What Is Sustainable Beauty? Core Components + Examples

Sustainability is not just a trend in the beauty industry. It’s an ongoing response to consumer expectations and environmental concerns. 

A 2025 Blue Yonder survey found that 78% of consumers consider sustainability at least somewhat important when making purchase decisions, and more than 45% are willing to spend more for sustainable products. At the same time, the beauty industry continues to face scrutiny over packaging waste, resource use, and the environmental impact of manufacturing and shipping practices.

This guide explains what sustainable beauty means, how it differs from clean beauty, and how beauty brands are putting sustainability initiatives into practice.

What is sustainable beauty?

Sustainable beauty products and business practices aim to reduce environmental impact across a beauty product’s life cycle, from ingredient sourcing to packaging disposal. This can include:

• Sustainable sourcing of ingredients

• Ethical production and fair labor practices

• Reduced packaging waste through recyclable or compostable materials

• Lower carbon emissions in shipping and manufacturing

Sustainable beauty vs. clean beauty

The terms sustainable beauty and clean beauty describe different priorities: 

• Clean beauty. Primarily focuses on what’s inside the product, including ingredients and formulation transparency. These products are often marketed as being made without certain harmful chemicals or synthetic ingredients and may emphasize plant-based and organic ingredients. 

• Sustainable beauty. Focuses on the overall environmental footprint of a product. This can include reducing waste, limiting resource consumption, and designing products with long-term environmental impact in mind. 

A product can be considered clean but still generate significant environmental waste. For example, an organic hair care formula may still use non-recyclable plastic packaging. Likewise, some sustainable beauty products may use ingredients that don’t align with every brand’s definition of clean beauty. 

Components of sustainable beauty

• Production and sourcing
• Testing and ethical standards
• Packaging and recycling
• Refilling and circular systems
• Shipping and carbon footprint

Sustainable beauty extends across multiple touchpoints, including production, packaging, shipping, and eventually disposal:

Production and sourcing

Sustainable beauty brands prioritize ethical sourcing and eco-friendly ingredients, cruelty-free testing practices, and renewable resources that help limit environmental strain. In some cases, brands may use lab-made alternatives to reduce reliance on resource-intensive natural ingredients. 

From a production standpoint, brands may work to lower energy consumption and water use during manufacturing through more efficient equipment, smaller product runs, or reduced water-intensive processing methods.

Testing and ethical standards

Many sustainable beauty brands use third-party certifications and testing standards to support environmental or ethical claims. Certifications such as B Corporation (B Corp) can help demonstrate that a company meets established benchmarks for social and environmental responsibility. 

Some brands also follow ingredient-safety or environmental guidelines from independent organizations and industry groups. These evaluations may review sourcing, manufacturing, transparency, and business practices as part of the certification process. Leaping Bunny certification, for example, requires brands to demonstrate that neither their finished products nor their ingredients are tested on animals and that suppliers comply with the organization’s animal-testing standards.

Packaging and recycling

Packaging is one of the largest sources of waste in the beauty industry and one of the biggest opportunities for sustainability efforts. According to CleanHub research, the global cosmetics industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging annually, much of it single-use plastic that ultimately ends up in landfills or oceans. 

In response, some beauty brands are rethinking both packaging materials and recycling systems. Dieux Skin, for example, uses recyclable aluminum containers across its product line, while ILIA Beauty helps customers recycle used beauty products through a mail-back program. 

Refilling and circular systems

Some brands are moving beyond recyclable packaging by designing products intended for repeated use. Deodorant brand Wild, for example, uses reusable aluminum cases with refill packaging made from compostable bamboo pulp. 

These types of refill and reuse models are part of what’s known as a circular system, designed to keep materials in use longer through reuse, refilling, or composting rather than disposal.
Erika Geraerts, founder of Fluff Casual Cosmetics, says refillable products are becoming increasingly common in the beauty industry. “Five to 10 years ago, no one was talking about refillable beauty,” she says, “and now it’s sort of commonplace. It’s an expectation of brands.” 

Shipping and carbon footprint

Shipping can be a major contributor to a beauty brand’s overall carbon footprint, particularly for ecommerce businesses shipping products directly to consumers. Blue Yonder’s survey shows that 62% of consumers are more likely to choose a retailer that promotes sustainable practices in shipping. 

To help reduce shipping-related emissions, some brands use carbon-offset programs that allow customers to support carbon-neutral shipping. For example, Shopify’s Planet app allows brands to give customers the option to support carbon-neutral shipping for a 50¢ fee at checkout. The app also has an analytics tool that tracks shipping emissions, allowing brands to communicate their progress. 

Brands can also adjust their fulfillment practices to help reduce shipping-related emissions. For example, ecommerce companies may consolidate multiple purchases into fewer shipments, use smaller packaging sizes, or optimize packing materials to reduce wasted space during transit. Amazon’s option to group multiple orders into a single delivery is one example of how consolidated shipping can reduce delivery trips.

Examples of sustainable beauty brands

• Wild
• Dieux Skin
• Attitude
• ILIA Beauty

Here are a few examples of how beauty brands are incorporating sustainability efforts into their products and operations:

Wild

Wild is a UK-based beauty brand known for its refillable deodorant products. The company uses durable aluminum cases paired with compostable or biodegradable refill packaging designed to reduce reliance on single-use materials. 

By focusing on subscription-based refills, Wild encourages long-term, low-impact consumption. It also limits delivery-related emissions by including a minimum of three refills per shipment. 

Dieux Skin

Dieux Skin emphasizes transparency and packaging innovation in its sustainability efforts. One of the skin care brand’s best-known products, the Forever Eye Mask, was designed as a reusable alternative to disposable, single-use eye masks. 

The medical-grade silicone mask can be reused repeatedly, illustrating how sustainability can involve redesigning products themselves and not just their packaging. Dieux Skin also uses non-mined recyclable aluminum packaging and educates their community on best recycling practices, how much waste each product creates, and the brand’s overall carbon footprint. 

Cofounder Charlotte Palermino also uses her TikTok platform to explain the environmental impact of Dieux Skin’s sustainable packaging.

Attitude

Attitude focuses on sustainability through packaging reduction initiatives and environmental programs. The personal care products brand describes its approach as following a “reduce, reuse, recycle” model and has refillable and plastic-free packaging options across parts of its product line.

According to the company, these packaging efforts have helped prevent more than 1,000 tons of plastic waste. Attitude also supports reforestation efforts and reported planting more than two million trees in 2020 as part of its broader environmental efforts. 

ILIA Beauty

ILIA Beauty supports sustainability efforts through a customer-focused recycling program created in partnership with Pact Collective. The program allows customers to mail in a limited number of used beauty-product empties using prepaid shipping labels, including products from other brands. 

The collected materials are then sorted and processed to help divert packaging waste from landfills. In addition to its recycling program, ILIA incorporates recycled materials like aluminum, glass, and paper into portions of its packaging.