Face the Ethics - Karen Lockyer Make Up Artist

Should we Face the Ethics and be ditching the big well known make up brands and switching to the smaller, but more ethical or cleaner alternatives?

So what does cleaner mean?

The key questions we should be asking before selecting our skincare, cosmetic and hair products are –

What ingredients is it made of?
How is it sourced, packaged, and produced?
What do you know about the company that produces it?
How do they treat their employees and suppliers?

My intention when I started writing this Face the Ethics post was to look at how Green/Ethical/clean make up brands are? Realising very quickly that this is a very big task indeed and not very straight forward, which is why I started with the questions we should be asking.

I did a quick look at some of the popular brands that I use in my work- hardly touching the surface, but gives me a better idea of the make up I am using and feel a little better placed to inform those I use them on.

A huge issue is waste from the large amount of packaging across the whole of the hair and beauty industry a 120 billion units of packaging every year ends up in landfill. Some brands do have a return and refill policy and many plastic containers are recyclable, but this takes us to do our bit washing and putting them into the correct bins or returning. Many brands are committing to 100% recyclable packaging by 2025 in line with the UK Plastics Pact. This year the British Beauty Council launched an interactive recycling map which is designed to help consumers dispose of empties in a planet-friendly way to help reduce beauty’s waste problem. The recycling points are Holland & Barrett, the Estée Lauder Companies, the Body Shop, Superdrug, and L’Occitane stores across the UK.

Something I have learnt from my delve into ethical brands is that all cosmetics sold or made in mainland China by law have to be tested on animals, this includes alot of the larger brands and immediately questions how ethical they really are and should take them off them the Vegan list regardless of the ingredients. Of course some will also be produced in Europe for the European market so worth a check.

There are a few names of Bodies that look after our wellfare in the beauty industry

CTPA- Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association

CRCC EUROPE- Congress on regulations and compliance for cosmetics

PETA – People for Ethical treatment of animals

Leaping Bunny – insures us products have not been tested on animals

British Beauty Council

British Beauty Council Sustainable Beauty Coalition

What a load of rubbish

Planet Positive Beauty Guide

Together with independent experts from across the industry, The British Beauty Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition has developed the British Beauty Guide, which is an absolutely must read to help with all the jargon around the green issue giving straightforward descriptions of the words most often used by the beauty industry – helping you understand some of the key issues and suggest some things to look for. This guide asks crucial questions that will ultimately steer you towards making greener and more sustainable choices. Click the link to download the guide. It tells all I want to say, but far better than I could.

https://britishbeautycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Planet-Positive-Beauty-Guide-V2.pdf

I intend to continue researching this and put together the information in a seperate post. 2023 I will be cleaning up my own act too.