What’s in My Bag? — A Traveler’s Pouch
What’s in My Bag? — A Traveler’s Pouch
A responsible, conscious traveler never buys even a single item for the pouch without thought. From zero-waste moisturizer and sunscreen to eco-friendly perfume that does no harm to nature or people, and a soap dish and grater made from recycled fishing nets, here are products suited to sustainable travel.
Words Parc Jinmyoung
Photos Courtesy of each brand
Siita Moisturizer
Siita is a cosmetics brand that created the world’s first zero-waste products. Beyond making products without animal testing, it uses eco-friendly biodegradable resin for its containers. Used containers go through grinding at a dedicated facility, and the brand has a complete decomposition system that composts them 100 percent. My skin is combination and rarely breaks out, and even in Korea’s harsh winters, this one moisturizer takes care of any dryness. The texture is similar to an ordinary cream, and if I put it on at night, my skin stays moist until morning. It is highly moisturizing, yet it doesn’t leave a greasy sheen; it sinks lightly into the skin almost right away. The round, pill-bottle-shaped package is bulky but light, so it is easy to toss into a travel bag. Once you collect five empty containers, you can request a pickup, and the brand credits you with store points equal to the price of one product. Everything from making the product and delivering it to consumers to disposing of it after it has served its purpose is truly ‘zero waste.’
Daily Facial Moisture Cream 150ml: KRW 24,000
Herbloom Sunscreen
In 2018, Hawaii in the United States became the first place in the world to pass a law banning the sale of sunscreens containing harmful ingredients such as oxybenzone and octinoxate. Palau, a small island nation in the South Pacific, has also banned the sale of sunscreens containing these ingredients since 2020. Oxybenzone and octinoxate are lethal chemicals that cause deformities and bleaching in coral. Coral, which accounts for 25 percent of all marine life, is called the foundation of ocean ecosystems. Thanks to its high oxygen content and complex structure, a wide variety of organisms live in and around coral reefs. Among them, symbiotic algae supply the coral with nutrients produced through photosynthesis. When this process doesn’t work smoothly, bleaching occurs, threatening not only the coral’s reproduction and growth but its very survival. It is no exaggeration to say that not only a major source of human food but also the future of marine ecosystems depends on coral.
This is why ‘Coral Friendly’ and ‘Reef Friendly’ have spread like a trend across the beauty industry. Calming Days Vegan Sunscreen, launched by the organic vegan skincare brand Herbloom, leaves out reef-killing chemicals such as oxybenzone and octinoxate and is made by upcycling discarded “ugly” potatoes from Jeju. It contains aquaritol, a moisturizer derived from aloe and trees, to boost hydration. What I like most is the packaging. The paper package cuts plastic use by 80 percent.
Calming Days Vegan Sunscreen: KRW 28,000
100BON Niche Perfume
Smell is said to be the sense remembered for the longest time among the five. I once saw a study suggesting that people who are sensitive to scents have better memories. If you bring perfume on a trip, couldn’t you remember the journey through its scent? Ideally, it would be a perfume that does no harm to nature or people.
100BON is France’s first vegan perfume brand, founded by a team that includes a former international director of Hermès Parfums and the president of the French perfume federation. It makes vegan niche perfumes guided by naturalism, rationalism, and environmentalism. It uses no animal-derived ingredients or artificial fragrances, nor any ingredients suspected of being carcinogenic, environmentally toxic, or harmful to the human body. It has earned organic certification marks issued by European organic certification bodies (Ecocert, Cosmebio), as well as vegan and cruelty-free certifications. Together, these certifications signify that the brand uses more than 95 percent natural and organic plant-based ingredients and 100 percent vegan ingredients, does no animal testing, and adheres to eco-friendly and ethical methods of manufacturing and distribution. It uses reusable containers and recyclable packaging, practicing environmentalism both inside and outside the product.
100BON Neroli & Petit Grain: KRW 69,000
Dr. Bronner’s Soap Dish & Grater
The easiest first step toward a zero-waste lifestyle is swapping your bathroom products for bars of soap. After I switched to a facial cleansing bar instead of foaming cleanser and a shampoo bar instead of liquid shampoo, the plastic waste from my bathroom dropped sharply. Traveling or going on a business trip, however, was a problem. Soap softens easily, which makes it a troublesome, inconvenient product to carry.
The organic skin and body care brand Dr. Bronner’s solved this with a clever idea. Together with the marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd Global, it launched the Ocean Bubble Buddy, a soap dish and grater made from recycled fishing nets. Created in collaboration with Dutch designer Foekje Fleur, the product has two main uses. In the bathroom, it serves as a stylish soap dish; when you need to portion out your soap, it works as a grater, much like a cheese grater. Soap grated to the amount you need is easy to carry in a tin case, and it can also be dissolved in water for a half-body bath or a foot soak. It is even more meaningful to know that it was made by finely grinding discarded fishing nets and plastic waste, the biggest causes of ocean pollution, then washing them thoroughly and melting them down. That, they say, is also why the product is a deep green.
Dr. Bronner’s is a brand that strives to avoid any unnecessary impact on the environment at every stage, from manufacturing to product launch, recycling 100 percent of its plastic and using 100 percent renewable energy, such as solar and geothermal, at its factories. It also steadily takes eco-friendly steps, running campaigns that return carbon dioxide from the air to the soil to slow the climate crisis and that promote regenerative agriculture. This product launch fits perfectly with one of Dr. Bronner’s six principles: ‘Treat the Earth like home!’
Ocean Bubble Buddy: KRW 18,000