I am sure most of us have perfume or skin-care containers that even though are empty, we don’t want to throw away because they are too pretty. We spend lots of money on luxury products that are beautifully packaged, and we feel guilty throwing them away in the recycling bin once we’ve emptied them out, so we keep them in a drawer – or in my case, in my night desk – for years and years but we never use them again.

Not anymore!

I present to you the new term in town…which I want to make the trendiest verb of the year : upcycling

*Check out Upcycle, an app that helps you make money from old clothes.

up.cy.cle (verb)

The art of reusing -discarded objects or materials- in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.

Here are 5 tips to upcycle your old containers:

1.     Adopt some baby plants

It is now the perfect season to bring home some new babies! You can buy some baby greens or succulents at your local market along with some small pebbles to put at the bottom of the container in order to drain the water from the soil.

Use: body scrub jars or bath salts containers, wide containers are ideal for plants to grow freely.

2.     Travelling container for meds or jewelry

Bring your pills or vitamins wherever in a super cute and practical container. It can be plastic or glass and they will take almost no space in your bag.

Use: smaller containers like single eyeshadows or skin care containers. 

3.     Keep your bathroom cabinets organized

Organized your toiletries: cotton balls or pads, bobby pins, elastics, etc.

Use: all kinds of jars or containers to do this, for example: body scrubs, men hair care, etc.

4.     Store vegetables or seeds

Some brands have implemented new ways of protecting their products without the use of boxes nor carton. For example, The Hair Routine uses cotton bags to send their Balancing Hair Bundle. You can reuse this bag to shop vegetables or seeds  at the market.

Use: cotton bags or other cosmetic bags.

5.     Decorate your home

Make sure to clean perfectly the bottles of perfume or oil. Buy very thin candle sticks or try with dry stems such as cotton stems or pampas grass and use them to decorate your home or office.

Use: perfume bottles or body oil bottles for this.

If you have other ways of upcycling your cosmetic containers, share them in the comments! Lea suggests using the bigger bottles as containers when you make your own cleaning products!