): As you see, it has four Sustainability Circles, beingcruelty-free, vegan, non-toxic(that is natural skincare ingredients versus ingredients to avoid in skincare) andpalm oil free. How can we help, and how should we expect the brands we are choosing to buy from help? Being accountable for the ingredients isn't just making sure they're of a high quality and sourced well. Were no strangers to the concept of fast fashion. 'When it comes to the keywords to avoid when shopping sustainably Id say clean, chemical-free and non-toxic are top of the list. Also, cruelty free doesnt exclude animal derived ingredients in cosmetics. To help you find the good stuff, weve written the guide below which sets out the key criteria for eco friendly and conscious brands and products. All brands we classify as Sustainable use conscious ingredients (commonly referred to as "clean") meaning they are generally considered to be safer for humans and our environment. It washes off our skin and enters the waterway, bioaccumulating in marine life. 'We all have a role to play to ensure the planet can flourish for years to come. Here are some extra ways to be more eco-friendly in the bathroom: Instead, use reusable makeup remover pads, muslin cloths or organic cotton towels. Another issue is the amount of water we use with these skincare products from showers to our daily skincare routine. Bonus: How to find out if a brand is cruelty-free. Your email address will not be published. Materials that fulfill our criteria as long as the brand is working towards sustainability are: Once again, we do not consider plastic to be a sustainable material even if it's recyclable or made from recycled plastic. However, we believe that consumption can be done consciously, and we believe in the future of ethical businesses that are bringing positive change instead of living for their sake of their shareholders' pockets. If plastic is used, the brand must be working towards 100% recycled plastic or bioplastic. We need the beauty industry to move toward sustainability. Every company on our sustainable list either does not use palm oil (or any of its derivates) or ensures that their palm oil is sustainably-sourced. Animal welfare is also a concern in the beauty products afterlife. Allrightsreserved. Download our list of 600+ verified cruelty-free brands straight to your device. Focused on producing cheaply-packaged, single-use goods, and launching new product after new product, it's nowhere near "environmentally-friendly". An American study published in the journal Science found that scented products emit the same amount of chemical vapours as petroleum emissions from cars. ELLE Edit: 21 Of The Best Eyeshadow Palettes, 50 Of The Most Chic Online Vintage Stores, Just A Super Useful Guide To Balancing Oily Skin. Drive change with your buying habits and exercisingconscious consumerism. Read on to find a beginners guide to making your skincare routine more earth-friendly with easy steps to get you started. But that one or two may be making more of an impact than you know, especially over a lifetime. Supporting brands that are striving to do the right thing. The Ingredients List - Breaking down the what, where and why of natural and eco-friendly beauty. What makes a brand or product truly ethical and sustainable can depend on a number of factors. For an eco-powerhouse like The Body Shop, sustainability means that everything they do does no harm. And, once you've finished a product, make sure you dispose of it correctly (i.e. The best options for primary packaging for beauty brands are: These materials are either easier to recycle for a longer life cycle, like it's the case with glass and aluminum, or biodegradable, like it's the case with paper and bamboo. Waste is a major problem for the planet see ourarticle on zero wasteto learn more. Consumers want to support authentic brands that are committed to the environment, whether thats through sustainable ingredient sourcing, innovative packaging solutions, or natural and organic products. Brands like ESPA and LOOKFANTASTIC have partnered with Recycle.Me by THG so you can send them any hard to recycle plastic packaging from beauty products for free. There are a lot of beauty related terms out there, some of which overlap and others where there are gaps. Once youve reached the end of your skincare products, recycle or repurpose the packaging. I created Cruelty-Free Kitty because animal testing has no place in the 21st century. Popular ingredients such as unsustainable palm oil are contributing to widespread deforestation and climate change. We truly believe that we vote each day for the kind of world that we want to live in tomorrow. Its inspiring to see that a lot ofethical brandshave adedicated giving policy. You'll thank me the next time you shop! One big example is the effect of oxybenzone and octinoxate in chemical-based sunscreen which contributes to coral bleaching. Cruelty free, organic and vegan are well known examples. Want eco-friendly makeup and skincare but not sure where to start? Our beginner's guide to sustainable beauty gives you a roadmap to a more eco-friendly routine and the top eco issues to avoid. Sustainable skincare brands are ethical. Animal testing has been a feature of the cosmetics industry, despite it not being a requirement for many countries around the world. Theyre then marketed to consumers