Take a look at the ingredient list on your moisturizer label. First, count them. Then ask yourself if you know what they are.
My cream, which is vegan and comes in a bottle made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, contains 26 listed ingredients, half of which I can’t pronounce, let alone explain.
The longest of them is “acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer”.
A quick internet search tells me that this is a synthetic ingredient, commonly used in skin care as a thickening agent.
But what is the environmental impact of this substance? Was it manufactured using “green chemistry,” which aims to reduce environmentally harmful chemicals and processes?
Is it biodegradable or will it persist indefinitely in waterways or landfills?
Complicated task
In the absence of a chemistry degree, understanding how to make sustainable choices with skincare products is not an easy task for most consumers.
Information on the environmental and social impact of beauty ingredients is scarce, despite the prevalence of cosmetic use.
There is little recent data on how many products are typically used each day, but a 2004 survey of 2,300 people estimated that women use about 12 beauty products a day and men six.
Like the fashion industry, much of the $430 billion beauty industry lacks the transparency necessary for consumers to make informed decisions.
“The beauty industry uses large quantities of ingredients that are grown, harvested and processed, or synthesized in the laboratory, but there are currently no figures on the amount of ingredients used,” says Lorraine Dallmeier, executive director of the school of care. Formula Botanica skin.
Dallmeier offers online courses so people can make their own botanical skincare products.
At the basic level is the creation of an eye cream, which would require an incubator (on a stove or stove); two beakers (in the course I saw, one was filled with jojoba oil and the other with rose water); a mixer, a scale, two glass rods, a thermometer and a bottle of emulsifier.
“Everyone can formulate,” says Dallmeier.
I decide to give it a try and opt for the most basic product of all: a two-ingredient facial oil, which does not include water.
If a skin care product contains water or water-based ingredients (such as lotions), it needs a preservative to remain stable and safe to use.
The “recipe” was given to me by Zurich-based skincare brand Soeder, which controls its entire supply chain, from ingredients to packaging, in its own factory and laboratory, and produces the majority of its products. using cold-pressed oils and natural ingredients like wheat and Swiss honey.
“The biggest problem in the beauty industry [en lo que respecta a los ingredientes] is that brands often use premixes in their products, which are prefabricated combinations of technical raw materials,” says Soeder co-founder Johan Åkerström.
It is not necessary that the constituent ingredients of these premixes appear on the label of the final product.
“For example, if a premix contains a surfactant such as coconut glucoside, it may have been made with palm oil. However, palm oil will not be listed separately in the ingredients, which will not make it clear to consumers what the product contains,” explains Åkerström.
The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients only requires that the final ingredients be included, rather than the original source of those ingredients.
The overall lack of clarity in labeling continues to be a challenge for consumers who want to know exactly what is in the beauty products they use.
Soeder’s recipe for a facial oil is relatively simple: Combine five drops of hemp seed oil with 15 drops of sweet almond oil. Apply twice a day, after cleansing and before moisturizing.
“Oils are difficult to use, so it’s important to find an oil that suits your skin,” says Åkerström.
“Hemp is very light and rich in omega fatty acids, so this is a generic, well-balanced recipe, and we use these ingredients in our soap. “Rub it on your hands first, not directly on your face.”
But getting the ingredients was more complicated. I found 100% cold-pressed sweet almond oil (some oils are already blended) at a local health food store, where a 100ml bottle costs $8.90.
To get pure hemp seed oil, I had to go online. A 500 ml bottle was US$10.20 plus US$3.80 shipping.
I found an equivalent private label facial oil at a well-known retailer that sells for only $3.20, but a review of the ingredients required a chemistry degree, which I don’t have.
I estimate these supplies could last over 100 applications. Plus, once prepared and applied, the oil smelled delicious and left my skin soft and nourished.
“You pay for quality ingredients, which are nutritious, rather than cheap synthetic fillers,” says Khandiz Joni, a former makeup artist turned sustainability consultant.
“They are often more concentrated, so you need less. And only buy what you need, finish what you have and choose spare parts, which are usually cheaper.”
When quality ingredients are more expensive, it’s worth considering why alternatives might be cheaper.
“It’s like fast fashion,” Joni says. “Physical energy is needed, from the planet and from the people who make the products we use; We must respect that. So look for the most environmentally and socially responsible brands you can afford.”
Joni advises looking for brands that promote circularity, for example by using waste ingredients or green chemistry in their formulation and manufacturing, and that are transparent about their environmental impact from production, packaging and shipping.
It is always worth carefully investigating any company’s environmental claims.
