- Hi, this is Amanda Castillo,
and on this episode
of the LIVEKINDLY With Me series,
I'll be showing you a zero-waste get ready with me.
Spring is almost upon us.
Earth month is almost here,
and there's never a bad time
to incorporate more zero waste practices into your life.
At its core, the goal of zero waste
is to push economies towards the target
of sending no waste to landfills,
incinerators, and the ocean.
So I'm definitely a newbie when it comes to zero waste
and I'm by no means perfect.
I am aware of the amount of waste
that I do generate on a weekly basis,
and because of that, I have implemented some ways
to reduce my carbon footprint,
such as using reusable water bottles
reusable shopping bags, and recycling whenever I can.
But there definitely are a lot
of other improvements I can make.
Being zero waste isn't about being perfect.
It's all about everyone coming together
and trying the best that they can.
So the look that I will be building upon today
is going to be featuring vegan
and cruelty-free beauty products,
as well as some thrifted pieces
that you can get at your normal thrift stores
or you can even thrift online.
So first we're going to start off
with a shampoo and conditioner,
because I definitely need to wash my hair,
and that's pretty much the core of getting ready.
There's so many shampoo bars online
that are great options to choose from,
and the best thing about shampoo bars
is that they don't come in these plastic containers
and a lot of the times they're wrapped
in this recyclable paper,
so it's a great way to reduce your carbon footprint.
So to reduce my carbon footprint even more
and not have to worry about delivery
across the United States,
I decided to research some sustainable shops in LA.
As I'm searching online,
I stumbled upon a zero waste shop called Sustain LA.
And what's super cool about this place
is that it's a one-stop packaging and plastic-free shop
for all your household, body care, and zero waste needs.
So you can get your shampoo, conditioner,
body wash, household cleaner, all in this one place.
You could bring your own jars
or they could package it for you in the reusable containers.
Super awesome,
and I love that with COVID and everything,
you can order online,
pick it up at their sustainable shop,
or you can even have it delivered locally.
I think just to save time, I'm just gonna go pick it up.
It's only a 10 minute drive from my apartment,
so I figured it's probably best for me
to just pick it up myself.
So I'm going to be ordering their shampoo.
They have different types
of shampoo and conditioner to choose from,
but I'm just gonna go with the daily option.
Blue kind of associates with clean in my head,
so I'm just gonna put it in a blue bottle.
And then with their conditioner,
I am going to be choosing lavender
just 'cause I like the smell of lavender,
and it's, like, restorative.
So I think conditioner, restorative,
that just makes sense in my head.
And I'm going to be putting this in an amber bottle,
just so I know which one's which.
And I'm also going to be ordering two bottle pumps.
So yeah, there we go.
And that is going to be my order from Sustain LA.
All right, now, time for an outfit.
Luckily, I have been thrifting in the past a few times,
so I do have some pieces for my overall outfit.
However, I am missing some shoes.
So first all, I wanted to share benefits of thrifting
because I feel like there are a lot of people out there
that love thrifting, but aren't really realizing
how beneficial it really is to our ecosystem.
So, some benefits of thrifting include saving resources
because you're not creating a new garment,
you are just recycling something that's already been made.
And at the same time you are saving a clothing item
from going to a landfill.
So for my look today,
I'm going to be using all thrifted pieces.
I'm so excited to show you guys
the corduroy pants and the tweed jacket that I got.
Literally best finds ever.
So I'm going to browse through Thredup
just because I don't want to be on my phone.
It's just easier to do it through my laptop.
So the hard part about Thredup
is that a lot of the times they don't list the materials
that they use for the shoe,
which is super complicated if you are vegan
and wanna find a non-leather shoe.
I saved a few of my favorites,
but a lot of the times when I was searching the brand,
they mainly make their shoes out of leather.
But I came upon this really cute sandal
from a brand called Blowfish.
So the best thing that I can come up with
is to just research the brand on their main website
and figure out what materials they use
for that sort of style that you found on Thredup.
So I'm really, really excited to see
that Blowfish actually has an entire collection of shoes
made entirely of recycled plastics.
And they also have a full-on collection of just vegan shoes.
And because of that, I really trust this company.
And looking at other styles of this similar sandal,
a lot of them use vegan materials.
So to my knowledge, I think this is a vegan shoe.
And I also just love that this company
wants to decrease their overall carbon footprint.
So because of that, I'm gonna get these shoes.
