Sustainable Beauty: 6 Trends to Look For in 2021

Green consumerism is trending, and with the extra time we have staying safe at home due to the pandemic, here are 6 sustainable beauty trends to look for in 2021 to keep yourself and our planet beautiful.

Since more cosmetics companies are seeking out natural and environmentally friendly ingredients, packaging, and products, green cosmetics is gaining more popularity. Nowadays, customers are more focused on whether or not a product aligns with their own values, or if purchasing the product comes with a good cause. Here are 6 sustainable beauty trends for companies to gain inspiration from.

1. Refillables

Many Korean makeup products have already started to release refillable and customisable products, especially with refillable cushion foundations. Amore Pacific Corp has even opened up a refill station for customers to bring an empty container, fill it with their desired products and be charged based on weight. In Australia, skincare brand Azur Pure Skincare encourages their customers to do bottle returns, purchase refill pouches, use their refill machines, or even purchase refills in bulk.

2. Solid Liquid

From shampoo bars to facial cleansing bars, solid liquids are slowly making a comeback. Not only do they save space in your travel bag and bathroom counter, they are also eco-friendly since each solid shampoo bar is equivalent to 10 bottles of shampoo. By 2025, it is estimated that more than 5 billion people will be affected by water shortages. Since 2013, Hong Kong’s Soaper Delights has been making handmade soaps, laundry detergents, and shampoos with natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. British cosmetics retailer, LUSH also sells solid items like perfume, foundation, face wash, moisturizer, facial serums, and more.

3. Waterless Beauty

Water is often the cheapest out of all ingredients when making skincare products, which is why most companies use 95% water, leaving only 5% for active ingredients. Not only does our skin not get the nutrients it needs to replenish, excessive water usage also creates a larger carbon footprint. In order to leave more room for active ingredients and reduce water usage, Singapore cruelty free and vegan beauty brand, Bhuman, sells waterless skincare products. Simply pour some powder onto the palm of your hands, and add water to activate the products. The brand also comes with refills in aluminum bottles to reduce the use of plastics and create a more planet-friendly brand.

4. Biodegradable Products

More than 80% of marine plastic pollution comes from Asia, almost 120 billion units of packaging coming from the beauty industry, with only about 9% of these products being recycable. Ever since, many beauty brands are pivoting to creating recyclable and biodegradable packaging. PURITO is a cruelty-free and vegan Korean brand, and each of their products are packaged using recycled paper with instructions printed on them to avoid printing out a separate sheet of instructions. Besides using eco-friendly packaging, PURITO takes it a step further and also donates a part of their earnings to the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM). Their products do not contain oxybenzone, which is a harmful ingredient to coral reefs. Along with PURITO, vegan brand Ecotools also recently launched the world’s first new biodegradable makeup sponge to decrease waste produced by beauty products.

5. Natural Ingredients

Once the chemicals from cosmetics are washed off our skin, they don’t break down but instead enter our water supply and the ocean, affecting both marine life and our health, and more than 73,000 cosmetic products have been linked to cancer. These statistics have led many brands to turn to using natural ingredients and oils. Balm Botanique is a Singapore-based brand, mainly famous for their natural lip balms and facial oils. Founded by Teresa Foo in 2014, each ingredient has been carefully sourced using certified organic ingredients like ginseng, goji berries, perilla, gac, reishi and shiitake mushrooms. Their products are also packaged in glass. Using natural oil, Coconut Matter is a Hong Kong-based brand which mainly uses virgin coconut oil in their products. Selling clean beauty products such as biodegradable deodorant, lipstick, lip balm, soap scrubs, and body balm, they also use glass jars and aluminium tins so that customers are able to reuse them once they are done with a product.

6. Soy Ink

Extracted from soybeans, soy ink has become a biodegradable alternative to standard petroleum-based ink. Invented in 1970 by the Newspaper Association of America, today, around one third of American newspapers use soy ink. During the production process, they also strip off the proteins that can cause allergic reactions. Dr. Ceuracle’s is a Korean skincare brand that uses soy ink to label each product since it is easier to remove, minimises toxic emissions, and makes recycling easier.