Okay, so there is a substantial hippie part of me that keeps my consumerist side of me in check… most of the time. I absolutely think that perhaps we, as a human race, are taking for granted our planet and that the planet we know and love will be what our posterity reads about in history books (hello, Undaunted Courage). So as such, I think maybe we should all do a little to reduce our carbon footprint– doing something is better than doing nothing.
Now, how, might you ask, have I been reducing my carbon footprint lately? Well, as I suspect lots of people have a cache of beauty products hidden in their bathroom cabinet and under their sinks- I do too. I just cannot bring myself to throw those products or the myriad of hotel shampoos, conditioners and lotions away… they have to be good for something!
The time before last when I shaved my legs, I used the last of my shaving cream. I pinned a homemade shaving cream recipe on Pinterest some time back and was waiting to run out before I tried it (or else, I would have had shaving cream to add to my collection under the sink.) And this homemade project turned out to be a great way to use some of those very same collection I have stashed under the sink.
The recipe is very simple: 1 cup of conditioner and 1 cup of shampoo, 5 tablespoons of baby oil and 5 tablespoons of hand lotion, mix it all together and let it sit for an hour.
I let it sit for probably 30-45 minutes before I used it. After all, my shower time is governed by Baby Bub’s nap time.
And it is at this time that I must talk about my normal leg shaving regimen and how it differed this time. Normally, I use Clinique’s Sparkle Skin Body Exfoliate in conjunction with shaving cream (a one-two punch if you will) when I shave. I am sure other exfoliates will work the same, this is the one I use.
However, with the test run of the homemade shaving cream, I did not use the exfoliate and I have to say, I am very pleased with the outcome. I am just full of confessions, but I have another one. I hate wearing lotion in the summer time because as soon as you step outside, your skin turns into this gross swamp person skin. So, I only use lotion after I have been out in the sun. And with this homemade shaving cream my skin was much less dry looking than normal. So, I really appreciate that. And I feel that by re-purposing products I already had, I am ultimately wasting less and that makes my inner hippie grin.
- 1 cup of Shampoo
- 1 cup of Conditioner
- 5 Tbsp Baby Oil
- 5 Tbsp Hand lotion, I used 1/2 hand lotion, 1/2 body lotion
- Mix all ingredients together and let sit for an hour.
Try it out- you just might like it.
Super cool! I wish I had read this two weeks ago before I tossed all my hotel shampoos and conditioners. What a great way to repurpose that stuff!!!
After having used the homemade shaving cream several times & in conjunction w the exfoliate- I love this stuff!! It is awesome!