How to clean up your beauty regime

As consumers, we’re savvier than ever about our purchasing power and its impact on the natural world. It’s a hot topic across fashion, food, lifestyle and, of course, beauty.

We’re increasingly asking what goes into the products we put on our skin, where the ingredients are from and how they’re tested. So, from provenance to packaging, product disposal to charitable activities, these are the sustainable initiatives from some of our favourite brands.

Already renowned for its naturally sourced ingredients, L’Occitane is taking it further with a commitment to applying for Fair Trade status for all its direct producers by 2025. Feel the benefits of its fair trade and organic shea range, which protects your skin and the lives of 33,000 women in Burkina Faso, who help to harvest the nuts from the shea tree.

Responsible sourcing of ingredients is similarly important to Clarins, whose open-air, pollution-free laboratory in the Alps provides the ideal conditions in which to grow plants for its products. Among the brand’s many global initiatives to support the producers of its ingredients is a partnership with Jardins du Monde, a non-profit that promotes better healthcare for remote communities. Through this collaboration, Clarins works with a community in Madagascar to harvest organic harungana leaves that are used in its skin-quenching Hydra-Essentiel range.

One of the worst offenders in our beauty regimes is the packaging. Brands such as Clarins, Rituals and L’Occitane are setting themselves rigorous targets for reducing the use of plastic in their packaging: all three brands have pledged to ensure all of their packaging is either recyclable or fully recycled by 2025.

Plus, Rituals offers a range of attractive gift sets – ideal for the coming festive season – which feature beautiful, reusable boxes that reduce the need for additional wrapping paper, and include fully compostable paperfoam inlays.

Refills – the other pioneering packaging move – offer the best of both worlds. Beautiful, long-lasting bottles to sit on your bathroom shelf are easily refilled with pouches of product. At Rituals, refilling one of its must-have skincare saviours just five times saves 74% CO2, 69% energy and 75% water compared to a regular-packaged product.

At L’Occitane, its range of Eco-Refill pouches save between 69% and 90% plastic compared to its standard packaging – plus, they include its bestselling shampoos and conditioners. In addition, its Eco Travel Bottle Set, designed by Mathilde Cabanas and including a pouch with four bottles made from recycled PET plastic, is ideal for a weekend away – no need for buying mini versions of all your favourites.

While revolutionising products and manufacturing is great for shoppers and the environment, it’s just as inspiring to know that brands are working directly with charities and non-profit organisations to support meaningful causes. Since 2011, Clarins has been working with FEED, a lifestyle brand created by Lauren Bush Lauren that supports the UN’s World Food Programme in improving children’s health and education by providing school meals to the most vulnerable communities across the world. Together with FEED, Clarins has created the FEED pouch, filled with four of the brand’s essential products, which is available as a gift when you spend £60 on qualifying products at Bicester Village.