as the whole new holy grail of skincare, encouraging them to get their hands on them before theyve finished the products theyre already using. In order to vet the brands as sustainable, we researched the topic of sustainability in depth to come up with our own set of criteria. There is a huge amount ofgreenwashingwhen it comes to organic and even more so natural. A productmight be cruelty-free and still contain animal ingredients. We're asking for products that are eco-friendly, and they're listening. It requires the brand to be aware of whats going on in their supply chains, topay a fair pricefor the raw materials and goods, to ensure that their suppliers are committed topositive environmental and social impactandproviding safe working environments. There is a huge amount of water waste in skincare and beauty. Brands that received the Sustainable label have shown significant efforts in every single one of those areas. This is certainly a positive step in the right direction, however, the term cruelty free' still has an ambiguous definition. This is the big question. The Rise Of The Clean And Green Oral Routine. In the beauty and personal care industry, it can be hard to trace where raw materials come from, and how they were acquired. And always make sure to look out for the familiar ones too - when was the last time you checked that the packaging was recyclable? Next, we have bamboo, which is practical and biodegradable. All you need to do is put them in the wash and it saves you from throwing anything out! They contribute to pollution and drain the planet of natural resources in a number of ways. Sustainable Skincare: What Does The Term Actually Mean? We have a main list which you can filter, plus a smaller list of brands that aren't completely fulfilling our criteria, however they're making considerable efforts as well. Unwittingly, consumers only seem to exacerbate the problem by creating a bigger demand. Just like we don't allow bunnywashing on list of cruelty-free brands, there's no room for greenwashing brands on our sustainable list. As consumers what should we be looking for when purchasing beauty products? You guys have really defined the meaning of clean, ethical and sustainable beauty. Thank you Sustainable Jungle for this blog article! Others give what they can to charities they are passionate about(e.g. The beauty and skincare industries have a notoriously negative impact on the environment. A beauty product thats labelled cruelty free might not be tested on animals by the manufacturers but its individual ingredients from the suppliers might. Unfortunately, the concept of Greenwashing is more popular now than ever since all consumers have become more ethically aware. Green And Gorgeous: The Zero Waste Beauty Movement Is Here. If your packaging isn't recyclable, see if you can upcycle empty containers or find another use for it. Follow our step by step guide to make you skincare routine more eco-friendly. Like any commodity, fair trade applies to the beauty industry and sadly, its had its fair share of abuses. Some arent members of the program but emulate this philosophy and give a portion to charity every year. A recent study by the British Beauty Council found that of 23,000 beauty shoppers, almost half (48%) are looking for more information, clarity and transparency about beauty brands values and commitments to the environment. Required fields are marked *. Child labour has also been used in the farming and production of shea butter, vanilla, silk, copper and cocoa. 'Our products are natural, organic, vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil-free, sustainable, handmade in the UK and housed in 100% recyclable and refillable packaging. The concentration of VOCs tends to be at its highest indoors which affects our indoor air quality. Palm oil free products may be tested on animals and may contain animal ingredients. Cruelty free refers to the finished product not the ingedients in the supply chain. This is a significant shift from what consumers wanted five or ten years ago. The problem is there is no such thing as chemical-free cosmetic products, every form of matter has a chemical composition,' explains Brightman. There are some that arecertified B Corps. Do some research into your favourite brands to see if they're ethical. We hope you find some value here atSustainable Jungleand invite you to be part of the community! Is There Such A Thing As A Sustainable Sheet Mask? One solution is to have shorter showers and only turn taps on when you need to use them. What do we look for to determine asustainable beauty product? Greenwashing is when companies use false marketing to sell us products that are not truly eco-friendly. Sustainable Skincare: Everything You Need To Know In One Handy Free Ebook! Approximately 120 billion units of cosmetic packaging are manufactured every year globally, and the vast majority of this packaging is not recyclable. The problem is there are some concerns that usage could overtake supply in the future. You dont need to go out and buy a whole new skincare range straightaway, if at all! We want to encourage companies to keep improving their policies, and to keep innovating in terms of packaging and materials. Toxic chemicals in your skincare get washed down the drain and end up in the ocean, damaging fragile ecosystems and killing aquatic life. Shockingly, somevegan