As an environmentally conscious person, I always prefer finding a sustainable and eco-friendly brand. With the growing number of sustainable makeup brands, supporting those who care for the planet is easy if I do the necessary research and know what to look for in a brand you too can support the clean beauty industry.
In recent years the number of eco-friendly or sustainable makeup brands have begun growing exponentially, making it harder and harder to choose the right brands for the right reasons. To mix in with this these companies are also part of the vegan and cruelty-free movement as well as striving for use of organic ingredients in their products.
Below I cover some of the most sustainable makeup brands I have used and recommend and explain what these eco-friendly brands are doing to ensure their products are made sustainably and better for the environment.
1. Izzy Zero Waste
As the name suggests, Izzy Zero Waste is one of the growing clean beauty brands that focuses on being as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible when making makeup products. Izzy Zero waste specializes in making zero waste mascara but also has other products available.
As stated on the Izzy Zero Waste Website, the brand focuses on making carbon-neutral, ethically sourced, vegan and cruelty-free, and clean products. Their zero-waste makeup is also palm oil free as well as gluten-free. that still make ladies look and feel beautiful. To reduce its carbon emissions produced during manufacturing, Izzy manufactures everything nearby.
To ensure that their products produce as little waste as possible, Izzy Zero Waste also uses reusable sustainable packaging for mailers to send their products to their clients, and when I wanted more, I used the same mailer to get a refill. This strategy helps cut packaging pollution and ensures containers get reused as much as possible.
2. ILIA
ILIA is another of the growing sustainable makeup brands looking to push the boundaries of what is and isn’t possible when it comes to being as green as possible. Not only is this brand working on cutting down on its waste production, but it is also working towards improving the world in several ways, including planting more trees, being vegan and cruelty-free.
According to the ILIA website, they are working towards planting more trees in Peru by using some of the company’s money and dedicating it to that cause. I also found that ILIA has a page explaining how they are attempting to recycle more while still making good products I can enjoy.
Since ILIA produces many different products, they are trying to source everything they use as ethically and sustainably as possible. Beyond sourcing their materials, they also allow and ask customers to send in up to 10 empty beauty products they will recycle as part of their agreement with Pack Collective.
3. Caliray
Though the brand’s quirky exterior may fool most, Caliray is another eco-friendly company serious about being cruelty-free, sustainable, and protecting the environment. According to Caliray’s website, this California-inspired brand does everything possible to make the world a better place with its eco-friendly makeup while making us feel beautiful.
This brand makes its products using responsible sourcing for everything from its mascara, to bronzer, and also uses sustainable packaging. When looking through their products, I also found that they use minimal decoration to ensure their containers are easy to reuse and recycle after use.
Caliray goes above and beyond by allying with the Pact Collective to recycle hard-to-recycle sustainable makeup containers. According to the website, Caliray is striving towards a better future and further improving by becoming plastic, carbon, and climate neutral by 2024.
4. Antonym Cosmetics
Just by looking at some of the products Antonym Cosmetics sells, I could tell that this company is trying to change how sustainable makeup is packaged and sold to make it more sustainable and eco-conscious. Antonym makes various cosmetic and makeup products that are cruelty-free and sustainably sourced.
While looking at the details about Antonym Cosmetics via their website, I could also view all of their certifications and how they use them to make makeup guilt-free. With the variety of products Antonym can offer, I and anyone else can rest assured that it is all organically sourced and natural.
Antonym also ensures that all the sustainable packaging they use to sell their products gets sourced in a way approved by FSC paper, which provides paper sourced responsibly and from well-managed areas that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits.
5. Kjaer Weis
Kjaer Weis is one of the most well-known sustainable makeup brands in the market, with sustainable packaging that is usually either refillable, recyclable, or even compostable. This company does its best to make the consumer and the earth happy and beautiful with organic makeup products.
The sustainable makeup I have found from Kjaer Weis is all sold in sustainable packaging that is either recyclable or refillable, making it a guilt-free buy. In addition to their sustainable packaging, I can also be confident that none of their products get tested on animals, and they dedicate themselves to being cruelty-free.
By looking on the Kjaer website, I found that this company also has strong relationships with its suppliers, which is one of the ways they ensure that their sourcing gets done in an ethical and non-harmful manner.
