All Your Questions About Eco-Friendly Makeup Alternatives In The UK Answered

If you want to live a more sustainable life, you have to look at all aspects. I have turned my attention to makeup and how to make it more eco-friendly.

Many products we use in our beauty routine have quite a big environmental impact. The synthetic ingredients used are just one reason why conventional makeup is bad for our planet.

But many of us don’t want to forgo the use of makeup products, so in this article we answer your questions about eco-friendly makeup alternatives available in the UK.

Why Is Conventional Makeup Bad For The Environment?

You might have heard that the makeup most people use is bad for our environment. This has three reasons:

1. The ingredients used
2. Packaging
3. What we use to apply and remove makeup

Let’s look at these in a bit more detail.

1. Most Makeup Ingredients Are Synthetic Chemicals

When you look at the ingredients list of your makeup, you’ll find a long list of chemical-sounding names. That’s because the vast majority of them are synthetic ingredients, made from lab-made chemicals.

There are three concerns with them. Firstly, most of them are made from petroleum, or so-called petrochemicals. Research has shown that the petrochemicals industry is driving the need for more petroleum. (Tilsted and Newell, 2024)

We know that in order to keep to achieve net-zero and meet the goal of the Paris Agreement, we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground. (Rayner 2020)

The second concern is around the manufacturing processes to make these synthetic ingredients. Not only are they energy-intensive, which means a high carbon footprint (Gabrielli et al., 2023) but they also cause pollution.

Finally, many of the synthetic ingredients used in makeup can harm aquatic life. (Wirtu 2024) Given that most makeup is rinsed off at the end of the day, these synthetic chemicals can make their way into our waterways fairly easily.

Among the worst ingredients for marine life are preservatives, synthetic fragrances and dyes, emulsifiers, etc.

2. Most Makeup Is Packaged In Plastic

Plastic is the most widely used material for packaging, including in the beauty industry. Mascara, foundation, lipstick, eyeliner, concealer, primer, and eyeshadow, all come in plastic packaging.

Plastic is a very versatile and cheap material, hence its popularity. But it’s also predominantly made of fossil fuels. Making plastic produces a lot of carbon emissions (3.4% of all global emissions in 2019), which means it has a big carbon footprint.

And while many of the different types of plastic are recyclable, most plastic isn’t. In 2024, only 10% of plastic waste was recycled in the UK. When it comes to cosmetics packaging, most of it, in fact 95%, is disposed of in the general waste bin, according to the British Beauty Council. That’s a hell of a lot of waste.

Even if the packaging is recyclable, put in the right bin, and is actually recycled, it won’t solve the issue. Because plastic can only be recycled 2 to 3 times before it’s too low quality to do anything with. So we can’t recycle our way out of our plastic waste problem.

Add to that that plastic can take decades, if not centuries, to break down (Chamas et al., 2020), and as they do they release microplastics and toxic chemicals (Wojnowska-Baryla et al., 2022), and it’s clear why plastic packaging is such a big issue.

3. Makeup Has To Be Applied And Removed

The tools we use to apply makeup are mostly made of, you guessed it, plastic. But not just that, many are thrown away once the product is used up. Think of a mascara brush, the little brush that comes with your blush or eyeshadow, or a lipstick applicator.

Once the actual makupe is empty, you throw them away too, creating a lot of waste. Because they often consist of different types of plastic, they can’t be recycled at home, even if the individual parts might be recyclable.

The same is true for makeup removal, which again creates a lot of waste. For ease, many people use makeup removal wipes or cotton pads, which are single-use items. Wipes are especially bad for the environment, as most of them are made of plastic.

Because of this, they aren’t biodegradable, which means they persist in the environment for a long time. As they break down, they shed microfibres, which are similar to microplastics.

These tiny fibres have been found in different animal species, such as penguins. (Zhang et al., 2021) While scientists aren’t yet sure what impact the ingestion of these small plastic particles has on animals and us humans, there is great concern about it.

While cotton pads are made from a natural material, it’s still single-use and produces a lot of waste. Besides, cotton production has its environmental challenges. The nature charity WWF said it’s the most water-intensive agricultural product, with a huge environmental impact.

High demand for cotton can also lead to deforestation, which is one of the drivers of global warming and climate change. Now think of how many cotton pads are used and binned every day globally?

But that’s not all. The wipes are soaked in a face cleaning product, which we also use with cotton pads. These cleansing products contain mostly synthetic ingredients, which we know aren’t good for the planet.

The main ingredient is the cleansing agent or surfactant. These can be harsh chemicals, and many commonly used surfactants are known to be harmful to aquatic life.

