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10 New Sustainable Beauty Products That Are Genuinely Impressive

They all live up to their claims.

by Katie Becker

April 28, 2023

sustainable beauty products

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Beauty enthusiasts have grown quite savvy to greenwashing. Gone are the days when a brand could put pictures of fruits on a label to say the product is good for the planet or burden you to figure out how to recycle their only semi-recyclable products. These days, eco-minded shoppers want actual sustainable beauty products, and are even willing to change how they shop when it really counts. For example, sales of refillable beauty products in the UK increased 47% between January and July of 2022.

Thankfully, many brands and their founders are listening and responding to their customers by finding legitimate, quantifiable ways to update and evolve. Some of the most impactful packaging advances can be seen in the categories on Credo’s home page: post-consumer recycled plastic, plastic alternatives, glass packaging, and refillable components. Inside the bottles, more brands are using carbon neutral ingredients, concentrated formulas that require less water, and biotech developed alternatives to ingredients that are otherwise destructive to cultivate.

“Brands are being more mindful than they were just six or seven years ago,” says cosmetic chemist Krupa Koestline who specializes in clean beauty and helps reduce the carbon footprint of formulas. “Expectations from retailers or the new plastic tax in the UK are helping drive the change, too.”

But if it feels like there’s a lot of conflicting theories about how to reduce beauty waste and environmental impact, that’s not always a bad sign. There is no evolution without trial and error.

“There are so many factors and it’s ever changing, so what is the best option right now, might not be the right option in a few months, or next year, but we make the right choice when it arises,” says Jamie Richards who is the director of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) of hair brand Eva NYC — her job is to measure the environmental impact of everything from an email to an ingredient. “For example, our hair masks are in PCR (recycled plastic) because we could not find a supplier who could provide recycled aluminum at the quality we wanted — virgin aluminum is more energy intensive than plastic, so we try to avoid it. Instead of one perfect packaging solution, there is a right time and place to use certain materials.”

Here, TZR highlights 10 of the most interesting and impactful green beauty innovations of the last year that are turning up the dial on sustainability.

Nourishing Torula Oil

Nourishing Torula Oil

Palm oil — derived from palm trees — is found in countless beauty products (as well as food products) for its hydrating benefits, but it’s also been a problem child causing excessive deforestation over the years. While this deforestation has slowed, palm oil is still highly used yet not sustainable. Biotech company C16 Biosciences uses naturally-occurring yeast to create an alternative called Palmless. You can find it in their multi-use beauty oil, lovingly named “Save the F#$!%ng Rainforest” or manufacturers can purchase the innovation in mass quantities as a green replacement.

Plant Brush

Plastic made from castor beans — which is a type of bioplastic or plant based resin — has begun to emerge in the market as a smart alternative to fossil fuel plastic because it performs so similarly to the petroleum version we’re used to: waterproof, sturdy, and moldable into really specific shapes like the patented bristles of Tangle Teezer’s beloved brush. Made with 85% castor bean oil plastic, The Plant Brush is the first hair brush made with this material and creates fewer carbon emissions when produced. It can also be recycled via TerraCycle.

Instant Shine + Anti-Frizz Hair Serum Treatment Bar

Instant Shine + Anti-Frizz Hair Serum Treatment Bar

With a no-water format, zero plastic packaging, a recyclable paper outer box, and a formula three times more concentrated than a liquid version, all of Superzero shampoos, conditioners, and hair treatments substantially slash impact. In fact, the brand says it has 90% less carbon emissions than traditional hair brands. But the solid formulas still contain high-performance ingredients for hair benefits like bond-building and targeted cleansing by hair type. Take the Instant Shine + Anti-Frizz Hair Serum Treatment Bar, for example, which targets dry, frizzy, dull hair or curls.

Ultra Moisturizing Kiwi & Hyaluronic Acid Body Wash

Suede Extrait De Parfum

Suede Extrait De Parfum

Some of the most exquisite all-natural notes in fine fragrances can be very depleting for the planet. While some think these ingredients are inherently better for the environment, the truth is synthetic fragrances can prevent overfarming or extraction from unethical sources like animals or endangered flora. Aeir uses synthetic molecules only to create their four luxe perfumes (including the elegant creamy yet woody Suede Extrait de Parfum) and houses them in 100% recycled and recyclable aluminum atomizers that are extremely lightweight to ship. Soon the brand will also begin using carbon-captured ethanol as it’s alcohol base. The end result is the first carbon-negative fragrance brand.

Megadose Niacinamde 2%

Megadose Niacinamde 2%

When it comes to concentrated, water-free formats, the Onélogy line is unusually advanced. With five skin care products centered around specific actives like niacinamide and sold in 32-piece aluminum blister packs, these pill-sized, featherweight doses of thefreeze-dried skin care ingredients are activated with a few drops of a serum or even tap water, but stay shelf stable for up to 10 years if you somehow can’t get to them before then. The environmental impact translates to smaller shipping weight and size. The aluminum packs are curbside recyclable and FSC paper outer packaging are also both curbside recyclable and biodegradable.

Royal Tulip Cleansing Jelly Tube

Royal Tulip Cleansing Jelly Tube

Instead of virgin plastic, the squeeze tube for this cleanser is made with a blend of upcycled sawdust leftover from carpentry work and sugar-based materials. It’s also curbside recyclable just like other plastic tubes. Bloomeffects is the first to use this PICEA plastic in the US giving their tubes a 40% lower carbon footprint than typical plastic tubes.

Eyeshadow Singles

Eyeshadow Singles

Designed by Half Magic creator and Euphoria makeup artist Donni Davy, these eight gorgeous single shadow pans come in molded paper shell compacts called PaperFoam that can be put in curbside recycling or compost. The shadows are designed to pop out of their single compacts and stick to the magnetic panel of the Half Magic Forever Palette, but the stiff PaperFoam shells — made of industrial potato starch and molded cellulose — can also be gently used as the packaging for the life of the shadow.

Provenance

While not a beauty product for purchase, the Provenance app can be used by retailers and consumers to sniff out greenwashing. The web site add-on called “Proof of Impact” verifies sustainability claims for both a product and a brand. Think of it like your fact-checker for environmental claims like Carbon Offsetting and Partially Recyclable Packaging, as well as social impact claims like Leaping Bunny Cruelty-Free and Female Founded. Currently bigger in the UK, more brands are adopting the technology. See it in action on the web sites for Pai, SBTRCT, and Cult Beauty’s Cult Concious section.

Upwell Cosmetics

Upwell Cosmetics

The waxes in many makeup, hair care, and body care products are petroleum-based. This new alternative wax by Upwell is derived from a compound released by microalgae, which can also become a butter, oil, or hydrating extract. The company grows microalgae in bioreactors that require one tenth of the land usage. While products with Upwell still have yet to hit the market — the ingredients just launched last year — but research published in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science shows the promise for lipsticks and SPF formulas.