6. Mob Beauty
Mob Beauty employs sustainability in every aspect of its business model, from the products they source to their sustainable packaging. Mob beauty, like others, promotes refillable containers rather than making single-use products.
According to the Mob Beauty website, they also form part of the Pact Collective, making recycling smaller plastic packaging and usually less recyclable products possible. With the focus on a recycling program, most of the products I’ve seen sold by Mob Beauty gets made with recyclable or recycled sustainable packaging.
Mob Beauty also dedicates itself to ensuring that its products are sourced sustainably and made cruelty-free. Included on their website, Mob also gives instructions on how to reuse or recycle any materials I receive when I buy one or more of their brilliant products.
7. PYT Beauty
Another brand making significant strides towards being completely sustainable is PYT Beauty, something I could see as soon as I first saw their website. However, they go above and beyond and have a list of cruelty-free ingredients they will not allow in their products to certify they are safe for use and the earth.
Though this brand does not promote refillable containers, they have something that is at least as good, pre-degraded plastic. Any product I buy will contain post consumer recycled plastic and also get made with sugarcane-based plastic, a sustainable resource for their products.
PYT Beauty has employed tactics to lower its plastic footprint to nearly 0%, with the pre-degraded plastics being much more earth-friendly than traditional plastic.
What Makes Makeup Brands Sustainable?
There are a couple of qualities to consider when determining whether a brand is sustainable, including the company’s plastic and carbon footprints, how they source their materials, and even how they package their products.
According to Elle, for a company to be plastic-negative or lower its plastic footprint, they need to use more post-consumer recycled materials than the harmful plastic materials it puts into the world. The best way to do this is to ensure the products I buy are refillable, made from degraded plastic, or recycled while ensuring they can be again.
A brand’s carbon footprint can get lowered drastically by ensuring all manufacturing happens close by, so no additional vehicles are traveling to every point of production. The way a company sources its materials, if the materials are close, can also help reduce its carbon footprint.
Sustainable sourcing is also critical to an excellent sustainable brand since not all resources will be there forever; the company needs to take what it needs and allow the sources to regrow or produce more. One example is picking only a specific plant part while the rest is allowed to grow.
How To Know If Makeup Brands Are Sustainable
Most big sustainable makeup brands have websites, and though it is easy enough to lie about their achievements, the certifications can help myself and others determine whether a brand is truly sustainable or just putting up a front to drive more sales.
Glamour wrote an article explaining how to verify that a natural beauty brand truly is following sustainable practices, such as how a brand can get several certificates for being a green or sustainable company, including certificates from Eco-Cert, FSC, Leaping Bunny, and The Vegan Awareness Foundation.
Some of these certificates may not seem to have any impact, but for example, a certified cruelty-free vegan makeup brand allows me the peace of mind that no animals are being abused or used to create the products I use to make myself feel beautiful.
Are Sustainable Makeup Brands Better For The Environment?
According to the Visegrad Journal on Bioeconomy and Sustainable Development, the manufacturing and consumption of single-use plastics used by the beauty industry, such as mascara wands, is detrimental to the environment. Landfills are reaching capacity at alarming rates, and the oceans are polluted by excessive waste.
Redesigning the packaging of sustainable cosmetics is a significant factor in being able to reduce the environmental load. Transforming sustainable makeup brands and increasing the use of natural materials for appearances and packages have significantly reduced the amount of waste that large corporations produce.
Organic makeup labels ensuring that the product uses biodegradable, recyclable, and reusable materials are imperative to creating a safer and greener future for the new generations. Sustainable development can also protect the earth from rising levels of greenhouse gases and global warming.
To change and make a difference in the world, use products that are cruelty-free, use organic ingredients, and sustainable makeup brands wherever possible. It’s the simplest way to help the environment and look beautiful while doing it.
Conclusion
Numerous sustainable makeup brands on the market claim to be cruelty-free, contain organic ingredients and are sustainable. To ensure that a brand truly is practicing sustainable methods, they will usually have certificates on their websites from organizations such as Leaping Bunny, Eco-Cert, FSC, and the Vegan Awareness Foundation.
