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13 Dec 2023
From a fragrance made from resurrected scents to a skincare serum derived from wastewater, these are our top 10 plastic-free beauty innovations of 2023.
ReMI is a waterless skincare brand from Australia. Grounded in the principles of ritualistic practices and self care, the plastic-free beauty brand offers day and night solid, waterless Moisturiser Stones, packaged in minimal, brand-free ceramic boxes handmade in Melbourne. A typical skincare product is made with up to 90% water. ReMI’s concentrated bars not only cut down on water use, but provide four functions in one, serving as a moisturiser, eye cream, face oil, and lip conditioner. Users simply wet their face then apply the balm, rubbing it in with fingers.
Design studio Nina+Co worked with Big Beauty in London to design the retailer’s first brick and mortar store in Hackney. The store design features a host of salvaged materials and biotextiles, inspired by the natural ingredients used in beauty products, as well as the brand’s overarching ethos to reduce waste. Key store fittings include a large stone travertine table made from reclaimed natural stone, expanded Cork storage units, salvaged Steel shelving, Mycelium and Reishi mushroom plinths, and Hemp and Seaweed biotextile curtains. The retail space is designed to show how beautiful and useful these waste and new materials can be, encouraging use and leading to scale.
Future Society is a fragrance brand from beauty biotech company Arcaea. Its first collection, Scent Surrections, features six fragrances all made from extinct flowers whose genes have been resurrected using synthetic biology and DNA sequencing. To make the fragrances, biologists extracted samples of extinct flowers from the Harvard Herbarium. By sequencing the samples, scientists were able to identify genes that encode fragrance-producing enzymes. They printed these codes and inserted them into yeast, which were cultured through fermentation to produce scent molecules. These molecules were then given to world-renowned perfumers to formulate the collection.
Circular bodycare brand KanKan partnered with design consultancy Morrama to launch a range of reusable dispensers for canned personal care products. Part of the company’s recent rebrand, the new cap and pump attachments are designed to click onto a refill can itself, negating the need to pour the product from the can into a Glass bottle as per its previous line. The pumps are made from post-consumer plastics, and simply slot onto the cap opening, with a twist mechanism ensuring stability. Pumps can be reused time and time again, easily transferred to the next can of formula.
US beauty brand Half Magic was announced as the winner of the Dieline’s Plastic-Free Innovation of the Year award, in partnership with A Plastic Planet and PlasticFree. Chosen for its use of Paperfoam - a potato starch and Cellulose-based packaging material that degrades harmlessly in soil after its use - the brand’s plastic-free make-up palette was a standout entry for its bold use of a material not usually associated with luxury beauty brands. Functionally, the palette is modular, with eyeshadows sitting in recyclable Tin pans that can be easily removed from the outer Paperfoam pack. These pans can also be slotted into the brand’s refillable forever palette.
Onélogy from the US transforms potent skincare serums into dry tablets that are activated by H20 at the point of use. Portioned into single-doses, the tablets come packaged in Aluminium foil blister packs that are recyclable in kerbside aluminium recycling streams. To use the product, consumers simply extract one tablet, mix it with five to eight drops of tap water in the palm of their hand and apply. The skincare products are freeze-dried and individually sealed to deliver maximum efficacy, and are able to remain potent for up to 10 years. Products include niacinamide, retinoid and peptides.
Lithuanian cosmetics brand SOLIDU created a range of solid hair and body care products to cut back on packaging waste. By incorporating waterless design principles, the volume of the product has been reduced by up to 80%, using only a concentrated blend of active ingredients, botanical oils, extracts, and essential oils. The collection of bars is packaged in plastic and Paper-free boxes made from starch, upcycled Bamboo offcuts from chopstick production, and charcoal. The packaging is home compostable, breaking down into nutrients for the soil in 45 days. Sample bars come in boxes made from grass fibres and Cellulose.
WasteCare from Japanese-German textile startup Aizome Textiles, is a skincare serum made from the wastewater of the company’s textile manufacturing process. The product spotlights Aizome Ultra - the brand’s textile dyeing process that uses only plants, water, and ultrasonic dyeing technology to bind plant molecules to the fibre for long lasting colour. According to the UN, the textile industry uses 1,500 synthetic chemicals in the dyeing process. Aizome’s dyeing technique removes synthetic chemicals from the equation, while using the natural medicinal properties of plants to create textiles with skincare benefits. As a result, the wastewater from the process is rich with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.
US beauty brand Kindred Black launched the Slow Beauty Refill Program. The brand's signature Slow Beauty line comes packaged in hand-blown coloured Glass bottles that are designed to be kept and displayed, not thrown away after one use. To keep the packs in use for longer the brand now provides refills for 75% of the products, packaged in infinitely recyclable Aluminium bottles. Glass bottles can be easily refilled with a steady hand, while simple tools are provided with some refill packs to facilitate the process. The brand has refill bottles in four sizes, to cater to the range of products in its Slow Beauty range.
UK-based artisan perfumery Ffern released its Spring 23 fragrance, containing 12 natural ingredients including neroli, bergamot rind, and narcissus. The Somerset-based company operates a zero-waste ledger system; to purchase a bottle of its seasonal fragrance, customers are invited to join Ffern’s ledger. The number of names registered on the ledger determines the number of bottles that Ffern will produce. The company only produces four fragrances a year, one for each season, and uses plastic-free packaging, including a Mycelium bottle tray and a kraft Paper tube to replace plastic bottle caps. Each 32 millilitre bottle costs GBP 79 (USD 98).