but for traveling sake, I choose to apply it sans additional fragrance so that I can just count and bring the exact number of capsules.  Talk about convenient travel pack!

++ Facial Oil for Day ++

What is the difference between this facial oil and the night one?  Fragrance.  I added a few drops of carrot seed , lavender and geranium essential oil to avocado oil and store them in a tiny glass dropper bottle.  Scent is really subtle, do not expect it to last like commerical fragrance but that’s all it takes to perk up my vacation mood in the morning before heading out to explore the city.  I prefer smelling the street food than overpowering perfume anyway.

++ Bar Soap ++

I did not make this soap, it’s Chandrika brand from India.  Compared to commercial body shampoo, I prefer soap bars as they use less plastic as packaging.  These bars made with vegetable oils are wrapped individually in paper (feel waxed though) and then packed in a paper box that I usually send for recycling.  Although the ingredient list stated talc and artificial color #CI 12700, #CI 64565 , the rest of the ingredients look naturally derived.

Bar soaps make a terrible mess when they are accidentally left sitting in an undrained soap dish.  I usually keep them in a drawstring bag handsewn out of wash cloth and hang the pouch with the soap bar inside to drip dry after shower.  The pouch also adds extra exfoliation during shower time.  Best part is when the soap has been reduced to a smaller piece, I simply pop a new bar into the bag and the smaller piece will be eventually used up as well, contained inside the bag this way, no more losing loose bits of soap, zero wastage.

++ Tea Seed Powder Shampoo ++

I wrote about how I have been using this powder here.  Also used it to wash my reusable cutlery and lunchbox in the hotel room after a day of rejecting disposable ones.  I wasn’t that successful everywhere, and had to wash those that I can’t reject in time with tea seed powder (my defacto dish washing detergent at home) before bringing them back home for reusing/recycling.  But that’s a story for another day.

++ Bamboo toothbrush & Baking Soda toothbrushing powder ++

Powder packed in a reused mask sample container.  Make sure to wipe dry the horse hair bristles on the bamboo toothbrush (very important step as natural material is especially susceptible to mold) before covering and wrapping with sheets from tear off calendar as shown below.  I use the same calendar sheet to wrap and pack the toothbrush back home.

++ Make-up Kit ++

A fan of light makeup (rather the lack of skills for it,) I brought only the minimal number of cosmetic items along.  If you can recognise, the plastic container is actually a dehumidifier box from Daiso that I “diverted” from my camera cabinet for just a few days.

// make up brushes : I used the same calendar paper for wrapping my bamboo toothbrush to pack my make up brushes as well, one for powder foundation to make skin look more even, and another for applying blusher.

// face power : I buy only the face compact power refill that comes in a clear plastic box packaging.  The plastic box actually closes with a snap, this design allows me to do away with the standard container with mirror, making it even more compact.

// blusher : that tiny glass jar from Bonne Maman jam contains my blush powder, previously in compact form but cracked when I accidentally dropped it from a height.  I have since crushed the broken pieces into fine power and store them in the jar.  Applying is slightly tricky, take slightly more time to avoid pick up too much color with my brush.  As a result, I ended up wash my blusher brush more often to get rid of color build up over time, resulting in a more hygenic blusher brush to use.  I won’t tell you how often I wash this brush previously. 🙂

// make up remover : brought along a handy tube of coconut oil.  After the face is free of make up, I wash again with tea seed powder to remove the grease.

Toiletry bag : All items fit nicely in a clear bag that used to be a men’s cotton tee-shirt packaging.

Do you have any other good zero-waste toiletry packing tip/ habit to share?