Sustainability has become a trend due to this generation’s increasing environmental awareness. This awareness has affected consumer demand—all for the right reasons. People nowadays are looking for ways to make their daily routines more eco-friendly. As a result, companies are now more environment-conscious and are starting to incorporate sustainable options in their products and business strategies.
The beauty industry, for one, has its long history of being harmful to the environment. Many companies use excessive nonrecyclable packaging, and there’s no transparency when it comes to ethical practices in the production and the ingredients they use.
Making beauty routines more sustainable is a step toward becoming an eco warrior. Here are tips for an eco-friendly beauty routine and being kinder to the planet.
Have a Meaningful Goal
It can be alarming how many beauty products contain potentially hazardous ingredients that may enter the bloodstream through the skin. The same can be true to the environment, with the products people use.
Be clear and intentional when it comes to making the switch to an eco-friendly beauty routine. Knowing the harmful effects (e.g., plastic ending up in oceans, animal testing) of certain products on the environment makes it easier to decide on the next actions.
Set a Budget and Timeline for Transition
Be realistic. The switch to eco-friendly routines does not have to happen overnight, nor is it feasible to do it in one go. If you have a product that’s about to run out, look for sustainable alternatives you can consider for your next purchase.
Have a specific monthly budget for replacing your beauty stash.
Simplify Routines
Advertising has led people to believe they need multiple products to achieve optimum results, which isn’t always true, especially in the beauty realm. Simplifying makeup routines such as by minimizing product use, reducing the amount of water for cleansing, and using multipurpose products can do a lot for reducing waste. It saves time, energy, and money too.
Learn Which Ingredients to Eliminate
Being acquainted with the back of the bottle or package and reading its ingredients can be overwhelming. Start with two or three components to eliminate; choose chemicals that are harmful to both the skin and the environment. Once you’re familiar with certain ingredients, your knowledge of knowing what’s safe for the skin and environment will grow.
Create Homemade Beauty Products
Thanks to the internet, many instructional materials are available when it comes to creating homemade beauty products and skin-care products. And when creating products yourself, you know your products are safe and organic. Knowing where to ethically source products and ingredients also helps ensure the products are all natural.
Repurpose Products
By now, with your knowledge of eco-friendly alternatives and DIY beauty products, upcycling certain makeup products is a true mark of eco-friendly beauty practice.
Don’t let the containers of serums, cleansers, and moisturizers go to waste. Repurpose them to become new homes to DIY versions of your beauty essentials. The tub of moisturizer can also be an earrings jar or a pin holder. The possibilities are endless.
Keep in mind: using products for more than one purpose is at the heart of many sustainability practices. If you can clean it, you can reuse it.
Join Sustainable-Beauty Communities
One way to be consistent, be more educated, and immersed in an eco-friendly lifestyle is finding like-minded people. Online forums and beauty communities are an excellent place to start.
Read and share firsthand accounts of experiences in living a sustainable life. Make the change beneficial to your social being. Go beyond the people, and give positive feedback on cosmetic sites; be a direct influence in making the switch.
Sell Online to Spread the Word
Influence people with your advocacy by sourcing or creating your own sustainable beauty products, and sell these items online. There are a lot of platforms online to reach out to more people and grow or connect with the community.
Reach out to more individuals who are planning to transition just as you have. Who knows? Your products may be one of the reasons people are getting on board.
Environmental concerns are prompting beauty consumers and businesses to transition to sustainable practices, but beauty doesn’t have to be bad for the environment. When shopping for your essentials, know that there are tons of eco-friendly alternatives.
Although these involve extra costs and sacrifices, the efforts go a long way into protecting and prolonging the life of the environment. A few tweaks to your everyday choices can make all the difference.
*Any items sent for review are written about 100% honestly and in my own words. Sometimes collaborative content and partnerships with brands will appear on this blog. Affiliates links are used throughout this blog.