Okay, now we have to order some makeup.
Makeup is so hard because a lot of the times
it just comes in plastic containers.
They're non-recyclable or non-reusable,
so that's going to be a little difficult.
Because of those reasons,
I'm going to be doing a very minimal makeup look.
And the makeup that I usually wear on a daily basis
really just includes concealer and mascara,
so those are the ones I'm going to order.
The good news, though, is that there are actually
a lot of great options online to choose from.
So I am going to go with a makeup company
called Elate Beauty Cosmetics.
So the cool thing about this company
is they actually offer a wide range of zero waste,
sustainable products that are certified vegan,
certified cruelty-free, and gluten free.
So I'm on their website right now,
and this concealer that I'm going to order
is packaged in a compostable bamboo
and a seed paper envelope,
which can actually be planted after I'm done using it.
That's super, super cool
because this can literally just go back into the earth.
The mascara, though, that is a little bit more complicated.
It's not gonna be perfect.
So this mascara is packaged in the same compostable bamboo,
but the only thing is,
is that it has a recyclable plastic inner tube,
so this product isn't technically zero waste.
It is compostable and recyclable, but, you know,
it's not completely perfect.
And like I mentioned earlier, this get ready with me
may not be exactly 100% perfect, but, you know,
I am going to be trying the best that I can
and hopefully you guys can see that.
All right, so I went ahead.
I ordered the makeup, the shoes,
and the shampoo and conditioner.
So now all we have to do is wait for all of it to arrive.
Cool.
Well, I will see you when that day comes.
Hi everyone, it's good to see you again.
I know for you, it's only been a few seconds,
but for me it has been a few days.
So I'm super happy to say that the items are finally here.
The shoes actually arrived this morning.
Right here, I have the makeup.
I actually opened this yesterday and tested it out
and absolutely loved it,
but I figured I would show you the packaging
just to recreate the moment.
So they give you a really cute card with the founder,
and then they wrote this really cute note on the back.
It just says, "Hi Amanda,
"hope you enjoy your new Creme Revealer and mascara."
So cute.
Thanks, Kim.
And right here we have both the concealer
and the mascara.
I, first of all, wanna talk
about the packaging for the concealer.
It's so freaking cool the way it rotates,
and like, it goes all the way around.
So it's so, so cool.
And the packaging just feels like it's very high quality.
So yeah, there's the concealer.
And then with the mascara,
you can see there is that plastic tube in the middle,
and it's encased in the bamboo,
so it'll be super easy to just take off the plastic tube,
recycle that, and then I can just compost
the bamboo portion.
I'm going to get started on my makeup.
My hair is basically ready.
So I actually used the shampoo and conditioner last night.
And I just want to say that this is, like,
the best smelling shampoo I've tried in so long.
Sustain LA is absolutely amazing,
and I highly recommend it to anyone that is in the area.
Again, I ended up getting their eight ounce daily shampoo,
and I got their restorative lavender conditioner.
Next time I'm definitely going to get
restorative lavender for both
because my hair had the most beautiful lavender scent
after washing it,
and I just want to recreate that with both.
So yeah, it was really great.
I think the shampoo lathered very well.
There were a lot of bubbles going on.
Loved that.
And with the conditioner,
I think it conditioned my hair very nicely,
and again, it just left the most amazing scent ever.
So I used this on my hair last night,
and then I like to let it air dry in a bun.
So I've just had it in a bun all morning.
So once I'm done with my makeup,
I'm just gonna take that out,
and I'm probably going to style my hair
with this headband that I thrifted.
Oh, and then also I am wearing this tweed jacket
that I mentioned earlier in the video.
I absolutely love the green.
It has different shades of it,
and there's some black and white in there.
I just think it's, like, kind of casual and chic,
but I'm going to finish the outfit later,
so right now let's just get started with the makeup.
Again, this is going to be a very simple makeup look.
I'm just going to dab the concealer underneath my eyes
and some red spots.
That's really the main goal,
is to just look a bit more awake. (laughs)
And this concealer is a little bit darker
than I would like personally, but you know what?
We're gonna make it work.
And definitely feel free to use a sponge
if you'd like to blend your concealer that way.
But for me personally,
I feel like when I'm using not that much concealer,
I like to use my finger
because I feel like I can get the most coverage that way,
and, you know, it's just skin on skin.
It just blends nicely.
Okay, this is looking really good so far.
I look awake, and that's what I wanted.
