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Arizona’s Musings on Sustainable Living and Making Good Beauty Choices
In an exclusive interview, model, mom, and advocate Arizona Muse shows how sustainable living is possible in the smallest, simplest ways.
Taking that first step is the hardest, the most daunting if you will. Even with the best intentions, or readiness, sometimes not knowing where or how to start can prevent someone from taking action.
In the case of caring for ourselves and the planet, there’s so much noise that can drown out what really matters—just doing what you can. Living sustainably and having more mindful practices need not entail grand plans or efforts. It’s all about living in constant awareness and taking part in the larger scheme of things.
Arizona Muse for Aveda
Aveda brand ambassador, Arizona Muse, proves that you can make big strides with small steps. For this, the recognized model and environmental activist turn to more conscious choices for everyday living, including beauty.
Her partnership with the now all-vegan beauty brand (more on that soon!), couldn’t have grown more organically than this. Especially with Muse being a fitting and authentic representation of how Aveda has always been from the beginning—ahead of the clean and conscious beauty movement.
Taking Big Strides with Small Steps
Earlier this year, Aveda announced they are finally 100% vegan. And this is an important milestone for a brand committed to high performance, plant-powered products, and caring for the planet.
In fact, the successful elimination of any animal or animal-derived ingredients—such as honey, beeswax, silk, collagen, carmine, and keratin—highlights its sustainability journey. Removing these ingredients where substitutes are few to none, was indeed an arduous task. But years of research and development paid off.
What’s more, Aveda has also continually developed the use of recyclable packaging. The first beauty company to use 100% post-consumer recycled PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), it has also led the way in the use of bioplastic derived from sugarcane.
OMC (OneMega.com): Can you kindly share the story of how this brand partnership came to be?
AM (Arizona Muse): I’ve known about Aveda since I was a kid. My parents always had the Rosemary Mint shampoo and conditioner in their bathroom. It makes me so proud to be their Global Advocate for Sustainability. We are so aligned in our values and the sustainable future we are each working towards [with] Aveda as a sustainable haircare brand.
OMC: What sustainable practices have you integrated in your daily beauty rituals?
AM: There are several things that I do now, including buying products without packaging or that use recycled packaging, simplifying my beauty routine to just a few products, and using coconut oil with a bamboo toothbrush to brush my teeth.
OMC: How do you use Aveda products as an at-home pampering treatment, especially at this time? Any special tips and tricks you’ve discovered from Aveda experts?
AM: I use Aveda Nutriplenish Light Shampoo to clean my hair. I like to [also] style it with Aveda Phomollient. I use the Botanical Repair Light Masque once a week, which helps strengthen my hair. [What’s more], I love nothing more than running a bath while I put the mask on, soaking in the warm water while my hair gets extra nourishment. [And] I love the Nutriplenish Leave-In Conditioner as a silky treatment [after]. It smells amazing!
Climate, Community, Planet
OMG: A powerful message from you—progress, not perfection. Some think living sustainably is an all-or-nothing deal. How can one take that small step toward change, make more conscious choices for one’s own good, the community, the world?
AM: It definitely isn’t an all-or-nothing deal. For example, the most common thing I receive criticism for is flying in airplanes. But should I stop all the other sustainable things I’m doing just because I still do use air travel sometimes? Not at all.
Each little thing counts—never let anyone tell you otherwise. As Greta Thunberg has been saying since she was eleven, “No one is too small to make a difference.” And I would like to add that COVID has had one positive impact on me. It’s reduced my air travel, grandly!
OMG: Can you share tips on how to live a more sustainable life? How did these simple acts personally help jumpstart your own journey to sustainability?
AM: Buy less. I found [that] as soon as I started buying less, I could enjoy more space! It’s amazing how when we want more stuff, we undervalue [our] space. So next time you are tempted by something in a shop or online, first imagine where you will store it, and perhaps you won’t want it anymore.
[Also], buy second-hand. I’ve trained myself (it wasn’t that hard) to always seek something I need first on eBay (tick the “used” box under the “condition” category), or shop at a thrift shop. Displacing the purchase of new things sends such an important message down the supply chain—produce less!
[And finally], read the label. Ensure [that] you aren’t contributing to major pollution through the products you buy. Toxic substances have a hugely negative impact on the health of our planet at the factory level. Even if I don’t notice a negative reaction to my own body, it isn’t just about me anymore.
A Model Citizen for the Environment
This coming Christmas season, we can also all look to Muse for more mindful gifting ideas. When asked about her favorite holiday gifts for friends and family, she shares, “Beeswax-covered cloths to replace cling film in the kitchen. A sustainable bathroom starter kit, which includes things like salt block deodorants, biodegradable earbuds, and bar soaps with a wooden soap dish, among other things.”
Living sustainably means living awake, and opening ourselves up to opportunities the universe presents to us—big or small.
So where do we go from here? It’s pretty simple for Muse—live “with the earth in mind.” This is the mantra and guiding principle she lives by. In fact, her email correspondence to me ends with this phrase in her e-signature: “This sounds too simple to be true, but the more each of us builds a connection with the earth, the more the earth responds. Indigenous people know this and live by this principle.”
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Aveda Experience Center is located at Greenbelt 5 and SM Aura; shop Aveda online at Lazada, Zalora, Rustan’s, and Hair MNL.