10 Sustainable Beauty Brands You Should Know

The eco-friendly movement is becoming more popular in society today.

More people are no longer using plastic straws, and there are more vegan food products available. Even the beauty industry is trying to become more sustainable.

The beauty industry is notorious for controversial ingredients, animal testing and creating a huge amount of plastic waste. To live more sustainably, here are some beauty brands with environmentally-friendly packaging and formulas. Right now they’re outliers, but perhaps some day they’ll become the norm.

1. Kinship

This beauty brand uses ingredients that are clean, cruelty-free and plant-based. They are dedicated to incorporating post-consumer recycled materials such as Ocean Waste Plastic (OWP) and minimal packaging.

OWP is plastic waste collected by local fishermen and volunteers in and around the Java Sea and beaches of Bali, Indonesia that is recycled into new, sustainable packaging. Kinship includes OWP in their jars and lids, with the goal of sourcing 100% OWP.

2. Farmacy

Farmacy uses clean, organic ingredients. They partner with organic farms that employ sustainable methods and package responsibly. Their packaging is made with FSC-certified paper from well-managed forests, inks based off of naturally renewable raw materials, and the jars are recyclable as well.

3. Lush

While Lush is well-known for their colorful bath bombs, each of their products, ingredients and packages are geared toward sustainability. Lush is a brand that aims to set themselves apart from just another clean cosmetics company. They also put together charities, funds and campaigns involving sustainability, animal rights and benefits for the countries that grow their ingredients.

4. Herbivore Botanicals

For their formulas, they source natural ingredients, plant-based food-grade cold-pressed oils, essential oils, along with many certified organic ingredients. Their team incorporates recyclable and reusable materials such as paper and glass in the packaging. Because petroleum-based plastics are thought by some to be a leading cause of climate change, their sustainable objectives for 2020 include using only non-virgin plastics and easily recyclable materials.

5. Tata Harper

The majority of Tata Harper’s packaging is made from glass because it has a relatively high recycling rate and can be reused. Their formulas are 100% natural and completely biodegradable. This means they don’t pollute the water, the earth, the air or our bodies. Their ingredients are grown in their own farms.

6. Love Beauty and Planet

This is a popular drugstore brand, known for their hair and skincare products that advocates for sustainability. They infuse each of their formulas with many ingredients that only come from certified sustainable sources. Love Beauty and Planet’s sustainably sourced packaging focuses on eco-friendly materials, and they work on reducing their ecological footprint.

7. Osea

Osea uses formulations of certified organic, bioavailable seaweed that are blended with pure steam-distilled and cold pressed essential oils. Their products are all plant-based and gluten-free, all exclusively considered vegan skincare.

In 2002 OSEA became the first company to sign The Compact for Global Production of Safe Health and Beauty Products, an initiative from the Environmental Working Group. Their mission is to ensure products are “free of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects,” which aligns seamlessly with the ethos behind Osea’s products.

8. Ilia

Ilia is known for its clean makeup products, and the brand advocates for sustainability. Their formulas are designed with active levels of skincare ingredients that shield skin from environmental stressors. Ilia strives toward more sustainable packaging by using recycled aluminum, glass components and responsibly sourced paper.

9. Cocokind

Cocokind is a clean beauty brand through their packaging as well as their formulas. They only package the products with glass for their bottles and jars. They use flint glass, which is the purest form of glass because it requires fewer materials and processes to produce. Their formulas are all organic and waterless.

10. Krave Beauty

Krave Beauty’s products are 100% recyclable, vegan and cruelty-free. When you place an order, you can choose a carbon offset shipping offer and the products will arrive in a 100% recyclable carton with no excess fillers. They also use their platform to support environmental causes around the world. Krave has donated to relief funds fighting deforestation in the Amazon and bushfires in Australia, as well as conservation efforts in the Great Barrier Reef. They are also a member of 1% For The Planet and have pledged to donate 1% of all their profits to global environmental protection projects.

The Next Step

You don’t have to completely switch over to a sustainable beauty routine right away. You can take it one step at a time. Eventually, you’ll be changing daily habits that can help the environment in the long term and even inspire others around you to do the same. Start making a conscious effort to support brands that go above and beyond to obtain sustainable ingredients and make responsible packaging.