Help the planet with some considerations to your makeup choices.
The beauty industry hasn’t always been known for being the most sustainable, with 95% of cosmetic packaging being thrown away according to the British Beauty Council. So how can you recycle what you’re not using and make better beauty choices?
Natural Packaging
Some zero plastic brands are now going for a strong cardboard packaging which means they’re recyclable in your usual recycled paper or cardboard bins. They’re mostly used for natural deodorants which aren’t only proven to be better for the planet, not being a difficult to recycle aerosol, but are better for your skin as they forego harsh chemicals. You can now even get dry hair shampoo and hairspray in an aerosol-less format so you can skip the cans completely!
Refills
Refills are a gamechanger when it comes to makeup, since the usable product we’re using is often only a small proportion of the overall packaging. For example, a lipstick contains the bullet and its twist up packaging but when we finish the bullet, we also throw away the holder.
Big and small beauty brands are getting on board with providing refills, at Charlotte Tilbury for its bullet lipstick shades they sell a reusable case and a refill bullet you can put into it when you’ve run out – meaning you throw away next to no waste when buying a lipstick. Bobbi Brown does the same with its Long-Wear Brow Pencil, and so do Hermès with its powder blushes, to name a few. You can even buy refills for your deodorant now by investing in the holder once and buying refills of the deodorant when you need.
Recycle
Recycling isn’t just putting empties in the right bins, what about the endless untouched products you have lying around at home? Try break up old makeup products to make new ones.
Create your own lipstick shade by melting down stubs or whole bullets of lipstick which you don’t use. Play around with which shades you include and create something you really want. To set the product you can either find a lipstick bullet mould on Amazon or you can simply reuse an old lip balm tin!
For powder products like blush, eyeshadow, or bronzer, you can crumble the product in an appropriately sized makeup pan for what you’re making. Combine it with another crumbled powder and crush the two until fine. Add a small amount of rubbing alcohol to the powder and create a paste. Compress this paste into the pan, soaking up a little of the rubbing alcohol, and leave to dry overnight. And voila!