- Good Housekeeping online: How to recycle beauty products.
If you are trying to be responsible about your skin care and beauty products, they can be difficult to find and new ones are now coming on to the market. I'll add to this list as I come across new ones (I'll add the date I come across each item), but I'm not promoting any of them.
Soaps and Cleansers
- Lush: Minimal packaging (from paper, cardboard and potato starch). (2020)
- Faith in Nature: Plastic packaging is 100% recycled and recyclable. Refill stations in independent health food stores. The most popular products come in 5L containers. (2020)
- Soap Co.: Soaps, bath potions and body care made using renewable energy. Employs a largely blind, disabled or otherwise disadvantaged workforce (guide dogs welcomed). Uses bee-friendly botanicals. Packaging is wool, compostable biofilm and non-toxic glue. (2020)
- Soaper Duper: Washes, scrubs and moisturisers. All of the tubs, tubes or bottles can go into recycling bin (no metal spring in the pumps). Company donates to Water Aid. (2020)
- We Are Paradoxx: Favours aluminium packaging which is endlessly recyclable and doesn't release toxins when broken down. Ingredients often locally sourced; formulas multi-purpose and potent so you use less. Donates 1% of profits to For The Planet. (2020)
- Medik8: Skincare products. Glass bottles are 40% recycled (they aim to increase the %). Packaging inserts are recycled card. Buildings run on renewable energy. Medik8's own charity, the Zipper Foundation, donates a minimum of £15,000 to animal welfare each year. (2020)
- Neal's Yard Remedies: Body, face and bath products. Has lobbied against Bee-harming insecticides and microbeads. In 2020 launched Project Frankincense, a tree-planting campaign to protect the endangered Boswellia sacra tree. (2020)
- Byre: An estimated 87,000 tons of whey is wasted every year by the dairy industry. Byre combines powdered whey with other natural ingredients to produce its body washes. A donation from sales goes to the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, which helps farm workers facing difficulties. (2020)
- Dr Craft: Their purple shampoo avoids the use of synthetics pigments by using anthocyanins from blackcurrants skins from food industry waste (e.g. Ribena manufacturing). (2020)
- Plastic Freedom: All beauty and household products are plastic-free. Packaging is cardboard and the company plants a tree for every order received by donating to One Tree Planted. (2020)
- Organic Apoteke: Skincare formulations that are free of emulsifiers. All the packaging is recyclable. (2020)
- Haekels: Based in Margate, has zero waste aims. The handmade range uses locally harvested marine botanicals. Projects include a bartering day when customers exchanged their own items for products, and upcycling Christmas trees into scented candles. (2020)
- Biossance: Lightweight, hydrating and soothing skincare. All the packaging - except the pumps and bottle interiors - is fully recyclable. (2020)
- Bramley: Ingredients are natural, biodegradeable and grown in the UK. Plastic is made using sugarcane instead of fossil fuel. Glass bottles are available, and 5L bottles to refill from at home. (2020)
- Ren: Skin, body and bath products. Plans to be zero waste by 2021 by making every component of every tube, pot or bottle recyclable, compostable or reuseable. Is working with Terracycle's new project Loop, which will collect specially made glass bottles from your door, for you to reuse, recycle or refill and return. (2020)
- The Body Shop: Recycling bins in stores are part of the aim to collect and recycle 25% more packaging than it sells. Bottles are 75% recycled plastic (a small quantity of virgin plastic (ideally not from fossil fuels) keeps the bottles going for longer. (2020)
- Face Halo: the Modern Makeup Remover (wipes). Just add water and wipe - no cleanser required. Removes all make-up, including eye make-up. You can machine wash the wipe around 200 times. (2019)
- Simple Kind to Skin Biodegradable Cleansing Wipes. The first mass-market, biodegradable make-up wipes. Made from sustainable wood pulp so will home compost in 42 days, but are still powerful enough to take off waterproof mascara without alcohol or harsh cleansing agents. (2109)
- Dr Lipp Tint. Hint-of-a-tint lip balms that are good for everyday moisture and shine. Each has only four ingredients, one of which is a vegetable pigment (e,g, elderberry, sweet potato, radish) to give a natural looking colour. (2019)
- Axiology: Lipsticks and crayons are made from plant-based butters, oils and pigments, in recyclable casings, and packaged in cardboard sleeves made from recycled paper waste in Bali. Other products in development.
- Tropic: Refillable make-up palettes. Double-offsetting carbon emissions helps conservation projects in the Amazon and it funds one day's worth of school education in Cambodia, Nepal and Myanmar for every £50 in sales. (Also has skincare, haircare, bath and bodycare products.) (2020)
- Kevin.Murphy: Haircare brand aims to remove plastic by switching all products to 100% ocean waste plastic. (2020)
Fragrance
- Clean Reserve: A vegan fragrance brand sources ingredients from companies that pay Fairtrade prices and support the environment and local communities. Packaging includes compostable cellophane, water-based inks and sustainably sourced wood. (2020)
Good Housekeeping online: How to recycle beauty products.
