10 Ways To Crush A More Eco-Friendly Beauty Routine

Want to help look after the world you live in and do your bit to reduce climate change? Then why not kick things off with a rethink of your beauty and skincare habits?

Climate change is something we must all try harder to overcome. But that doesn’t mean you have to overhaul your entire lifestyle and live a completely sustainable, zero-waste existence. Because, in all honesty, for most us, that’s almost impossible.

Instead, we believe small steps are the best way forward. After all, switching up a few lifestyle and purchasing habits present you with a much smaller mountain to climb. And this is way easier to maintain than trying (and often failing) to go full-on eco-warrior.

Ready to try harder with your skincare routine? Then here are 10 ways to be more beauty conscious.

Because it’s the least you can do, right?

1. Don’t Throw Away Half-Used Products

While it can be tempting to chuck out half-used products in your bathroom cabinet and makeup bag and start all over again, this is extremely counter-productive. There are good products in there so make sure you use up everything you have before investing in replacements. Just the simple act of buying stuff you don’t need is one of the most eco-unfriendly habits you can get into. So there you go.

Fallen out of love with that pink lipstick you bought last year? Then why not ask a friend or family member if they want it? Or maybe post a few unwanted beauty items to your local Buy Nothing Facebook group.

2. Buy Less

While we’re on the subject of purchasing, think about your product line-up and what you actually use on a regular basis. Do you really need seven facial serums, for example? Or different cleansers for day and night? Probably not. Try to hone things down by simplifying your routine and investing in multi-use products. Our Multi-Vitamin Facial Serum, for example, is an awesome treatment that works like an oral multivitamin… but for your skin! Great for protecting, hydrating, strengthening and enhancing it’s a real beauty for offering up everything your skin needs to stay healthy 24/7.

3. Invest In Reusable Cotton Rounds

Sorry, but single-use cotton rounds are the worst. Sure, cotton grows on trees and is a renewable source, but cotton rounds require a huge amount of water, chemicals and deforestation to produce.  Not only that but they cannot be recycled so they end up in landfills where they can take up to 12 months to decompose – even longer if they contain plastic (many do, btw!) which basically never breaks down.

Instead of buying such wasteful products, buy only organic, 100 percent cotton rounds or, better still, switch to more eco-friendly cotton pads that can be washed and reused time and time again. Amazon has plenty to choose from, right here.

4. Reduce Your Water Consumption

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the average American adult uses around 82 gallons of water a day. Sounds like a lot? That’s because it is. 

To reduce your water consumption, never leave the faucet running when you’re brushing your teeth, shaving or washing your face. It may seem easier to just leave it on the whole time but it’s totally unnecessary and wastes around eight gallons a day. Eesh!

Also, minimize your shower time. Showers use around two gallons of water every minute meaning if you were to slim yours down from 10 minutes to eight, you’d save more than 100 gallons of water every month.

5. Use Home-Grown Formulations 

Has it ever crossed your mind how many thousands of miles some of your favorite products have travelled in order to beautify your skin? K-Beauty skincare, for example, is all well and good, but the distance from Korea to the US is just over 6,500 miles. And that equates to a massive amount of fuel and air pollution just to moisturize your face.

The solution? Simple. Stick with home-produced beauty formulations to help reduce your carbon footprint. What was that? Oh yes, all TruSkin products are formulated and bottled in the US. 

6. Switch Out Bottles For Bars

Back in the day, soaps and cleansing bars were the only way to clean your skin. Yes, they were over-fragranced and often very drying but they did have one thing going for them – they weren’t packaged in wasteful plastic.

Understandably, beauty bars fell out of favor sometime in the ‘80s when liquid shower gels and fancy hand washes started to grace our homes. But the good news is, they’re back. And they’re way better than before. Nowadays you can wash both your hair and body with awesome cleansing bars that feel great and are chock full of incredible ingredients that do the job and won’t make your skin and hair feel like they’ve been sucked of all life.

Bars also contain less water (check) are usually packaged in paper or cardboard (check) and last way longer than shampoos and shower gels (check, check, check!).

7. Recycle As Much As You Can

Instead of throwing all of your empties in the trash, check to see if they’re recyclable. Cardboard boxes and glass bottles (literally all of our serums, in a nutshell!) are the most eco-friendly types of packaging and can be recycled just about anywhere. But even plastic bottles and caps are accepted at some local programs so always check before you chuck.

8. Avoid The Ingredient Nasties

If you want to ensure what you put on your face and body doesn’t effect marine life steer clear of parabens and oxybenzone. Parabens help preserve beauty products that contain a significant amount of water (think shampoo and cleanser), but they’ve been detected in surface waters, corals and fish and they have the potential to be extremely harmful to all of the above.

Similarly, oxybenzone, a common UV filter used in sunscreen, is thought to increase coral bleaching and may even cause genetic damage to marine organisms.

When you add all this to the fact that both of these ingredients are common skin irritants, they should really have no place in anyone’s beauty regimen.

Done. Buy TruSkin and you won’t have to worry about either of them coming anywhere near your skin. We use much cleaner preservatives like sodium benzoate and ethylhexylglycerin across all of our products. And for sunscreen? We stick with reef-safe and super skin-friendly zinc oxide in SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen.

9. Stop Buying Single-Use Wipes

Cleansing wipes might be super convenient and just about acceptable when you’re in a pinch and have nothing else at hand. But honestly, they kind of suck at what they do – aka cleaning your skin. Plus, they suck even more for the environment. Not only are they packaged in soft plastic pouches (red flag right there!), but did you know the average cleansing wipe takes a whopping 100 years to decompose? Woah. This is because, according to the FDA, most wipes contain a whole host of ingredients like polyester, polypropylene, preservatives and rayon fibers – most of which aren’t biodegradable.

Just don’t go there. Instead, do better by sticking with proper cleansing products like our Charcoal, Vitamin C or Tea Tree cleansers.

10. Say No To Animal Testing

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), animal products are the key cause of climate change due to the amount of water, land and energy animals require to be farmed, killed, processed and transported. Meanwhile, research shows that around 110 million animals suffer and die each year through experimentation, medical training, chemical, drug, food and cosmetics testing.

If, like us, this appalls you, next time you’re buying skincare, makeup or cosmetics, make sure to go for products that say a big fat no to animal testing. How to do this without having companies pull the wool over your eyes? Look for the Leaping Bunny logo which is the only internationally recognized symbol that guarantees no animal tests were carried out in the development of any product displaying the logo. We’re proud to be Leaping Bunny approved across the board. Oh yes!