Sustainability has become table stakes in the beauty industry in recent years. But the constant influx of new products, whether created with recyclable packaging or not, feels at odds with the idea of lessening our carbon footprint. Like any consumer industry, the beauty world can only survive through consumption, and investors are often looking for substantial year-over-year growth, which, again, requires more products.
Driven by their social media feeds, some consumers want to experiment with trends rather than streamline their product shelves. Even for brands with a carbon-neutral footprint, there is still at least a minimal impact. It begs the question: In 2025, where do models of conscious consumption truly stand?
According to Spate’s Popularity Index, which combines Google searches and TikTok views, sustainable beauty has declined by 77.7% compared to last year. Online searches for the term grew by 7.1% compared to last year.
On TikTok, searches for sustainable beauty have declined by 78.6% compared to last year, although one could argue that those discovering products through TikTok are more likely to be trend-driven than sustainability-driven, chasing after the newest viral product rather than thinking about the long-term impact of their purchase.
“There is a disconnect between what people say they want and what they actually buy. That's what the data shows,” said Jennifer Carlsson, founder of competitive market research and strategy consultancy Mintoiro. “If you ask people what the current trend is, they'll say sustainability. But if you ask them what the most important selling points for a [sustainable] product that you buy are, sustainability doesn't even make the top five.”
Consumer mindsets are one aspect, but a sustainable approach infiltrates the entire beauty ecosystem: how brands are built, retailer standards, regulations, and marketing.
It Begins with a Bottle
Sustainability takes on a different meaning from brand to brand. Some, like the now-defunct LOLI Beauty, harnessed food waste and plastic-free packaging. Others, especially larger-scale companies like Unilever or L’Oréal, will tap into recycled PET and refill options for their best-selling products. It’s not just packaging but also setting a precedent for how often new SKUs are launched. In a trend-driven industry, it can sometimes feel like a “sink or swim” mentality when it comes to pushing new products, but certain brand founders are standing their ground on lessening their environmental impact with a more curated assortment.
For brands that haven’t launched identifying as earth-first, the switch-up in messaging and presentation of backtracking to sustainability can also be challenging. “There are brands that are actually sustainable, and people who care about sustainability buy from those brands. But brands that have other products and then only one SKU that is a more sustainable SKU, those don’t necessarily do as well,” Carlsson said.
Founded in 2010, skincare brand Tata Harper began sustainability-first. The company uses glass bottles and jars, FSC Certified paper cartons, and soy ink. Its founder stated that each product takes at least two years to develop, which means her customer audience also doesn’t have expectations for a new release every month. Synergistic collaborations with its retail partners like Sephora, Bluemercury, Bergdorf Goodman, Credo Beauty, and Nordstrom help to boost the success of new launches when they do happen.
Francisco Costa founded Costa Brazil in 2018. Celebrating the diverse beauty of its namesake country, the brand has Ecocert Certification for its sourcing practices, recyclable packaging, and a partnership with Conservation International to support riverside agricultural communities.
It was shut down in August 2023 when its owner, Amyris, went bankrupt, but Costa reopened the brand in February 2024. “The reception of Costa Brazil’s sustainability has been wonderful. Like I was expecting, our community cares,” Costa said. “Sustainability is a space that is slowly being conquered; I believe the retailers that we work with are very conscientious and are willing to move the category forward.” The brand’s current list of retailers includes Bluemercury and Skins.
“Unlike fashion, I believe the beauty industry has the potential to make smarter, sustainable moves due to the protocols it goes through. One has to understand the diversity of options we have to elevate our concern with sustainable practices,” Costa said, citing human working conditions, ethical sourcing, and fair wages as a few examples, with packaging still being “a huge hurdle.”
April Gargiulo, founder of Vintner’s Daughter, launched her skincare brand 13 years ago with the brand’s hero SKU, Active Botanical Serum, and has only launched two additional products (a treatment essence and cleanser) to this day.
“We stand proudly outside the new, more, and next culture that is pervasive in beauty. We also focus deeply on the impact we can have on our customers and the earth's well-being,” Gargiulo said. The company has B Corp status, donates 2% of its revenue to organizations benefiting women and children, and is also part of the Pact Collective for its packaging recycling.
