A guide on how to choose more sustainable makeup products
The cosmetic industry is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing industries. We notice this by the number of advertising campaigns we see every day, as well as by the birth of new cosmetic companies every year. Likewise, most cosmetic companies continue to launch new products, since innovation is currently a fundamental pillar for them to keep being "relevant".
Now, how big is the world of beauty? By 2019, the cosmetic industry worldwide already had a total turnover of $532 billion¹. It has been growing rapidly due to the great boom of social media, since YouTubers and Influencers are very close to their community, and their audiences have become loyal to the brands they use and recommend.
As this industry continues to grow, so does the knowledge we have about the ingredients that are used, environmental policies, and social practices. The saying goes "with greater power comes greater responsibility." So in this article, I want to talk to you about how you can choose the companies that are being more responsible with the environment and the health of consumers.
What products are good for you?
You may have heard of the term "clean beauty", this concept derives from the demand of the consumer for not consuming products that contain certain chemicals that can harm their health. However, there is no official list of what these ingredients are. Each company that uses this concept has defined it according to its own standards. This is why it can be confusing to understand the difference between what “clean beauty” is from one company to another.
My personal advice is that you don’t get carried away by that term alone, since many companies use it but it doesn’t necessarily mean that their products are better. That is why if you want to avoid these ingredients, don’t just stay focused on the term "clean beauty" but also look for the list of ingredients it uses.
Here are some examples of ingredients you can watch out for:
- Parabens: Parabens are the most widely used cosmetic and pharmaceutical preservatives worldwide due to their extremely low price, and their bactericidal and fungicidal activity with the product². The vast majority of beauty and personal care products use them. It is very easy to identify if a product doesn’t have them, just look for it to say "paraben-free" on the same packaging.
- Sulfates: Sulfates are present in most foam cleaners, such as bath gels, toothpaste, and shampoos. The danger is that they irritate the skin, cause dryness, and even dandruff³. An excellent option to reduce exposure to them is to opt for sulfate-free shampoos. Although the change can be uncomfortable at first, as this type of shampoo hardly produces lather, you will eventually get used to it, trust me!
- Added fragrances: If there is a high concentration of synthetic fragrances in your creams or in products that will rest on your skin and be absorbed, they could cause you allergies, irritation, redness, and sensitivity. Also, they don't really add value to the product, they don't make it better. When companies use it in their creams and/or serums, it is to give you a greater sense of well-being but they don’t necessarily serve a function per se. To identify if a product has added fragrance, you can search the list of ingredients for these words: "Fragrance", "Perfume", "Linalool", "Citronellol", "Cinnamal", "Limonene", among others⁴.
What products are not tested on animals?
You probably saw the video "Let's save Ralph", created by the NGO HSI (Humane Society International), which went viral this year and seeks to raise awareness about the practice of testing on animals. As a result of that video, they began to talk again about which brands are still being tested on animals. Next, I will list the names of 10 makeup brands that don’t test on animals and 10 that do⁵. There are many more in both categories, but I selected these because they are some of the best known.
Ten cruelty-free makeup companies:
- Anastasia Beverly Hills
- IT Cosmetics
- Kryolan
- LA Girl
- Marc Jacobs Beauty
- Milani
- Natura
- NYX
- Smashbox
- Urban Decay
Ten makeup companies that do test on animals:
- Benefit
- Clinique
- Dior
- Estée Lauder
- Lancôme
- The real
- MAC
- Maybelline
- Max Factor
- Revlon
What products are good for the environment?
More and more companies are joining efforts to minimize their negative impact on nature, and in this segment, I want to share with you how you can identify if a company is really committed to this cause and is making good changes in its policies.
Measuring and acting on the environmental impact
First of all, I want to tell you about a concept: the carbon footprint. What is the carbon footprint? It is an environmental metric that calculates all greenhouse gas emissions (those that accumulate in the atmosphere) generated, directly and indirectly, by a person, a group, an organization, a company, or even a product or service⁶. In short, the carbon footprint can be defined as the environmental impact that human activity leaves on the environment⁷.
