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Beauty

Ethical Beauty: Practical products to start you on your sustainable journey

B / Beauty

Ethical Beauty: Practical products to start you on your sustainable journey

by Sheila Chiang  /   April 20, 2020

Credit: Unsplash

As consumers become savvier about the impact our behaviour has on the environment, we have seen a fast-growing demand for sustainable products and services, such as plant-based food.

Similarly, there has been a shift in behaviour happening in the beauty space, with vegan, cruelty-free and eco-friendly cosmetics becoming more popular than ever among ethically-conscious consumers.

Over the past few years, people have become more mindful of what they put into—and onto—their bodies.

And this not only extends to where the ingredients are from, but what the ingredients are, whether the products have been tested on animals and if the packaging are recyclable.

This shift is attitude is not surprising given that some beauty companies have had bad reps surrounding unethical sourcing of ingredients, child labour, inclusion of harmful ingredients, practising animal testing and use of excessive packaging.

This is why more consumers are becoming more conscious about beauty products. Some people look for brands and products that are:

– vegan

– cruelty-free

-organic / natural

– ethical ingredient sourcing policies and

– thoughtful packaging (which is at the very least recyclable)

If you’re just starting your shift to ethical and sustainable beauty, here are some products you can try to start you off with.

Her World's sustainability issue

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This is how you can be a beauty environmental crusader: Buy smarter with these brands

Which beauty products can (or cannot) be recycled? An expert explains

The farm-to-hair haircare brand to add to your sustainable, clean beauty routine

https://www.herworld.com/gallery/beauty/ethical-beauty-practical-products-sustainable/
Ethical Beauty: Practical products to start you on your sustainable journey
Bamboo Makeup Brushes
image

Try: EcoTools Start the Day Beautifully Kit Makeup Brush Set, 5 brushes, $19.92

It is a good thing that brands are going cruelty-free and making brushes with equally soft, synthetic hair, but there is still a lot of metal and plastic in one makeup brush. Thankfully, there are brands such as PETA-certified EcoTools that not only make their products 100% cruelty-free and vegan, but they also make them from recycled aluminium and plastic. This repurposes metals and plastics, giving them a new leash of life. They even make the handles on their products of renewable bamboo–one of the fastest growing plants on the planet!

Plastic-free Eyeshadow Palettes
image

Try: Aether Beauty Rose Quartz Crystal Gemstone Palette, 12 shades, HK$460 (S$82)

Have you ever thrown away the empty eyeshadow palette after you have hit the bottom of the pans? Well, that is a lot of hard plastic thrown into the bin, without any means of being recycled. It is quite alarming how much un-recyclable hard plastic and metal an eyeshadow palette has!

Beauty brands recognise that and are increasingly producing sustainably packaged palettes, with removal of eyeshadow pans and elastic, and fully made from paper. Paper palettes are a great eco-friendly alternative as they are fully recyclable and zero waste. Best of all, the shades work equally well in a paper palette (read also “10 Companies That Are Going Above And Beyond The No-Straw Movement To Reduce Plastic Pollution“).

Plastic-free Shampoo Bars
image

Try: Lush Angel Hair Shampoo Bar, 55g, $26.50

We all need a good hair wash for greasy hair in Singapore’s hot and humid weather, but it does not always have to be from shampoo in a bottle. More and more brands are releasing plastic-free alternatives that are as eco-friendly as they are effective at giving us shiny and smooth hair. These products work well in tackling various problems from greasy to dry scalp, and the best of all, they are perfect for travel too. Once you lather one up, it works just like regular shampoo.

They reportedly last longer—you can reportedly get more washes out of one bar than out of three bottles of traditional shampoo. These babies are so much better for the environment than liquid options because they are not packaged in single-use bottles and using them creates less waste.

Vegan And Cruelty-free Lipsticks
image

Try: Milani Bold Color Statement Matte Lipstick, 3.6g, $14.16

If a beauty product has been certified vegan, it means that it is free of any animal-derived ingredients, such as honey, beeswax and lanolin. It may sound strange but many cosmetics do contain by-products from animals. Honey, beeswax and lanolin are common ingredients in lip products.

Cruelty-free products simply mean that they have not been tested on animals, but they may not necessarily be vegan. If you are feeling doubtful, choosing vegan and cruelty-free makeup does not mean missing out on the latest trends and an amazing choice of shades because brands like KVD Vegan Beauty (formerly known as Kat Von D) are vegan and still have so many shades of lipsticks.

Organic Cotton Cleansing Pads
image

Try: Avril 100% Organic Cotton & Vegan Cleansing Pads, 70pcs, $5.90

Made from 100% organic cotton fibres, organic cleansing cotton pads do not contain harmful chemicals used in the production of conventional cotton (always a good starting point), including hazardous pesticides applied during cotton manufacturing, such as petroleum scours, heavy metals, flame retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde.

So organic cotton is not just better for the health of the people growing it, it is also considerably better for you, too!

(Read also “Recyclable Facial Pads You Can Reuse 1,800 Times“)

Fair Trade Body Butters
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Try: The Body Shop Shea Nourishing Body Butter, 200ml, $31

Coconut oil, shea nut oil, argan oil and cocoa are some of the common natural ingredients typically sourced directly from developing countries and found in moisturising products such as body creams and body butters due to their moisturising properties. However, more often than not, companies exploit labour and pay the farmers very low salaries. Moreover, these companies make little to no effort in replanting forests where these ingredients are harvested from.

Increasingly, ethical beauty brands sources Fair Trade ingredients from small-scale farmers (paying them a fair wage and helping to pull them out of poverty) and traditional artisans (for example, skilled workers are required to hand-pick, hand-crack and slow-press argan nuts to produce pure, radiant argan oil).

This article was first published in Cleo.

 

  • TAGS:
  • bamboo
  • Cruelty-free
  • earth day
  • eco-friendly
  • ethical
  • ethical beauty
  • plastic free
  • sustainability
  • sustainable
  • sustainable beauty
  • vegan
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