Gargiulo, who runs the company without outside investment, was upfront with the brand’s stockists like goop, Bluemercury, and The Detox Market about its product development philosophy from the outset. “We are committed to making our community’s ‘forever’ products versus a ‘for now’ product. Most often, our stockist partners are relieved by our intentional approach to product introduction because they can invest the time and build a loyal customer base for each product.”
Tina Hedges launched LOLI Beauty in 2018 with “zero-waste” skincare that upcycled organic superfood waste into formulas. Each waterless creation came in reusable, food-grade, and certified biocompostable packaging. Hedges acknowledged that the marketplace’s education and interest in sustainability was not where it is today, but with 2019 came a consciousness shift in the industry towards these concepts, providing tailwinds for the brands.
The price point of the brand ($38-$68 per SKU) became too high for customers to sustain. “It’s sustainability values versus sticker shock. Shoppers will tell you in research that they are supportive of eco-friendly products and willing to pay more for them, but in reality, when they get to checkout, the price becomes the roadblock.” Hedges said. “We had nice margins, but they weren't extraordinary.”
The former founder sees the culture of fast-paced, trend-driven online content and purchasing possibilities as a partial influence. “In the three seconds of making that purchase decision, there's no time to roll through your own North Star of, is this doing better for people and the planet? There’s a disconnect.”
She highlights EcoBeautyScore, MoCRA, and the Grove Collective as key touchpoints in driving sustainability forward. “For a while it was a bit of a Wild West. Everyone could enter the industry, anything was fair game, you could market any claim. It got out of control so now there's a level of the industry corralling to try to start setting some guidelines.”
“No one has the perfect answer. Even at LOLI, we had some answers, but if we could have come together as a group with other people, I'm sure we could have made a much better impact.” LOLI closed due to a marketplace being crowded with greenwashing brands, which had larger influencer or celebrity backing, according to Hedges. “When other brands told a customer that they could have a plastic tube, a product at $12, and piggybacking off of similar clean and conscious claims, it became harder to hold our position.”
Shelf Standards
Retailers are where brands go to grow, so setting an eco-conscious paradigm for those hoping to get onto the shelves can also make a profound impact. If shoppers expect newness on the display stands, setting a precedent for how those new SKUs are made can also make a difference.
As an early entrant, Credo Beauty outlined standards across ingredients, safety testing, consistent naming across INCI lists, full disclosure of all fragrance ingredients, and sustainably sourced packaging free of single-use materials, optimized for end-of-life sustainability.
“Growing a retail business while continuing to walk the walk on sustainability commitments and push them further takes real persistence,” said Christina Ross, Credo Beauty's Head of Science and Impact. When the retailer banned single-use plastic packaging in 2020, it faced a revenue impact. “But we knew it was the right thing to do, and our customers and brands supported us. Over time, the decision strengthened our credibility in the clean beauty movement, encouraged our brands to push further on their sustainability efforts, and set a new standard in beauty retail.”
Credo Beauty founded the Pact Collective, an industry-wide recycling program for hard-to-recycle empties, in 2021. Today, there are over 3,400 Pact bins across the US at its own locations, as well as other retailers like Ulta Beauty, Sephora, and Nordstrom.
“The beauty industry has made big progress in the past few years,” Ross said, citing a bigger focus on refillable packaging, reducing reliance on virgin plastic packaging, and ingredient sourcing transparency (like upcycling ingredients). “But, the beauty industry (like so many industries), is built on selling products, and that can work against sustainability because bringing products to market has major implications on our resources, environment, and climate. We’ve seen brands launching too many SKUs, overpackaging, and of course, we’ve all seen brands making sustainability claims that they can’t back up.”
Credo Beauty requires brands to back up sustainability claims with documentation, and Ross noted that the retailer’s strict parameters for brands drive business as customers trust the retailer’s vetting standards. “It’s not enough to just meet our Clean Standard anymore; brands must have a real reason to be in our stores with a brand or founder story, commitment to the environment, and diligence in keeping a streamlined assortment of products. We encourage brands to be intentional with launches; no one needs 30 lip gloss shades.”
