Sustainable Beauty Brands UK – 30+ Skincare & Makeup

I’ve wanted to put together this blog post for a while. I’m excited to share with you sustainable beauty brands that are available in the UK and a few in the USA. Some of these may well be available elsewhere or online as well.

I have to admit, I do have an obsession with skincare and makeup. I’ve managed to reel it in this year, because I’m doing a No Buy Year. However, I use makeup and skincare on a daily basis so I wanted to put together a list of the best eco friendly makeup and sustainable skincare brands that we have in the UK.

This post contains affiliate links which means I make a small profit if you buy through my link. I would never recommend something I didn’t believe in or wouldn’t buy myself, thank you for your support.

What Is Sustainable Beauty?

I think that sustainable beauty can be subjective. Especially when you think of greenwashing from companies these days, I think the terms sustainable and eco friendly are used a lot and it doesn’t always mean it’s actually better than standard skincare and makeup.

For example if you find a brand claiming to be sustainable beauty because the packaging is recyclable. This is still plastic and therefore not the answer to the plastic waste problem. In case you aren’t aware a small percent of the plastic being recycled actually gets reused.

How Are Beauty Brands Sustainable

The sustainable brands that I list will have the following specifics:

• Sustainable ingredients
• Cruelty free brands
• Some or all vegan products in the range
• Plastic free packaging eg cardboard, paper, bamboo, glass or aluminium.

Some of the below sustainable brands will also have a return and refill type of system – which I love. I’ve been learning a lot about a circular economy lately and brands that are implementing these type of systems are well worth supporting.

I have tried to list the main brands that I have come across, however I’m just concentrating on brands that have skincare and makeup items specifically. Things like soap, lipbalms and deodorant are sometimes put into this category but I wanted to keep it separate. I’ve done separate posts for these type of products.

Best Sustainable Beauty Brands UK

I wanted to put together a list of some of the best sustainable beauty brands available to us in the UK. I’ve separated the list into sustainable skincare and sustainable makeup brands to help if you’re looking for specifics.

Sustainable Skincare Brands

Amazinc

Amazinc is a sustainable beauty brand, available on &Keep. They have sunscreen which is natural, reef safe in recyclable aluminium packaging. They have SPF50 sunblock and sun lotion and SPF10 tanning oil.

Bain & Savon

Bain & Savon is another sustainable skincare brands on &Keep. They stock bath crumbles (which my son loves), clay masks and shampoo and conditioner bars. Their products are handmade in Cumbria and all in glass, cardboard and aluminium packaging.

Beauty Kitchen

Beauty Kitchen is a sustainable skincare brand which is certified B Corporation, cruelty free and 95% of their products are vegan as well. This sustainable beauty brand sells their products in aluminium and they have a return and refill system #reuserevolution, which means that once you’re done with it you can return to them and they wash it out and reuse it.

Bloomtown

Bloomtown body and skincare brand is made in Cornwall UK, Falmouth to be precise. They are vegan and cruelty free, and the first brand in the UK to be certified palm oil free, which is cool. They use glass bottles and jars for all of their skincare to reduce waste. They sell gift sets of their skincare, essential oils and candles.

Booda Organics

This is a USA brand, Booda Organics and I have to say I do love the packaging as it’s so bright and colourful. They sell deodorants, body butter, lip butters and soap. All in tins and cardboard. All of their products contain 5 ingredients or less so they’re very fresh.

Buff Natural Bodycare

Buff Natural Bodycare is a sustainable brand where the products are made in the Southwest of England. They sell handwash, scrubs and bath salts, all in glass and aluminium. They even use a biodegradable and compostable material for their labels.

Conscious Skincare

Conscious Skincare is one of the sustainable skincare brands with quite a few different products. They have shampoo, body washes, creams, toners etc. All in glass or aluminium and they’re fully vegan and cruelty free as well.

Ethique

Ethique is quite well known in the USA as a sustainable beauty brand, however you can now order their shampoo and conditioner bars on their website and they’re shipped plastic free from their Leeds Warehouse to anywhere in the UK. They also stock solid face and body products as well which is pretty cool.

