Sustainable Vegan Skincare and Packaging

Taking care of your skin is essential because it is your body's largest organ. However, skincare products on the market contain harsh chemicals and ingredients that can take a massive toll on your skin and lead to chronic conditions, such as psoriasis, acne breakouts, rashes, itching, and redness, inflammation, asthma, skin cancer, shingles, sunburn, etc.

That's why shifting from commercially manufactured skincare products and packaging to sustainable vegan skincare is critical to reduce the risk of diseases, promote environmental awareness, decrease carbon footprint, and improve your overall appearance with natural ingredients. Today's article will discuss sustainable vegan skincare and packaging. Read on!

Sustainable Vegan Skincare – Facts and Figures

Research shows that 53% of adults can't identify whether a skincare product contains animal-based ingredients. According to Cosmetify, 9% of female individuals prefer vegan skincare and beauty products, and 47% of women have already implemented a vegan skincare routine.

However, the same research study shows that 39% of women who purchase vegan products do not contain natural ingredients. In addition, another study highlights that 62% of people buy vegan skincare products, although they don't follow a vegan or sustainable lifestyle.

About 68% of people say that they find it challenging to identify a vegan beauty or skincare product and have confusion regarding ingredients. A news article states that 36% of vegetarians and vegans do not know whether skincare product contains plant-based products.

According to Google Trends Data, countries like Ireland, Australia, the UK, and the U.S have more interest in vegan skincare products. The number of vegan products has increased in these countries over the last ten years.

Vegan Food and Living state the global vegan skincare industry will reach a whopping $21.4 billion by 2027. The United States vegan skincare market is worth $4.1 billion. It means people know the significance of sustainable vegan skincare and packaging that improve their overall health and positively impact the environment.

Moreover, Maryland, United States, became the 5^th state that banned animal-tested skincare and cosmetic products. According to Cosmetics Business, vegan skincare and beauty products experienced a 750% increase in sales in 2019.

What Makes Vegan Skincare Sustainable?

Sustainability is an umbrella term that involves various factors and elements. One of the most significant problems experienced by brands is that they don't write down the entire list of sustainable vegan skincare factors to test the products.

Not ticking every box on the checklist is directly proportional to discrepancies, making your product unsustainable. Bear in mind that sustainable vegan skincare is a spectrum, and each company and its products fall on that line.

In addition, there is a close relationship between sustainable vegan skincare brands and ethics. For instance, a company may say they are 100% plant-based and cruelty-free, but their products may contain beeswax. It means the company is non-vegan and unsustainable.

Therefore, understanding sustainability and its critical aspects are essential for companies to produce 100% vegan products with plant-based ingredients. Sustainable vegan skincare focuses on the following four categories, and if your products meet these factors, you are a vegan skincare brand.

1. Animal welfare
2. Environment
3. Health
4. Ethics

Ways Vegan Products Ensures Sustainability

In the skincare and beauty industry, sustainable and green products contain the natural ingredient. Sustainable production methods prevent environmental pollution and mitigate the risk of damaging the ecosystem.

For instance, plant-based ingredients used in skin care products can reduce the production and utilization of petrochemicals, microbeads, harsh chemicals, and compounds. Here are a few ways to ensure sustainability in vegan products.

Use Less Harsh Chemicals

Vegan skincare products do not contain harsh chemicals because brands follow the highest standards of clean, hygienic, ethical, and environmental policies. Many skincare companies use animal testing when developing laboratory ingredients.

These ingredients are harmful to animals and can take a massive toll on the planet. Besides, lab-tested ingredients require more resources, energy, and carbon output than originally grown or naturally sourced compounds.

No one wants a ton of mysterious, harsh, and hard-to-pronounce chemicals on their skin and hair. Do you? Therefore, sustainable vegan skincare products like Hebe Botanica stick to ingredients derived from plants and nature.

Saves Animal Lives

Sustainable vegan skincare products and packaging aim to protect animals from cruelty. The primary objective of sustainability is to save animals' lives and make the world a better place.

There are over 40 tests that determine a skincare product's effectiveness and safety without animal testing. However, many brands stick to the harmful and unethical old testing methods, such as animal testing.

For instance, skincare laboratories use mice and rabbits to test their products. Most chemicals used in beauty and cosmetic products are harsh enough to affect the skin, eyes, ears, and other organs of the animal's body, exposing them to physical suffering and causing their death eventually.

A brand that believes in sustainability and veganism follows new methods and sticks to cruelty-free testing. Therefore, we recommend buying from brands that sell 100% vegan skincare products and have a certificate from Leaping Bunny.