Ulta Beauty launched the Conscious Beauty at Ulta in October 2020 with five pillars (“clean” ingredients, cruelty-free, vegan, sustainable packaging, and positive impact). As of fiscal 2024, over 300 brands are part of the initiative by adhering to at least one pillar, while 78 brands adhere to all five. The retailer also partnered with Pact Collective on The Beauty Dropoff, a recycling initiative for beauty empties across all its stores, first piloting it in 2023 before expanding it to all 1,400+ stores in March 2024.
Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Chief Retail Officer at Ulta Beauty, noted, a growing interest in eco-conscious beauty choices, “and we are committed to further supporting our guests in making sustainable decisions.” The Ulta Beauty 2024 Environmental, Social and Governance Report shows that between 2019 and 2024, the retailer reduced absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 33%, reduced absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 30%, and has 47% of brand partners working with science-based targets.
Sephora first launched its Clean + Planet Positive labeling (an extension of its 2018 launched Clean at Sephora seal) in 2021. In 2025, the retailer launched the Planet Aware global seal at Sephora (alongside its new Clean at Sephora global seal). Pillars of the Planet Aware seal include ingredient sourcing and formula, packaging, corporate commitments and practices, and consumer information. Examples include microplastic-free formulas, not conducting animal testing, ambitions to achieve 100% circularity, and providing clear recyclability instructions on all packaging.
While the targets and parameters set by each retailer vary, each one incentivizes those thinking about their ecological footprint. Once the product leaves their stores, how that item is repurposed, reused, or recycled comes next.
In the Hands of the Consumer
If the product purchaser doesn’t have the chance to recycle their packaging in-store, at-home recycling, or curbside pickups are the next best steps. However, it’s also not as simple as it seems. Recyclable plastic also typically ends up in the landfill after one to two rounds of recycling due to the disintegration of the material. Zenia Jaeger, founder of biodegradable color cosmetics line Submission Beauty, told BeautyMatter back in 2021 that there weren’t enough facilities in the US to process all the biodegradable products.
Alexander Kwapis, Global Head of Innovation, R&D, and Engineering at FusionPKG, highlighted a huge issue in the US-based recycling system. “Unfortunately, the system was not set up for cosmetics; it was set up for household items and beverages. That’s why companies like Pact are gaining ground. Education is the other thing. There's a lot of wish cycling; people just throw stuff in the recycling bin, not really knowing what is recyclable, because it is confusing. The labeling doesn't really help.” Kwapis sees deposit programs at retailers being a potential initiative to get more recycling in place.
Carlsson highlighted greenwashing as another source of confusion. “Brands are doing the work, and they say they're sustainable, and then there are the brands doing nothing and saying they're sustainable. What's the consumer to think?”
While the EU and UK have put legal ramifications in place for brands making unverifiable sustainability claims, overall, there is still no singular definition of what is or isn’t sustainable. Pressures to be sustainable or risk falling out of favor mean that brands are switching over to the best possible tools at their disposal, which, depending on budget, formulas, and aesthetic, doesn’t always mean aluminum or glass (that are also more expensive for brands due to their weight).
Scaling Sustainability
“Conscious consumption is a nice idea, but at scale worldwide, it is not the reality of the market today,” said Nicolas Geiger, board member of L'Occitane Group and Founding Partner at REDO Ventures, which has invested in brands like Dieux and Ellis Brooklyn.“Because many consumers need to put food on the table [and can’t prioritize a higher cost for more sustainably produced goods]. When you are talking about niche, then the environmental impact is limited.”
The L’Occitane Group received its B Corp certification in August 2023, which Geiger described as a very difficult undertaking, especially for an international company of its scale. With its sustainable supply chains of natural ingredients and vertical integration, elements of a regenerative business are there, but other areas require further change.
“You have that continuous improvement mindset. We had to put sustainability KPIs [in place for] everyone, and they are now almost as important as the profitability. But we need both. If you don't make a profit, you can't have a positive impact.”
Indeed, sustainability alone will not be able to support a business, and scaling certain sustainability practices as a company reaching the upper echelons of the industry is also a challenge. Geiger recalled a surge of organic beauty around 2005/2006, which wasn’t able to hold its popularity due to formula performance not reaching the necessary bar. In the beauty industry, especially during times of economic turbulence where customers seek the comfort of positive product effects, performance remains the top priority.