Eve of St Agnes

This brand of sustainable beauty has a lot of sustainable skincare products. They are also the owners of the brand Beauty Kubes which I’ve reviewed. Beauty Kubes as well as the shampoo and conditioner cubes – have also started doing cleansers and exfoliators, which is pretty cool.

Face Theory

Face Theory is one of the sustainable skincare brands that I reviewed on my blog before. They are fully vegan, cruelty free and their skincare products contain a lot of actives and retinoids for people really into their skincare (like myself). Majority of their products come in amber glass. They’ve also got a new makeup range which looks interesting, foundations and blushers in aluminium tubes.

Flawless Skincare

Flawless is one of the sustainable skincare brands available at &Keep, they sell skincare products and makeup brushes in glass, tins and bamboo. So all plastic free packaging. They are a vegan, cruelty free and zero waste company in Wrexham UK.

Lani

Lani is a sustainable beauty brand which sells natural, vegan and cruelty free skincare products. This brand sells all their products in colourful glass with mostly aluminium lids. The products are very eye catching, cleansers, shampoo and serums all in coloured glass. They ship plastic free delivery worldwide as well.

Lush

Lush I feel is a very well known cruelty free and sustainable skincare brand. They do also have some eco friendly makeup in their collection as well. Lush sells mostly vegan products as well which are all clearly marked and they were one of the first sustainable beauty brands to have a return service for their black plastic pots. Lush deserve to be mentioned here because they have a full range of Naked products for hair, skin and even makeup – which all comes zero waste so minimal packaging.

Moksa

Moksa is another amazing UK based sustainable beauty brand. The have strong values for sustainability, ethically sourced ingredients and minimal packaging. Their face and body products all come in amber glass with the option for aluminium lids if you are buying a refill.

Moo & Yoo

Moo & Yoo is a family run sustainable beauty brand based in Scotland. They sell hair and skincare products in glass and aluminium packaging. The products are all vegan and cruelty free as well, plus they plant a tree for every order to offset the carbon.

Natural Wisdom Spa

This is one of the Etsy sustainable skincare brands, sold by Natural Wisdom Spa I saw that they sell an unscented fruit and flower balm which is sold in cedar wood pots. I just thought the storage containers for this sustainable skincare brand were cute.

Nirvana Natural

Nirvana Natural is another one of the sustainable skincare brands doing some good things. They are vegan, cruelty free, palm oil free and ethically sourced. On their website they stock body balms, serums, deodorants and lipbalms, all in glass or cardboard. They also have shampoo and conditioners in aluminium and they’re available as refills as well which is really great for reducing waste.

Scence

Scence sell hand, body and face balms all in different fragrances in cardboard packaging. Scence is made in Cornwall UK using ethically sourced ingredients and made in a solar powered factory. They do also stock deodorants and lipbalms as well.

The Salt Parlour

This sustainable skincare brands is UK made, vegan, cruelty free and minimal plastic. The Salt Parlour believe that the sea has healing properties so they decided to create salt and sulphur scrubs. All their sustainable beauty products are sold in aluminium tins and bottles.

Upcircle

Upcircle sustainable beauty is quite well known because of their innovative use of otherwise discarded coffee grounds and apricot stones. Their scrubs are sold in aluminium tubes and other skincare in glass. All of their products are vegan and cruelty free as well. I love that this sustainable skincare brand is using otherwise discarded ingredients.

White Rabbit Skincare

White Rabbit Skincare is another one of the sustainable skincare brands sold at &Keep and probably various other places. Their products are made in Scotland and their vegan and cruelty free as well. Their packaging is all bamboo, aluminium and glass as well.

White Witch

White Witch is one of the organic, vegan and 100% plastic free sustainable skincare brands. The products are handmade in Ireland with natural and ethical ingredients. I’m a sucker for unusual looking packaging and this is so pretty in glass with cork stoppers.

Wild Sage & Co

Wild Sage & Co is another one of the sustainable skincare brands with handmade products in the UK. They sell hair, body and face skincare products all in glass and aluminium. They do sell their products on their website, in stores across the UK and in plastic free online stores.

Sustainable Makeup Brands

Admittedly in the UK it’s much easier to find sustainable skincare brands than it is to find sustainable makeup brands. However there are still some interesting options for eco friendly makeup which I’ve listed below.

