The British Beauty Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition launches the Planet Positive Beauty Guide to help consumers avoid “greenwashed” products.
Our planet is in a Code Red situation
A recent study of 23,000 beauty shoppers found almost half (48%) are looking for more information and clarity about brands’ values and commitments to the environment. Ingredients, recyclability of packaging and animal welfare were amongst the most frequently searched topics. Making ethical beauty choices can be difficult. In fact, 61% of us struggle to tell if hair and skincare products are ethical from the packaging.
It is clear shoppers want their beauty routines to ‘go easier on the planet’, but they don’t know where to start. The first thing to be clarified is definitions. Buzzwords such as ‘cruelty-free’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘net zero’ can be interpreted in different ways. There’s also a lot of confusion around identifying which ingredients are good and which simply sound good.
Introducing the Planet Positive Beauty Guide
Together with independent experts from across the industry, the British Beauty Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition has developed the Planet Positive Beauty Guide to decode the jargon with straightforward descriptions of the words most often used by the beauty industry – helping you understand some of the key issues and we suggest some things to look for.
Think of your favourite beauty product: a moisturiser, lipstick or mascara. A product you simply ‘cannot live without’. How much do you know about this product? What ingredients is it made of? How is it sourced, packaged, and produced? What do you know about the company that produces it? How do they treat their employees and suppliers? This guide asks crucial questions that will ultimately steer you towards making greener and more sustainable choices.
This is version one of the guide. We have a long way to go, but we must strive for progress over perfection.
It takes a planet full of people making small changes to make a big difference, so let’s start making more Planet Positive choices for ourselves and our planet. What could be more beautiful than that?
