River Organics (zero waste vegan cosmetics)
Occasionally we recommend a brand that is not local, and River Organics is one example (you can buy their cosmetics in the UK at Cocoa and Gizmo).
Most make-up brands in the UK are made with chemicals, talc (linked to ovarian cancer) and some red/pink cosmetics even are dyed with carmine (beetles). Then packed in plastic.
Most cosmetics contain zinc oxide, which is toxic to pets (as is cocoa butter). So wash off for your face, before letting animal friends kiss you!
And even some make-up brushes kill badgers and squirrels to make the fur, when there are wonderful alternatives around.
This super brand of cosmetics is based in North Carolina (y’all!) Art historian Corinne runs the company, founded with her late husband Fabien, a French chemist who worked with Chanel.
Together they used their blend of creativity and expertise, to found a company that offers vegan make-up in compostable packaging, sugar-cane labels and shipped in eco-friendly envelopes.
The range includes:
- Lip Tints in many colours that leave lips moisturised and hydrated. Sold in compostable paper tubes, just open the cap and push the tube gently up from bottom. Choose from sand, nude, rose-gold or sheer ting.
- Lip stains (fig or pomegranate) and creamy blush sticks made with safflower and jojoba oils.
- Concealers for under-eye circles or small blemishes, with oils of moringa, apricot kernel and camellia seed.
- Mascara with nourishing castor oil to condition lashes. Eyebrow tint gives a natural feathery look.
Other Good Brands of Eco Cosmetics
Inika is an Aussie plastic-free cosmetics brand, with an online UK shop. Made with sustainably-mined minerals, the range includes foundations, eye-make-up, mascara, lipsticks and fake tanning products. It also makes quality vegan make-up brushes.
ecoLOOK is a Hampshire-based brand, with items packed in biodegradable honeycomb paper and bamboo pots, sealed with eco-friendly tape (looks like Sellotape, but it’s not!)
All Earth Mineral Cosmetics offers cosmetics in cardboard shakers, with refillable pots made from fishing waste (collected from Cornish oceans). The company also makes nice vegan makeup brushes.
Honeypie Minerals (Essex) was founded by a woman who got acne from conventional make-up. Sample kits of sustainable makeup in organic drawstring bags are sold, along with vegan make-up brushes.
Eco-Friendly Make-up Removers
Green People Cleanse & Make-up Remover is organic and sold in easy-to-recycle sugar-cane packaging. It’s made shea butter and jojoba oil, plant-based squalane and oils of rosemary and geranium.
Sbtrct Makeup Melt is a free from palm oil, just warm the bar between your hands and massage over dry skin to remove make-up and even waterproof mascara. The bar lasts up to 12 weeks, due to natural preservative (store in the reusable dish to stop it going soggy, then just buy refills.
