The Rise of Clean Beauty: Towards a Greener Future

The days of people making blind purchases based on brand name and packaging are long gone. The beauty industry has long been chastised for its environmental impact, as beauty and personal care goods have had a significant environmental impact for several years, from non-recyclable packaging to goods with substances that negatively harm marine life, animal testing, and unrecycled plastic containers.
Apparently, demand for clean cosmetics is increasing after the pandemic, changing the makeup industry’s dynamics. Due to the hype of using clean products, people of every age group are now aware of companies’ use of natural components, their commitment to moral and ethical standards, and their environmental impact.
Now, more and more individuals of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds are becoming aware of the consequences of global warming and climate change and are more inclined towards leading an eco-friendly life. As a result, there has been a major change in customers’ tastes and perspectives, particularly concerning the daily usage of cosmetic products. In addition to what they put on their skin and hair for their health, they care about the environment.

What is Sustainable Clean Beauty?

Beauty products that contain safe, naturally occurring elements, including plants and minerals, are known as “clean beauty” products. Because they don’t contain any potentially harmful ingredients, they are both vegan and environmentally friendly.

While avoiding plastic containers and utilizing safe ingredients is crucial, true sustainability includes the recycling or reusing of containers (plastic or otherwise), using eco-friendly materials, to create products with natural ingredients, and making a contribution to the improvement of society and the environment. This implies that every process stage requires active participation in reducing the impact.

To put it briefly, sustainable beauty takes into account how its existence will affect the earth in the future. Beauty brands must acknowledge that sustainability does not equate to avoiding substances on “the dirty list.” Rather, it should encompass accountability for the ingredient’s origin, production process, safety, and ultimate use.

Why Buy Natural and Sustainable Cosmetics?

Sustainable Approaches: Natural ingredients, eco-friendly packaging, and waste minimization are some of the examples of sustainable practices beauty companies are using. By using these products people can achieve gorgeous skin and can also help to ensure a more sustainable future for the beauty industry.

Avoid Toxic Substances: Formaldehyde, parabens, and artificial fragrances are some of the harmful ingredients that have been found in cosmetics for a long time. These chemicals react with hormones when absorbed in the blood and negatively affect health.  For example, cosmetics, bathing products, and many other beauty products contain formaldehyde as an antimicrobial ingredient. As per studies, formaldehyde causes neurological, and respiratory problems and can increase cancer risk.

Transparency and Authenticity: To capture customers and make better decisions, clean and non-toxic beauty businesses usually provide all the information about their ingredients and manufacturing procedures. Most people think clean skincare products cost slightly more than synthetic ones. On the other hand, paying a little bit more for perfect skin is ultimately beneficial. Thus, the best method to get clean skin is to convert to natural and organic skincare products.

Building a Green Beauty Future

In response to these consumer demands, the beauty and personal care industries are primarily concentrating on three areas, as follows:

Figure 1: Clean Beauty: Primary Areas

Challenges and Criticisms

The clean beauty movement still has several challenges to overcome. The main challenge is the absence of a clear definition of “clean” in the beauty industry. This lack of clarity is resulting in greenwashing the clean beauty practice, where brands are making false claims to be clean or eco-friendly to attract customers.

Moreover, natural ingredients are not always better than synthetic ones; some of them can trigger allergic reactions or be less effective.

The high cost of clean beauty products is another major concern, as natural and organic ingredients and sustainable packaging are not cost-effective and are frequently more expensive. This may reduce the influence of clean beauty products to a broader audience, limiting its impact. 

Brands Making Differences

Sustainability is affecting consumer choice and forcing brands worldwide to consider their environmental impact. Not only is there a massive increase in customer knowledge, but brands are also making great efforts to guarantee that their environmental impact is reduced to a minimum.

Figure 2: Key-players

A lot of cosmetic companies are working on their sustainability strategies and long-term goals to reduce their carbon footprint and become carbon neutral. Here are some strategies companies are following:

• For example, Dove deodorant from Unilever offers an aluminum-free refillable formula that customers can use instead of buying a new pack.
• Additionally, companies are now cutting down on the traditional manufacture and use of oil-based plastic, plant-based polymers, and other biodegradable materials.
  • Garnier launched a skin serum made of recycled packing material that is produced in a renewable energy plant.

For instance, L’Oréal has set various long-term objectives to achieve optimal sustainability, including-

• By 2025, every location will reach carbon neutrality by utilizing only renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency
• They plan to innovate by 2030 to help their customers cut their product-related greenhouse gas emissions by 25% on average and per completed product by comparison with 2016.
• 95% of formula ingredients will be bio-based by 2030, i.e., sourced from plentiful minerals or cyclical processes
• 100% of the plastic used in packaging by 2030 will come from recycled or bio-based materials (will reach 50% in 2025)

Market Overview

Since now all are aware of the ingredients and their effect on health and the environment, there is a huge customer demand for clean beauty products. Customers have been paying more attention to skincare than makeup over the past few years, which has raised knowledge of product ingredients. It is good to see that younger customers have a high to buy clean products.

Figure 3: Market Dynamics

For the last 3 years, the APAC region has been leading, the clean beauty market, and it is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the future years. Because of the rise in conscientious customers, firms are increasingly being held accountable for their claims while also attempting to meet the shifting demand for clean beauty products.

Future Prospective and Conclusion

Nowadays, clean, sustainable beauty has changed from a cliché to a radical trend that is globally changing the skincare and cosmetic standards and shows no chance of slowing down.

Technological advancement is likely to drive innovation in ingredient sourcing and formulation, resulting in more effective and cheaper clean beauty products.

As we all know, there is a lot of work pending; however, we have already crossed a long path by recognizing the value of sustainability and taking further steps to ensure it.

Consequently, what started as a fleeting trend has steadily transformed into a way of life for many. This trend will help the beauty industry lower its carbon footprint and become more carbon-neutral. Therefore, as the clean beauty industry grows, we anticipate that future innovations will concentrate on controlling the waste we have generated over the years rather than just using clean chemicals. The only path ahead that can secure our planet’s common well-being is one of sustainable and pristine beauty. It is our only home, after all.