Yes, this is a real question I was asked at a recent Climate Fresk I carried out – and whilst there are definitely many consumer items whose carbon footprint I can reel off – false eyelashes (and indeed make up) is not one of them. And so I started thinking…
Make up and beauty is huge. Socially, culturally, and economically. In 2023, a British Beauty Council report entitled ‘The Value of Beauty’ estimated that the beauty and personal care industry made a direct contribution to UK GDP of £13.5 billion. The industry’s activities supported an additional £13.6 billion of UK GDP through its supply chain and employee spending, implying a total contribution of £27.2 billion. (1)
Like fashion, the beauty industry always feels at odds with my own carbon footprint goals. I love clothes, love make up and love experimenting with new looks. But I’ve come to terms with fashion – I rarely buy new, always recycle or resell, and search out brands who manufacture for sale – especially for men’s clothes. Beauty, make up and skincare seems a harder one to marry up though. The cost of ethical brands can get so high and they are rarely easily available. Colours seem to include dubious glitter and micro plastics and there can be so much waste with packaging.
And so we come to a Climate Fresk I recently did with young people, where the discussion landed on individual choice (I dye my hair, so that is often asked about), fashion, travel, food – all common areas up for discussion, and when one young women asked about her lashes I realised that false eyelashes are pretty ubiquitous these days – in 2022 33% of Gen Z were said to be using them, (3) and though I failed to find any recent stats for use amongst the young, anecdotal evidence would continue to support that trend.
This supports the wider use of make up and beauty products amongst the school ages and Gen Z, and whilst women have traditionally been viewed as the primary consumers, studies suggest that that young men are emerging as significant spenders. Among males aged 18-34, 29% have spent over £100 on cosmetics in the past three months, the highest proportion of any demographic group. (2)
And the carbon footprint of make up?
With the carbon footprint of eyelashes in my head I thought I’d investigate. It would be great to have some ideas, facts and actions the next time I was asked about it. I thought about agency, and the agenda that is put on to individual users when, in fact, the beauty industry is more than capable of putting their own house in order before demanding we recycle every bit of packaging they give us.
I started with a simple email to brands that I use myself (and I can detail all of those if people are interested in that) – I asked them about their own stance on procurement, if they knew the carbon footprint of any of their products and if they asked anything of their suppliers. Conversation about sustainability and beauty brands tends to lean heavily on recycling and packaging concerns, not surprising with the estimated emission from packaging (5). Nearly all major brands that I looked at featured details about this on their page, and indeed, when I emailed them their first response was always about how I could recycle their products (carbon footprint and water cost of recycling plastic is another story I’m afraid!). Then they talk about offsetting – Estee Lauder (who has several big brands such as MAC and Bobby Brown) put lots of emphasis on offsetting with an outside company handling this, an increasingly common way that companies are handling this. Of course, offsetting has pitfalls: how regulated is it? Does it excuse ‘business as usual’? Does it exploit areas of the planet? All good discussion points.
L’Oreal – another recognisable brand seems to have lots of commitments on their website, to both sustainability goals and long term development of responsible raw material use. The smaller brands I contacted (many who have grown purely on social media, and so will, arguably have a younger audience) are more willing to talk, but less engaged -again leaning heavily on recycling (like this one: https://www.baiebotanique.com/pages/baie-circular-faqs).
What actions can we take – what are our talking points?
Well, we know that packaging is a huge part of the carbon footprint of beauty and skincare – it’s part of the design and appeal, and 95% of it is thrown away – so we shouldn’t dismiss recycling (6). And there is always a debate around actions can be empowering – and recycling and reusing packaging can be a good ‘low tier’ action that can get young people involved. But it’s not good enough for brands to rely on that as their only ‘sustainability action’ – or to confuse people with their use of greenwashing type action (‘all of our products are recyclable’ is useless if they have to be taken to specialist centres.)
I couldn’t decide from the responses I received how often some of the brands were asked questions about this – two of the smaller brands immediately put me in contact with their press office. So another action would be to actually ask the make up brands that you use – and to delve deeper than just what’s on their site – what do the employees know about these policies? Are staff educated on the issues? How are they checking their progress? Do they know their carbon footprint? And, if they buy into recycling schemes or offsetting schemes do they review their targets annually?
Exploring ingredients and raw materials is an avenue to work in as well – it is estimated that this is around 30-50% of the industry’s emissions (5), and it is probably an area that the average user knows nothing about. Could this be an area that we can get interested in?
In short – I’m suggesting some key actions and areas that empower our young people, start a culture of holding these companies to account and have a positive impact on our environment and climate. And as for the carbon footprint of false eyelashes, well, to be honest I’m still not sure!
1) the https://britishbeautycouncil.com/value-of-beauty-report-third-edition/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20the%20beauty%20and,the%20sector%20and%20its%20workforce.
(2) https://business.yougov.com/content/51728-insights-on-high-spending-make-up-consumers-in-great-britain
(3) https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/article/2024/jun/23/all-of-a-flutter-how-eyelashes-became-beautys-biggest-business#:~:text=Young%20people%20are%20keen%20consumers,to%2017%25%20of%20women%20overall.
Companies and their links:
MAC (via the Estee Lauder group):
https://www.esteelauder.co.uk/discover/caring-for-the-environment#:~:text=%C2%B2Est%C3%A9e%20Lauder%20is%20providing%20funding,and%20same%2Dday%20delivery)
https://www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-planet
(4) https://commercialwaste.trade/how-the-beauty-industry-is-feeding-plastic-to-you-and-the-planet/
(5) https://www.carbontrust.com/our-work-and-impact/guides-reports-and-tools/greenhouse-gloss-is-the-beauty-industrys-commitment-to-tackling-climate-change-more-than-skin-deep
(6) https://britishbeautycouncil.com/ppbg/packaging/