Reduces Discarding

Whether you buy an expensive chemical peel, a bath soak, a scrub, hair mask, or beauty cream, the harsh chemicals in these products can leave your skin itchy, red, and irritative.

So, we recommend using vegan-based products with botanically sourced ingredients instead of harsher elements. The purpose is to prevent adverse reactions and improve overall skin health.

The chemicals in commercial skincare products take a lot of time to biodegrade or decompose. These compounds end up in water streams, polluting ponds, rivers, and oceans and affecting the marine environment.

On the other hand, sustainable vegan skincare packaging is made of recyclable materials, meaning brands can reuse the materials and reduce the overall impact on the environment by preventing the discarding of packaging.

Encourages Ethical Consumption

Ethical concerns are the primary factors influencing people's purchase decisions. For example, consumers buying skincare products contain lab-created ingredients. Not only are these ingredients harmful to your health, but they are also tested on animals like mice and rabbits.

Unfortunately, most skincare companies use animal-testing methods and falsely claim sustainability and ethics. Remember, these companies have no intention of achieving sustainability because their primary goal is making money.  

Brands make superficial changes and use environmental buzzwords to showcase that they are vegan and sustainable. However, the reality is pretty different. On the other hand, 100% vegan products and brands certified by Leaping Bunny encourage ethical consumption and improve social/environmental sustainability.

Avoids Deforestation

Non-vegan beauty products contain animal-derived ingredients that violate the ethical guidelines most vegans seek to adhere to, but most brands also encourage deforestation to cut trees and make room for animal grazing fields.

Therefore, avoid brands that promote deforestation to graze more animals, sacrifice them, and use them as ingredients in skincare products. So, if you find any of the following ingredients in a skincare product, avoid buying it.

• Casein
• Glycerin
• Lanolin
• Elastin
• Stearic Acid
• Oleic acid
• Nonvegan keratin 

How to Adopt a Sustainable Vegan Skincare Routine?

Adopting an environmentally friendly and sustainable vegan skincare routine is daunting and time-consuming because most people don't understand how the entire process works. As vegan skincare hits the high street, rethinking your routine and looking toward waste-free skincare is critical.

Adopting an eco-friendly beauty routine has never been easier. As new sustainable alternatives hit the high street, it's time to rethink your beauty routine and look towards a future of waste-free beauty.

So, the first step is to start reading the ingredient list when choosing new skincare products. It may have a cardboard package with an eco-friendly or sustainable sticker. However, 100% organic skincare means what's inside the container.

The second step is to look for harsh chemicals and compounds, such as microbeads, microplastics, and denatured alcohol within the formula. These ingredients are directly proportional to releasing harmful plastics into the ocean and polluting ponds, rivers, and oceans as you wash the product off your face.

The third critical step is looking for natural ingredients that indicate the product is 100% organic, ethical, vegan, and sustainable. Again, look for a product certified by Leaping Bunny. Once you have chosen sustainable vegan skincare products, follow the steps below to achieve your goals.

• Wash your face and apply the vegan toner
• Apply serum and eye cream
• Moisturize your skin using the vegan product
• Use 100% plant-based essential oils

What is Skincare Packaging Life Cycle?

Understanding the skincare packaging life cycle is critical for companies transforming their products/services into vegan or sustainable brands. The skincare packaging life cycle has five stages:

1. Raw material extraction
2. Packaging manufacturing/processing
3. Transportation
4. Usage
5. Disposal/recycle

Governments, including the U.S and Canadian governments, make substantial efforts to tighten environmental and social sustainability legislation. At the same time, consumers demand products and packaging that benefit the planet.

Therefore, brands seek solutions that reduce the environmental impact and promote sustainability. The current economy causes companies to extract resources and use them to manufacture products and packaging.

Consumers use the product and discard the packaging after it has served its purpose. People use products and dispose of them, leading to resource wastage. On the other hand, the circular economy follows a sustainable skincare packaging life cycle that follows the 3Rs approach: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. 

So, companies recover these resources in the circular economy instead of discarding the skincare packaging. Cycling the resources bank into manufacturing can maximize sustainability and minimize negative environmental impact.

Why is Sustainable Vegan Skincare Packaging Important?

Sustainable packaging means eco-friendly packaging for skincare products. In simple words, the materials used for manufacturing the packaging do not harm the environment and have the most negligible carbon footprint or emissions.

In the skincare industry, this means cutting down on discardable or disposable packaging and focusing on reusable, refillable, and recyclable materials to ensure high sustainability levels.

Not only does sustainable skincare product packaging satisfy consumers' interests, but it also promotes environmental wellbeing. Remember, consumers today are more eco-conscious and advocate for companies to use recyclable packaging.

