Being - Part of a new workshop line up for 2020

Create gorgeous organic skin care products with Being at Inspospaces

Like so many people I had always tried to contribute in my own way to protecting the environment  making more sustainable choices when shopping, reducing the use of plastic containers, holy moly I even ditched plastic bags 6 years ago when I found an amazing shopping bag that folded into a package not much bigger than a fat credit card.  You know, the smug pat on the back every time you bought something wrapped in recyclable paper that you then recycled, FIGJAM as the Aussies say -fuck I’m good, just ask me.

​​My real light bulb moment was three years ago, I finally got round to emptying a shipping container full of our family’s prized possessions.  Despite the highly prized nature of this stuff, it had been in storage for 12 years – I am blanching as I read this, I don’t even want to discuss how much we paid in storage fees plus the return journey it did from here to Australia and back again during this time. It was a shock, apart from the fact there were a few things in there that we still wanted, around half of it we no longer wanted or could give room to.  Shocking isn’t it?  We then went through a process of being ruthless in selling, giving away and donating to charity.  This was not easy. When we tried to sell the antiques and quite expensive furniture, they were about as wanted as a wet fart on a first date. The clothes, shoes, CDs (going retro now), books, even the paintings were no longer to our taste.  Even some of the stuff we still liked we had no room for.

Why had we carted this stuff, literally, around the world?  Always trying to get a bigger house to house it all, no mean feat living in one of the world’s most expensive cities.  This was cathartic, we had gotten rid of the equivalent of a 3 bedroomed house, surely, I can now deal with the plastic products in the bathroom cabinet?

My social media feeds are full of buy, buy, buy, only difference is the ‘stuff’ made from natural materials and ingredients this is an improvement but the message is still to buy.  I was now looking at not filling up my home with stuff, whether it was made from natural products or plastic, I needed to consume less.  Less journey, no plastic, generating less waste and getting my consumption down.

And so, it began, bottles of lotions, shower gels, serums, eye gels, body moisturisers, face moisturisers, toners, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, dry shampoo, face oil, hair oil – in fact this whole piece could have comprised of a bathroom contents list.  With the aid of Google and YouTube I began to decipher the ingredients and learn how to ‘make’ moisturisers, I use this word in the most basic sense as we are literally talking about stirring or advanced as heating in a double boiler.  The more I read, the more I thought ‘yep, that looks like a lot of water again with some preservatives and a few drops of good stuff’.  There were many bonuses too, some of my favourite products were literally oil, salt and essential oils.  I mean I paid $60 for a treatment body scrub but the ingredients added up to £1.50

The love has grown from there and I am really looking forwards to inspiring others this year...
See you at a workshop too maybe!

Elaine

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