Green Beauty: What To Do with Your Old Beauty Buys

BY: GERIT QUEALY

SOURCE: REBECCA VAN OMMEN

What to do with all those beauty items -- bottles, jars, tubes, and wands -- that accumulate in your cabinets, closets, dressers and drawers.

Having a lot of beauty products is fun. But there's a responsibility that comes with that, which includes begin green.

I feel I must test samples before I can recommend anything. Plus, there's the issue of green beauty — where does it all go afterward? Because really, shouldn't every day be Earth Day?

I have a very very frugal and thrifty streak, and I hate throwing anything away when there's even just a smidge left. It just seems wasteful to me and I dislike waste.

But that leads to a lot of stuff in every cabinet, closet and corner of my abode.

For Earth Day Week, I am determined to make a little more room, and get some feng shui going in the beauty department. Not to mention streamline! I have 12 foundations in my repertoire right now! That's ridiculous. Although, I do use a lot of them...

So, a quick look at some money-saving strategies and green routines to get into:

1. Foundation - I've written before on the safety aspects of foundation and why I think it's a beauty must. But when they accumulate:

• make a conscious effort to use them up when there's just a bit left — I'm doing that now & just rediscovered a Burt's Bees base I thought I hated but now I like.)
• If they're in the right kind of bottles, combine them - at this point it doesn't matter if they're water, or oil, or gel based - just use them for causal days.
• Use the old or combined base on your chest - not only will it make you décolleté look better, you'll be getting sun protection there which I bet you forget.
• You can also use it to cover bruises, age spots, and other discoloration on arms or legs if you're going somewhere where it matters.
• Hey, this can make fine finger paint for kids too — as can any makeup.

2. Blush - powder blush isn't great for midlifers anyway — it settles in pores and lines and makes matters worse. Try applying it with a sponge, give it to a younger friend who likes the color and doesn't mind a gently used product, or just toss it*

3. Lipgloss: A lip brush is a girl's best friend for getting to the bottom if the tube.
Or you can use an empty pot of something else, such as cream or loose-powder eye shadows to scoop the stuff into — although then you're left with that complicated multi-material tube*

4. Moisturizer

• combine them when your down to your last bits in several bottles — you'll probably come up with a new scent sensation.
• or add soe perfume you rarely use to give both items new life
• pour it in your bath for a little extra moisturizer - I've always wanted to soak in a bath full of cream.
• dump it on an old towel: this is a nice way to get lotion all over while you're sill damp and dry off at the same time.

5. Conditioner: again, combine them.

• or, I always add water to make mine last longer and give hair a lighter conditioning treatment
• use as a leave in conditioner, put on palms and smooth over hair after it's dry to tamp down fly-aways; extra protection from drying weather elements too.

6. Beauty Party: Invite friends over - close friends who aren't germ-o-phobes. Everybody can try different colors and products without spending the money, to see what they might want to buy. Plus, you get instant input on whether that peach is a little too orange for you. Swap at will. Can be combined with book club, play dates, party planning, business meetings, etc.

7. Mascara - this is a tough one because old mascara can small bad, or just get dry and crumbly. I use it for eyebrows or as a lash separator, depending the brush. Here are some good tips like using it as a jewelry cleaner, small toy or crevice cleaner.

8. Hairspray - I ended up with about 15 cans of hairspray over Christmas! So I had a party with a hairspray bar and invited everyone to take some. That brought me down to 10. This is my favorite discovery: 10 weird ways to use hair spray from the Luxury Spot . Such as: a quicker zipper and stocking saver. Beyond BRILLIANT!

9. Packaging: Let's face it, beauty products are over packaged. Look for green beauty options such as: Physicians Formula cosmetics come in recycled & recyclable cardboard-type packaging. I did have one fall apart in my purse — anything that goes in there takes a beating - but I still used it.

You can use some jars for jewelry, other left over makeup (see #3) or container for kids paints but in the end you're still left with the stuff. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel massively guilty, so...

The BEST Discovery: A points program for recycling beauty products!
TerraCycle is a company that specializes in recycling harder-to-recycle goods, so the you don't have to worry.  Lotsof beauty products are accepted (not: hair spray cans, polish remover, nail polish bottles). Bellasugar says:

Products are then upcycled to build eco-friendly playgrounds throughout the U.S."

Sign up for the Personal Care and Beauty Brigade program (via Garnier!)

Every time you finish your personal care or beauty product ... save the packaging, send it in so we can recycle the material into fun and innovative products. For each approved item received, your collection location will be awarded two TerraCycle points which can be redeemed for a variety of charitable gifts or for a payment of $0.01 per point to the non-profit organization or school of your choice."

Check the TerraCycle Points Program website for more details on locations and instructions.

Now, you can be more frugal, more green and feel a little less guilty!

What do you do with your old beauty buys? Brilliant strategy? We want to hear it!