By Caylie Warkentin
Sustainability in the beauty industry matters – every year the beauty industry produces 120 billion units of packaging, plus an additional one billion tons of CO2 through shipping. With climate change and green initiatives at the forefront of conversations, the green beauty industry is expected to be worth more than USD 25 billion dollars by 2025.
The sustainable efforts of beauty brands encompass not only exterior packaging, though seems like the most obvious display of waste - sustainability also includes every step of the production process, from the sourcing of ingredients to ethical manufacturing.
ARALEA BEAUTY is a woman-owned wellness beauty brand that manufactures our products locally. We’re a strong proponent of looking within our regional home for materials, ingredients and ethical manufacturers. We are continuously impressed by those who are at the forefront of sustainable initiatives.
Every time we swipe our cruelty-free lip balm across our lips and seek to recycle our packaging with TerraCycle, we are grateful to be able to support low-waste initiatives. Our lip care is just one element of a beauty and wellness routine, so we want to share our favourite homegrown Canadian, women-owned beauty brands that craft sustainable products for a beauty routine that is as kind to our planet as it is to our body.
Good Juju is a natural and plastic-free body and home care brand founded by Canadians Lisa and Alexa who believe that planet-friendly change begins from within our homes. They offer package-free solid shampoo and conditioner alongside laundry detergent strips for a plastic-free experience. Solid products mean less packaging, and they don’t skimp on quality – most detergents and shampoos are formulated with 95% water, and Good Juju uses clean, concentrated ingredients without traditional additives. All shipments are packaged in sustainably sourced and biodegradable paper products and each shampoo bar saves up to three plastic bottles from ending up in the landfill. Plus, they’re a carbon negative company – they offset carbon costs and donate to initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
Sḵwálwen is an Indigenous-owned luxury beauty brand founded by ethnobotanist and community activist Leigh Joseph. Based out of Squamish, B.C, Sḵwálwen offers skincare products like cold-pressed cranberry oil and sage and sweetgrass toner alongside soothing wild rose bath salts and wild poplar salve. Leigh draws on her ethnobotany teachings and traditional Indigenous knowledge to design products that nurture a sustainable relationship of reciprocity with the land. The formulas are created with sustainably harvested and sourced botanicals harvested by Leigh and her team, meaning that many products are seasonally dependent. To reduce packaging for shipping, the brand offers local pickup within Squamish.
Founded by Allison Audrey Weldon in 2016, Sangre de Fruta is an organic skincare and beauty company based out of Bowen Island. The brand is inspired by Egyptian beauty regimens and is informed by Weldon’s knowledge of therapeutic botanicals and holistic practices. Sangre de Fruta offers handcrafted beauty and body products, from jasmine-infused body serum to 100% botanical hand wash crafted with quality botanicals and organic ingredients. All products are created in small batches on Bowen Island. They package their bath and shower products in refillable bottles and offer refillable pouches to fill empty containers. For their other products, they use a variety of compostable plastic, paper envelopes, and recyclable glass.
Jack59 is a plastic-free, low-waste haircare brand based out of Alberta. They create pH-balanced clean hair care products for a diversity of different hair types as well as body products like nourishing body bars and salves. They are a certified cruelty-free company and keep sulphates and silicone out of their formulas. All products are made by local Canadian women in Edmonton, Canada. Their production process is 100% plastic-free, they use 100% recyclable packaging, and offer 100% compostable shower containers to store their hair products in, making the process entirely zero waste.
Ontario-based Herb Market Botanicals is founded by registered Holistic nutritionist Melissa Stephanie who dreamt of an eco-luxury brand with an emphasis on natural, planet-conscious products. The products incorporate wellness into beauty routines and offer skincare products like facial oil alongside organic body butter and luxury body oil. All products are formulated without harmful or irritating additives like fillers, artificial fragrances, or synthetic ingredients. All products are vegan and the brand is Leaping Bunny certified. With a commitment to sustainability, Herb Market Botanicals uses recyclable and reusable glass jars and eco-friendly packaging for their products.
Nala Care is an eco-friendly and body-friendly deodorant line created by mother-daughter duo Radmila Juristovski Bosnic and Ada Juristovski in Vancouver. Using knowledge from their backgrounds in biotech engineering and technology, Radmila and Ada created a ‘free-from’ deodorant line that prioritizes high-quality ingredients and is absent of parabens, aluminum, carcinogens, phthalates, and other harmful ingredients traditionally present in deodorant. The products are not only kind to our bodies, but to the planet, too. All of their products are made from 100% naturally-derived ingredients and the packaging is made of 100% recyclable paper. The plastic tube holding the deodorant stick is made of 100% PCR (post-consumer recycled plastic) and can be recycled at a recycling facility. They aim to eventually replace the plastic component of the packaging with a biodegradable alternative for an entirely planet-friendly experience.
Cheekbone Beauty is an Indigenous-founded cosmetics brand created by Jenn Harper in 2016. Jenn created a brand that prioritizes locally sourced ingredients, cruelty-free formulas, and shipments by boat rather than air. Crimson liquid lipstick features alongside creamy raven black eyeliner. They aim to be as low-waste as possible by 2023 and are transparent in their green initiatives, listing their goals and efforts online. Cheekbone Beauty is a partner of One Tree Planted which plants trees for every customer purchase. They are also a partner of Pact Collective which collects hard-to-recycle beauty packaging so all products are disposed of properly and in an eco-friendly way.
