Traveling while living nontoxic
We recently went our our first big family vacation of 4 and our first time traveling nontoxic and with oils so it was an entirely new ballgame for us. How do we travel with a toddler and a baby and keep them entertained on an airplane for 5.5 hours? That post is for a different day. I wanted to share how we traveled with two little's and all of our oily goodness.
First and foremost, since we only use one cleaner for all the things at our house, how were we going to be able to wipe things down and clean all the things at our condo without using toxic products or the products they provided us? We took our own Thieves cleaner that's how. I just took my little sample packet of Thieves cleaner and bought a small spray bottle from the dollar store and packed it in our checked bag. The small spray bottle we had was a perfect traveling size and the sample packets went a long way. I was fine using a plastic bottle for traveling because we were going to use it right away and it wasn't going to just sit in the bottle.I only used 1/2 the packet for the entire spray bottle so this allowed us to have at least 4 bottles of Thieves cleaner since we took two packets with us. We sprayed all the things when we got to the hotel, the phone, the remotes, the light switches and door handles, tables, counters, anything and everything that our hands and kiddos hands would be touching. Yes, we cleaned, but we knew we wouldn't be touching anything nasty! Worth the 20 minutes of wipe downs. We also took our after sun spray which has aloe in it and our cooling mist spray, both great for any sun burns or skin irritations.
The next thing was our nontoxic sunscreen. We were going to be using this a lot so we stocked up! Young Living has a nontoxic, plant based sunscreen that has great coverage and a little goes a long way. Another great thing is it's not harmful to the enviroment, we didn't have to worry that our sunscreen in the ocean was affecting the coral reefs in Maui. Great coverage and with a family of four, we used almost two tubes for 6 days, non stop application, which I think is pretty affordable!
How do you pack your diffuser? Well, you can get a cute little diffuser bag like this, but if you are on a budget like us, that's just not going to happen. What we did was used one of our small diffusers that we have in our guest bathroom and packed that up with us, this is the one we have, perfect size for small rooms or bathrooms and an affordable price. We just picked out a few bottles of oils that we knew we would be using like Peace & Calming, Lavender, Purification, Lemon, etc., and stuck those inside of the diffuser. We also put the cord inside and just packed it up in our checked bag. I mean, that's not going to be enough oils for a week in paradise but also, I am not trying to bring alllllll of the things. A great tip for traveling and even not traveling is to reuse your old empty oil bottles. Clean them out, remove the label and refill with your favorite oil blend. We have these all throughout our house anyways because it makes it so much easier to grab just one bottle of oil versus 4-5. We made a bottle for bedtime, for morning, and for when the tiny humans, and adults just needed to chill. All you need is a dropper top and a little label and wah-lah, pre-made diffuser blends.
Like I said, we do this at home on a daily, we have our kiddos pre-made blends next to their diffusers in their rooms. We have our favorite blends we use in the living room, if you find something you love to diffuse, just make a pre-made bottle. We also have these little 2oz spray bottles and make linen spray or bedtime spray, but per my toddler, it's monster spray. We just add 20 drops peace & calming, 10 drops lavender, a splash of witch hazel and top with distilled water. Shake it and spray it on pillows and blankets to help promote a restful nights sleep.
We made roller bottles for everything that we needed or thought we may need, which is just basically our daily arsenal of rollers.
- Immune support roller (for adults and one for the kiddos)
- Calm your self roller
- Aches and pains roller (head tension, muscle tension etc.)
- Teething
- Owie roller
- Toddler tantrum roller
- Happy roller
- Ear support roller (for the airplane)
- Anxious feelings roller
- Energy roller
- Lady S roller
These are all rollers that we have in our house on a daily basis and I have mini versions of them in my to-go oil bag. We took these oils and split them in half and I took half in my carry on backpack and my husband took the other half.
