Sustainable beauty. What is it? Is it equal to organic/vegan? What can we do as a consumer? How can we contribute to it?

Amazingy hosted the event on September 27th, 2018 in their beautiful shop space, with discussions from Khandiz Joni (a green makeup artist and founder of Untainted Magazine), Dörte Lange (founder of The Lissome), and the Amazingy team.

Here is my conclusion which I hope to bring more discussions and awareness to the subject.

What is Sustainable Beauty?

Sustainable Development

Defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), sustainable development has emerged as the guiding principle for long-term global development. Consisting of three pillars, sustainable development seeks to achieve, in a balanced manner, economic development, social development and environmental protection. (from United Nations).

From this definition, sustainable seemed likely to be the all-encompassing one. Balance is a tricky word, as the definition of each needed to be very clear. What if environmental protection will lower economic development? Would it be good enough to maintain a certain kind of balance? My own personal quest in this is, how can we stay sustainable while still be able to use beauty products.

Does Sustainable Beauty Equal to Organic/Vegan/Clean Beauty?

Unfortunately, it goes deeper than that. It is also about how the company sourced the ingredients, what kind of packaging they are using, what kind of energy do they use when manufacturing the products. Organic and vegan products have its merit, but, for example, it could use palm oil from a non-sustainable source, or it could have an organic/vegan ingredients that are unsustainable to produce, not to mention production and packaging control.

Khandiz pointed out that L’Oreal is the most sustainable beauty company in 2017. A list that is compiled by an international organization called CDP (although noted that the company list mostly comprised of big international brands/holding.). L’Oreal also has initiatives for sustainability with goals for the future. Find out more of the initiative here.

What Can We Do As A Consumer?

I was looking for a lifestyle change. It might be just a little thing or in the way I consume things. In the end, my biggest lesson is to only buy products I need and finish it (something I have to work on, but already imagining the $$ saved).  Other important takeouts I got from the talk:

  • Take responsibility for the products we buy. Try to find out how this company sources the ingredients and produces it. If they don’t say in the packaging or website, then ask!
  • Green chemistry exists. There are safe synthetics ingredients too.
  • Buy only the products you need! It’s so easy to get anything these days, online and in stores. It is mostly not necessary to stockpile.
  • When we know your beauty routines well, we also what kind of products we’d like to use. (Aka don’t buy so many contouring powders when I only do it every once in a blue moon).
  • Different looks can be made with different products being used differently.
  • Reuse, even if it means spraying alcohol on top of a powder product to re-sanitize it. That being said, if things started to smell funky or go way past its expiration date, then get rid of it.
  • Finish what you buy.
  • Don’t save an expensive product for a rainy day or special occasions. You are allowed to look like a million bucks every day.
  • Try before you buy, which is especially true for foundations.
  • Choose products based on ingredients.
  • Investigate what your local recycling policy.

How Can We Contribute More?

This is where it gets exciting. We were divided into three groups and discussed three different topics with the speakers. Our group had the contributing questions of what’s the effect of media of how you perceived beauty, what is still missing from the space, and what can we do to align more with our values. These are more or less my takeouts:

  • We are more or less influenced by what the media said about beauty. This meant we need to be more proactive in what we consume in the media, and in the social media. We could redefine what beauty meant for us, and ultimately be confident and beautiful in our own skin. Beauty needs to be fun for us, and not for confirming to someone else’s standard.
  • While diversity in beauty is getting better, the organic beauty space still has some catching up to do (hint: possible new ventures!)
  • There is still a mystery in looking for the right ingredients. While it’s a very valid point that we all need to get knowledgeable about the products we put on ourselves, it takes a lot of time to research. This is where I think stores like Amazingy is really great because they curated the products sold on their site based on the ingredients.
  • To start curating for ourselves, we could start by choosing a must-have value (e.g. sustainable, functional, clean, vegan, not-tested-on-animal), and then expanding it to other values we have. The end goal to only use products that fit all of our values, and in turn provide a sustainable platform for beauty.

Now I’m going to start my pledge of not buying things unless it’s a replenishment or it’s something I truly need. At least until the holiday starts.