beauty productsmay actually be tested on animals, which is Just insane considering the ethos behind veganism. Products thatdo not containanyGMOs, manufactured herbicides, artificial fertilizers, preservatives, parabens or any other toxic ingredients. Believe us when we say that it takes a LOT of time to find them. Its a wasteful trend, not just because of the accumulation of usually non-recyclable packaging, but also the ingredients used in the formulas and the amount of money spent buying new products. They pay fairly for their ingredients and regularly audit their supply chains through third-party organisations such as Soil Association and Fairtrade Foundation. If you haven't yet seen the list, you can click here to view it. These beauty brands consider their products end of life by developing packaging that can be reused or recycled. If a brand is moving towards "recyclable plastic", we do not consider this step to be a sustainable one. Carnauba and carnelllia wax derived from a palm tree and a shrub both have associations with exploitative working hours in Brazil and Mexico. Click here to download. With all that in mind, we thought it would be fun to create a Venn diagram (who doesnt love a good Venn diagram! This may seem like an obvious one but you would be surprised at how many gallons of water go down the drain when youre brushing your teeth or washing your face. Its also worth noting that eight million tonnes of plastic (not all from beauty products) get dumped in the ocean every year. We certainly felt like that. To get just a taste of these crme de la [eco]crme brands, start by checking out the ones ourbest eco friendly makeup brandsandbest zero waste beauty brandslists. Sadly thesezero waste optionsare not (yet) widely available for the average busy shopper so we also give high points to brands who use post consumer recycled materials and packaging that is widely recycled (glass, aluminum). Vegan products may also contain ingredients which are not organic or natural and the production of which are also harmful to our environment and animals. Read our 5 Minute Guide To Becoming A Clean Beauty Guru, Natural ingredients are only good if they're ethically sourced. Beauty companies are spending more time marketing themselves as environmentally friendly and issuing press releases about philanthropy and sustainable movements within their company rather then actually aligning their brand values and business models to minimize their environmental impact and become a clean brand. Can a product ever be truly sustainable or is it just another marketing ploy designed to seduce more spending? They do not use ingredients derived from palm oil, unless they are sustainably-sourced. Get our July cruelty-free box for a limited time for only $39.99/month (value of $118). Sustainable beauty brands work to limit or mitigate their environmental impact throughout product development. If you'd like to see which brands fulfill the criteria above, please go to our list of sustainable beauty brands. But its important to not let perfection get in the way of progress. Following this, we have easily recyclable materials such as glass and metal. It means that a lot of care and thought has gone into thinking beyond the ingredients themselves but who was involved in obtaining them and were they treated fairly. That feverish encouragement from brands to buy for every season, the never-ending sales and the constant stream of new clothes flowing through the shops. All products from the brand fulfill the criteria above -- not only a few products under their umbrella. Read more about how to identify non-toxic ingredientshere. The most sustainable packaging is refillable or made from paper. The brands that are fulfilling our sustainability criteria are setting an example within the beauty industry, and we strongly urge all mainstream beauty brands to take notes and consider changing their own policies to move in a more sustainable direction. Notice when marketing campaigns are encouraging you to spend and weigh up your needs versus wants to help you be more selective about what you put on your skin. What to know about what to buy for your most sustainable beauty routine yet. But the growth and harvesting of this oil seed crop is, as mentioned above, directly responsible for the destruction of rain forests and the death and displacement of millions of species. It's not all on the beauty businesses to turn things around. This criteria is a little bit harder find out. If you want more skincare advice, we've summarised everything you need to know in a free skincare guide. Click the button below to join our mailing list and download our guide. We believe that plastic is not a sustainable option. 