5 Ways You Could Make Lasting Impact With Your Skincare

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that just being ‘environmentally friendly’ isn’t radical enough to combat climate change.

On an individual level, it can feel incredibly overwhelming to know where to start to make a difference. Like, how many tote bags does it take to end climate change? Unclear. But what we do know is that knowledge is power, and when consumers are armed with knowledge, brands will follow.

73% of Aussies say “brands must act now for the good of society and the planet”, according to Havas Meaningful Brands Report (2021). So how do we take this statistic, and make sure that we are keeping brands accountable for their own environmental and societal impact? There’s nowhere better to start than your bathroom cupboard.

Skincare, hair-care fragrances and cosmetics are a part of our everyday lives. We buy, try, use, empty and re-buy so many products that it’s incredibly easy to navigate this space on auto-pilot, but being purposeful and proactive with your purchases could help change the world for the better. Afterall, the key to making a big change is to make a small change first.

Know What Ingredients Are In Your Products

Tactics like ‘greenwashing’ — in which brands highlight the good bits and leave out the bad — make it incredibly difficult to make the right choices when it comes to buying and trying products.

Knowing what’s in your skincare doesn’t mean resorting to smearing avocado on your face and hoping for the best. There are products that really do what they say on the label, and because they actually work, they develop a cult status – like The Body Shop’s infamous Ginger Shampoo. Now vegan and made with 90% ingredients of natural origin, including ginger essential oil and birch bark and white willow bark extracts, The Body Shop’s Ginger shampoo helps wash away loose flakes, leaves dry scalps feeling soothed and rebalanced.

This pleasantly gingery-scented stuff is part of a 3-step Ginger routine to help repair hair from the inside out and leave dry scalps feeling nourished, happier and visibly repairs hair when used as a full routine of shampoo, conditioner, and serum.

The shampoo also comes in bottles made with 100% recycled plastic, including Community Fair Trade recycled plastic collected off the streets of Bengaluru, India, so it is good for your do and your planet.

Getting across the ingredients in your products by scoping out the full ingredients list — and understanding exactly what they do for you and their impact on the environment — can help you make more informed choices. Championing when brands are transparent about their ingredient lists will encourage brands to do this more in future, too.

Know Where Your Products Were Sourced

For 40 years, The Body Shop has been making information about their ingredient sourcing and community impact publicly available on their website, noting that their company’s ‘Changemaking Beauty’ ethos is rooted in ethical and sustainable sourcing.

The Body Shop is a part of a global community of certified B Corps, which means that sustainability, inclusivity, and regeneration are a core part of the company’s vision. By the end of 2023, The Body Shop’s ambition is for 100% of their products to contain no animal-derived ingredients and ensure that no animals are harmed at any stage of development or manufacturing.

Knowing (and caring) where your products are sourced puts downward pressure on brands to be transparent about their production.

Know That Your Products Are Made For Everyone

It’s always incredibly disappointing when there’s a super exciting product that you want to try out, only to realise it wasn’t formulated with you in mind. Whether that’s a foundation shade range, or you didn’t see a single person that looked like you in the ads, it sucks. And we don’t need to accept that as the standard.

On their website, The Body Shop makes transparent commitments to their customers – and the wider world – by noting how they are spearheading change for individuals, and holding space for those of us who have felt excluded by the beauty industry.

We live in a world where no two people are the same, so there’s no single product that will work for every person but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make an effort to include as many people, as often as possible.

By taking note of representation (or lack thereof) in campaigns and launches, and letting brands know when they could be doing better, we start to unpick the norms. So maybe next time, someone will notice before it leaves the boardroom.

Know The Brand Behind The Products

For a lot of us, it’s important to know who we’re buying from, so we can see how closely our personal values align with the brand. On top of the physical and tangible things that we place on our bathroom shelves, it’s good to know that our money is contributing to a wider cause that we can get behind.

The Body Shop are incredibly transparent, outwardly passionate and incredibly vocal about their activism across many social issues affecting the world and what they’re doing at an overall company level to incite proper change.

The history of The Body Shop’s activism is honestly iconic. The first campaign that The Body Shop did with Greenpeace was in 1986, to ‘Save The Whales’. Since the ’80s, they’ve spearheaded campaigns bringing attention to a range of causes including global warming, deforestation, green energy, animal testing, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, sex trafficking and more.

Know That You’re In Charge

And finally, just know that you have the power. You have the power to change the world with your voice, your values and your dollars. Activism has always started with the people on the ground, and everyone else follows.

Changing the world with skincare seems like a stretch, but we know that what we do matters and that we can make an impact — starting right here, standing in front of our bathroom cupboard.

Written by Talecia Vescio, your local Aquarius Junkee Producer & Presenter. Find her on Instagram as @taleciavescio if you want to be friends.