As a consumer-driven industry, beauty can always do better to cut back on its devastating environmental impacts. Enter, blue beauty. The latest beauty movement revolves around incorporating reef-safe ingredients in products and minimising the carbon footprint. Here’s all you need to know.
New Wave
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Single-use plastic contributes 8 million tonnes of waste to the oceans every year. To combat this, Jeannie Jarnot, founder of Beauty Heroes, started the blue beauty movement in 2018. A global buzzword now, the initiative aims to use less water, biodegradable and up-cycled packaging and non-toxic natural care that is gentle on the waterways.
What’s Different?
While green beauty exists to create a change in environmental pollution by recycling, composting and picking eco-conscious ingredients, blue beauty has a niche focus. Think about all the synthetics, silicones and other harmful chemicals washing down your drain every day. This timely approach aims to spearhead a change in our habits causing water pollution and encourages its conservation while being sustainable.
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The movement educates users on failing animal ecosystems due to exfoliators containing microbeads, coral bleaching chemicals like oxybenzone and plastic beauty bottles being used and thrown. Both green and blue beauty initiatives are integral in the fight against climate change. But if oceans are restored too, they could take pressure off land resources while holistically healing the planet.
Beyond Blue Washing
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As the industry continues to re-evaluate its ingredients and raise awareness, brands at the forefront need to stay away from tokenism or, in this case, blue washing. This means simply marketing a product by associating with the United Nations Global Compact sans actually following their ten principles. Companies need to steer away from these gimmicks and regulate their negative practices. Going back to the grass root production cycles and creating zero-waste packaging is integral to save the planet’s biodiversity.
How Can You Help?
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As a consumer, you can consciously incorporate these daily habits to save our oceans:
– Buy less but buy better
– Recycle your empties
– Opt for marine safe ingredients
– Educate yourself and those around you
– Participate in beach clean-ups
