When it comes to the health of our planet there is no time to waste. Right now, there are five trillion pieces of plastic on or near the ocean surface, with an estimated one third of all that coming from beauty and personal care products.
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While tossing an empty shampoo bottle or face cream tub in the bin might feel like the proverbial drop in the ocean, every decision we make about our beauty buys matters. Here are just a few brands taking sustainability and packaging responsibility a lot more seriously, and we hope the more follow their lead soon!
“The only solution for [solving issues with waste] is circularity,” says Emma Lewisham, founder of her eponymous skincare line that cares deeply about closing the loop and creating packaging that is at once highly covetable.
Emma Lewisham Illuminating Brighten Your Day Crème, $112 at David Jones
Dior’s new Forever foundations, now with a cleaner, 86 per cent floral formulation, are housed in bottles of up to 40 per cent recycled glass with lids of recycled plastic. This saves 2.5 tonnes of virgin plastic a year and removing plastic from the foundation’s packaging box means it is entirely recyclable.
Dior Forever Clean Matte 24h Wear Foundation, $95 at Sephora
Meanwhile, Chanel’s new N° 1 de Chanel skincare line is made from up to 97 per cent natural ingredients and comes in either recyclable glass or refillable pots.
Chanel N° 1 de Chanel Powder-To-Foam Cleanser, $75 at Myer
Next up, French salon brand Payot has brought out an organic skin and body line called Herbier that offers recyclable packaging and natural formulas that are as minimal as possible. Their dreamy oil-to-milk face- and eye-cleansing oil has just eight ingredients.
Payot Herbier Face and Eye Cleansing Oil, $31.40 at Fresh Beauty Co
But perhaps the real groundswell is coming from small, nimble brands able to rethink packaging then bring it to market quickly. That can mean no plastic at all, like haircare brand Bar None with its aluminium bottles and minimally packaged shampoo and conditioner bars.
Bar None Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner Bars, $12 each at Woolworths
Antipodes products are made exclusively in New Zealand using locally sourced ingredients. Each are packaged in premium materials that are recyclable and biodegradable.
Antipodes Credo Probiotic Ferment Revitalise Serum, $59 at Adore Beauty
Or there is Tasmanian skincare brand Ewe Care which uses home-compostable packaging for its sheep-milk-based products. You can put its creams in its handcrafted ceramic pots made from local clay and use them time and time again.
Ewe Care Day Cream & Raku Day Ceramic, $165 at Ewe Care
Celebrity stylist Kevin Murphy also felt the weight of packaging responsibility. “My brand alone produced 1.5 million pieces of plastic a year,” Murphy told us.
So he swapped his entire line to bottles made of ocean-waste plastic.
“We generate 56 per cent less greenhouse gases because we are not making packaging out of virgin plastic. All we are doing is shredding plastic so it can be used again and again.”
Kevin Murphy Angel Wash Shampoo, $43.95 at Adore Beauty
Salon brand R+Co meanwhile recently brought out a new Bleu range, which not only offers recycled carbon-neutral bottles but will also plant a tree for every product sold -through its partnership with One Tree Planted, and organisation to global reforestation.
R+Co Bleu Elastic Styling Pomade, $70 at R+Co
