How is the Beauty Industry Making Eco-Friendly Choices?
Sustainability isn’t a new word. For years, a buzzword in the beauty and makeup industry, sustainability has finally seen many big brands coming together to develop eco-friendly products. What does sustainability mean in the beauty industry? Let’s have a look.
People are becoming increasingly aware of beauty products’ ingredients and practices and their effect on the environment. More than half of the people say that sustainability is an important factor they consider while buying a personal care product. To give you a clear picture, in the year 2019 alone, the personal care industry produced at least 9 billion units of waste plastic globally. The numbers have continued to increase every year. However, with conscious consumerism in trend and increasing general awareness, beauty products, heavyweights, beauty gurus, and manufacturers have started to create an overall sustainable skincare and beauty industry by providing eco friendly products to the mainstream audience.
Additionally, the number of eco-friendly consumers has increased during the pandemic. In a recent survey conducted by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, more than 50% of the brands and retailers mentioned that people demand environmentally sustainable products and services.
The importance of sustainability in the skincare industry
Sustainable Skincare refers to creating an ecosystem in the personal care industry with the least impact on the environment. How do you do that?
There are many ways brands can take collective actions to create an eco-conscious industry-
- Picking Eco-friendly Active ingredients
- Reducing the use of single plastics
- Using local rainforest herbs as cosmetic ingredients
- Using environmentally friendly packaging like recycled paper
- Ethical labour practices
- Recyclable packaging
- Vegan Skincare practises
In a nutshell, Sustainability refers to implementing eco-friendly practices in every step and decreasing the carbon footprint from raw materials and manufacturing to logistics. It focuses on the use of a reuse model rather than a recycling model.
How can we as consumers support sustainability practices?
The first step is being aware and demanding sustainable products. Brands will have to drop their old habits when the public becomes conscious. Consumers should also demand transparency and honesty from the brands about their ingredients and methods so that companies are forced to share this information through social media and educate their customers. Public awareness is instrumental in brands achieving a holistically sustainable approach to industry practices.
How are brands striving toward sustainability goals?
- Fresh is an LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned skincare brand. The brand’s policy lies in using sustainable ingredients- rose, soy and lotus- by 2023. LVMH is committed to using totally sustainable ingredients in sourcing raw materials in the long term.
- Mella products are environment-friendly, and the brand uses 100% curbside recyclable or biodegradable and compostable packaging for manufacturing skincare products.
- Kose, the renowned Japanese beauty brand, has established a method and research that analyzes the effects of manufacturing the products on the coral reef. Furthermore, they cleared that once the research is over, they will adopt and share the coral reef-friendly practices within the cosmetic industry.
- The famous Australian beauty brand Susanne Kaufmann launched a refill program for its top 3 selling bath and beauty products- Hand Soap, Shower Shampoo and cleansing gel. The refill packs are made of recycled materials, and customers can get them at stores.
- A research team from Italy, India, China and Russia has discovered that fibres can be created from food products. These fibres can be an active ingredient in creams and moisturizers for skin protection. Many cosmetic brands have vowed to use the completed study.
Overall, sustainability is the future of the skincare industry, with more and more consumers demanding transparency and increasing awareness. However, sustainability isn’t possible without a collective effort from the entire beauty industry to come together and create a responsible ecosystem.
