Beauty Packaging

The days of purging your makeup and beauty products are coming to an end. With over 120 billion units of personal care and beauty packaging being produced every year globally, we need to rethink the lifecycle of these products. 

The current linear lifecycle model we have of make, use, and toss the empty packaging is outdated and isn’t going to work for tomorrow’s consumers. According to a 2020 McKinsey US consumer sentiment survey, over 60% of the respondents said they would pay more for a product with sustainable packaging. 

The future of beauty depends on reusable and refillable packaging – creating a circular lifecycle. 

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation describes four reuse models to create a circular lifecycle for products and packaging in any industry – refill at home, refill on the go, return from home and return on the go.

Each of these can be applied to the beauty industry in more ways than one – we have seen a rise in companies excelling in these areas, inspiring others to do the same. 

"Make, use, and toss the empty packaging is outdated."

Refill at Home

The refill at home model is not a new concept to the market – think buying table salt in bulk and refilling your saltshaker rather than buying a new one every time the shaker is empty. However, product concentrates have become more and more popular in recent years, being beneficial to both consumers and businesses. 

As a consumer, concentrates often can be cheaper and require less space than re-buying the full product again. As a business, this helps reduce transportation and packaging costs, while creating an experience that benefits your customers.

MOB Beauty has gotten a head start on this model, offering make your own palette experience to only order or refill your favorites. MOB Beauty fans can create a palette that has colors that complement their features with products they know they will use – reducing waste and creating brand loyalty. 

Refill on the Go 

A new zero-waste initiative gaining traction in the beauty space is the refill on the go concept. While some brands have been adopting this model for the last few years, larger beauty suppliers have begun to implement it in their brick-and-mortar stores. This concept truly shows beauty brands’ commitment to reducing the waste related to their products. The process is relatively simple. A customer can bring an empty bottle to the store or purchase an empty one when they arrive. They can then refill the empty bottle using machines that are programed to dispense the exact amount of product refill, depending on the bottle size. The bottles can be refilled over and over, making them a more sustainable choice than even the refill at home model. 

The process is easy to follow, and the reusable bottles are made to last while still being aesthetically pleasing. This allows beauty companies to keep the luxury of their brand intact, while simultaneously pushing closer to their sustainability goals. Companies are tracking adoption of this refill option among customers and are hopeful this model will become popular among beauty shoppers.  

Return from Home and Return on the Go

Return from Home and Return on the Go are two additional trends impacting beauty packaging today. Brands are re-evaluating how they can reduce or eliminate certain kinds of primary packaging. In these cases, they are re-engineering the product packaging in retail and ecommerce settings to leverage what consumers already have at home or how to reuse this primary packaging in multiple cycles. and trying to find ways to eliminate excess material or reuse the packaging where possible.

Loop is a global reuse platform that partners with your favorite retailers like Ulta to make it easy for you to be a part of a circular life cycle of your favorite beauty products. Buying products in Loop packaging allows consumers to “borrow” the packaging, use the product inside, and then return the packaging to be refilled and reused. Loop temporarily places a deposit on the packaging when the consumer purchases it, and the deposit is refunded once the packaging is returned. Loop professionally cleans the packaging and reuses it for consumers over and over again.

Loop has partnered with big name beauty brands to develop durable and functional packaging that will last while also keeping brand integrity. Consumers can also return their empty packaging on the go through UPS locations or send it back in a Loop Tote from home with scheduled pickup options. While this process of returning beauty packaging may be new to consumers, Loop is ensuring the process is as easy as possible in order to foster adoption. 

The Sustainable and Preferred Option

The rapid adoption of sustainable, reusable practices within the beauty industry has been inspiring to say the least. Regardless of which of the four reuse models an individual brand chooses, we have seen beauty brands take steps to ensure these new processes are easy to follow, that the quality of their products will remain the same, and that their consumers are fully educated on how each process works. 

Brands have learned how to emphasise their sustainability goals without sacrificing the exclusivity and uniqueness of their brands. Because of this, consumers are no longer having to choose between the sustainable option or their preferred option – they can now choose both.