When I started looking into sustainable beauty, I came across a lot of articles telling me what kind of sustainable beauty products I should buy. And while I appreciate the input, it seemed kind of counter-intuitive to me to buy oodles of new stuff to try to live more sustainably. Here’re some pointers what to do instead.
Slowly, among beauty enthusiasts, a change is happening: more often the thought turns up that mayyyyyybe it’s not really justifiable to shop till you drop and amass more and more products. Changing years of habit, though, is hard, and that’s why I want to write about the first, baby steps after you found out that, in fact, you can’t reconcile your shopping habits with your conscience any more.
What I’m going to tell you is maybe hard to do is not really difficult, and it doesn’t demand that you konmari all your stash first and then buy new products.
Declutter, organise and use
The holy trinity of sustainability. Get rid of the corpses in your closets and drawers, organise your stash in a manner that’s helpful to you, and start to use the things you love. All the time. Why settle for a mediocre product? No. You don’t want to waste your time with crap. Use what you love. And presto, the urge to buy and buy and buy will fade, because you’ll love using your stash.
Recycle
I’m not only talking about using recycling bins for plastic, paper and glass and so on. (Although you should.) But educate yourself what you can do about the waste you produce. And there’re also fun projects around: you can not only upcycle beauty packaging (look at the hashtag on insta!), but also return Lush’s black pots to earn a free face mask, or return empty packaging to MAC for their Back To MAC program. Win!
Re-buy
When you finish products, is it possible for you to replace it with a sustainable brand next? Educate yourself on sustainable beauty brands. Check labels and homepages to learn more about their stance on sustainability.
Furthermore, check out if cosmetic products are re-fillable. Hourglass offers refills for their lipsticks, MAC has eyeshadow refills, and Kjear Weis has a lot of refillable options. Less waste – win.
Also, if you’ve got the option, try out samples of products you’re lemming. Is the product really for you? Swatch! Because nothing is more wasteful than a product you bought and can’t or won’t use.
Multi-use
Ditch single use products whenever you can. I know, I know – I love sheet masks as much as the next beauty junkie, but look at that mountain of waste after you used on. Outer packaging, backing material, the mask itself – ugh!
The same goes for face wipes, plastic q-tips and cotton rounds. Try to go for a product that’s either biodegradable or try a multi-use version! You can now buy cotton rounds made of flannel or bamboo that you can throw in the wash and use multiple times.
What are your best tips to start a sustainable beauty lifestyle? Share!
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