Moisturizer: Package Free & Environment Friendly?

[iamjulienne]

Hi All,

Crowdsourcing brands who care about the environment by reducing the packaging or switching to environment friendly materials like paper and glass (versus plastic). I'm a fan of Drunk Elephant and Murad but both use plastic containers. I reached out to both several times in the hopes of getting information about a recycling program (similar to Mac where you return the empty lipstick cases) but both have canned responses without a real care for the environment. This saddens me actually because I love both. But I love the environment more and It never hurts to see what's out there that is both good for me and the environment. 

Any recommendations greatly appreciated! 

Thanks in advance.
- Jules

[treestar86]

shop at the co op or natural section, or buy from the brands themselves like dermae, mychelle, andalou naturals - they usually have better discounts and rewards anyway.

[iamjulienne]

Thanks a lot for this. I will keep an eye out for these brands, they are all new to me, except for Andalou.. I'm based in Asia so there are no co-ops and the natural section is often not really that natural. I will research these brands and see if there are local suppliers. Thanks again!!

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@treestar86 wrote:

shop at the co op or natural section, or buy from the brands themselves like dermae, mychelle, andalou naturals - they usually have better discounts and rewards anyway.

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[treestar86]

you're welcome, and good luck! 🙂

[tinazhang718]

There are strong acid and chemicals in skin care, how can you package it PAPER??? glasses is impossible to travel in. Also, for unstable ingredients, glasses cannot protect the ingredients from sun deterioration. Plastic is the best way to package everything. 

[orahlight]

You can protect the item from sun deterioration by using dark colored glass.  Anyways, I would rather save the planet then have perfect skin.  Thats just me though.  

[iamjulienne]

If you're okay with "Strong Acid and Chemicals" in your skin care and plastic contaminating the earth, then clearly we have different priorities. So, let's just agree to disagree. All the best to you.

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@tinazhang718 wrote:

There are strong acid and chemicals in skin care, how can you package it PAPER??? glasses is impossible to travel in. Also, for unstable ingredients, glasses cannot protect the ingredients from sun deterioration. Plastic is the best way to package everything. 

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[Brutalitops]

@iamjulienneGive youth to the people a try for sure! Super minimal recycleable packaging and glass containers (except for the lids) and great skincare items. Indie Lee is more hit or miss for me but another good one to check out

[WinglessOne]

@iamjulienne  I was also going to suggest Youth To The People, since I use and love some of their products. But I have a huge caveat: 

If you decide to keep YTTP products in their original clear glass containers, always store them in a dark place: a drawer, cabinet, lidded box, whatever. Or you can wrap the clear containers with opaque tape, or anything else that blocks light. 

“But why?” Well... 

Spoiler

YTTP products generally contain great antioxidants—hooray!—but those ingredients are also sensitive to light and air. Too much light/air exposure will cause the good stuff in YTTP products to break down, leaving them less effective.

A good example is vitamin C: YTTP’s Superfood Moisturizer (which my skin adores; I use it day and night) contains ascorbic acid, a form of vit C that’s quite sensitive to light and air. Sure, there are other ingredients in this cream that may help stabilize the vit C, but the glass jar is still a bad choice of packaging: it exposes the product to both light and air. I always transfer my Superfood Moisturizer to a reusable airless vacuum pump jar. Yes, my vacuum jar is plastic—but it’s also easily reusable. (If you have a full size DE Lala Retro or Protini jar, then you also have an easily reusable airless vacuum pump jar. Wash it out and reuse it!)

Also, YTTP’s vit C serum has no business being in a clear glass bottle and I don’t understand why they’ve packaged it that way. 

Speaking of packaging: If you’re in the US, standalone Origins stores and Origins counters inside dept stores (except Nordstrom, I think) will accept ANY brand’s empty cosmetics containers—skincare and makeup—for recycling. Even containers you’re not sure can be recycled, like plastic lipstick tubes. I think they still offer this program in Canada too, but I could be wrong. You may want to email them for more info and details. 

[iamjulienne]

Good tip on transferring it to a different bottle, away from the clear glass jars. TBH i never really paid too much attention on the product oxidizing or becoming less effective due to light and air exposure, I just wasn't aware. But now I will take that into consideration.  It just drives me nuts that many containers can't be reused cuz you can't open them. Like the murad tubes are useless and can't be repurposed.

I had ZERO idea about the Origins stores!! that's amazing. Perfect! Glad to know that there are options.

[iamjulienne]

awesome. I was just looking at their superfood cleanser!! So you're affirming my decision making process. Thank you.

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@Brutalitops wrote:

@iamjulienneGive youth to the people a try for sure! Super minimal recycleable packaging and glass containers (except for the lids) and great skincare items. Indie Lee is more hit or miss for me but another good one to check out

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[Brutalitops]

@iamjulienneHonestly YTTP is great, I feel like they're barely featured on the site but a lot of people talk about their moisturizers and masks here which says to me that it's really good for a lot of people, and not just an aesthetic or marketing thing

[treestar86]

they have their minis/samples in a lot of the 'play' boxes which you can buy individually sometimes, which is where I've gotten them...also in their sephora favorites boxes such as the "clean" ones.

[treestar86]

I love little glass bottles.  the 'beauty offers' page has 2 of their products for free samples right now w/$25 purchase - .5 oz kombucha toner and .25 oz. adaptogen cream.  there is also an herbivore oil.

[treestar86]

yes, I love their packaging w/the little glass jars and cardboard packaging.  this is why I like to get little minis, bc they can be reused - then if you want to get the full size, you already have a matching mini which you can refill.  but, their samples are sooo small, like .25 oz that I hardly feel like it's worth getting.  I wish they'd have larger sizes of the minis.

[greeneyedgirl107]

@iamjulienne I just read this online from Paula's Choice about partnering with TerraCycle:

https://www.paulaschoiceDOTcom/who-we-are/terracycle?utm_source=bluecore&utm_medium=email&utm_campai...