At UNIQUE BEAUTY we believe it is our duty as a cosmetic company to think further than just focusing on the content of organic in our products. Sustainable beauty requires that we take it further and look at it from a holistic point of view in which we also incorporate sustainable action points for transportation of ingredients, the production process, packaging and use of energy source. So sustainable beauty products are more than just the content of the products and hence involve comprehensive sustainability initiatives throughout the entire supply chain.
In order for you to determine the sustainability of your beauty products you can look into the following aspects of the company behind your beauty products:
Check that your beauty products are certified organic as both ingredients and production processes of certified organic products are safe and more environmentally friendly than conventional products.
Check the energy source behind the production of your beauty products as this will say a lot about the environmental effects of both the production and use of the given products. The use of a sustainable energy source like wind energy is a sustainable alternative advantageous to the environment. How much do your beauty routines affect the environment?
Look for easily renewable ingredients in your beauty products, as these are more sustainable with minimal effect on the environment. For example an ingredient like whey, a protein rich leftover product from the food industry, is a sustainable and highly efficient beauty ingredient that needs no extra machines etc. to be produced.
Look for the percentages of certified organic ingredients from organic farming in your beauty products. The higher the better – because organic farming is more sustainable than conventional farming. The minimum required percentage in Ecocert certified products is 10% while the minimum percentage of ingredients from natural origin is 95% (most often plants but e.g. also water, which makes up the majority of most products and is an ingredient that cannot be certified organic – but is of natural origin). Make sure not to confuse the two.
Look for locally sourced ingredients or consider the origin of ingredients in your beauty products as relative to the production site, as this will say much about how much the products affect the CO2 count. This is what we in the beauty industry call Cosmetic Mileage. The more local sourcing the merrier – because the less transportation etc. behind the supply of a certain ingredient means less CO2 release and hence more sustainability.
As a last point, which basically embrace all of the above mentioned points, consider the transparency of the company behind your beauty products, as this will say much about honesty, sustainability and purity of both the company and the products. Does the company gladly provide information about the above listed aspects of sustainable beauty? If not, you figure the rest.