For our diaper bag, aka my toddlers carry on, we packed our seedling wipes which are not only great for tiny booties, but we use these to wipe all the things down. Tables when we were eating breakfast at the airport, the pull down trays on the airplane, little hands that tough everything. We also took our seedlings diaper rash cream and baby lotion. The lotion is great because it is infused with lavender and this momma needed EVERYONE to be chill. I added a couple of drops of peace and calming to the lotion in the palm of my hand and rubbed everyone down right before we got on the airplane. I also had a bottle of half full gentle baby essential oil that i just topped with some carrier oil and popped a roller fitment on and rolled everyone throughout the flight.
A thing that I suggest putting in anyone and everyone's to-go bag is peppermint, it comes in your premium starter kit and is great for feelings of nauseousness. I, as I am getting older, have been feeling the affects of my age and seem to get sick when flying now. Apparently so does my toddler since she happened to hack all over me on our decent into Maui. Anyways, mom life, but PEPPERMINT! I feel nauseous when I am a passenger in a car, on an airplane and when attempting any roller coasters or other fun things. Listen, I used to be able to do all these things with no problem and I swear as soon as I hit 30 everything flipped. As soon as I start feeling nauseous I just opened up my little bottle of peppermint and huffed it right out of the bottle. Works every. time. I even like to add a drop to my shirt collar so I can continue to smell it and I did the same for my toddler since she was having a hard time.
I made a mini bottle of our mermaid spray (detangler spray/beach hair). I use this for a leave in conditioner and my toddler uses it for a detangler spray. It smells amazing and works so well. I also found these little bar soap cases in the dollar section at target, perfect for our charcoal bar soap and one for our body bar soap. These small tubes of Thieves toothpaste were a great travel size and the whole family used it, even our kiddos. All of these items, are nontoxic, plant based and aren't harmful to the enviroment.
As far as makeup goes, I don't really wear a lot anymore. My eyebrows are microbladed, my eyelashes are done so really, I go most days with no make up but I did bring my Savvy minerals makeup (YL's nontoxic line of makeup) arsenal with me for those nights we went out to dinner. Savvy Minerals is super lightweight so I love wearing it and its perfect for being on vacay because you honestly don't even notice you have it on. Since Young Living doesn't make a concealer yet, I just mix in a little of the baby diaper cream or lotion with some foundation powder to make my own concealer. The cream helps with soothing and smoothing the skin, it's infused with lavender essential oil so it's great for redness and inflammation too. A light dusting of the sun kissed powder and on nights when I needed extra coverage, I prepped with my matte primer. Savvy does have eye shadow but I am not a huge fan since it's just too shimmery for me, otherwise it does go on well and covers well, but just to much shimmerrrrrrr.
Speaking of my face, and skin, I added my toner mixture into this 30ML roller bottle for easy travel and application. Normally at home, I just have this in a glass bottle and put it on a bamboo/cotton round and rub it on my face but I wasn't trying to bring all of that with me. This worked out so well that I just have been doing this on the daily now.
I also took our 30ML stain stick roller with us because, well kids. I really need to just have this in our diaper bag at all times honestly. This stain stick we use daily at home anyways since our toddler and baby eat and touch all the things which then ends up on their clothes. Easy application and great for traveling. Just roll on any spots or stains and watch it disappear. Since I had extra bottles, I also filled one up with Thieves hand soap and one with Thieves laundry soap. We packed our Young Living, nontoxic, plant based shampoo and conditioner and just used that for our entire family instead of bringing the babies and toddlers and ours. We were totally comfortable having the tiny humans use ours because there are no harsh, nasty chemicals in them.
Of course we packed all of the other normal things like clothes and what not but I wanted to share with you that it really isn't that difficult to ditch and switch. If you are on my wellness team, you most likely have 1/2 of these things already in your arsenal so it's not that difficult to just bring them with you. Find some hacks on how to travel. Reuse those old essential oil bottles, use old shampoo and conditioner bottler and just refill them.
I will be posting more recipes, DIY's and hacks on the blog soon so stay tuned for those. If you have any questions in the meantime or what to share a travel hack, drop them in the comments. If you are interested in joining my AH-MAZING wellness team and want to get plugged into a really fun, educational, nontoxic living community, let me know or click the link here.
Until next time,
XXO
Cass