It's the time of month, unfortunately,
so I'm breaking out a little bit more than I would like,
but that's why we have concealer.
All right, I think this looks really good.
Now I'm gonna go ahead and add some mascara,
but first I am going to curl my lashes.
So when it came to, like, my eyelash curler
I was doing research on whether or not it was zero waste,
and I've seen other women say that, you know,
they do last for years.
So for them, they still have eyelash curlers
in their zero waste routine.
So, don't know if this really makes the cut,
but that's what I've seen online.
All right, now with the mascara,
it has a really nice wand,
kind of like a wand for volumizing,
but I will say this mascara
is a little bit on the thinner side,
so I like to add a few coats.
But I definitely think it's perfect
if you are that type of gal
that likes thin, natural mascara, you know,
not something too clumpy.
All right, so here is one coat with a mascara.
So as you can see, it is a little bit on the thinner side,
but honestly not bad at all if you like this kind of look.
So I'm just gonna add one more coat and we're good to go.
All right, so as I let that mascara dry,
I'm gonna work on the hair,
which will literally take, like, a minute.
Take out that bun, and then look at that curl.
Guys, this is such a hack if you want heatless curls,
and then bam.
Oh my gosh.
This is, like, literally my favorite thing to do.
Like, such a fun way to just get voluminous curls.
Since I have naturally wavy hair,
my hair can be a little bit frizzy sometimes on the top
or it could just be kind of hard to maintain the baby hair,
so that's why I like to use headbands.
And they're so fun.
It's a fun way to, like, spruce up the hair.
Ah, I love it.
I feel like a fancy business girl in the sixties,
or is this the wrong era?
Seventies?
I don't know.
I hope you guys kind of see
the vision I'm talking about, though.
Okay, now that we've finished the hair and makeup,
let's go ahead and open up this package.
Wow.
Okay, so they included this large paper.
Let's see if it says anything interesting.
It says, "Thank you choosing used
"and helping to make the world a cleaner, greener place
"for us all to enjoy.
"Fashion is one of the most polluting industries
"in the world, right up there with oil,
"and one of the best things we can do
"is to consume less and reuse more."
That is so, so cool that they, like,
are pretty much saying the same thing
that we're trying to say in this video.
And they just know that the clothing industry
is super polluting.
I think that's amazing that Thredup is, like,
acknowledging that and sharing that kind of information
with their consumers or with their clients,
no, not their clients.
You know what I'm trying to say. (laughs)
"More people wearing secondhand means less waste.
"If everyone in the US bought just one item used
"instead of new this year,
"it would save nearly 6 billion pounds of carbon emissions,
"the equivalent of taking half a million cars
"off the road for an entire year."
I think that alone convinces me to just buy thrifted items,
and hopefully any of you out there agree
that thrifting is the way to go.
So, let's go ahead and check out these shoes.
Oh my gosh, they are so cute.
Oh wow, this is actually, like, in way better condition
than I thought it was going to be.
This material feels very smooth.
Like, this material feels clean.
Oh, and I also wanted to share with you guys
the pants that I got for this outfit.
So I got this the same time that I got this jacket,
and it's just the prettiest dark green corduroy.
I absolutely love, and they fit perfectly.
And it has these straight leg bottoms, but yeah,
the material feels really thick and nice.
The green doesn't match perfectly with this jacket,
but I think that'll make this outfit more fun,
that there are different shades of green,
not just in this jacket, but also with the pants.
I love that this is gonna match the headband.
I'm just, (sighs) I'm so excited.
Okay, let's put everything together.
Ta da! (laughs)
All right, you guys, and here we have the final look.
So again, everything is thrifted.
I have the green tweed jacket, green corduroy pants,
a black tank top, and the sandals from Blowfish,
which ended up fitting.
Seriously a blessing because I felt like Cinderella
as soon as my foot fit in there.
I was just so relieved.
And they are insanely comfortable, can I add?
It feels like I'm walking on a cushion.
It feels really nice.
I think this outfit is just perfect
for walking through the town, running errands,
you know, that kind of thing.
I do generally like some baggy clothes,
and yeah, I'm pretty obsessed.
I hope you guys like it.
Well, this is Amanda for LIVEKINDLY.
Thank you so much for watching.
What did you think about today's get ready with me?
Do you incorporate any zero waste practices
into your everyday life?
Let us know down below in the comments,
and remember to subscribe and hit that notification bell.
I'll see you again next time.