8 Easy Ways To Make Your Beauty Routine More Earth-Friendly

As the world becomes more environmentally conscious, it’s essential to consider the impact of our daily beauty routines.

With small changes, it’s simple to increase our sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint around beauty, but making a difference in the health of our planet is about more than just shopping for eco-friendly products.

While it’s good practice to buy ‘better’, it’s even better practice to buy less.

Hit pan on your products

The term ‘hit pan’ refers to being able to see the bottom of a container when the product runs out (usually an eyeshadow or powder blush) but hitting pan should extend to every product in your routine if you’re looking to be more eco-friendly.

Before you overhaul your bathroom shelf with sustainable beauty products, finish what you’ve got. To be truly sustainable, we need to buy less, so make use of your existing products and only replace them on a needs-must basis.

Reduce your water waste

In other words, turn off the tap. Beauty routines can be water-intensive; one way to reduce this is to turn off the shower head while you lather up your soap, shampoo or conditioner.

It’s safe to assume you’re already turning off the tap when you brush your teeth, so now that you have mastered that habit, the shower is the next step.

Opt for less packaging

Most beauty products are wasteful the minute you buy them, as you unbox your latest lotion and ditch the plastic film and cardboard packaging.

Where possible, choose products that don’t come with additional packaging, go completely package-less with soap bars instead of shower gels, or make sure the packaging is home compostable (and actually compost it).

With the product itself, look for plastic alternatives that are easily recyclable, such as aluminium and glass.

Try: Ethique Stain Matte Lipstick in Mallow, $30.

Be mindful of recycling

The British Beauty Council claims that only 14 per cent of beauty product packaging makes it to the recycling plant, and only 9 per cent ends up being recycled. The rest goes into landfill where it tries to break down for the next 450 years.

While you have good intentions by putting your empties into your recycle bin, an even better move for the planet is to recycle with TerraCycle. Stores such as Mecca, Sephora and Kiehl’s are set up with in-store TerraCycle collection points.

Visit sustainable beauty salons

Beauty salons such as hairdressers and spas can be a significant source of waste due to the use of plastic packaging and chemical products.

The Sustainable Salons initiative was established in 2015 to divert 95 per cent of these waste materials from landfill — and there are over 1000 barber shops, hair salons, dermal clinics and even pet groomers participating in the scheme across New Zealand and Australia.

Through Sustainable Salons, plastics are collected, cleaned and upcycled, salon metals are sold for recycling, hair is collected from the salon floor to help clean up oil spills along our coastlines, ponytails are used to create wigs, and chemicals are neturalised and turned into recycled water. All you have to do is find the salon! Locate one near you using the search tool at Sustainablesalons.org

Shop locally

With myriad innovative home-grown beauty brands to choose from, there’s no excuse not to prioritise shopping locally. When products are made close to home, there is less transportation required, which means fewer carbon emissions.

Delve even deeper and shop from brands utilising New Zealand-grown ingredients, which in turn means you’re investing your money into our economy, local supply chain and back into the land on which these ingredients are grown.

Try: Aotea 500+ MGO Manuka Honey Mask, $95.

Try: Maryse Mineral Tint in Apricots, $58.

Make the move to refillables

In a bid to reduce our overall waste, it’s time to slowly start switching to refillable beauty products.

Slowly, because you want to use what you’ve got first, then when it’s time to replenish, look for brands that have made the commitment to refillable packaging. Emma Lewisham, Glow Recipe, Charlotte Tilbury and Go-To are just a few brands offering refills.

Thoughtfully designed refillable packaging should have waste reduction in mind from the manufacturing stage, meaning you’re supporting brands that have circularity top of mind from the start. You’ll often save a few dollars with your refill purchases, too.

Try: Emma Lewisham Illuminating Face Exfoliant Refill, $78.

Try: Glow Recipe Plum Plump Hyaluronic Cream Refill Pod, $64.

Say no to single-use

Ditch makeup wipes and cotton pads and invest in reusable alternatives, such as washable bamboo rounds or a good old-fashioned face cloth.

These days, there are also plenty of options when it comes to switching out your single-use menstrual products, with period underwear and menstrual cups in various shapes and sizes available to suit all bodies and designed to last for years with proper care.

This category is one of the easiest ways to reduce your bathroom waste — and once you get your head around trying something new, chances are you’ll wonder why you didn’t ditch pads and tampons sooner.

Try: Tom Organic Period Cup with Microwave Steriliser, $45.

Try: Awwa Grey Period Boxer Briefs, $37.