Kicking the plastic habit can feel utterly overwhelming. But with beauty brands eschewing the fossil fuel byproduct, it’s easier than ever.
In the timeline of humans on earth, supermarket aisles filled with plastic bottles and jars of beauty and personal care products are but a blip. That’s not to say our relationship with flowers, clays, mud, and other botanicals revered for their benefits to our skin is new. Quite the contrary. Evidence of all manner of beauty “products” date back thousands of years — from fragrant potions to Cleopatra’s eyeliner to milky sweet bubble baths. It’s only in the last 70 years that our love for beauty products propelled us toward a dependence on plastic — both to house the products and in many cases as a source of ingredients in the products, too.
Now, a crop of clean beauty and personal care labels are working to reverse the trend with plastic-free and refillable beauty items that bring together the best of both worlds: the ingredients we’ve loved since ancient times while also making our relationship with plastic, another relic for the ancient history books.
Plastic in beauty products
Today’s personal care industry is valued at more than $600 billion globally. It’s filled with everything from soaps, hair care products, deodorant, skin care, fragrance, and makeup in any color, shape, or scent imaginable. And, for the most part, all of these products rely on plastic — whether it’s the entirety of a shampoo or body wash container, the spray mechanism in perfume or face mist, the deodorant container, the eyeshadow palette base, the toothpaste tube lid, and so on. While forms of these products all have existed longer than plastic, they are now nearly inseparable from the petroleum byproduct industry, which also includes a range of chemicals and ingredients like petroleum jelly often used in these formulations, too.
Of course, plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. Plastic can take up to a thousand years to decompose, leaking pollutants into the soil and water during the process. These pollutants make their way into the food chain, affecting wildlife and human health. Microplastics have been found in every corner of the planet from the deepest ocean-dwelling creatures to the Arctic circle, human fetal tissue, and everything in between.
Plastic pollution in our bodies and food chain is linked to numerous health issues from metabolic and hormonal disorders to certain types of cancer. It’s no better for the environment, either. Plastics are sourced from fossil fuels — one of the most pollutive industries in the world driving global warming through CO2 production.
Sustainable alternatives to plastic
Alternatives to plastic packaging are becoming more prevalent in the beauty industry, though. These include a resurgence in glass containers that are easily recyclable and reuseable. Metal is also seeing an uptick in use from deodorant containers to balms and creams. Other brands have turned to compostable materials like biodegradable paper or other plant-based packaging that can be recycled or composted.
Many brands are now offering refillable options to reduce waste. Consumers can keep their outer container and simply refill it. While some of the products contain plastic, like lids, companies are working to shift to cardboard cartons or metal — both of which can be recycled.
Personal care and beauty labels ditching plastic
These labels have either eliminated or drastically reduced their use of plastic, providing consumers with responsible options that help them maintain their beauty routines without compromising the planet.
Elate Beauty
Elate Beauty prides itself on providing products with minimal environmental impact. Its products are predominantly packaged in a sugarcane byproduct. It’s a sustainable alternative to plastic that can be composted or upcycled. Elate’s foundations, blushes, and eyeshadows all come in bamboo compacts that are both elegant and eco-friendly.
Athr Beauty
Athr Beauty offers innovative, high-performance cosmetics that are completely free of plastic packaging. Their eyeshadow palettes, for instance, are made using sustainable paper and feature a unique zero-waste design. It also uses recycled aluminum and glass — and when absolutely unavoidable, recycled plastic.
Kjaer Weis
Kjaer Weis operates on a refillable system model. The luxurious makeup line offers sleek metal compacts that can be used indefinitely with its range of refillable makeup products, including foundation, blush, and eyeshadow. This system not only reduces waste but also encourages consumers to invest in durable products.
Meow Meow Tweet
This indie brand is famous for its commitment to low-waste products. Meow Meow Tweet offers skincare items in glass bottles and deodorants in either biodegradable cardboard tubes or in glass jars, reducing the need for plastic significantly.
Ethique
Ethique is on a mission to eradicate the world of plastic waste and offers a range of haircare, skincare, and body care products in bar form — no bottles in sight. Its products are biodegradable and come in compostable packaging.
Bite
Bite was the first company to bring toothpaste tablets to market and uses glass and metal containers for its personal care products, and has a strong commitment to zero waste. The ingredients in its toothpastes and deodorants are natural, and its manufacturing processes are designed to minimize waste and energy use.
By Humankind
By Humankind offers a variety of personal care products like deodorant, shampoo, and mouthwash in refillable containers. The company’s goal is to reduce single-use plastic waste from the bathrooms of every home.
J.R. Liggett’s
The OG shampoo bar brand, J.R. Liggett’s has been making sustainable personal care products for decades. It most recently added a bar-based body oil that is “specially formulated to nourish skin while being completely zero waste and better for our planet,” company president Jim Liggett said in a statement.
Kypris
Kypris marries luxury, high-performance skincare with a gentle footprint. Not only does it only source organic, wild-crafted, and sustainably grown botanicals, but it also eschews plastic whenever possible, opting for durable and recyclable glass and metal for its unrivaled skincare.
Beau Domaine
Brad Pitt’s Beau Domaine (formerly Le Domaine) is made from upcycled grape seeds from the actor’s Miraval wine estate in France. The clean ingredient beauty label also brings that upcycling commitment to its packaging, using upcycled oak wood from wine barrels as well as recyclable glass.
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