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There’s nothing wrong with water, it’s the stuff of life after all, but water is used as a cheap filler by the beauty industry, increasing the volume of products to give the illusion that consumers are getting more for their money. By adding water, products take up a lot more space than they need to, resulting in more packaging as well as packaging that’s waterproof - AKA plastic.
So why not just add the water at use instead? We believe that when it comes to cosmetics, less is more. A cardboard boxed bar of soap has the environmental edge over a hefty plastic bottle of shower gel, but we’re obviously used to the luxurious feel of our bath floats and shampoos. Here are five brands offering waterless, plastic-free beauty that don’t sacrifice when it comes to scent and sensibility.
Beauty products often contain 60% to 85% water, while rinse-off products like shower gels and haircare products can contain up to 95% water
The UK's soap bar expenditure increased by 2.9% in 2018 to a value of $74.8 million, the first time sales have increased this century
of global personal care launches in the soap, bath and shower category in 2020 claimed to be waterless
Solid beauty is often reserved for soap, body wash and, more recently, shampoo. The skincare market is yet to conquer it, but SBTRCT gives us hope that this waterless design can translate to even the most ingredient-led category. The brand’s six-product range includes a foaming cleanser, facial balm, exfoliator, night balm, make-up remover, and vitamin C bar. Each is made in the UK and has nominal water content with a maximum of 0.5% H2O. What’s more, they’re all suitable for vegans and totally free from palm oil and its derivatives. The jewel in the crown is the Rejuvenating Night Balm, which contains 2% Granactive Retinoid, a market-first bar form of the unstable formulation.
Users don’t just get the benefit of compact, travel-friendly beauty either. All packaging - including shipping cartons and packing tape - are plastic-free and recyclable, while the brand helps users extend the life of the bars with its naturally mould-resistant diatomite dishes to ward off bacteria.
Part of the appeal of beauty products is the ‘shelfie’ worthy packaging they come in. Brands don’t pop them on the shelves in dull, nondescript packaging for a reason. That said, there’s no reason why you need to keep buying and binning the same bottles and containers each time your refresh your routine. MONO Skincare offers the best of all worlds. A massive range of 14 products, including makeup remover, cleanser, toner, face cream, deodorant, serum, and body mist, all concentrated into a powerful solid tablet of active ingredients.
Tablets are simply dissolved in warm water at home within half an hour, stored in the brand’s permanent Glass bottles or droppers. Yes, the bottles contain a smidge of plastic, but they’ll be used for years or longer, compared to the short lifespan of water-based product packs. Refill tablets come in glass jars with Aluminium lids, which can also be reused or recycled.
The ugly secret of the beauty industry is that water isn’t just added to products to make them easier to use. It’s because it’s the least expensive possible filler to bulk out the ingredients that actually do something. By contrast, Dew Mighty ditches the water and packs in blue chamomile oil, hibiscus seed oil and spirulina platensis powder. You pay more, but these are products that last.
The company strips out the filler to leave just the essentials. That means zero water, zero plastic and a pared-down line of just two products created in small batches. There’s jelly serum bar Bloom and powder-based enzyme cleanser Lucid. Bloom comes in a plated Steel container and Lucid in an Aluminium tube. Both are recyclable, but the idea is that you’ll refill them over and over with top-ups handily packaged in bio-based coated FSC-certified paper, without a smidge of plastic in sight.
It’s impossible to deny the elegance and hygiene of a bottle of hand wash compared to a bar of soap. Hand wash is mainly cheap water though, and it’s usually sold and stored in bulky plastic containers, too. Swedish company Forgo takes a two-pronged approach to tackling this problem. For the product itself, it offers sachets of waterless powdered soap, packaged in 99% Paper bound together with a water-soluble PVA glue (note, this is plastic, whether it dissolves or not). That means less weight, less space and less emissions than regular hand wash, as well as a much longer shelf-life.
Then comes the containers. Forgo sells a permanent, refillable Glass bottle that you can use over and over, before eventually being recycled at kerbside. The pump is made from metal and, yes, plastic. We are yet to see a pump designed without it. Unlike regular disposable pumps though, it’s guaranteed for five years and Forgo also claims it can be processed by metal recycling facilities.
US olive oil brand Wonder Valley powers a range of skincare with its hero ingredient, including its unique Olive & Lotus Exfoliant. A powder-based product, it’s designed to be mixed with the brand’s oil cleanser at the point of use, the practice of which helps users be in the moment and dedicate time to self care.
The exfoliant is microplastic-free and comes packaged in an Aluminium shaker. Chemical and plastic-based exfoliants are replaced with natural botanicals like bamboo stem, rice, lotus seed, green tea, olive seed, and lemon peel. The shaker allows consumers to determine how much product they need depending on their skin type and the season, in turn leading to reduced product waste and a better customer experience. The powder is activated when combined with the avocado and geranium-based oil cleanser, which is housed in a glass bottle - albeit with a pesky plastic pump.