Zero Waste Vegan Cosmetics (and make-up brushes)
The cosmetics (make-up) industry is huge in England: eyeshadow, foundation, lipstick, make-up remover pads and makeup brushes. Here are eco-friendly and animal-friendly brands.
Avoid essential oils for pregnancy/nursing (and shea butter for latex allergies). Due to cocoa butter and zinc oxide, wash off cosmetics before letting pets kiss you!
Conventional make-up brands can use talc (linked to ovarian cancer) for eyeshadows and face powders. Many lipsticks and blushers use dead insects (cochineal) to make red and pink shades. And a lot of brands come packed in plastic, and are vastly over-priced for ‘designer brands’.
Some make-up brushes use squirrel or badger fur (both animals killed to make them). And some make-up remover pads are packed with chemicals, and wrongly flushed (like baby wipes) to pollute our seas, clog drains and cause so-called ‘fatbergs’ in sewers.
Of course, there are better ways! Many of us prefer to go without make-up. But if you like wearing cosmetics, here are some better brands to choose – all are vegan-friendly, made with natural ingredients (ensure mineral ingredients are sustainably-mined) and sold in zero waste (often refillable) packaging.
Zero Waste Vegan Make-up Brands
River Organics (sold in the UK at Cocoa and Gizmo) is a lovely cosmetics company founded by art historian Corinne and her late husband Fabien, a French chemist who worked with Chanel.
These cosmetics are vegan-friendly and cruelty-free, and sold in compostable packaging with sugar-cane labels, and shipped in eco-enclose 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.
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 a range of quality vegan cosmetics 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.
Love the Planet (Scotland) offers sustainable vegan makeup in metal pots, with refills in compostable pouches. There are also 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.
Bristolmade Rose Geranium Micellar Water is made with natural ingredients, sold in a glass bottle. Containing organic witch hazel, just soak a reusable cotton pad, to gently remove make-up and lift dirt and oil from your skin.
