Clean beauty: The next big thing in sustainable living
Why more people are hopping on the clean beauty trend and green living. Check out plant-based ingredients, sustainable beauty products for your skincare and beauty routine
Text: Shannon T
After sustainable fashion and plant-based food, sustainable beauty is undoubtedly the next big thing, and it’s still growing. Looking at the beauty choices of their platform reviewers and analysing the trend of sustainable beauty, social impact company abillion report substantial growth in demand for clean beauty products, with countries like Mexico and the UK showing potential as "emerging vegan beauty markets".
With sustainability and sustainable living becoming a central talking point across industries, it’s likely that the clean beauty trend will not diminish like other passing beauty fads (think 15 step skin routines and masks with gold flakes). Read on to understand more about the global clean beauty movement.
What is clean beauty?
While there is no stipulated definition, clean beauty products are generally understood to be products designed with the benefits of human, animals and the environment in mind. This includes products with non-toxic formulas, plant-based ingredients, cruelty-free certification, biodegradable or recyclable packaging, and transparent labelling. Besides your skin and lip care products, hair and fragrance are also included.
The abillion report sheds light on consumer attitudes towards sustainable beauty and promising markets for skincare, cosmetics, hair and fragrance products. Explosive demand for sustainable beauty options was observed across product types, with body and skincare dominating the market, comprising more than half of all beauty reviews and experiencing 8.5 times growth during 2020. Similar growth rates were also reported for hair and fragrance products.
While fragrance has the smallest share of reviews amongst vegan beauty products, it’s projected to be the next frontier for clean beauty due to an observed growth rate exceeding that of all other product segments. The report quotes Women's Wear Daily (WWD), saying that fragrance is the second most requested category for clean beauty and is growing at a rate of 21% per year.
Meanwhile, a comparatively smaller growth is seen for cosmetics and nail products. The Covid-19 pandemic is suspected to have shifted consumer attention away from makeup towards self-care products such as skincare. The demand for cosmetic and nail products is expected to rebound after the world returns to normalcy (watch this space).
Why are people making the clean beauty switch
The increasing awareness of cruelty-free beauty and the importance of environmentally viable products is one of the biggest reasons for this growth. The beauty industry is hugely guilty of generating an immense amount of plastic waste. Allure shares some shocking numbers from Euromonitor International: in 2018, almost 7.9 billion units of rigid plastic was created just for beauty and personal care products, and this number only accounts for that in the US. Just take a moment and visualise how much plastic the world makes every year!
With increasing consumer focus on ethical standards and sustainable practices in the beauty industry, beauty retailers are also quick to hop on the bandwagon to meet consumer demands. Leading beauty chain Sephora announced its clean beauty line in 2020 to show its commitment to sustainable beauty. Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the US, followed in their tail with a new conscious beauty initiative.
While doing good, choosing clean beauty for green living is also great for us due to the superior quality of natural personal care and cosmetics. These products tend to contain less harmful chemicals that may irritate and throw off our skin health.
Sustainable beauty going mainstream
Who’s already in on the game? While digging into the food identities of their platform reviewers, abillion found that flexitarians were the most interested in pursuing sustainable consumption choices beyond the food space, followed by vegetarians and omnivores. While consumerism and packing waste remain a problem to be solved, increased interest across the consumer spectrum to explore the vegan lifestyle in a non-food setting presents a silver lining of clean beauty going mainstream in the near future.
