TREATING ARTHRITIS
We need not accept pain in the joints as an unavoidable result of ageing.
Social issues and global events have a significent influence on the forward momentum of the beauty industry. We talk to the experts in the field about the current state of our world, and how what’s happening today will affect the beauty trends and practices of tomorrow.
SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY
As far as beauty-related topics to get jazzed about, environmental sustainability might not have the same impact as the latest research around reversing the ageing process, or a weightless new lipstick texture. In talking about the future of beauty, however, it’s precisely this that’s currently dominating our conversations, along with the brands and products leading the way.
The ‘clean’ conversation continues, too – what’s in our products is still of vital interest to consumers driven by the perception (proven or not) that natural is desirable. Increasingly though, the state of our planet and the far-reaching implications for the beauty industry emerges as the more pressing issue.
Zero Waste Week UK estimates that beauty packaging accounts for 120 billion units a year. There’s no question that the detritus left in our smooth-skinned wake is immense, or that as the climate crisis accelerates, every aspect of beauty and personal care production, packaging and waste must be considered. Thankfully, this is something brands are taking seriously.
“Certainly we are seeing more momentum around products and services that are mindful of the environmental impact they have,” says Emma Hobson, Director of Education for Dermalogica in Asia Pacific.
“Every aspect is being put under the consumer microscope – where ingredients are sourced, who, where and how products are manufactured, packaged and transported, how businesses conduct themselves, the social impact they have, what disposables beauty and hair salons choose to use, their recycling processes ... the list goes on. If a business does not already have a sustainability plan in action with goals that they have set for themselves, then they might not be around in the next five to 10 years.”
As ‘doing something’ becomes a selling point, some are ostensibly doing more than others. And while consumers should be wary of greenwashing, positive changes to get behind include simplified packaging that omits non-recyclable components such as cellophane wrap and mirrors; refillable options for makeup, skincare and perfume; fewer single-use items such as wipes and sheet masks; bioplastics made from plants (look, too, for branding around the percentage of post-consumer plastics used in new packaging), and recyclable glass vessels. Also beginning to gain traction here is Terracycle, an organisation that accepts and processes beauty packaging that can’t go into curb-side recycling, and rewards consumers for its use.
Online, the impressive claims and innovative production processes of smaller start-up brands are being amplified via social media, where sustainability is a hot topic. Multinational beauty behemoths with decades-old processes face more of a struggle, but many are making significant headway.
Aurelie de Cremiers, NZ country manager for L’Oréal says given the global beauty group is responsible for 32 beauty brands producing six billion products annually, it takes its responsibility incredibly seriously.
“Globally, we’ve just signed a new sustainability programme that we call L’Oréal For The Future, with very ambitious targets to 2030. Outlining defined, measurable goals which will limit our impact on biodiversity, water, climate and resources, it will ensure our activities are respectful of the planet’s boundaries, and what it can withstand as defined by science.”
As well as pivoting to recycled and bio-plastics, L’Oréal has partnered with start-up brands to speed up development of more pioneering packaging solutions that they hope will then be adopted by the wider industry. Among them are the cardboard bottles and tubes by Paboco which, when they land on NZ shelves this year, will house products from Garnier and La Roche-Posay. Another just-announced initiative, this one with Lanza Tech and Total, will harness captured and recycled carbon emissions in a complex process to produce the world’s first sustainable packaging of its kind.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Evidence that the beauty industry now goes far beyond face value, recognition of the role brands have to play in the wider social landscape is prompting tangible change.
Take ‘diversity’ – little more than a buzzword when beauty brands first began including it in their marketing vocabulary a few years ago, increasingly (and thankfully), many have since realised that simply adding a few deeper shades to a foundation line-up is not enough.
“ADDING A FEW DEEPER SHADES TO A LINE-UP IS NOT ENOUGH.”
Beauty packaging accounts for 120 billion units of waste a year.
In June 2020, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the US and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, there came a groundswell of support for a viral initiative called #PullUpForChange. Launched on Instagram by Black beauty company owner and former beauty corporation executive Sharon Chuter, it asked beauty brands to go beyond performative online posts and publicly release percentage breakdowns of their Black employees, from counter to corporate and executive levels.
“You can’t tell us Black Lives Matter publicly when you don’t show us that Black lives matter within your organisations,” she said at the time.
More than 300 brands responded, including the likes of Revlon, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal and Procter & Gamble. And while many were shown to be falling significantly short in the representation stakes, the tangible changes reported in the months since have been heartening to see.
“A lot of companies didn’t have the diversity, but were willing to engage in that painful moment of self-reflection and are now focusing on the future,” says Chuter.
While the initiative was US-based, its impact was undeniably momentous, prompting beauty brands around the world to address their own attitudes towards diversity, inclusion, representation and discrimination, including deeply-entrenched biases based on race, age, gender, ability, body-shape and hair-type.
And it’s predicted that philanthropic initiatives to support underfunded and underrepresented charities such as those long championed by brands including MAC, La Mer and Estée Lauder are set to explode this year, as brands seek more visibly to align themselves with causes and donate portions of funds to different communities in need.
“There is a strong shift in this space, especially from brands whose social and environmental approaches are at the heart of everything they do,” says Mecca creative director, Marita Burke.
For its regular philanthropic makeup collections that raise funds for animal conservation charities, and its commitment to ethical and fair trade ingredient sourcing, Burke names Chantecaille as one example. “They recently signed on to the Responsible Mica Initiative, which