Beauty, personal care and home brands are trying to more with even less—packaging, that is. Whether it is a high-end moisturizer or spray window cleaner, using packaging that has less of an impact on the earth, or finding a way to keep it out the ocean or landfill, has become table stakes for every brand.

Today’s packaging designers ride the line between artistry and engineering. They are tasked with creating functional vessels that protect what’s inside, won’t leak in shipping, dispense with ease and use components that are less taxing on resources and the planet—and, yes it must look great, too. It’s a tall order.

How brands get there varies, of course. From refillable products to recycling programs to ditching plastic altogether, companies are making changes to their packaging that are at times, sweeping, but more often, incremental.

“Sometimes the change is going to be slow when changing a packaging program,” Katie Klencheski, founder of SMAKK Studios, a New York City-based mission-driven branding and marketing agency, said in recent Happi Podcast.

And, the pandemic hasn’t helped.

“There’s some bigger supply chain issues right now, and I think that is being felt by a lot of brands this year,” Klencheski said. “Across the past two years, we have seen everything grinding to a halt. Everyone is having trouble getting components and getting things made. The supply chain is not necessarily meeting the demands of brands to have more sustainable components in their packaging.”

Graduating from Plastic

With apologies to Mr. McGuire (the character played by late actor Walter Brooke in “The Graduate”), there isn’t a great future in plastics; in fact, for many it is a cause for great alarm, including Joshua Onysko, founder and CEO of Pangea Organics.

“We are in a plastic crisis— there is plastic in our oceans, rivers and even the rain. The average person eats a credit card of plastic a week because it has found its way into everything,” Onysko told Happi. “And while there continues to be increasing awareness of this issue, all industries continue to use virgin plastics, and the cosmetic industry contributes 100 billion pieces of plastic to our earth every year. I believe it is our responsibility to create solutions and provide consumers products that eliminate the use of plastic packaging.”

Pangea has done just that. The company earlier this year rolled out a skin care collection housed in completely plastic-free packaging, including custom aluminum caps. The collection spans from cleansers and moisturizers to masks and exfoliators.

Sustainable packaging isn’t a new development for this Boulder, CO-based personal care brand; Onysko has been pursuing ways to purge packaging waste for years. In 2008, for example, Pangea was featured in Happi for its plantable molded fiber boxes that grow into spruce trees; two years later the company unveiled a glue-free origami-style folding box made with recycled paper and vegetable inks.

Today, it’s plastic free for Pangea—but it wasn’t an easy switch. The process took 29 months.

“Every part of the development had complexities and obstacles we had to overcome,” said Onysko. “Because we were introducing first-to-market packaging in some cases (with the aluminum caps in particular), we knocked on many doors and were told by more than a few manufacturing partners this couldn’t be done. When we found the partner willing to sign on for this project with us, it required new custom tooling they had to create to support this material, and several rounds of prototypes before we found the perfect size and fit for our tubes. In our production process, every single cap is applied by hand to our tubes—we’re committed not only to the most sustainable packaging but also in ensuring an exceptional experience for consumers.”

The effort inspired Onysko to launch the Life After Plastic Initiative, and he’s asking other brands to get on board by taking the Life After Plastic pledge and use a turtle symbol he created for his own sustainable products. The seal is free to use, the only requirement is that it supports the brand’s mission of eliminating plastic, according to Onysko.

“I want more brands to embrace this heuristic—emerging and existing brands alike,” he told Happi.

Whether or not other brands take him up on that offer, competitors are doing their part.

There’s Sk*p, which sells its products in its proprietary shower-friendly, fully recyclable paper packaging. The indie brand, which launched in April 2021, was recently picked up by Ulta and will be sold online and in more than 700 Ulta stores nationwide. Full expansion into all 1,300 Ulta Beauty locations will begin in Q3 2022, according to Sk*p , which will be part of Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty.

To educate consumers about its mission and formulas—and the BeautyCarton that houses its shampoos and body washes—Sk*p Founders April Hardwick and Mark Veeder recently embarked on a six-week road trip. The duo planned to stop at more than 100 Ulta stores in key regions around the US.

Taking Action

Recycling efforts developed in-house are also part of sustainability strategies. Take the Korres Recycle Lab in Athens, Greece. Opened at the end of 2020, this state-of-the-art recycling facility is where empty containers are reborn as packaging, art objects, and even furniture, according to the skin care brand. More recently, Korres opened a lab at its new New York City store. Located in the Nolita section of Manhattan, the Korres NYC Recycle Lab mimics the company’s first lab in Athens, only on a smaller scale. In New York, the Korres Recycle Lab recycles PE, PP and PET on-site. The brand collects paper and glass empties in the store, which are recycled through New York City’s recycling programs, “At Korres, we are committed to taking full responsibility in everything we do. We work in a circle, from the seed, to the extract, to the product, to the consumer, and back to the recycling and repurpose of all components,” Lena Korres, founder of Korres, told Happi.

