Much like the fashion industry reviewed last week, the beauty cosmetic industry is a rapidly evolving outlet in society that has to constantly stay up-to-date with trends to be relevant.

Unlike the fashion world, where it is much more difficult to realize the harmful consumption of plastics and waste, the makeup industry is easily identifiable as one that contributes to the dangerous, unhealthy world we are living in. It has been noted that the makeup world produces more than 100 billion units of plastic within all of the products created, yet less than 9% of the plastic produced is recycled thus creating an abundance of unnecessary waste.

While the obvious negative impacts to climate change, pollution, and waste are evident in the beauty world, in the recent years, there has been a multitude of initiatives to fight the stereotype and make a change.

Now more than ever, there are vegan beauty brands, no waste companies, completely compostable makeup, and so much more. But like many things in society, as the fight continues to expand the sustainability of beauty brands, there is always a double edged sword.

While seven out of ten beauty shoppers believe that companies should be more transparent about their efforts, there is a low percentage of people that will put forth the effort as consumers to support sustainable makeup products whether it is because of price or the extra energy needed to recycle a finished product over throwing it in the landfill.

One specific approach to mitigating the problems that arise with wanting to be more sustainable but having consumer “errors” get in the way is the upbringing of “naked” products. In other words, these “naked” products means that there is no packaging.

Now this approach while it solves serval issues, is not applicable to all beauty products. On the positive side, naked products have no packaging which means they are ultimately less expensive and more money efficient being that the consumer can get every last drop of material with zero waste being created. As a con, like mentioned above, not all beauty/makeup products can be maintained in this method. For example, the products that have the ability to go “naked” are those that are compatible and most times put into a bar-like form. Some common package-less products include shampoo, conditioner, and cream eye shadow/pigment compacts.

In most cases, multi-brand beauty stores will not highlight these products because more times than not they target a specific audience that wants to make a difference in sustainability efforts. A lot of the “naked” products are sold by individual brands such as Lush, The Earthling Company, Well Earth Goods, and so many more. Based on what I saw in my little time searching for various products, there are a lot of individual beauty creators and sellers on platforms like Etsy. Most of these brands also focus on healthy being, making their products not only naked but also cruelty free, toxin free, and all natural products.

On a similar note, there is a wide misconception about complete sustainability in the beauty.industry. Some believe that sustainable makeup is one that does not cause harm to the human body through toxic waste and products. While this is a measure that we want to actively be taking because no one wants to consume chemicals through the pores of our skin, sustainable beauty is more than the human body, but also being considerate of our planet’s body.

The trick to determining between the two is looking further into the packaging and production of the products. While using vegan and all natural makeup products is a habit that is a beneficial choice, the reality of saving our planet and slowing down the effects of global warming/climate change is only going to be changed by a difference in production means.

Altogether, there are a plethora of cosmetic brands working to change their impact on our planet through their production methods. There are also brands working to limit individual product waste to as little as possible or even none. While efforts are growing in this sense, similar to fast fashion companies that have no compare to other brands, some of the typical “must have” beauty products have too much popularity to limit production matters creating a gap in sustainability efforts.

As for last time, I mentioned a recommendation for how to help fight the efforts of more sustainable products. When it comes to the beauty industry, more times than not the brands that are working to change sustainable efforts also are brands that have all natural products. This being said, the cost to support these brands may be higher, but ultimately nothing can compare to the cost of our planet. Overall, the reality of the makeup/beauty industry and many others is that we all have our guilty pleasures of products we want. That is completely fine. The point is that we all just need to start doing better as a whole. It is okay to buy a product you want, but maybe spend some extra time looking into how to properly dispose of the product so that it causes less harm, whether that be in a landfill, recycled, broken-up in a certain way, and so on. The more steps to small progress that we take, the better we will all get at unconsciously taking the proper steps to a better and healthy planet.

Sources:

https://www.thisismatrix.com/sustainability-in-the-beauty-industry-2019-update/

https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/to-be-more-sustainable-beautys-biggest-companies-are-teaming-up

https://www.sustainablejungle.com/best-of-sustainable-beauty/zero-waste-make-up/

https://lmi.edu/how-the-beauty-industry-is-promoting-sustainability/

In today’s world, millennials and Generation Z individuals have built up a society that is fashion forward and fashion focused. Through the abstract and embracive styles, there has also been a push to expand the variety of clothing options in your closet, along with constant swapping of clothing items.

