How to bag a FREE £10 face mask, and other skincare rewards for recycling

If you’ve not heard of Lush, it’s an ethical company that sells vegan and vegetarian make-up and skincare products either ‘naked’ (oo-err missus – this just means without packaging), or in recycled and recyclable pots.

If you save up five of its black, recyclable pots you can bring them to any store to exchange them for a free fresh face mask – normally £10, so it's well worth keeping the pots. Lush says they must be used and clean when you return them, and you can read more about Lush's commitment to recycling on its website.

The new aspect of this scheme is good if you only have one black Lush pot  and don't want to save up for five, you can return it and exchange it for 50p off a purchase of a new product. If you've a mini sample pot, you can return it for an additional 5p off your purchase. See full T&Cs for these offers.

As many recycling schemes don't take glass bottles, and some people live in areas without glass recycling kerbside collections, the recycling scheme at The Perfume Shop can help. Simply take in any empty glass perfume bottle, it doesn't even need to be a perfume they sell, and you'll be able to get 15% off the purchase of a new perfume on the same day. It's worth checking other retailers for the best price, as your chosen perfume might be cheaper elsewhere, even with the 15% discount.

Did you know sometimes you can sell old perfume bottles on eBay? See our Flog your rubbish for cash guide for more information, as you'll likely get more back for your bottle this way than recycling it in another way.

The recycling scheme at Boots is a little different, as you cannot get anything back unless you sign up online, add photographs of the items you want to recycle, wait for Boots to okay them, then take them to a participating store and finally... show the online code at the till when you spend £10.

As 500 points is only worth £5 off your Boots shop, and you have to spend £10 to get it, this isn't worth doing unless you already plan to spend £10 in Boots, and have time to photograph the items you want to recycle using the fiddly system online.

John Lewis has a scheme where My John Lewis card members can bring in five clean items for recycling to any John Lewis beauty counter to get £5 off a £20+ spend there and then. Any brand's packaging can be brought for recycling – except for glass nail polish or perfume bottles, as well as aerosols (which you might be able to recycle at home).

See John Lewis for full information on its 'Beautycycle' scheme.

Another brand working with Terracycle is L'Occitane, where can get a voucher for 10% off a new full-sized product on the day you return your empties from any brand in a standalone L'occitane store - good if you've run out and there's no sale. See full T&Cs for participating stores and what's accepted.

There are some items you can't bring back, like glass and aerosols (some glass and aerosol cans are accepted in kerbside collections - check your local area).

It used to be the case that, if you had a Body Shop 'Love Your Body' loyalty card, you’d receive a £5 voucher when returning any five clean and empty bottles, tubs, tubes or pots from Body Shop products. The £5 reward is no longer available, but The Body Shop still encourages you to return and recycle its packaging. There's some packaging you can't return for recycling (eg, nail polish), and some stores can't accept items – including outlets, airports and train station stores. See full T&Cs for more information.