What are sustainable beauty and fashion trends?

I- Sustainable beauty trends 

Consumers are turning their attention to environmental issues / Ph: Pexels

The recent years have seen the rise of the sustainable beauty and fashion trends as consumers are putting much attention in environment and sustainability issues in the fashion industry. Brands have been turning their concentration on these issues and sustainable beauty and fashion influencers are trying to use their images to affect consumers positively. Here are the most noticeable sustainable beauty trends.

1- Biodegradable ingredients : Trending in sustainable beauty trends

The sustainable beauty and fashion industry witnesses the domination of products containing biodegradable ingredients. Tackling microbeads, face wipes or fine lines are no longer the only things that consumers want to see from sustainable beauty products.

They are demanding more than that because many consumers nowadays have realized the importance of environmental protection as well as sustainable development.

That is the reason why the use of biodegradable ingredients is one of the emerging sustainable fashion and beauty trends. The term biodegradable is often associated with environmentally friendly products and it is what consumers want beauty products to be.

The products should be as environmentally friendly as possible, not only about the substances but also the packages. Companies in sustainable fashion and beauty industry are desperate for ways to use these biodegradable ingredients in their beauty products. They have to make sure that they take care of the planet because it is what consumers expect to see from them.

Sustainable ingredients are being used more widely and replace the conventional ingredients which can cause harms to the environment. This is what all players in the beauty market have to do if they want to survive.

2- Sustainable packages

Since consumers are defending for the planet, they have refused the excessive use of plastic. Therefore, they are turning to use products from beauty brands with sustainable packaging instead of their normal or even interested brands.

The packaging sustainability in the beauty industry is diverse, from no-waste bottles to recycled and recyclable boxes.

An outstanding name in sustainable beauty industry must be Unilever. The company is going ahead with its plan to become more sustainable. Dove, a brand under this name, announced the switch of its Dove, Dove Men + Care and Baby Dove packaging to 100% recycled plastic bottles by the end of 2019.

This plan is carried out first in North America and Europe and the brand also plans to expand it globally by the end of 2020. This goal aims at reducing the use of virgin plastic by roughly 20,500 tons every year. More than that, the brand is implementing the plan of plastic-free Beauty Bar single packs and stainless-steel Dove deodorant sticks.

LOLI Beauty is a typical example of top sustainable beauty brands. This beauty brand has eliminated water from its manufacturing process and cycled organic ingredients from food supplies. Now, it has applied sustainable packaging on all of its products.

In this plan, all products are packaged in recycled and recyclable boxes with 100% certified compostable labels and bags that deteriorate in 180 days.

Lush is a beauty brand that is well-known when it comes to ethical, fresh, environmental-friendly and vegan beauty field. In winter 2019, the brand has made a remarkable decision of launching packaging-free product range. Until now, nearly 80% of the brand’s seasonal products are sold without any packaging.

Lush is selling their products without packaging / Ph: Pexels

Pursuing the sustainability in beauty industry, Lush got into a problem with the storage of their products. And they came up with an idea of formulating their products with little or no water. This helps their shower gels, lip scrubs and body conditioners to stay solid at room temperature and to be self-preserving.

In addition, the brand also replaces water in products with ingredients such as cocoa butter so that bath side bacteria are kept at bay in order to protect your products.

3- Refillable beauty products

Refillable product trend is not too obvious in the sustainable beauty market. However, there is no doubt that its potential for improvement is huge. And as consumers are more aware of what is happening on the planet, this trend promises to be emerging in the next few years. Following these sustainable beauty and fashion trends, the top sustainable beauty brands no longer sell the same packaged products over and over to consumers. Instead, they sell refillable products. It means that consumers will keep the original dispenser, then go to the stores, shops or retailers to refill them.

This act helps to reduce a huge amount of dispenser released every day while saving the cost of packages for manufacturers.

4- Sustainable marketing

Along with sustainable beauty packaging, beauty brands are applying sustainable marketing strategies. It is understandable why top sustainable beauty brands have to do so.

According to a 2014 Nielsen research, roughly 50% of global online consumers are willing to pay more to buy products and use services from brands with positive social and environmental impacts.

Following sustainable beauty and fashion trends, beauty companies need to promote their sustainability performance through not only its manufacturing process but also all business activities.

However, if they are engaging in unsustainable practices, they cannot claim that they are developing sustainably. This is because once consumers find out the truth behind their lie, for instance, making employees work under poor conditions, the reputation and credibility of them will be immediately ruined.

The Body Shop is a Leaping Bunny – approved brand / Ph: Pexels

A famous name in the sustainable beauty market is The Body Shop and its effective green positioning. The brand never tests their beauty products on animal. In fact, The Body Shop is a Leaping Bunny-approved brand which received Leaping Bunny Certification.

Moreover, this noticeable name in sustainable fashion and beauty industry also has social responsibility.

Its Tea Tree Oil’s materials are from the Kenya Organic Oil Farmer’s Association. KOOFA is actually a cooperative which is made of 380 small-scale farmers. Most of them are women who are forced to be the main labour of their families due to the AIDS-related mortality in Kenya.

What the brand buys input materials from KOOFA helps farmers to have steady income to make ends meet.

The Body Shop is also dedicated even with their advertisements with no images of degrading women. Moreover, it also forms a fund named Learning is of Value to Everyone initiative, aiming at providing training courses, events and health treatments to its staffs and employees. No need to say, The Body Shop is one of the most eminent names in sustainable beauty and fashion industry.

II- Sustainable fashion trends