Lush teeth brushing: The verdict

Last night I tried the Miles of Smiles and this morning I had a little BOOM! with my new bamboo tooth brush. They both had a bit of an odd taste to them but they are really not that bad. I still need to have a go with Limelight tonight and would like to try out the Tooth Fairy dust as well which I didn't get a sample of. That one is meant to taste of strawberry, nom nom.

My samples in the returnable pots. I'm told if you return 5 black plastic items to the store you get a free face mask.

One thing I was bothered about was the price but it's actually not that bad. These little buggers really fizz up so I'm going to try with only using half a tab at a time. The bottle has approx. 100 so at that would last 100 days to brush morning and night. That is just over 3 months worth in one bottle. Limelight and Dirty are £4.95 and the others are £5.95. I know you can get a regular tube of toothpaste really cheap and I have never really measured how long it lasts me, but a fiver every 3 months really doesn't sound like the end of the world to me.

The basics of Hygge

The Danish are said to be the happiest people in the world. This has been decided by the good people at The Happiness Institute which is based in Denmark, you know, on account of all the happy there is to study there. They put it down to the Danish way of hygge (hoo-ga).

I might have been a bit slow on the uptake of hygge. I read it was actually a bit of a craze in 2016 but I didn't catch on to it or hear of it until this year.

I can't quite recall where I first saw it but it was on the net. I loved the thought of it right away and had to get the book. The Little Book of Hygge.

I love this little book. It points out such basic things that we overlook all the time. I know I like candles and cake, hot chocolate and fires, but I don't think about them much and don't often bother with them. I don't put candles high up on my purchase list and normally just drink my tea without really considering it.

Hygge is described as both a feeling and an action. The feeling of being cozy and happy. "I'm getting my hygge on", "come over and hygge with us this evening". It makes you think more about those small things rather than the big stuff. Stop to actually taste your tea, coffee or hot chocolate, enjoy it. Think about your surroundings, is your home a cluttered mess that just happened around you or have you built it to be your own happy place?

I highly recommend the book or at least having a good read up on the net about hygge. It's helped me with my depression and regular winter blues. I have been adding hygge to my life in bits and I am planning out some new living room decor this year as well as a big clear out from all over.

I think this lovely lady can demonstrate hygge to you much better than I can. A true danish home in all it's hygge glory.

Goals.

Let's talk hair

I'm not that fussy with my hair it has to be said. All I really want is for it to seem clean, free from grease and have some life in it. I have previously tried the whole bicarb and cider vinegar thing but it didn't work for me at all, I came out looking and smelling gross. I decided Lush was the way forward.

I have tried Lush before for shampoo and conditioner bars but at the time I had a lot of hair which was half dead with all the bleach I put on it. Back then the bars didn't seem to work well for me at all. This time it has been many years for product improvement and I have much less hair which is much better nick.

I went in to the Trinity Walk branch in Wakefield and opted for a lemon shampoo bar and the Jungle conditioner bar. Then I decided to just go for it with a deodorant bar too. I got the T'eo bar.

Jungle                                                                                                                 T'eo

                                                       

I'm very impressed at the lather from the shampoo bar and it's nice as a body wash too. Smells lovely and it's very bubbly. The Jungle bar smells even better, I LOVE it. Only problem I seem to have is it is a bit harder to get plenty from the bar all over my hair and the bar seems to be wearing away quite quickly to say it's only been used 3 times so far. I got them on the 20th December and I will be keeping note on how long they last me. Hair looks, feels and smells great though and no plastic is involved.

As for the deodorant bar I am so far quite happy with it. It's not as good as regular deodorants but it seems to do the job pretty well and it smells nicer than the regular ones. I have still been a little soggy under the pits but not actually really smelly. I am still going to experiment with a homemade version I have found on the net from an amazing zero waste advocate Lauren Singer. She runs a wonderful zero waste blog called Trash Is For Tossers. She is a big inspiration and I will be reporting on my findings with the deodorant she suggests.

But for now I can say I am finding the Lush hair care to be a big winner. Next time I need to buy shampoo and conditioner, I can tell them to plastickit!

Why am I starting this then?

Well I have never liked to create lots of pointless rubbish, who does really? But this recent decision has come from my new love of Hygge; the Danish way to live well. Hygge talks about finding the cozy in the cold and being happy in small things. It says to light candles and bring the outside elements in to the home. It feels very at one with nature. 

While bringing in my evergreen tree and thinking about natural alternatives to mass production, I turned my attention to all the plastic shite that was going in my recycling and the stuff that has to go in the bin that can't even be reused. Then I really noticed how much plastic I was completely surrounded by, it's everywhere. My fringe is packed with it, it's in all the cupboards and don't get me started on the bathroom. I even found out that there is plastic in tea bags. Tea bags for Christ sake!

Just a brief look around my house at everything with plastic packaging.

Sauce, shampoo, conditioner, butter, bath soak, face wash, hand wash, fruit, cheese, drinks, meats, honey, cereal, milk, bread, peanut butter, marshmallows, seeds, biscuits, straws, kids plates and bowls, mouth wash, toothpaste, toilet rolls, potatoes, sausages and almost every cleaning product. Not to mention that so many things you buy have some kind of cling film wrap on it or plastic inner or outer wrap.

What happened to the world making progress? Where are the glass milk bottles that are returned, cleaned and refilled? Where are the shops where you taking in your own containers to refill and weigh? Why have we got less glass on the shelves and more plastic? And why can we not even buy fruit and veg in a supermarket without half of it being coated in cling wrap or encased in a plastic tray with a film lid? I don't see progress, I don't see anything being made better.

A regular toothbrush can take as long as 400 years to decompose. The tooth brush as we know it has not existed for that long yet, meaning that every plastic tooth brush ever made still exists today; mostly in landfill. Just think about that for a moment. Every single one of them.

So here we are, and I am starting this blog to show what changes I am making to bring more Hygge to my home and send plastic packing. 

When I am offered a nice hot, cozy drink in a ceramic mug I shall say thank you. If it comes in a big plastic cup then I shall tell them to go plastickit!