Zero waste vegan cosmetics (and makeup brushes)
Zero waste cosmetics are made from natural ingredients, and sold in refillable or biodegradable packaging. This good for your skin, good for wildlife and good for the planet and waterways.
Many cosmetics include zinc oxide, which is toxic to pets (as is cocoa butter). Store with lids tightly closed, apply in a separate room and wipe up spills immediately. Wash your face, before letting animals kiss you!
River Organics (from
River Organics is a US brand (sold at Cocoa and Gizmo) founded by an art historian and her late husband Fabien (a French chemist who worked for Chanel). Together they blended creativity and expertise to found this vegan make-up brand .that sells items in compostable packaging, with sugar-cane labels in eco 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.
- Naturabloom offers natural and vegan lipsticks and eye shadows, the mascaras are packed in biodegradable tubes, and founded by a woman who had acne, and needed something more natural.
- 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.
- Bare Faced Beauty specialises in natural vegan mineral cosmetics, designed to enhance your skin’s natural beauty with quality, ethically sourced ingredients.
- Bomonde Mineral Makeup is a vegan make-up brand with palettes suitable for all skin types, and sold in sustainable packaging.
Seeds of Colour (organic vegan make-up balms)
Seeds of Colour is a brand of natural vegan cosmetics, coloured by the power of nature. Everything is organic and sold in sustainable packaging. If you are Muslim, these items are also Halal-certified.
What makes this brand unique is that the colour pigments are from organic fruits and vegetables, grown in rural East Anglia.
This brand mostly focuses on tinted balms, and you can get a free tube squeezer if you purchase two balms. Plus a mangrove tree is planted for each order, to help reforestation in West Papua.
The natural make-up balm is perfect for lips, cheeks and lids, to add a pop of colour for any look. In several shades, containing antioxidant botanical extracts.
To use the tube squeezer, just slide the key in at the bottom of the aluminium tube, and twist.
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.
Barefaced Beauty is a brand of vegan mineral makeup, offering all your favourites, along with sets of nice vegan makeup brushes. Everything is designed to be gentle on sensitive skin.
The range includes:
- Foundations are sold in lockable sifters, with compostable eco-pouch refills. Same with the cheek powders and bronzers. And the eye shadows.
- Lipsticks including eco-friendly refills
- Eye pencils and mascara
The Kabuki brush is retractable from soft synthetic bristles, and has virtually no shedding, so it stays clean, even in your handbag
Look for natural 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.
Use with reusable cloths, not disposable wet wipes (one of the main cases of blocked drains). If you use them, never flush down the loo, they can cause harm and even garden floods.
Pick vegan make-up brushes
Ecotools make-up brushes are sold in most stores, and are made from eco-friendly vegan materials. The Sea Gems range is designed with ocean-bound plastic, to help remove ghost fishing waste.
For brushes, wash complexion brushes about weekly if you use them often. Eye brushes can go a bit longer if they stay clean. Use a gentle soap, rinse well, then air dry flat. Harsh detergents can make bristles rough, so your skin pays the price later.
Some make-up brushes are made from squirrel fur and badger hair, and the animals may be culled to make them. Instead, boycott those and choose a small set of quality vegan make-up brushes.
Modern versions work just as well, and are often sold with eco handles made from steel or bamboo. You usually only need a base brush, powder brush, blush brush and blending brush.
To clean, just wash in mild soapy water, then air-dry on a flat towel with the bristles slightly over the edge. Let them dry thoroughly before storing, to avoid damp.