The origin of the ingredients
Los Angeles-based brand Ilia, founded by Sasha Plavsic in 2011 and acquired by Clarins in 2022, aims to pay special attention to the origin of its ingredients.
“Clarins grows many of its ingredients, so we work directly with their regulatory team to ensure our products meet the necessary regulatory requirements, including visibility of all ingredients down to trace elements,” says Plavsic.
“Each ingredient can have problems regarding sourcing; “There is no perfect path.”
Danka Tamburic, professor of cosmetic science at London College of Fashion, argues that the effect of the raw material manufacturing process in determining how sustainable a cosmetic product is is often overlooked.
“In theory, natural ingredients could be more sustainable, but in most cases the carbon footprint is larger than synthetics,” says Tamburic. “People forget that farming requires a lot of resources.”
Tamburic has studied energy use in the manufacture of emulsions, the most common form of cosmetics, and found that it has a much greater effect on carbon emissions than the origin of the raw materials.
Energy can be reduced by more than 80% by making emulsions with a method that requires less heat.
Tamburic adds that there is often a misconception that “natural” equals “safe.”
“Safety and sustainability are two different things, but the common solution proposed for both is the use of natural ingredients. This simply isn’t always valid. The [ingredientes] natural are not inherently more sustainable or safer; “Each case must be analyzed on its own merits.”
Attention to packaging
In addition to the ingredients, what happens to the packaging once used is another major challenge for the industry.
Cosmetic packaging is often made from plastics that are difficult to recycle and more than 90% of cosmetic packaging ends up in landfills.
Each year, the global beauty industry contributes 100 billion units to total plastic packaging consumption. The United States, as a single market, was responsible for 11.4 billion of these units in 2023, behind only China and India.
Some brands participate in take-back programs in which suppliers accept packaging that customers choose to return.
Ilia, for example, works with Pact Collective, a nonprofit organization, to recycle its hard-to-reuse packaging.
Customers can send up to 10 empty beauty products a month to Ilia (from its own range or another brand) and Pact Collective says it will recycle them responsibly.
Plavsic says the association has recycled more than 27.7 tonnes of waste since its launch.
Independent brand Meow Meow Tweet, also based in California, uses a closed-loop system that recovers empty bulk containers, sterilizes them, and refills them before reselling them.
Each month, Meow Meow Tweet chooses one organization to support financially, prioritizing small, mutual aid, community-focused groups, and those with Queer or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) leadership.
“What excites me is when smaller companies break away from the uniform, manufactured, and outdated concepts of beauty and offer products that understand real people and how they exist in the world and in their own skin,” says co-founder Tara Pelletier .
“I think the beauty industry has a long way to go to become socially and environmentally responsible. The most important thing you could do to make an impact is to produce less, but that means selling less. And the industry is not ready to downsize yet.”
Dallmeier believes pioneering and challenging brands are changing the narrative around beauty, moving from telling people they are inadequate to focusing more on skin and mental health.
“For decades, we have been told that we are not young enough, not attractive enough, not delicate enough, that cellulite – a perfectly normal condition – is unsightly and can be cured, despite an evidence-based review that concludes that “anti-cellulite products don’t work,” he says.
“And we know why they do it: to boost mass consumption.”
Joni agrees and points to influencers beauty brands on social media showing off their bathroom shelves filled with products.
“How can they end all those products? “Think about expiration dates!”
Mentality change
For Joni, much of the difficulty for consumers to make better decisions lies and n the use of the word “sustainable” to define a type of skin care.
The comparatively higher prices of “sustainable” beauty products inadvertently position them as luxury.
However, for something to be truly sustainable, it must be equitable.
“We need to ask ourselves: what is sustainable skincare? In short, it is a way of thinking and depends on both the consumer and the brand. It’s not simply about how ‘clean’, ‘green’ or ‘eco’ a product is; If you don’t use it, it’s not sustainable,” says Joni.
“It is a total change of mentality.”
I take the opportunity to ask Joni about my own moisturizer and the ingredient with the lengthy name “acrylates crosspolymer/C10-30 alkyl acrylate.”
“In short, it is a microplastic,” he says.
Then it’s time to change it, but not until you’ve used it all first.
This article originally appeared on BBC Future. You can read the original version in English here.
Keep reading:
* This is the cosmetic business that flourishes after killing millions of donkeys every year
* The reason why Pamela Anderson joined the list of celebrities without makeup
* “Sephora kids”: Why there are more and more girls under 12 years old shopping at Sephora and other makeup and other beauty product stores
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