2022 Sustainable Jungle | All rights reserved, What We Look For In Sustainable & Ethical Beauty Brands. Others are fellow1% For The Planet members, committing to give 1% of their earnings to charity. Another example is sandalwood. As a recap, this is a summary of our sustainability criteria: The brand's primary product packaging must be made from sustainable materials and be free from virgin plastic, OR the brands must be in the process of moving towards 100% sustainable packaging. Their eco-friendly beauty products are biodegradable and dont pose a threat to marine life when they end up in waterways. So, when looking out for products and brands well review each of them against these criteria with the aim of ticking as many as possible and hitting that magical bullseye smack bang in the middle. Vegan productsmay contain palm oil, which is not an animal by-product or ingredient. Yourspending habitsare arguably the single biggest weaponin thefight for the sustainability of our planet. VOCs interact with other chemicals in the atmosphere to form ozone pollution which is toxic for our health and the planet. It contains 4 FULL-SIZE products including a large 9-pan eyeshadow palette from Estate Cosmetics. We specifically asked brands about their use of palm oil. Finally, at the very bottom we have virgin plastic which may or may not be recyclable. Copyright Pebble Magazine 2022. Sustainable beauty as we define it in this article is crucial in 2021. Consumers are increasingly looking for transparency - is the brand authentic or simply paying lip service ('greenwashing')? In the beauty and personal care industry, we believe the following key practices are indicative of a truly sustainable and ethical business ethos something which is rather hard to find! 120 billion units of cosmetic packaging are manufactured every year globally. Resist the temptation to discard half used skincare products in favour of shiny new products unless they dont work for you. You might also find it a helpful visual resource for reminding you of the big ethical and sustainable ticket items. Below are some of the top eco and ethical issues in the beauty industry: Packaging is a big problem in the beauty industry. Most of them are small brands where the founder is still involved in the making of the products, though there are a few which are more mainstream. Sustainable Jungle acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung as the Traditional Owners of this country, pays tribute to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this land, and gives respect to the Elders past, present and emerging. Equally, its all about making smart buying decisions when it comes to your skincare routine. This content is imported from Instagram. Finally, if theyre not organic/natural then its possible or even likely that their production has had some negative effect on the health of our environment and our wildlife. But the real cost isnt just the monetary price tag. Investigations have found the illegal use of child labour to source mica from mines in India. When it comes to recycled plastic and bioplastic, these are much more sustainable alternatives. We've broken these down into 3 different areas: the ingredients and formulations, the packagings -- which includes primary, secondary, and shipping packaging -- and the company initiatives. In fact, its the industrys most used ingredient. The planet only has a finite number of resources and keeping up with the latest beauty trends can be a very expensive habit. Let's take a deeper look at the 3 areas -- packaging, ingredients, and policies. These ingredients are often found in beauty products like mascara and lipstick. If a brand is careful about their use of palm oil, they are more likely to be careful about sustainable sourcing overall. Whether you already support sustainable and ethical brands or youre just starting out on your ethical journey youre making a conscious and positive effort for the good of the environment the world needs more people like you! The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) summarizes sustainability as such: Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. While these products dont contain the ingredient thats responsible for the death and destruction of forests and the animals that live in them, they may still contain ingredients which are not organic / natural and as result have a negative impact on the environment and the very creatures were supposed to protect. To be considered sustainable, brands must either not use palm oil or any palm oil derivatives, or they must certify that their palm oil is sourced sustainably. Perfumes, hairsprays and deodorants are all guilty of polluting the environment as much as car emissions. When dealing with sustainability in the cosmetics industry, we can't ignore palm oil. If brands use conscious ingredients, they are most often biodegradable, meaning they will not cause harm to the environment when washed down the drain. Download, read, enjoy and change the world! Sustainable beauty brands do not use ingredients that are known to be toxic to our environment. To The Body Shop, it also means the people involved in their supply chains and stores around the world are paid and treated fairly. Since sustainability in beauty is at its infancy, and because of the nature of consumerism itself, no brand can be perfectly sustainable. Its far more impactful to have a million people buy one less skincare product than it is for a thousand people to go zero waste. Even though challenges like climate change can seem huge and frightening, we can all make positive choices, starting with how we behave, what we choose to buy and use. These for-profit butsocially conscious brandsget our attention! We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. Share your journey, ask questions and inspire others. We plant trees for every subscriber. packaging that can be reused or recycled. We believe that creating virgin plastic is the least sustainable option in terms of packaging, even if the plastic can theoretically be recycled. You could write an extensive list of factors that would make a brand or product ethical and sustainable. These phrases are understood by consumers to be proof of a brands sustainability credentials, when in fact the product may come housed in non-recyclable plastic or have a huge carbon footprint - neither of which are very clean at all! In addition to their packaging and ingredients, company policies are extremely telling when it comes to how seriously a brand takes their environmental impact. 