The Recycle Lab is the final step in the Korres Full Circle process, “a system we’ve built over 26 years that is made up of six labs: Soil Lab, Extraction Lab, Molecular Lab, Formulation Lab, Design Lab and finally, the Recycle Lab. We believe our responsibility begins with how and where we source our ingredients and ends with recycling and repurposing our packaging,” she added.

To date, Korres’ packaging is 90% recyclable and it has collected and recycled more than one ton of plastic and one ton of paper as well as 200kg of glass.

“We are passionate about recycling in a bigger scope from further minimizing the percent of our packaging that is not recyclable to expanding our Recycle Lab globally and building partnerships for education and consumer involvement,” Korres said.

Brands in beauty and personal care continue to sign up with two decade-old organization TerraCycle to recycle their components and divert plastic waste from landfills.

One recent partnership is with Murad. The skin care brand recently announced an alliance with TerraCycle so its customers can recycle Murad product packaging and earn charitable donations for non-profits in the process through the Murad Recycling Program.

“Dr. Murad’s life’s work is dedicated to helping people attain healthier skin and happier lives, and being able to put forth this partnership with TerraCycle strengthens our pledge to that,” said Paul Schiraldi, CEO of Murad. “Consumers are sharper than ever and interested in sustainability, so we wanted to make it easier for them to take care of their skin and the planet. Our program with TerraCycle takes some of the pain points out of the recycling process to ensure product empties are disposed and recycled correctly.”

The Murad Recycling Program is part of the brand’s broader sustainability initiatives that include its goal of transitioning to a 50% reduction in virgin plastic by 2025, integrate 50% PCR components by 2030 and to be 100% recyclable by 2030. Achieving these goals will reduce the total amount of virgin plastic going in landfills by 750,000 pounds by 2025 and 1.25 million pounds by 2030, according to the company.

Eva NYC has expanded its work with TerraCycle, too. It offers customers the opportunity to recycle Eva NYC electronic hair tools with the Eva NYC Hair Tools Recycling Program, a first of its kind endeavor. This new program with TerraCycle builds on the brand’s existing efforts. Eva NYC began recycling aluminum bottles in 2021, and has a free national recycling program with TerraCycle to address hard to recycle plastic pumps and aerosols that are not traditionally accepted by local municipalities for recycling.

Pact Collective—the beauty-only packaging take-back program co-founded by Credo Beauty and MOD Beauty in 2021—has hit a milestone: Victoria Beckham Beauty is its 100th member.

Pact’s mission is to move the beauty packaging industry away from designs that end up in the landfill, and instead create for circularity. In addition to its education and resource sharing platform, Pact’s packaging collection program takes in the “hard-to-recycle” packages so common in beauty, and includes plastic items that are smaller than a yogurt cup, squeezable tubes, pumps, caps, and other formats that are unlikely to be recycled in curbside programs.

Pact said it has collected more than 20,000 pounds of hard-to-recycle beauty packaging in its first year, and expects to increase its member base and triple the volume of collected materials in its second year.

Victoria Beckham Beauty joins Kendo, Ilia, Beautycounter and others that have pledged to improve the sustainability of their packaging.

“Most beauty packaging waste is landfilled, incinerated or littered, polluting communities and waterways. We have to do better. We are thrilled to join Pact, the organization that is bringing us together to change the status quo,” Victoria Beckham, said in a statement.

Pact has 180 in-store collection bins across North America including all 10 Credo stores in the US and 89 Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada.

More Solutions

Skin care brand Derma E, part of Topix Skin Health, announced its plastic neutral status in April, having signed on as a co-processing partner of CleanHub. CleanHub works with local waste collection companies to utilize non-recyclable plastic waste and turn it into alternative fuel. Proprietary software tracks each step of the disposal process from waste collection to the final co-processing of the material, monitoring and verifying the recovered volumes as proof that the invested money had the intended impact.

As a co-processing partner of CleanHub, Derma E says it is committed to the collection, recovery and disposal of 10,000 pounds of non-recyclable plastic (i.e. grocery bags, wrappers, and food containers), which is more plastic than the company produces, before it enters oceans—approximately 2.4 million plastic bottles.

Pacifica Beauty recently introduced a Plastic Credits Program. In partnership with Plastic Collective, the two organizations teamed up to collect and recycle plastics equivalent to the total amount of plastic used in Pacifica products. The beauty brand will provide funding to the Plastic Collective to develop plastic recycling social enterprises and address plastic waste in territories with high environmental leakage.