In addition, sustainable packaging reduces production costs and benefits smaller skincare companies. Eco-friendly packaging entails fewer materials to create, and you can even buy them in bulk, reducing the price per unit.

The most significant benefit of eco-friendly or sustainable packaging is that you can repurpose the materials. Unlike plastic waste, sustainable packaging has biodegradable and compostable materials.

Moreover, it reduces shipping costs because the materials are more lightweight than plastic. It means cheaper shipping costs from the materials supplier. Likewise, when you offer free shipping to consumers, you can build a substantial brand reputation.

Awareness of social and environmental issues is critical to fulfilling your corporate responsibilities. Environmental and sustainable advocacy is crucial in improving customer trust and loyalty.

According to CGSINC, 47% of consumers are interested in sustainable products and packaging even if they have a high price. The reason is that sustainable products/packaging is safer for consumers.

Traditional packaging contains materials sourced from animals that harm humans. On the other hand, this is not the case with packaging made of natural/organic materials. We will look at the best sustainable packaging options in the next section.

What is the Best Sustainable Packaging Option?

Most skincare companies use plastic packaging. Research shows that plastics are manufactured from non-renewable resources that can pollute rivers, streams, and oceans. Plastic pollution usually results in considerable economic costs, and companies fail to recycle plastic packaging.

Therefore, skincare companies should look for plastic alternatives to ensure sustainability. Here are the best sustainable packaging options.

Biodegradable Paperboard

Biodegradable paperboard is 100% compostable. When you throw the packaging away, it breaks down quickly and does not damage the environment, marine life, and living organisms.

Paperboard is an excellent material for outer packaging for skincare products. However, some companies use it as primary packaging for their vegan products. Investing in biodegradable paperboard is also cost-effective.

Bamboo Packaging

Bamboo is another environmentally friendly material to use in skincare product packaging. It is the best sustainable packaging option for skincare companies. Bamboo is renewable because it is a plant-based material.

Besides, you can use bamboo sheaths to manufacture lightweight and portable packaging. However, this material is also reliable when manufacturing durable containers.

Silicone Packaging

Silicone comes from silica, a primary component of sand. Although silicone is similar to plastic because it does not decompose, the good news is that this material is reusable.

At the same time, silicone does not release harsh or toxic substances into the environment. It does not pollute soil or water. You can use silicone to create flexible, heat-resistant, durable, and long-lasting packaging and use it as a substitute for plastic bottles.

Glass Packaging

Companies use limestone, soda ash, and sand to produce glass packaging. Although these materials are non-renewable, they are available in substantial amounts. In addition, glass containers/packaging for skincare products are simpler to recycle.

Regarding skincare products, glass containers, bottles, and jars are excellent packaging options. Not only is glass sustainable, but it is also environmentally friendly and cost-effective.

How to Implement Sustainable Vegan Skincare Packaging?

Choosing a suitable material is critical when planning to use more environmentally friendly and sustainable packaging options. Here are a few tips and tricks to implementing sustainable vegan skincare packaging.

Find a Sustainable Packaging Supplier

Although finding the right supplier is daunting and time-consuming, you can do research and create a list of suppliers. Ask for the samples, test the materials, and compare the suppliers to choose the one that best fits your needs.

We recommend working with a consistent and reliable supplier with solid familiarity with renewable materials. Knowing waste separation and recycling techniques enables suppliers to create sustainable packaging.

Invest in R&D

Skincare consumers pay a premium for sustainable and eco-friendly product packaging in the 21^stcentury. Therefore, we recommend investing in research and development and acquiring cutting-edge technology to create a brand that stands out from the competition by promoting eco-friendliness.

Create a Budget

Many companies find it challenging to switch from traditional plastic-based packaging to sustainable one. The reason is that plastic materials are relatively cheaper than environmentally-friendly packaging.

Therefore, when moving to environmentally friendly skincare packaging, make sure you create a budget and not break the bank. Making yourself financially ready is critical to investing in sustainable packaging. Although this will cost you more, it has higher investment returns in the long run.

Final Words

Sustainable vegan skincare does not only focus on plant-based ingredients and formulas, but it also relies on packaging materials that follow the 3Rs rule. Vegan ingredients contain natural oils, proteins, minerals, and antioxidants that repair, maintain, and improve your skin cells, giving you a beautiful appearance.

Regarding ethics and sustainability, most skincare and cosmetic companies are far from achieving their full potential. Therefore, creating a solid strategy and focusing on sustainable packaging options is crucial. Use this blog post as a guide to streamline your sustainability strategy and achieve your goals.