'Many companies buy all their ingredients from large international traders,' says Davis, 'We take a different approach: 23 of our natural ingredients come through our pioneering Community Trade programme which benefits 25,000 people.'. Sustainable beauty is safe for the environment and comes in eco-friendly packaging. For example, if a brand only shows commitment in terms of packaging, yet has no guidelines when it comes to ingredients or overall company policies, we do not classify it as Sustainable. My mission is to tackle ethical issues in the beauty industry one by one and find solutions for a better future. Finally, some haveset up their own charitiesto drive impactful work in areas they care about most. They encourage consumers to use up their products before buying new ones and limit the number of products they release a year. Sustainable beauty is the antidote to the fast fashion mentality. The fast fashion mentality in the beauty industry is a huge problem, not only because it encourages overspending and waste, but its also responsible for a lot of environmental damage. This leads to discarded half-empty bottles of cosmetics and skincare that eventually get thrown out. As consumers, we have the power to steer brands in this direction based on the choices we make. Many beauty and skincare brands launch a new product line several times a year. Join our new business group in our Community. The idea of voting with your money is important, people want to buy from brands whose values are their own. The British Beauty Council have just brought out a Planet Positive Beauty Guide to help answer even more questions - for both consumers and brands. While theres still a lot of that, thankfully there are many great brands out there that are much easier to find now. The beauty industry is similar to the fast fashion industry. This success is mainly down to the rapid development of new products and skincare regimens entering the market. So with a lot of discussion and debate, we look for brands that tick all, if not most of the criteria below. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. This is because plastic has a limited life span, does not biodegrade, and is often not recycled at all. To us a beauty product is only truly sustainable when it ticks all the boxes and one of those boxes must be circularity.'. Some brands were also able to confirm that their ingredients are sustainably-sourced, though there currently isn't an all-encompassing certification. However, after careful consideration, we concluded that some brands which use plastic can reasonably be labeled as Sustainable IF they're making considerable efforts in all 3 areas above, and IF they're using plastic that is either bioplastic or made from recycled plastic. Vegan products can still be tested on animals too. Sustainable & Ethical Beauty Business Practices? We just published our list of sustainable beauty brands, which includes stand-out brands such as Youth to the People, OSEA Malibu, and ILIA. We ranked primary beauty and personal care packaging from best to worst, as shown below. That is to say, no brand or product is perfect. It's a complicated topic with many different aspects to consider, from the raw materials which are harvested and processed, to the manufacturing of the products and the packaging, to the product reaching the end consumer. Its not just the packaging thats bad for the planet. At the very very least, we want to see packaging that is recyclable (and hopefully made from recycled goods too). You can also make the most of beauty packaging recycling schemes. The skincare and beauty industries are a growing but so is their environmental impact. All the best as you get your business set up! This results in pollution, sea life devastation and contamination in the food chains. Beauty Is Navigating The Climate Crisis Post-COP26, ELLE Edit: 8 Sustainable Perfumes To Invest In, Oddbox Beauty Is The New Zero Waste Beauty Trend, Upcycled Fragrances Are Making Scent Sustainable, Everything You Need To Know About Sustainable Beauty, ELLE, PART OF THE HEARST UK FASHION & BEAUTY NETWORK. Simply turn off the tap when you dont need it. ELLE participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. These are the aspects we've considered when it comes to ingredients and formulations. This plastic waste is not biodegradable, and scientists suggest that by 2050, there will be about 12,000 metric tons of it in our landfills. The brand uses refillable packaging, paper and cardboard, bamboo, glass, and aluminum whenever possible. The Clean Beauty Movement: What Is It And Why Is It Controversial? They only use certified cruelty free and organic ingredients to ensure animal welfare is upheld throughout the supply chain. Hi kitties! What constitutes sustainable packaging according to our criteria?