As for regulations, he pointed out the vast amount of greenwashing, which requires increased education across the board to combat but also a need for regulations that accommodate, not hinder, the beauty industry, and create a realistic timeline of change. “There's so much greenwashing going on that it's very complicated. Of course, regulators have a responsibility. It's finding the right balance between overregulation, whereby it can really kill an industry, and on the other hand, when you do nothing and put no regulation, you don't incentivize anyone to improve.”
Geiger also noted that the practices that have the best sustainability impact versus marketing impact, “are not necessarily correlated.” “To truly optimize their impact, brands should look beyond short-term trends and focus on long-term, meaningful strategies that align with both environmental goals and core business value.”
Legacy brands building sustainability into their systems retroactively face a greater challenge than those launching today with a technological breakthrough or sustainability-minded formulations already in place. Geiger sees B Corp certification as an excellent tool to get companies on track with these overhauls. “It is focusing and incentivizing your company to look for continuous improvements that create lasting, positive impact for all stakeholders. It’s a pretty good way of pushing people to embrace new technologies.”
He also stated that getting B Corp certification was a significant investment for the company, so it’s also a big financial step that may be out of reach for certain company budgets. “We could only afford it because our employees were determined to make it happen.” But the more B Corp certification becomes an industry standard, the more companies are likely to follow suit. It’s here where shareholders, not consumers, make the biggest difference. “It’s about committing a cost for the greater good as a real responsibility for future generations. Pushing innovation towards sustainability is very important because we need to act now, but we also need to continue the virtuous circle. We do this out of the willingness to lead by example and show it's possible. We are trying our best, but we're not perfect.”
Can Newness and Sustainability Coexist?
The business impact of shifting to a sustainability-first approach looks different depending on a company’s customer base. Education, transparency, and end-to-end supply chain consideration can determine the line between greenwashing and a positive impact. But for widespread, everlasting change, it requires a radical shift in how we consume, make, and market beauty.
“I don't consider sustainability to be the responsibility of the consumer. It's the responsibility of the brands,” Carlsson said. “Overproducing 50,000 units that then end up in landfills—that's the problem. Not a 15-year-old kid using plastic packaged skincare products.” She predicted a tipping point for when consumers don’t feel they are sacrificing product performance or aesthetics for sustainability, as well as when greenwashing is no longer tolerated.
Ross stated, “At the end of the day, sustainability and profitability don’t have to be at odds. When brands stand up in a crowded marketplace and do things differently, like designing packaging for circularity or streamlining their assortment, we’ve seen it can actually benefit them in the long run.”
She also sees Credo-stocked brands as being ahead of the curve, given increasing sustainability regulations. Examples like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulation, Washington Plastic Packaging Reduction Law (SB 5022), and California's Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act are either already in place or on the horizon. Building into requirements around single-use packaging or PCR from the onset isn’t just sustainable but also future-proofing a business.
“The beauty industry has made strides in sustainability, but there is still work to be done for the industry as a whole,” Harper says.“Newness and sustainability do not have to contradict one another.” While the brand is launching new products, it is also constantly searching for more eco-friendly solutions to integrate.
“Regardless of how it [a product] is packaged or sourced, the constant barrage of new takes its toll on our planet and her people. It feels as though that wheel of new and next spins faster with each passing day,” Gargiulo said. She sees beauty consumers as overwhelmed by the assortments and false claims, taking a more considered and less-is-more approach in the future for brands and retailers to follow.
Hedges believes a sustainable brand that does it all is possible, and LOLI Beauty provided a blueprint for where future areas of opportunity are. “It’s still a worthwhile endeavor, and I hope more brands push in that direction in a meaningful way."
Beauty’s sustainability problem cannot be fixed one brand or one packaging component at a time. It’s a multilayered, complex web that requires a united front to untangle. How can an industry survive shifting to slow consumption when it is built on consumers wanting more products faster than ever? Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer, but once the individual voices can unite to a strong collective, we may be able to find our way through the proverbial woods (while conserving the trees).
