It’s nearly impossible to stick to your better intentions when you’re on the road. You may eat fresh produce and sustainably-raised meats when you’re home, but there are times when you run out of options on the road and just have to settle for a fast-food burger.
The same line of thinking usually comes into play when we’re talking about toiletries—especially with airport security storm troopers still enforcing their arcane “three ounces or less” policy for liquids (and gels!). It doesn’t have to, though. There are plenty of natural and/or organic travel kits that can keep you from resorting to whatever you discover next to your hotel sink. Finding the right travel kit is a tall order, so leave it to a short guy to steer you right because the Green Guy is here to give you the skinny on traveling light.
As you try to determine just how that bottle of shampoo in your hotel shower got so darn orange, keep in mind that travel kits seem to fall along two distinct lines: skincare and basic toiletry. Start by determining what you’re looking for and go from there. For the more basic stuff, I like the John Masters Organics Travel Kit ($14). It’s unisex—so don’t freak out about the citrus and neroli detangler—but it does the job for cheap, and comes with one-ounce bottles of shampoo, body wash, body “milk” and the aforementioned detangler, in a handy, TSA-friendly clear case. I like to use the John Masters Organics kit when I’m not being cheap and reusing the high-end products I’ve pilfered from previous stays at nice hotels—until the kit runs out and I go back to playing Past-Stay Roulette.
If skin care is more your concern, you’ve got a few great options to explore. For the very light traveler, try Organic Male OM4 Travel Starter Set ($49), a four-step skin
-conditioning program that comes in very convenient little travel packets instead of bottles. These fit just about anywhere, and as long as you can get past the idea of throwing out a lot of packaging, they’re perfect for the road warrior. OM4 is fair trade, organic, and free of just about everything you want to avoid, so you can easily win a game of feel-good bingo. Just pick your skin type and hit the road. Along the same lines, holistic “skin food” brand Dr. Alkaitis offers a great unisex travel kit that’s all-organic and 100 percent plant-based. The only downside is that after using the products for an extended period of time, you may, in fact, turn into a plant.
The best of the traveling bunch is Yum Gourmet Skincare. They not only offer travel kits for your skin, but for your body and shaving, too. A little pricey at over $60 each, the products are all-natural and certified vegan. If you’re balking at the price, you should know that the Yum Organic White Tea Body Wash is among my favorite products that I’ve sampled as the Green Guy thus far.
While most kits come with their own carrying cases, I like to travel with a dopp kit, and Brooklyn’s super-excellent Uncommon Goods has put together a really great collection of recycled/upcycled kits for toting around your new travel products. While the upcycled Tent Dopp Kit ($38) from TerraCycle is awesome and foldable, I personally prefer a more traditional version. For that, I love Green Guru Bike Tube Travel Kit ($29) made from old bicycle inner tubes and 100 percent recycled PETE fabrics. It’s sleek and chic and any other word about being cool that fits the rhyme scheme.
Now that you’ve got your travel kit taken care of, the only thing left to do is decide where in the world you want to go. What an awesome decision you have ahead of you. Go forth, Green Guys!