The business of beauty has become even more conscietised as the world realises the impact of climate change and how our consumption has lead to this crisis. This has lead to new beauty brands popping up in the industry, and changing the course of the business and also forced existing legacy beauty and cosmetic brands to start changing formulas, containers and the method of testing.
This comes as the personal care industry has, in recent years, seen a massive boom. With more people realising the importance of looking after themselves, be it mentally, physically and also aesthetically, they are shelling out a lot of money to try and be at their best.
One of the biggest effects of the pandemic on the beauty industry, was the importance of skin health. Few people needed to wear make-up as they were at home and if they weren’t at home, they were wearing face masks. This allowed more people to attend to their skin and saw an increase in scrubs, masks, mists, serums and creams that help with taking care of one’s skin.
Key to what many consumers wanted, was products that will be good to their hair, skin and bodies, and that are eco-friendly and vegan-friendly.
The packaging of many cosmetic brands are in the process of being altered so that they are sustainable. This also means that beauty brands are increasingly eliminating the excess packaging, and are starting to offer refillable systems.
There have been a number of new products launched in the South African market in recent weeks, and all of them tout their vegan and eco-friendly labels.
Fenty Skin
Launched last month in the African continent alongside its sister brand, Fenty Beauty, Rihanna’s Fenty Skin has been a game changer. The focus has been on looking after your skin and making the skin-care regimen easier. Instead of the multi-step skin care routines that have become popular, thanks to make-up influencers, they have dialled it down to three basic steps because their core cosmetics have added all the product you need. All of Fenty Skin products are 100% vegan and don’t contain any animal-derived ingredients or by-products. Fenty Skin claims their packaging is ‘earth-conscious’ as in more recyclable materials and refillable packs.
O'Right
O’right was launched in South Africa last month. Founded in Taiwan by Steven Ko, the award winning cosmetics brand is all about making sure that it’s a vegan, eco-friendly option for consumers and has sustainable packaging. Ko’s story behind finding the brand is how he, as an allergy sufferer, saw it necessary to create products that improved health and relied on natural ingredients. The brand uses shampoo bottles and pumps made entirely from renewable plastic materials. This has lead to O’Right being named the first carbon neutral cosmetics company in the world.
Panier Des Sens
The French brand is known for being vegan and using ingredients that are sustainably sourced. Founded in 2001, Panier Des Sens uses Mediterranean ingredients and know-how to create fragrances, as well as ranges of natural care products. The cosmetic range uses raw materials that contain between 95% and 100% ingredients of natural origin.