Within this idea, there has been much controversy over fast fashion brands and the ethical issues surrounding them. Fast fashion brands are those that can significantly increase the rate of production of clothing making the decision to purchase, the supply, the delivery, and the fashion trend all happen fast. While the convince of this idea is in the liking of many, the ultimate effects of this consumer-producer relationship is toxic for many.

The pressures that arise from solely the cheap prices of clothing is a problem within itself. Customers are more pressured to buy more items or continuously purchase items to stay “on trend” with the low prices, which in return forces the production line to make bulk amounts of clothes in addition to producing new styles to stay trendy.

This pattern of constant need, has lead to the underlying label of fast fashion as, “disposable fashion.” Within an article provided by Ethical Consumer, a statistic was listed that in 2019 it was reported that Generation Z individuals wear a clothing article about 14 times before getting rid of it, but some surveyed considered wearing an article once or twice was enough. Aside from the fact that the pressures to stay updated on the latest fashion causes this belief, fast fashion companies are also not creating durable clothing leading to a large waste factor from the use of fast fashion.

Brands such as Shein, Forever 21, H&M, Zara, Fashion Nova, Primark, etc. all have this reputation of giving customers that look that they want to achieve for several uses and then never wear it again. But why are these brands so popular if they are known to cause sustainable issues in society?

Now more than ever between the economy and the reality of being stuck in a pandemic, people have been forced to do more online shopping and also find the best deals to conserve money. Fast fashion companies are the prime vendors to serve society right now due to the vulnerability of wanting something to feel like a human in society, while also maintaining a healthy wallet. While there are growing motivations to stop these companies, the alternatives are no where close to competing with the reality of society at this time.

Some of the proposed solutions against fast fashion have been finding more ethical clothing brands to support, buying higher quality items but less often, participating in a clothing swap, renting clothes, and repurposing or recycling items. All these are all solutions that are very much doable, but just like fast fashion come with several consequences.

Before getting into one of the largest proposed solutions today, a quick overview of some of the consequences are the price to participate in these alternatives (especially in buying higher quality items or the cost it takes to constantly drive to donate/swap clothes). Most of these solutions combat the ethicality of fast fashion brands and work to achieve a more appropriate fashion world, yet once again with the reality of COVID-19 not everyone has the income to support these companies even with the small business movements.

Moreover, one of the biggest alternatives to fast fashion brands recently, has been the rise of thrifting. Through both donating clothes to thrift store such as Goodwill or Plato’s Closet, a large population of millennial and Generation Z individuals have found a new sense of fashion. The reputation of thrift stores have gone from something that is a last resort to a goldmine for anyone looking to spice up their closet or find expensive clothes for cheap without supporting fast fashion.

Within this movement, there has even been a rise in online thrift stores or second hand stores that allow people to online shop with the pandemic and still not support fast fashion. Although the shipping process still seems costly to the environment, a study done by MIT found that online shipping is more eco-friendly then shopping at brick-and-mortar stores due to the decrease in fuel emissions. Ultimately, online shipping includes a truck taking multiple orders to various people. While fuel is still being emitted, it is significantly less than a truck delivering goods to a store to sell to then have individual customers each take a mode of transportation to and from the store to shop.

Companies such as ThredUP, Poshmark, Depop, even Facebook Marketplace are all brands that are utilized by those who are reversing the fast fashion pressures on society right now.

Another company that I personally want to remark on as an uprising trend is through the means of renting clothing to wear for an event and then sending it back rather than buying it to never wear again. Rent the Runway is an online clothing company full of various styles, sizes, and types of clothing. Personally, I rented a dress for homecoming in high school from them and it was one of the best decisions I made compared to the other homecoming dress that I bought and have just hanging in my closet.

Overall, the current reality of society being influenced by the younger generations along with the COVID-19 pandemic, has effect many areas of life, but more specifically the sustainable and not-so-sustainable  effects of fashion recently. Although it has been strongly encouraged lately to stop supporting fast fashion companies and start supporting local, small, and more ethical fashion brands, the reality of the economy and societal pressures has made the movement of canceling fast fashion more difficult. In the end, I believe that there is a movement to be made to start a more progressive wave away from fast fashion, yet I too fall into the trap sometimes. My strongest recommendation to do this is to research and find companies with realistic values to begin supporting. A website that I found that goes over online second-hand clothing stores that are sustainable is: https://www.sustainablejungle.com/sustainable-fashion/best-online-thrift-stores/

Sources:

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/what-fast-fashion-why-it-problem

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/fast-fashion-how-to-be-sustainable/

https://pollybarks.com/blog/is-online-shopping-eco-friendly