Environment | Simmer your cosmetics

Green initiatives to improve the environment are springing up on a large and small scale across the province. Twice a month, our journalists present ideas to inspire you.

Catherine Handfield
The Press

Érika Boies would have liked to buy her food in bulk to reduce the waste she produces. “I dream of a pantry full of obscurely labeled jars! she laughs. But now, her lover, Hugo Martin, is allergic to nuts and peanuts. No risk to take with cross contamination.

Érika, 28, takes her revenge elsewhere: in cosmetics. She doesn’t buy them in bulk, no. She makes them herself.

In the kitchen of her condo in Pointe-Saint-Charles, all painted black, Érika Boies – dressed all in black – mixes a series of ingredients in a beaker. On the round, another preparation heats slowly in a bain-marie.

“I separate my oily phase from my aqueous phase,” she explains. When they will reach temperatures with a maximum difference of 10 degrees, I will be able to mix them. And my cream, once set, will not separate. »

We would not have dared to draw the comparison, but as Érika does it herself, we let her speak: “I have a very witchy side says the bubbly young woman from Saguenay.

Érika Boies started making her cosmetics and household products two years ago, in the midst of a pandemic. She does it for the environment (the majority of ingredients are purchased in bulk, from the Montreal company Cocoéco) and also to control the products she puts on her sensitive skin.

Érika bases herself on an established recipe, but she likes to play around with the ingredients, depending on her needs. “I don’t put hyaluronic acid in my cream because back home it’s dry, but I put vegetable squalane so my skin absorbs it quickly,” she says, bent over her concoction.

As she is five and a half months pregnant, Erika will today put vitamin C and different oils to promote the elasticity of her skin. She will also add zinc oxide – the base of mineral sunscreens – and a hint of mica to give her skin a golden halo. “I feel like a goddess this summer. »

Her lover, Hugo, frowns. “I was using her old cream… But I’m less sure about using her! “, he says, laughing.

Érika also manufactures her own bath salt, foot scrub, plant spray and wood conditioner. She also started making household products (all-purpose cleaner, floor cleaner), but eventually got tired of the smell of vinegar. Today, she buys products from the Quebec company Myni – tablets that are dissolved in water.

When we think of cosmetics, we of course think of makeup. Érika has never tried to do it… and she doesn’t intend to either. “I love beautiful makeup way too much for that! »