One of these cleansing agents that’s often used in makeup removal products is Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES). It has been shown to be toxic to aquatic life. (Bhattacharya et al., 2021)

We go into more detail about this topic in our article about why cosmetics are bad for the environment.

Find Your Eco-Friendly Makeup Quiz

Answer 5 simple, multiple-choice questions and get a personal recommendation.

What Ingredients In Cosmetics Should I Avoid?

We have said that the ingredients used in conventional makeup is one reason why it’s bad for the environment. So which of those ingredients should you avoid?

It’s not possible to provide an exhaustive list of cosmetics ingredients to avoid, for several reasons. Firstly, the sheer amount of different ingredients that are used. Different cosmetics products contain different ingredients, and different manufacturers use different ones too.

Secondly, many of the synthetic chemicals haven’t been studied, so we don’t know yet if they are safe for the environment or not.

Thridly, the beauty industry constantly comes up with new ingredients to keep ahead of the competition. So all we can do is to list some of the most common ingredients that we know are harmful to the environment.

• Preservatives – ones that are commonly used and have been shown to be harmful include: Parabens (Dilianis et al., 2023), Phenoxyethanol (Goldstein, 2020), Methylisothiazolinone (Lee et al., 2021), Sodium Dehydroacetate (Huang et al., 2020), Sodium Benzoate (Hu et al., 2024), BHT (Wang et al., 2019), BHA (Wang et al., 2021)
• Synthetic fragrances – they will appear as “fragrance” or “perfume” on the label, and the most commonly used have been shown to be toxic to aquatic life (Picone et al., 2021)
• PEGs – a group of synthetic ingredients that are used as moisturiser, emulsifier, surfactant, binding agent, etc., which have been shown to be toxic to aquatic life (Zicarelli et al., 2024)
• Colourants – most makeup contains some sort of colourants, many of which are harmful to our environment, including Blue 1 Lake (restricted or deemed unacceptable by EWG), Red 28 Lake (deemed unacceptable by EWG), Yellow 6 Lake (restricted or deemed unacceptable by EWG), Black 2 [Nano] (Kim et al., 2018), Bismuth Oxychloride (Zacchini, 2024)

We have done a lot of research on this, and if you want a more detailed list, read our article about cosmetics ingredients that are harmful to the environment.

What Are Eco-Friendly Makeup Alternatives?

As we have seen, conventional makeup has a huge impact on our environment. But does this mean we have to give it up, or is there an alternative?

While not using any makeup would be the best for our planet, there are eco-friendly alternatives. The best eco-friendly makeup won’t use synthetic ingredients but natural ingredients or at least ones that aren’t made from petroleum but a more sustainable source material.

Plant-based organic ingredients are one way to create sustainable beauty products. But the makeup alternative that is most known is mineral makeup. It’s been around for thousands of years but has recently experienced a revival.

It comes in powder form and only contains minerals, which are made from rocks, without any inactive ingredients such as preservatives, fragrances, or the like.

Any sustainable alternative to conventional cosmetics should also come in plastic-free and/or refillable packaging. Such as aluminium tins that are reused with the refills packaged in recyclable paper bags.

There are brands out there that have created refillable applicators for lipstick, mascara, and eyeliner, where you keep the case and just buy the actual makeup as a refill. This reduces waste, which is great.

Top 3 Eco-Friendly Makeup Picks

Products	Makeup Type	Coverage	Value For Money	My Rating	Full Review	Official Website
	Mineral Powder	Outstanding	Excellent	4.85	Read Review	Visit Website
	Mineral Powder And Liquid	Outstanding	Great	4.8	Read Review	Visit Website
	Mineral Powder And Liquid	Excellent	Great	4.7	Read Review	Visit Website

What Is The Difference Between Mineral And Regular Makeup?

We have already said that mineral makeup is a sustainable alternative to regular makeup, but that’s not the only difference between the two.

If you want to know more detail, check out our article about the difference between mineral and regular makeup.

What Are The Benefits And Downsides Of Mineral Makeup?

Like anything else, mineral makeup has its upsides and drawbacks. If you’re considering switching to it, you should be aware of them.

As you can see, there are quite a few benefits to using mineral makeup aside from the environmental factor. And the downsides are small, few, and some can be managed.

If you want to know more details, read our article about the pros and cons of mineral makeup.

How Do You Find Sustainable Cosmetics In The UK?

Finding sustainable alternatives can be tricky sometimes. You want to make sure that you don’t fall for greenwashing and end up not achieving your goal of living a more sustainable life.