Having already reviewed this concept, I want to introduce you to another term: carbon neutral. Being carbon neutral means achieving that these emissions are equivalent to zero, to achieve this it is necessary to create action plans and thus reduce, compensate and/or remove the emissions generated, either by a company, industry, or country⁸. And this is a practice that more and more companies are committing to adopt.
An example of this good practice is Natura, a Brazilian beauty company. It is carbon neutral since 2007. And how do you achieve it? Its program consists of 3 stages: inventory of all emissions generated throughout its value chain, reduction of emissions through a portfolio of initiatives; and compensation for all emissions that could not be avoided. Natura also invests in research and technology to promote continuous and significant reduction.
This is why it is a good idea to support companies that manage to maintain the commitment to reduce their environmental impact, and also compensate for the damage to the ecosystem that is inherent in any industrial production. More and more companies from all different industries are making improvements to have a less negative impact on our planet.
Conscious packaging
A good way to minimize damage to the environment is by reducing the amount of packaging that each product has and/or adding "spare" options. For example, the Brazilian company Natura has replacement options for many of its makeup products, soaps, hair and body products. Also, some more luxurious makeup brands such as Dior or Hourglass have launched lipsticks with the option to purchase spare parts. The brand Charlotte Tilbury has also launched replacement options for powdered products.
Also, there are types of plastics that are easier to recycle than others. For example, "PET" plastic is the easiest plastic to recycle, and "polystyrene" is the most difficult one⁹. For example, the popular black containers from the company Lush, are made from recycled polypropylene plastic. They also encourage their customers to return the empty container to their nearest Lush store to contribute to their internal recycling cycle: each returned container is melted and rebuilt over and over again. And their bottled products are made from PET plastic, which, as we have seen, is the easiest to recycle¹⁰.
What brands are working on a comprehensive benefit?
Although the main, or at least the “traditional” objective of companies is to seek to generate income and work, there is an international certification for companies that are seeking to make a positive impact beyond being lucrative. Certified " B Corp " companies are a new type of company characterized by using their capabilities to help solve social and environmental problems.
For a company to be certified B Corp, they have to meet a large number of different parameters that make it a company that goes beyond an economic benefit and seeks to solve social and environmental problems¹¹.
The B Corp community is made up of more than 1700 companies from 27 countries belonging to 60 sectors. Here are some companies in the beauty industry that have this certification:
- Aesop
- Alima pure
- Beauty Counter
- Natura
- The Body Shop
- Dermophysiology
So what’s next?
As we have seen throughout this article, the commitment of companies to the environment and to the health of their consumers can be measured in an increasingly tangible way. I hope I have helped you broaden your perspective on what to take into account when we talk about sustainability in the world of beauty.
Likewise, it is our right as consumers to have access to information and I encourage you to check on the internet what sustainable practices the companies you consume the most are practicing. And if you see that they do not seem clear enough, or are non-existent, rest assured that there are many alternatives in the market and amazing companies that you can start consuming to take better care of your health and the environment.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com[2] https://www.lavanguardia.com/de-moda/belleza/20151222/30979713014/parabenos.html[3] https://www.lavanguardia.com/natural/20180111/434222053257/champu-sulfate-toxicos-sls-sles-cosmetica-natural.html[4] https://elle.mx/belleza/2021/04/12/evitar-fragancias-skincare[5] https://crueltyfree.peta.org[6] https://www.greenpeace.org/mexico/blog/9386/huella-de-carbono/[7] https://www.nueva-iso-14001.com/2019/09/huella-del-carbono-que-es-como-se-mide/[8] https://sustentable.uc.cl/carbono-neutralidad-uc/627-que-es-la-carbono-neutralidad[9] https://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/ciencia/actualidad/tipos-plastico-segun-su-facilidad-reciclaje_12714/6[10] https://es.lush.com/article/el-reciclaje-de-our-botes-black[11] https://www.mas-business.com/en/us/bcorp_certification