As I’ve said before I do really like my skincare and makeup, however I seem to have built up quite a collection over the past few years. So much so that my last makeup purchase was in June 2020 and 9 months later I still haven’t needed to replace anything. With that in mind, remember that the most sustainable option is always using what you have first.

All Earth Mineral Cosmetics

This is one of the sustainable makeup brands I’ve seen on Etsy. they have mineral foundation refills in cardboard packaging. Their pots for life are also available on their website, the outer casing is wood and the inner casing is made from recycled fishing nets. This eco friendly makeup, is also made in Cornwall UK.

Bain & Savon

You may notice I already mentioned this brand above, however they do also stock a cake mascara and a liquid mascara in a glass container with an aluminium lid (although currently out of stock on their website). This is quite interesting because I’ve only ever seen cake mascaras and mascaras in bamboo packaging as eco friendly makeup.

Clean Faced Cosmetics

Another eco friendly makeup brand on Etsy is Clean Faced Cosmetics they have a build-your-own style palette that you can order a cake mascara, lipstick, highlighter etc to go in the tin, or you can use your own zero waste products if you already have them. This is available in the USA, if you’re a US citizen this would be better suited to you as shipping to the UK costs quite a lot.

Lush

Of course I already mentioned Lush above under the skincare category but just wanted to remind you they are one the sustainable makeup brands as well as they have zero waste foundation, lipsticks and highlighters with minimal packaging.

Nicmac Beauty

Nicmac Beauty is a sustainable makeup brands created by Nicole in the UK. She noticed the gap in the market for customisable eyeshadow palettes which were plastic free. You can buy the empty magnetic palette and then choose your shades to fill it or buy the love palette which is pre filled with pretty shades, all vegan and cruelty free.

Vyana Beauty

This eco friendly makeup brand on Etsy, Vyana Beauty dispatches from Sweden. They have a lip and cheek tint and a few other products in aluminium tins. It also states that the mica they use is certified child labour free.

Zao

Zao is one of the sustainable makeup brands that I’ve known about for a while but haven’t tried. They stock lots of different eco friendly makeup products and they’re all in bamboo and refillable.

Others

I’ve noticed that there are some brands which do use some plastic in their packaging, however they do seem to have some sustainable packaging and/or systems in place to make them more sustainable. This makes them worthy of a mention.

Faith In Nature

Faith In Nature was founded in 1974 with a passion for natural products. They sell recycled plastic 5 litre and 25 litre sizes of their hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, laundry liquid and body wash – available on their website and in health food stores throughout the UK. What they do differently is that you can refill your bottles of shampoo and conditioner in stores, or you can order the bulk items on their website and once you’re done you can return them for free and they reuse them.

Green People

Green People have been around since 1997, they’ve always had a focus on organic, natural and reef safe ingredients in their products. It seems that they are now using sugar cane and cardboard on a lot of their products now as well. They stock a lot of general skincare products, sunscreen and they even stock some makeup in sustainable packaging now. This makes me really happy because they’re really affordable. I hope they embrace this new sustainable packaging for good.

Neil’s Yard

Neil’s Yard was established in 1981 and handmade in Dorset UK. Their packaging is carbon balanced through the World Land Trust and all of their products are cruelty free and organic. Not all of their products are vegan though so be careful. They sell some products in blue glass but the rest is sold in blue plastic.

Ringana

Ringana is a sustainable beauty brand which supplies 34 countries across Europe and they’re climate neutral. They have a good range of skincare products for your body, hair and face. They also have a REuse campaign where if you return 10 glass vials to them you can exchange that for a voucher for a free product. There are a few addresses you can return them to in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain. I’ve reviewed some Ringana samples in a recent blog post if you’d like to hear my thoughts.

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I hope this information has been useful, I tried to be thorough but I may have missed some some sustainable makeup brands or sustainable skincare brands. Please let me know in the comments if that’s the case.

With more people worldwide trying to go zero waste and pick sustainable beauty products, including eco friendly makeup – there’s definitely more of a call for these type of products. Some mainstream beauty brands are becoming more sustainable as they’re offering return and refill options or using recycled plastic in their packaging, which is really awesome to see.

I’ve also reviewed Ma Natural Skincare recently if you’re in the UK and would like to learn more about this natural and cruelty free brand.

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