12 fair trade DIY projects to keep busy during quarantine
If you’re like me—and most of Canada right now—you’re currently holed up in your house and itching for things to do. But quarantine is no reason to forget that workers along the supply chain deserve to work in a safe environment. In fact, now more than ever, we need to be thinking about our impact on workers and producers. That’s why I’ve got DIYs for you, and not just any DIYs; these are fair trade DIY projects to keep you busy!
Most of these DIYs are doubly great because they encourage you to pamper yourself. Quarantine is being tough on a lot of us, and we deserve to take a mental health break now more than ever. So strap yourself in for some great DIY ways to keep yourself busy, practice self-care and support fair trade, all at once!
Fair trade DIY body scrubs
If your skin needs a little extra exfoliation and pampering, you’re in luck! These DIY body scrub projects use fair trade ingredients and are super easy to make.
Oatmeal Honey Sugar Scrub
This simple recipe from Escentual Web uses common pantry staples to make an all-natural scrub. To make it, you’ll need:
- Honey (I recommend African Bronze’s fair trade raw forest honey)
- Whole oats or already ground-up oatmeal
- Sugar (I recommend Camino’s fair trade Turbinado sugar)
You’ll need to powder your oats in a blender if they’re not already ground up, but that’s honestly the hardest part of this recipe! Mix up about equal parts of each ingredient until the consistency is easy to use as a scrub. You apply it to your skin and then rinse it off in the shower, and then enjoy how soft your skin is!
Skin Firming Coffee Scrub
Another super easy DIY project from The Pistachio Project, this coffee scrub is a great way to re-use your fair trade coffee grounds before throwing them away! For this DIY project, you’ll need:
- Fair trade coffee grounds
- Fair trade sugar
- Fair trade coconut oil
You’ll mix up the ingredients and use as you would use any scrub: apply to the skin, and then wash away in the shower.
Fair trade DIY deodorant
If you—like me—are trying to reduce how often you shop for items, making more of your body care products at home can help with that! Check out these two DIY deodorant projects that use fair trade ingredients in them!
All Natural DIY Deodorant Recipe
For this fair trade DIY project from A Journey to Natural, you’re likely already going to have some of the ingredients on hand, which is a bonus! You’ll want to have a jar to store it in (a small mason jar is plenty big), and for ingredients you’ll need the following:
- Fair trade coconut oil
- Fair trade shea butter
- Arrowroot starch
- Baking soda
- Lavender & grapefruit essential oil
- Tea tree essential oil (optional)
You’ll need a double boiler for this one, but considering how simple the ingredients are, you may find it’s worthwhile to switch to homemade in the long term! To use it, you simply take a pea-sized amount on your finger, warm it up between your fingers and apply to your underarm. Easy peasy!
DIY Natural Deodorant Solid
If you prefer a more conventional type of deodorant in a stick, this fair trade-infused DIY project from Don’t Mess with Mama might be right up your alley! Along with a deodorant tube to re-use (or a new one, if you have one), you’ll need these ingredients:
- Fair trade coconut oil
- Fair trade shea butter
- Raw beeswax
- Baking soda
- Arrowroot starch
- Bentonite clay
- Essential oils (optional)
Once again, you’ll need a double boiler for this one, but with all that fair trade and natural goodness, that seems like a very small price to pay! You’ll pour the liquid mixture into the deodorant tube and use exactly as you’re used to using stick deodorant.
Fair trade DIY soap & body wash projects
With all of the handwashing and cleaning we’re doing these days, this list would be amiss without some fair trade DIY projects that involve soap and body wash! We’ve got 3 pampering projects below, so that you can pick what will work best for your needs.
DIY Honey & Coconut Body Wash
This simple DIY how-to from Hello Glow is a great starting point for those who are just starting to experiment with homemade cleansing. If you’re new to DIY household cleaners and such, you may need to pick up some ingredients, but you’ll likely find a lot of uses for any leftovers! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Fair trade coconut oil (melted)
- Fair trade raw honey
- Fair trade liquid Castile soap
- Vitamin E (optional)
- Essential oils (eucalyptus, sweet orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc. —optional)
It’s as simple as mixing everything up, sticking it in a bottle and shaking before each use. Does it get any easier than that?
Super Easy Homemade Body Wash
This easy DIY project from The Artisan Life goes from a regular bar of soap to body wash before you know it! To complete this DIY how-to, all you need is:
- Fair trade bar soap
- Regular tap water
- Essential oils for fragrance (optional)
You’ll also need a grater and a saucepan to prepare it, but who doesn’t have those? You can transform a bar of soap into a liquid soap or body wash easily if you don’t prefer bar soap!