Here at EcoHomeLife, we select the eco-friendly products we try and recommend very carefully. So how do we find sustainable cosmetics? Here are the criteria we use:

1. Who Are You Buying From?

We always scrutinise the companies we buy from very carefully. And these are things we are looking out for:

1. Where are they based? – UK is ideal, Europe is OK, any further we try to avoid because the carbon footprint of the product gets bigger the further away we go
2. Where do they make their products, source their ingredients/materials? – again, ideally in the UK, or at least Europe; if further afield we look for a sustainable supply chain where each supplier adhers to the same values
3. Do they put sustainability at the heart of what they do? – unless a company adopts eco-friendly practices in all aspects of their business, we avoid them; having a sustainable range while they continue to sell conventional products is a big no-no for us
4. Are they transparent? – we check their website carefully to see how much information they provide and if their sustainability claims are supported by evidence; it’s not enough to use words like “natural”, “sustainable”, “green”, or “eco-friendly”

By using these criteria, you can be sure that you buy from a truly sustainable beauty brand, which means the products will be the most eco-friendly you can get.

2. What’s In The Products?

We have seen that the ingredients are a huge factor in why conventional makeup is bad for our environment. So when you look for eco-friendly makeup alternatives, checking the ingredients is vital.

This is what you should look for:

• Natural ingredients – keep away from synthetic ingredients as many of them are harmful to the environment
• Organic ingredients as much as possible – any plant-based ingredients should be certified organic, even if 100% might not be possible
• Consider mineral makupe – it doesn’t contain inactive ingredients such as preservatives or synthetic fragrances, and in powder form it’s better for the environment
• The fewer ingredients the better – no ingredient is 100% safe for our environment, so the fewer there are, the better

3. What Packaging Is Used?

No matter what you buy, eco-friendly packaging should be used. Plastic-free and zero-waste are the ideals we should all be looking out for.

The cosmetics industry heavily relies on plastic packaging, and while changes are afoot, it’s still the dominant packaging material used in the industry.

Refillable options are the way forward in our opinion, and small sustainable beauty brands, such as Love The Planet, and All Earth Mineral Cosmetics, show that it’s feasible.

You buy a container to hold the makeup once and reuse it for a long time. You then buy refills, ideally packaged in zero-waste packaging. This is simple with powder makeup, but it’s also possible with lipstick, mascara, eyeliner, etc.

By using these three criteria and making conscious choices, you will be sure to find a truly sustainable beauty brand that provides you with eco-friendly cosmetics that work for you and the environment.

If you want more detailed information, read our guide about finding sustainable cosmetics in the UK.

Top 3 Eco-Friendly Makeup Picks

Products	Makeup Type	Coverage	Value For Money	My Rating	Full Review	Official Website
	Mineral Powder	Outstanding	Excellent	4.85	Read Review	Visit Website
	Mineral Powder And Liquid	Outstanding	Great	4.8	Read Review	Visit Website
	Mineral Powder And Liquid	Excellent	Great	4.7	Read Review	Visit Website

What Are Eco-Friendly Makeup Tools?

The makeup itself is only part of the products we use as part of our beauty routine. We also use many tools to apply the makeup.

The cosmetics industry mostly sells cheaply made plastic tools, which often are disposable once the product is used up. We have already discussed this earlier. So what is the solution? Look for:

• What are tools made of? – sustainable materials, ideally recycled materials that can be recycled again are ideal, and so is plastic-free; however, there isn’t a viable plastic-free option for brush bristles at the moment
• Are they reusable? – you don’t want disposable tools, but ones that you can continue to use with different products
• Sustainable packaging – like with everything, you don’t want plastic packaging; recyclable materials are great, or ones that can be composted – zero-waste is the gold standard

If you want to know more, read our article about finding eco-friendly makeup tools, including some recommendations.

How Do You Create An Eco-Friendly Beauty Routine?

To make a bigger positive impact for our environment, we often have to change the approach we take, rather than just switching to eco-friendly alternatives. So creating an eco-friendly beauty routine is a vital step in living a more sustainable life.

I have already made many changes to my life, including creating a sustainable laundry routine, and my beauty routine was next. You too can create your sustainable beauty routine in these 4 steps:

1. Use fewer products – Do you really need all of those beauty products? The fewer you use, the smaller your environmental impact
2. Switch to eco-friendly makeup alternatives – for the ones you do want to use, switch to sustainable alternatives
3. Stay away from single-use items – the likes of single-use items, such as wipes, create a huge amount of waste, so switch to reusable options
4. Use your cosmetic products less – using your makeup less means a smaller environmental impact from your beauty routine

Following these four steps won’t just reduce your carbon footprint and bring you closer to your goal of living a more sustainable life, but it will also save you money. It’s a win-win!

If you want to know more and read about my own experience, read our article about creating a sustainable beauty routine.