Scary Practices Within The Skincare Industry
The old-fashioned beauty industry is frightening; cursing Mother Nature’s resources, with its spine-chilling use of animal testing and gruesome use of people’s insecurities as marketing strategies. This is scary business.
Below are the main haunting ways the skincare industry behaves, prepared to be shook:
Animal cruelty
Involves testing cosmetics on animals. Animal testing is now illegal in the UK, EU, Australia and more, it is not required in the US. However, countries such as China still requires tests on animals for cosmetics. According to The Humane Society International, approximately 100,000-200,000 animals are subjected to animal testing annually.
Unsustainable practices
The use of single-use plastic packaging by the beauty industry creates a cemetery of excessive waste that usually ends up polluting our Oceans.
Green Washing
Greenwashing is a process most big name beauty companies use as a marketing tool, to claim that their company’s products are eco-friendly, natural, organic or sustainable, when in reality they aren’t any of those things. There are many examples of, the most prevalent include the use of fruits, herbs or flowers on packaging, the assumption is the product is natural when in reality the product contains a majority of synthetic ingredients and a tiny percentage of natural ingredients .
There are no legal definitions for natural, naturally-derived, renewable and sustainable, so brands that do not adopt these practices can easily slip through the net.
Fear-based marketing
The strategy of marketing and creating advertising around a customer's fears and insecurities and then offering a solution to said fears and insecurities. No this isn't hocus pocus, big beauty companies use this strategy every day. Next time a beauty ad comes on, practically one aimed at women, pay attention to the language and imagery used, it's haunting.
Use of animal-derived ingredients
Spooky examples include lanolin which is derived from the grease between sheep’s wool, carmine which is used in colour cosmetics and is made from crushing beetles and even more hair-raising squalene aka shark liver oil! These ghoulish ingredients are often used in various beauty cauldrons including creams, lip balms and serums.
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Looking to shake off the cobwebs and wake up from this beauty nightmare? Below is how at The Glowcery we're doing things differently:
Cruelty-Free
We are a cruelty-free business, we do not test on animals or use ingredients that have been tested on animals. We also work with ethical suppliers who do not test or supplier ingredients that have been tested on animals.
Sustainable Initiatives
When choosing packaging to house our superfood formulas, we are considerate of their environmental impact, and so our products are all housed in glass (green) or aluminium, both materials can be easily recycled at curb side. These eco-friendly materials decrease the use of single-use or non-recyclable plastic. Glass is able to filter out damaging UV rays helping to extend the shelf life of products.
For Clean Greens our Superfood Serum, we also offer a refill option that comes with a sustainable aluminium cap instead of a pipette dropper.
We use fully recyclable tissue paper from sustainable forests. Our postal boxes are made from a minimum of 75% recycled, responsible sourced fibres. Our postal tape is made from sustainably sourced Kraft paper that is fully recyclable and the tape we use is acid free and 100% vegan.
Natural Skincare
Whilst there are no legal, universally accepted definitions of natural. When we use the words natural or naturally derived. At The Glowcery natural means ingredients that have originated from nature including fruits, flowers, nuts and vegetables such as mango seed butter pressed from the seeds of mango, tomato seed oil pressed from upcycled tomato seeds or strawberry seed oil upcycled from strawberries that have been discarded by the juicing industry.
When you see us use the words naturally-derived we mean ingredients that have also derived from nature but have been slightly processed to better perform in skincare, for example Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride comes from Coconut Oil and is made by removing the fatty acids in coconut oil and glycerin to create a hydrating skin-nourishing ingredient. We use Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride in Blue Dew Fruit Enzyme Cleanser because it leaves your skin feeling nourished and so soft!
Holistically-driven beauty
Here at The Glowcery we take a holistic approach to skincare. This is because I believe that healthy skin starts from the inside and is more than what it looks like on the outside. From eating fresh fruits, practicing mindfulness and expressing gratitude and self-love, it is our belief that we can take a step towards a way of life that is healthier for us all.
Holistically driven beauty is the future and we understand that just as in life, there is no one way to look or feel healthy and so when it comes to our skincare we ask you to come as you are. Real skin has blemishes, pores, acne, irritation, fine lines and wrinkles the list is endless. They are natural and are not to be used to create a society of fear, insecurities or comparison, old-fashioned beauty industry we’re talking to you.
Plant-based
As a vegan owned brand, all of our products are made using wholesome, nutritious plant-based ingredients. We’ve swapped beeswax for fruit berry wax in our dual-action invigorating lip scrub Coconut Crumble and long-lasting moisturising lip balm Sweet Orange, because it achieves the same smooth, consistency and helps to lock in moisture to your lips.
Lanolin is a naturally occurring oil found and extracted from sheep’s wool. Similar to our skin’s natural oil sebum, it helps the skin to self-lubricate and protects sheep from cold, wet weather by making the wool oily and water-repellent. It’s commonly used in skincare for its emollient properties, meaning it locks in moisture, preventing skin from getting very dry, flakey or dehydrated (it’s often used in lip balms and body creams for example). Emollient properties in skincare are key, especially for people living in drier, colder countries, but can be achieved by a number of other plant-based, superfood ingredients. I love using cocoa and mango butters in our long-lasting, moisturising and softening body butter Cocoa Cloud these natural ingredients deliver a burst of hydration to your skin locking in moisture and preventing dryness.
Fangs for reading!
Written by Roshanne Dorsett
Founder of The Glowcery