Homemade Goat’s Milk & Honey Soap
This fair trade-friendly DIY from Practical Self-Reliance is perfect for those of us who got that soap base once on sale because we totally thought we’d use it, but haven’t done so 10 years later. Totally not a true story, of course…
If you have some soap base lying around, now’s the time to use it! This recipe (whether your base has goat’s milk or not) will make your soap more nourishing, and all you need is:
- Goat’s milk melt and pour soap base (or other soap base)
- Fair trade raw honey
- Extra oil such as fair trade coconut oil
You essentially melt the soap base, stir in the honey and oil and pour it in a mold. I can’t think of an easier to make moisturizing soap at home!
Easy fair trade DIY cosmetics
Cosmetics may not be considered super essential by some, but the little pleasures in life are important right now! Check out the recipes below for DIY blush and DIY lip balm and see if they’re in your own future!
Easy Natural Blush
If you’re like me, it’s never even occurred to you that you can make your own makeup! But this fair trade-friendly DIY from Pronounce uses simple, natural ingredients to make different shades of blush. Here’s how you make the fair trade-friendly version of the Chocolate Merlot Dark Blush, for example:
- ½ tsp beetroot powder
- 2 tsp fair trade hibiscus flower powder (from about 1-2 teabags)
- ½ tsp fair trade cocoa powder
Open the teabag(s) and measure 2 tsp of the hibiscus flowers, crushed up. Mix all the ingredients together and grind in a coffee grinder until very fine. Then apply a small amount as you’d usually apply your blush! It’s that simple!
Similarly, for the Soft Peony Pink Light Blush, you’ll need:
- 1 tsp fair trade hibiscus flower powder (from about 1 teabag)
- 2 tsp arrowroot powder
You’d make this as above, so by opening the teabag and crushing the hibiscus flowers, then grinding everything in a coffee grinder. Easy peasy!
Imitation Burt’s Bees lip balm
In the cooler months, our lips can get really dry, so to hold you over until Spring is properly here, we have this fair trade-friendly DIY from Wellness Mama. For this one, you’ll need:
- Raw beeswax
- Fair trade coconut oil
- Fair trade shea butter
- Flavouring (optional)
You’ll need a double boiler for this DIY once again, but the plus side is that it’s pretty much 100% doable with local & fair trade ingredients! Be sure to check out the links for fair trade-friendly options.
For the container, I like to just use a small pot like the ones you get little makeup samples in. Then I just use my finger to apply it. But if you have empty lip balm tubes hanging around, go ahead and use those!
Fair trade DIY moisturizers
With all this extra washing, our skin is sure to be stripped of its usual moisture! These fair trade-friendly DIY projects focus on restoring your skin’s moisture and glow, so check these out for a little pampering!
Rich Honey Hand Balm
This fair trade DIY comes from Hello Glow and will do wonders for your hands with all this hand washing we’re doing! You’ll need:
- Fair trade coconut oil
- (Sweet) almond oil
- Fair trade olive oil
- Raw beeswax
- Fair trade shea butter
- Fair trade raw honey
- Essential oil (optional, for fragrance)
You can make it with just a microwave, which is super simple! Be sure to get your ingredients fair trade, so that your purchase helps—rather than further marginalizing—producers in the developing world.
Coconut Mocha Face Mask
This face mask from The Pistachio Project is seriously one of the easiest fair trade-friendly DIY projects I’ve ever found. All you need is:
- Fair trade cocoa powder
- Fair trade coffee grounds (used is OK)
- Fair trade coconut milk
As a bonus, it’s doable with 100% fair trade ingredients and it’s a great way to pamper your face!
DIY Coconut Oil Toothpaste
This awesome DIY project from Oh The Things We’ll Make is a simple but effective homemade toothpaste! The author even happens to be a dentist, so you know it’s going to be good. For the simpler, oil-based recipe, you’ll need:
- Fair trade coconut oil
- Bentonite clay
- Fair trade cocoa powder
- Xylitol
- Baking soda
- Peppermint essential oil (optional, for flavour)
There’s also a water-based recipe, but the trouble is that introducing water into the mix means that it’s not shelf-stable and you risk it spoiling. That’s why the oil-based one is more simple and I recommend that one.
So which of these fair trade DIYs will you try first? Be sure to let me know how it goes in the comments!
In solidarity,
Lia
