The beauty community has stepped up in recent times to evolve and become more sustainable. The wider community’s push to be more sustainable in all facets of life, means we’re making sustainability part of who we are. Beauty brands are listening and turning words into action from incorporating sustainability in packaging, ingredients and being more active in sustainable activities. This is not only great for us as consumers, but good for the planet!
Here are some quick ways that you can consider sustainability when making your beauty choices.
Recycling your empties
MECCA has a partnership with TerraCycle that is a free national in store recycling collection program for customers’ empty beauty products. TerraCycle bins are located in all stores across Australia and New Zealand. The in-store TerraCycle bins have been locally manufactured in Melbourne and are made from 100% post-consumer waste of empty beauty containers that customers and MECCA team members have recycled through TerraCycle.
Look for brands that have sustainable packaging
Brands are finding ways to incorporate sustainability in their packaging.
Two examples show that this is front of mind for brands.
Lancôme’s latest mascara Hypnôse Le 8 is the first recyclable mascara made with glass bottle and vegetal brush fibres.
All cardboard cartons in the kit skincare range include FSC-certified paper stocks, free of lamination, printed with soy-based inks and are 100% recyclable. The majority of kit products are packaged in glass or aluminium which can be recycled and transformed into something new through MECCA’s partnership with TerraCycle. Where plastic is unavoidable, kit partners with The Waste Revolution to offset its plastic footprint. For every kilogram of plastic used, one kilogram is collected or recycled on kit’s behalf that otherwise wouldn’t be.
Refills
Many brands are looking to create packaging that allow you to buy refills rather buying a new product! Often the refills are cheaper than purchasing a new product which means it’s not only great for the planet but also your wallet.
Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic cream, Lancôme’s Absolue’s Rich cream, Hourglass Confessions lipstick and YSL Beauty Pure Shots serum are just some that this author has purchased refills and saved some money in the process!
Vegan-friendly ingredients
Look for brands that are doing more to incorporate more considered ingredients in their formulations including vegan friendly ingredients. The team at MECCA have helped to provide some clarity and shared a simple guide to some of the terms people bandy about in relation to vegan-friendly beauty. The term vegan-friendly describes products that are free from ingredients derived from animals and/or animal by-products. While the term vegan is similar, it is used to describe brands, rather than individual products. For a brand to be described as vegan, all the products they create must be made without animal-derived ingredients or by-products. In contrast, a vegan-friendly brand may include products that are both vegan and non-vegan. Cruelty-free beauty refers to brands that don’t test their products on animals. At MECCA, brands must be cruelty-free to be represented as vegan or vegan-friendly.
Brands like kit, ilia, Kosas and Glow Recipe are vegan friendly.
Repurpose your beauty empties
MECCA has provided some interesting things to do with your beauty empties. Not only will you be doing your bit for the planet, but these resourceful beauty hacks will look as chic as anything
- Use empty candle vessels to store makeup brushes, stationary or cotton buds.
- Empty fragrance bottles also work as oil diffusers or as single-stem flower vases.
- Reuse your favourite pump bottle packaging as your washing detergent dispenser.
- When travelling, store clean cotton pads in empty moisturiser jars.
- Empty face mist bottles? Use them to spritz the leaves of your plants.
- Try using pre-loved (and clean) liquid liner brushes as a nail art pens.
Brands turning words into action
Often we see brands pay lip service to sustainability but what matters is when brands take action. Garnier is one brand that has committed to reducing its environmental impact and have taken action to fulfil their commitment. They are partnering with Take 3 for the Sea again to help fight the impacts of plastic pollution worldwide. For every Garnier product purchased at Woolworths nationwide this month (September), Garnier will support the removal of three pieces of plastic or litter from Australian oceans. The ‘Buy One, Remove Three’ initiative will see up to 600,000 pieces of plastic removed by October 2023. The renewed partnership between Garnier and Take 3 for the Sea is an important step in the nonprofit’s goal of removing 50 million pieces of rubbish from the environment by 2025.
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