Go Green In The Shower {Giveaway}

Ah shaving, my least favorite thing to do. And one of the hardest places to be green, I find. Between foaming shave cream, disposable razors and having a stand-alone shower to shave in, it’s just one big green nightmare.

Yeah, these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night.

Seeing as I’m thinking about these problems entirely too much I’ve also figured out some ways to possibly make shaving just a tiny bit greener. And you know me, all about the little things.

First is greening the shower itself. Guys have it so easy when it comes to shaving and saving water, just fill the sink a bit and shave, no wasted water. So what’s a girl to do to save some water? Well if you have a tub/shower combo, you could let the tub fill while your showering and then turn the water off and use the water in the tub to rinse your razor while you shave. If you have a stand-alone shower (like me) you could fill a cup or bowl at the end and use it to rinse your blade off. You could also get a showerhead with a drip feature so you could just switch it on when you need to rinse your razor without loosing hot water like you would if you turned it off and on.

Next is the razor. Oh what a wonderful piece of ever lasting trash that is. To me, disposable razors are just ridiculously wasteful. So the next step would be to choose one that just needs the blade replaced. We’re still making trash but not as much and those handles last darn near forever. As far as those go my top choice would have to be the Preserve razor. They're made from recycled plastic and can be recycled once they’re no longer usable, very cool. The only part that has to be thrown away is the blade, not bad. Want to take it one step better? Check out the RetroRazor (found out about this one on Recycle Your Day). It’s a safety razor with a metal handle (probably not going to need to be replaced) and a thin metal razor blade, which is the only part that will need to be replaced.

Last, shaving cream, that stuff literally makes me shiver just thinking about the chemical cocktail contained inside the combustible can. Look at the ingredient list and you’ll most likely find things like Triethanolamine and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monostearate, both identified as skin toxins. Awesome, I wanna rub that all over my legs. And even when I have found a “green” product, I always need to use a ton, which just feels wasteful and un-green to me. Pacific Shaving Company makes a shaving oil (that I got to try for free thanks to ecomom.com) that may just solve this problem. The shaving oil comes in a little ½ oz bottle and the package says you only need 5-7 and will last for up to 100 shaves.

I thought it was kind of cool that this was something that both Todd and I could try out and use. I of course, gave it the first testing though. I took it in the shower with me and when I was about to shave noticed that my razor was most definitely in need of a replacement blade. However, I was already in there and I wasn’t going to get out and look for one, so I just hoped for the best. The shaving oil says that it helps reduce nicks and cuts and moisturizes while it works, I was very much hoping this would still be the case when using an old blade. I honestly thought I would have to use the nick stick (that was sent along as well) when I was done because 7 drops to shave an entire lower leg just didn’t seem like it would be enough to give me a good shave. Oh how wrong I was. When I was done there were no nicks, no razor burn and they felt moisturized even after I rinsed them off. Score!

Todd tried it next. When he was done I asked him what he thought, how it felt, you know, details. He said, “Yeah, I liked it, it worked”. Ah the male vocabulary.

I never did have a chance to try out the stick on a nick so I finally just took it out of the package to see what it was like. When I opened it I expected to see an actual white stick in a tube. Does anyone else remember those? They were like a piece of chalk that you rubbed on your nick and stung almost as bad as the cut. Anyways, that is so not what found. The Pacific Shaving Company nick stick is an oil that you rub on with a little roller ball. It goes on clear and dries clear, unlike the previously mentioned stick. I don’t know if it stings or not, Todd told me when I opened it that he wasn’t cutting himself just so I could test it. Where’s the team spirit? ;)

So I’m happy with both of them and Todd uses the oil so he must like it, right? I also really like the ecomom site in general; there are lots of great green items for everyone in the family and the home. And until May 31st you can 15% your first order with coupon code SBBL272! If you think that you’ll become a regular shopper on ecomom check out their EcoPass. It’s a $99 annual membership that gets you 15% off every order and free shipping with no minimum purchase amount. And be sure to check them out on Facebook as well.

Now onto the giveaway. Ecomom is giving one Easy Eco To Go reader a Pacific Shaving Company Shaving Oil and Nick Stick. For the main entry go to ecomom and tell me something else you’d like to try from the site. This one must be done for all others to count.

As always there are additional ways you can enter:

• Join the ecomom newsletter (2 entries)
  
• Follow @easyecotogo on Twitter and leave your @name (1 entry)
  
• Follow @ecomomceo on Twitter and leave your @name (1 entry)
  
• Write a blog about the contest or email 3 friends & cc me on the email easyecotogo at gmail.com (3 entries, please leave 3 comments)
  
• Tweet about the contest (Gettin' green in the shower w/ @ecomomceo and @easyecotogo http://bit.ly/aF69lj #giveaway) (1 entry, can be done once a day. Please leave a comment for each tweet)
  
• Follow my blog in Google Friend (1 entry)
  
• Subscribe by email or RSS to Easy Eco To Go (2 entries, leave 2 comments)
  
• Add my button to your blog (leave your site with your comment so I can stop by and say hi!) (2 entries, please leave 2 comments)
  
• Add my blog to your blogroll (1 entry)

Separate comments must be left here for each additional entry!

Also, please include your email with comments or if you’d rather, after you leave your main entry comment, email me at easyecotogo(at)gmail(dot)com so I will have a way of contacting you if you win. You will have 48 hours after I contact you to send me your info or else I will choose another winner.

This contest is only open to US residents.

The contest will run from Monday May 10th, 2010 thru Monday April 17, 2010 at 11:59 pm PST.

And as always the boys will help me pick a winner which will be announced Tuesday the 18th.