“The credits we purchase support the collection of plastics equivalent to the total amount of plastic used in our products, PCR or not,” Brook Harvey-Taylor, founder and president of Pacifica Beauty, told Happi. “The credits are a way of getting much-needed finance for projects that are collecting and recycling plastic. When we buy plastic credits, this money goes to a project to collect and recycle plastic on behalf of Pacifica. It’s a way to address plastic waste in areas where it is causing the most damage. In the case of Pacifica, we have gone a step further by investing in plastic credits at the early stages of a project. This means that the project gets much-needed early-stage financing to get up and running. The project that we are currently supporting is in Ghana, Africa, and is operated 100% by women. Our investment not only helps remove plastic from the environment and ensure that it is recycled but there is also a positive social impact by employing women and supporting their education.”

Finding the right partner for its program was important to Harvey-Taylor.

“Over the last few years, I have been doing a lot of research on the term and the meaning behind Plastic Neutral. I interviewed several companies who work in this space and Plastic Collective was the one that I gravitated to because they were focused on our entire brand’s carbon footprint and not just selling plastic credits. They were also very early in this space and a true disruptor,” she told Happi.

In addition to its Plastic Credits Program, Pacifica has announced a new goal to use zero virgin plastic. This year alone, more than 85% of its PET bottles are made from post-consumer recycled (PCR) material.

“With any plastic we use, our goal is to eliminate as much virgin plastic as possible. What this has meant for us is that we have had to create custom caps and often custom bottles. Most stock containers are virgin plastic today and not all suppliers today are able to use 100% PCR. We are working closely with our key suppliers on things like PCR pumps and other innovations to remove virgin plastic,” she said.

Pacifica’s Vegan Ceramides skin care line uses jars and bottles made from glass, PCR, fully recyclable sugar cane bio-resin and FSC paper. For its Kind Tint tinted serum, the company focused on minimizing and light-weighting the packaging for a lower carbon footprint.

Pacifica’s new line of reusable masks is one of Harvey-Taylor’s favorite innovations.

“With proper care, these masks can be reused again and again, limiting the use of single-use masks. They are 100% silicone and are stored in the cute little tin they come in so that they can be well-cared for once washed,” she said.

Shaving is a grooming category with disposable shavers that make the process less sustainable. Consumers often shave their faces or legs and toss the product into the trash after one or two uses.

Edgewell Personal Care, a big player in the disposable shaver category, is working to make these ubiquitous products more sustainable. Schick Xtreme and Schick Intuition feature handles made with certified sustainably sourced bamboo, 100% recyclable packaging and flexible blades made with 75% recycled steel.

“We are always looking to improve…and constantly on the hunt for new materials, methods and packaging and bring more joy to consumer,” said Anthony Pietrini, head of marketing, Schick women’s and men’s shave.

Bamboo, a renewable resource, is three times stronger than wood, and delivers on performance while being good for the environment. The hybrid razors are sold in kits with one handle for every three cartridges, generating less overall waste versus a traditional disposable razor.

According to Amy Knight, vice president, global sustainability, Edgewell, the new razors mark a significant progression in the company’s Sustainable Care 2030 strategy, which aims to reduce by 50% by 2030, the virgin petroleum-based plastic materials in its disposable razor handles. Further, the launch addresses an unmet need among the brand’s environmentally conscious consumers.

Through consumer research, Edgewell found that more than 50% of consumers globally are eco-engaged and take some type of action to reduce their impact on the environment. However, some find that their options are limited or come with tradeoffs in price or product quality. Edgewell and its global portfolio of shave brands have already made significant changes to address this consumer need by transforming the handles on its men’s and women’s disposable razors to be made with up to 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic and launching a nationwide recycling program.

What’s more, consumers can be more sustainable without changing their traditional behaviors when it comes to shaving. Often major behavioral changes can be barriers to success.

“We needed it to be as frictionless as possible for consumers,” said Pietrini.

Matters of Integrity

Making changes to packaging can have a great impact in terms of sustainability, but decisions about component composition can’t be made in a vacuum.

Lumene recently announced a pilot in which its Nordic-C [Valo] Glow Reveal and Nordic Hydra [Lädhe] Intense Hydration 24H products will be available in new bio-based jars. In the pilot the packaging is being sold at Kesko’s K-City markets in Finland and through the brand’s Finnish online store.

Previously, jars made out of biodegradable material have faced challenges with rapid water evaporation and, as such, weren’t considered for wider use in water-based cosmetics. The bio-based jar in the pilot is made from upcycled Nordic FSC-certified wood, bio-based and biodegradable biopolymers and naturally-occurring clay minerals. There is a biodegradable protective barrier developed for the inner surface of plastic-free cosmetic jars, and that has made it possible to protect the formulation.

“The primary function of packaging is to protect the product. As a result of an extensive product development, we can now guarantee a nine-month shelf life of the face cream in this bio-based jar,” said Essi Arola, head of R&D, packaging at Lumene Oy.

