I’ll say it first—I’m not always very thoughtful when it comes to buying beauty products. Usually, my main priorities when it comes to buying beauty products are quality, price and convenience. However, lately, I’ve been trying to factor in the product’s sustainability too while I’m purchasing it. After an extensive amount of research, I found out that some products do more harm than good. So without any further ado, here some beauty products that cause a lot of harm to the environment:
1. Sheet Masks
Putting on a sheet mask and watching Netflix is one of my favourite things to do. However, since sheet masks are single-use products, you’re unnecessarily creating more waste. So spare the landfills the waste, and look for beauty products that won’t harm the environment. Since sheet masks are drenched in serum, I have substituted using sheet masks with a serum instead.
Alternative: Serums
2. Cotton Pads
Those round cotton pads are super convenient and handy, however, they are again single-use products that pile up in the landfills. This waste can be easily avoided by using reusable cotton pads.
Alternative: Reusable cotton pads
3. Physical Exfoliators
Some exfoliating scrubs contain plastic beads (which help scrub your skin) which when washed down the drain can end up in our water bodies and harm marine life. So make the sustainable switch and start using chemical exfoliators instead.
Alternative: Chemical exfoliators or scrubs with natural exfoliating scrubs
4. Makeup Removal Wipes
Makeup removing wipes has a very negative effect on our environment. Most of these wipes are made from plastic textiles or polypropylene AKA single-use plastics. They pollute our landfills and even our oceans. In the long run, they can do a lot of damage. So consider double cleansing to remove your instead.
Alternative: Cleansing Balms or oils
5. Some Sunscreens
Most sunscreens contain ingredients like oxybenzone and octinoxate which can severely harm coral reefs and marine life. In no way am I suggesting that you should skip the sunscreen, however, the best option is to use sunscreen without these harmful chemicals.
Alternative: Physical sunscreens with zinc and titanium dioxide
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