Smell good —and save the Earth too
Plastics are bad for the environment and beauty products are big users. So how can you help out?
THERE WAS a cult 1980s film you might have come across called Return to Oz that had an intriguing villain, Princess Mombi, who could remove her own head. Her lair featured a room with cabinets of alternative heads she would switch up and wear for different days of the week. While this was nightmare-inducing at the age of seven, the adult me feels like this might be an interesting beauty hack — being able to switch your hair type, facial features, eyes, lips and even bone structure depending on your mood. (Provided your identity, subjective consciousness and memories could be downloaded to your cranium of choice — but that’s a Black Mirror episode waiting to be written.) Refillable beauty products pique my interest in a similar way, switching up your lipstick shade or scented handwash while using the original packaging — without having numerous bottles and tubes cluttering up your home and handbag, as well as landfills. Buying refill products benefits the planet just as well as your purse, which given April is Earth Month, is something to consider.
When it comes to saving the planet, people are starting to realise that recycling on its own isn’t enough. According to TerraCycle, the beauty industry produces roughly 120 billion units of packaging every year, most of which can’t be recycled. Plastic is obviously among the worst offenders, given it isn’t fully recyclable (if you melted down ten plastic shampoo bottles to be recycled, it would still require some additional “virgin” plastic to be able to manufacture ten new ones). We’re beginning to realise to be truly eco-friendly, it’s about consuming fewer products and using less packaging, which is where refillable beauty comes in. Data from packaging research company the LCA Centre indicates that the beauty industry’s carbon footprint could be cut down by a whopping 70 per cent if brands switched to refillable containers. So you really have no better excuse to hop on the refillable beauty bandwagon.
Two of the products we use—and subsequently throw out most frequently of all — are shampoo and deodorant, so these are worth looking into when it comes to refillable options. Superdrug have a whole section on their website for refillable shampoo, with household names such as Head & Shoulders and L’Oreal Elvive offering refills for as little as £3.50. And to keep your pits fresh and fancy-smelling, solid deodorant brands such as Fussy will send you refill bars (£15 for three) that can be customised with your scent of choice, to slot into a reusable case (£20 with two refills). Elsewhere, The Body Shop has branched out into refillable makeup, from their PepTalk lipstick shades (£11 for a refill, £5 for the case) to their Tea Tree Face Base powder foundation (£15 for a refill, £5 for a compact).
Products come in a wide variety of shades, and slot in and out of their main aluminium containers with an ease that even Princess Mombi would approve of.