“Nine months of shelf lifespan is a breakthrough in a water-based product, yet we seek to extend the time even further,” Arola added. “The pilot also provides us valuable feedback on consumer attitudes toward such innovations. Lumene continues to investigate biobased materials in general. We are committed to finding new types of packaging materials that save resources and are climate considerate.” 

Lumene aims to have 80% of its packaging made from recycled plastics or renewable raw materials by 2025 and continues to investigate the suitability of various materials for cosmetic packaging.

Last year, Lumene introduced eco jars that are 45% lighter and easily recyclable. According to Arola, with this, the brand used 40 tons less plastic in relation to the production volume. Lumene also plans to complement the eco jars with refills, she said.

“At Lumene, we try to break boundaries and question traditional perceptions of premium packaging—if designed well, eco can also be premium,” she said.

Juno & Co. is also making changes and setting goals to reduce its impact.

“Our goal is to have a completely recyclable and refillable program by 2026. We want to make sustainability and recycling as intuitive and effortless as possible—refillable packaging would require the least effort from our consumer but also make the largest impact for the earth,” Founder Kyle Jiang, told Happi.

The brand’s cleansing powder bottle is 100% recyclable, and according to company officials, the brand’s “first fully refillable product is in the works with its Humidifying Cream Refill.” The refillable containers are made with more than 50% post-consumer recycled landfill plastic. The refill is then placed into a recyclable paper carton, using paper from FSC certified forests. When consumers purchase the refill jar, they use 75% less plastic compared to buying a new jar.

Rise of the Refillable

Refillable packaging continues to pick up momentum across beauty.

As part of its five-year plan announced last year to install refill stations in the majority of its stores globally, The Body Shop is rolling out the program in stores across the US. With locations in Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando, the in-store refill stations enable customers to refill their shower gels, shampoos, conditioners, and hand washes. The selection of available products will vary from six to twelve depending on store size, according to The Body Shop. The goal to have 49% of its US locations equipped with refill stations by the end of 2022.

The success of newer brands like Blueland and Grove Collaborative are shepherding greater acceptance of refillable products in home care.

Refill isn’t a new concept for SC Johnson; it launched a concentrated refill more than a decade ago. Recently, the company launched Dissolve Concentrated Pods for its Windex, Scrubbing Bubbles and Fantastik brands in the US. The dissolvable liquid pods and reusable, 100% recyclable bottle are the latest effort from the home care company to reduce plastic waste and provide more sustainable choices for consumers. Each refill pod uses 94% less plastic than a 23-fl.oz. or larger same-branded sprayer bottle.

The new Dissolve Concentrated Pods are available for purchase as a starter pack, which also includes a reusable, 100% recyclable trigger bottle, and as standalone refills for use with Dissolve trigger bottles. The product is available on Amazon and at retailers nationwide such as Target, Meijer and Walmart.

“Plastic waste is one of the great environmental challenges we face today, and at SC Johnson we have a responsibility to help reduce waste and provide more sustainable product choices for consumers,” said Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO in a statement.

DTC company Biom is addressing sustainability though its “thoughtfully designed wipe solutions.” The company’s plastic-free, plant-based 100% viscose biodegradable wipes are housed in a refillable dispenser that it contends minimizes plastic waste by 85%. Biom also partnered with Plastic Bank as part of its annual commitment to prevent 45.5 tons of plastic (the equivalent of 2.27 million single-use plastic bottles) from entering the ocean.

Biom’s starter kits with a refillable dispenser and two wipe refills start at $39. That’s pricey compared to a standard bottle of wipes from typical mass market brands, but Biom says its refillable package is designed to be displayed, not hidden underneath the sink or tucked away in the hallway closet. The Charleston, SC-based contends 80% of consumers hide their wipes somewhere out of sight due to their poor appearance.

Emphasis on sustainability coupled with an eye for design will influence packaging for the foreseeable future. 

Messages On the Bottle A great looking package will always garner attention whether it is on a shelf, screen or countertop. Here’s a look at recent packaging designed to spark joy with consumers and, at the same time, showcase a brand’s commitment to a cause. The Olay Body Fearless Artist Series has bottles that feature artwork designed by African American artist Avery Williamson. The Fearless Artist Series is part of Olay Body’s ongoing commitment to elevate stories of women of color in STEAM—science, technology, engineering, art and math—while also increasing representation and visibility of products designed for women of color. Women, especially multicultural women, are drastically underrepresented in the arts. Method’s new limited-edition hand soap collection, inspired by the Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series, was created to increase park access for everyone and inspire exploration and protection of the natural wonders. Each bottle depicts a different US national park poster from the print series created by Austin-based designer JP Boneyard. Method is supporting the National Park Foundation and its latest initiative, ParkVentures, which supports programs and activities that help people create and strengthen life-long relationships with national parks through three core themes: representation, accessibility and interpretation.