This post features an affiliate marketing link. This means I receive a small commission based on sales through that link, denoted with a *. I have been gifted two jars of Skin Salvation over the past 20 months, the rest (more than those included in these photographs) have been purchased by myself. All opinions are my own, unedited and truthful, as always.

It’s never just one jar…

There is a box under my stairs that contains a secret: I have a thing for jars. As a practicing minimalist, I walk a fine path between responsibly discarding that which we do not need and that which we may use. So I made myself a rule: once the box is full, no more jars will be saved. I audit that box regularly. Every time we go to our local refill shop, I see which jars are useful, and which are not. If a new jar becomes available, I may swap it out for one of less use. But they must all have a purpose. Sometimes, that purpose only becomes clear over time - oftentimes, it is immediate. Unsurprisingly, the majority we have are from Balmonds.

Green living: Reusing and Repurposing what we have

It has almost been two years since I wrote my piece Coping with Childhood Eczema Every Single Day, and our journey to find a natural regime to manage my daughter’s eczema. Over that time, we have used many, many jars of Balmonds Skin Salvation*.

Following my buying principles of buying in bulk where possible, we choose the 120ml jars* and have found that size has provided us with ample, useful opportunities to repurpose the glass. Here are a four ways we are using our empty containers in order to buy less, and send less for recycling:

1. Containing fiddly objects
   Craft beads and buttons, toothpaste tablets, blunt safety razor blades, and now cotton buds - these are just a few of the items we have used our Skin Salvation jars for. I love to store things in transparent containers: it helps me easily take stock of what we have and what we might need, in order to make considered purchases. I find it exceptionally useful to see what is in our cupboards at a glance - no rummaging necessary.
   

2. Collecting soap bar remnants to remake into new bars
   We go through a lot of solid soap bars in this house. With two young children, three chickens and a dog (and a pandemic too) soap is one of our most valuable (and most used!) household products. But, as the bars wear through, little fingers find it all too tempting to turn them into ‘slime’, and I have learnt the hard way what happens if I leave those little remnants in the soap dish. (‘I make a cake on the floor, Mummy.’) So I scoop them up, dry them out, and pop them in an empty Skin Salvation jar which I keep in my bathroom cupboard. When it’s full, I chop them up, melt them down, and set them into a fresh bar once more.
   

3. Propagating houseplants
   Propagating houseplants is new territory for me. A keen gardener and lover of houseplants, up until recently I have been wary of propagating them myself. We already have 25 plants at home: why would I bother? Living in suburbia, we have properties (ourselves included) that use their open fires and log burners to heat their homes. Coupled with two busy roads nearby (which I face off with every day when walking my dog, my neighbour’s dog, and my children to school) air quality and pollutants are ever present in our lives. I believe that houseplants are the very best things we can keep in our homes for improving air quality. I keep plants in every room for that reason - especially for my children. Propagating will make the best use of the plants we already own, increasing our own stock and allowing us to share these as gifts for the people we love (for free, too!).
   

4. Storing DIY skincare made from waste we produce at home
For five years my husband and I saved to buy a coffee machine that will grind the beans and produce beautiful cups of coffee at the click of a button. It is our luxury as an alcohol-free home. And it comes with an upside too - we make our very own grounds. We add them to our compost heap, use them for slug-defence in the garden, and also create our own scrubs too. The Balmonds Skin Salvation jar is the perfect size, and the tight seal of the lid ensures it stays fresh too. (I have been speaking with Balmonds over switching their lids to aluminum too.)

5. Managing our daughter’s eczema
It would be remiss to not acknowledge the reason we have so many jars. My daughter, who ebbs ever closer to her sixth birthday, has suffered from childhood eczema since infancy. After much trial and error, doctors trips and trudging the rows and rows of pharmacy products on offer, we found Balmonds. It has been almost two years of using Skin Salvation to manage her eczema. In that time, we have only had to resort to prescription medication once, and it has never become infected since. A true testament to the power of nature.

If you would like to try Balmonds Skin Salvation, or any Balmonds product please use my discount code LAURA20* for 20% off your first order.