Beauty is a booming industry growing with the global skincare market and will only get bigger in 2026. The beauty industry owes its success to the rapid development of new products. The new skincare regimens introduced in the market.
The beauty industry has a notoriously negative impact on the environment. This success is mainly down to the rapid development of new products and skincare regimens entering the market. But the real cost isn’t just the monetary price tag.
Unwittingly, consumers only seem to increase the problem as they are hankering after these very products. However, we need more sustainable steps to build a more ethical skincare routine. The environmental issues impacting the beauty industry are as follows.
Non-Recyclable Packaging
Packaging is still a big problem in the beauty industry. It can be because the single-use plastic and mixed materials aren’t easily recycled. These products may take over a thousand years to break down.
An alarming fact to note is that at least eight million tonnes of plastic add to the waste in the ocean. However, it has not been entirely the contribution of beauty products—ocean pollution results in pollution and devastation and food chain contamination.
Toxic Chemicals
It’s not the excessive use of plastic that turns out to be a bane for the environment. The excessive use of toxic chemicals has a derogatory impact on the environment. The two most deadly chemicals in sunscreen are oxybenzone and octinoxate, leading to coral bleaching.
The toxic chemicals are being washed down the drain and contaminate the ocean, disrupting fragile ecosystems and killing sea life. Coral reefs require at least 9-12 years to recover from this onslaught, provided there are no cyclones to stop it from re-bleaching.
Excessive Water Usage
Water turns out to be the industry’s primary ingredient. And therefore, there is an excellent amount of water used in skincare and beauty. There has been a recurring concern that extra usage can overtake the supply in the future. We also use an abysmally high amount of water to apply or wash away these skincare products. One important solution will probably be enjoying shorter showers and turning off taps when needed.
Air Pollution
Did you know that the harmless act of wearing Perfumes, hairsprays, and deodorants can pollute the environment? The next sentence will blow your mind, the air pollution caused by these beauty products is as bad as car emissions.
And there is a study to back up this claim, so the claim is not as outrageous as it sounds. These rogue chemicals are popular as VOCs or volatile organic compounds. The scented products emit as many chemical vapors as the petroleum emissions from cars.
VOCs often interact with some of the other chemicals in the atmosphere and cause harm to the ozone pollution, which will affect our health and planet. The concentration of VOCs is its most potent indoors and can seriously affect the air quality.
Ingredient Sourcing Unethically
Natural ingredients form the crux of the ingredient in clean beauty products, but we have to be mindful of the source of the ingredient list too. Popular ingredients that form a part of the beauty ingredient list are unsustainable palm oil, leading to widespread deforestation and climate change. That is why you must keep a tab on the ingredient list of your beauty products.
Palm oil is ubiquitous in beauty products and skincare products, so it is difficult to boycott palm oil products. If we switch to alternatives such as rapeseed, soybean, or coconut, it can require more land and resources.
Switching on to just one of them may also harm the environment. Another hard-working ingredient that sneaks in most beauty products is sandalwood. It is a huge popular essential oil, and sourcing it will mean felling many trees that take almost 20 years to mature.
Conclusion
Well, now you know what lies behind those pretty packages of beauty products. As an environmental-conscious individual, you should know what goes inside your beauty products and how they source them. Some products in the quest to make you pretty can make our environment very ugly, and that’s just a small part of a huge problem. However, you can change this by consciously picking your beauty products. Remember, it is important to protect the planet while protecting your skin!