Green Your Beauty Routine
In the last two decades we’ve seen the “clean” beauty industry soar. What once was limited to a few shelves in a co-op or natural foods store is now a nearly ten billion industry which (luckily for our bodies and the planet) shows no signs of slowing down. Whether you want to reduce your carbon footprint, eliminate environmental toxins, are newly pregnant, or simply want to elevate your skincare routine your favorite clean beauty boutique is here to help all of you clean curious beauties toss the toxins, clean your routine and recycle the rest!
Why Clean Beauty?
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) “Personal care products are manufactured with 10,500 unique chemical ingredients, some of which are known or suspected carcinogens, toxic to the reproductive system or known to disrupt the endocrine system.” Unfortunately for us as consumers the government does not regulate or oversee the safety of beauty products. With all of the known data it still allows ingredients like coal tar, formaldehyde, and others linked to serious health concerns, to find their way into formulations, onto our skin and ultimately in our bodies.
Concern for our personal wellbeing is not the only issue with the beauty industry. The health of the planet is a major reason companies are going “green”. PACT collective is a non-profit organization committed to taking on the packaging industry. PACT exists because, “the beauty and wellness industry generates over 120 billion packages each year, and only a fraction actually gets recycled. Most are landfilled, incinerated, or littered, eventually ending up in the ocean.”
With such big issues to contend with it’s natural to feel a little paralyzed. But, we assure you each vendor chosen to adorn the shelves of Wren and Wild creates formulations without ingredients known or suspected to harm health. We align with the brand's ethos because they care about what we are putting in and on our bodies. Typically, their mission is deeply personal and almost always begins as a passion project to keep themselves and their families safe. Naturally, their care has expanded beyond themselves, to the world around them and the planet we all share.
How Do We Begin?
Cleaning our beauty routine is easier than you might imagine. A helpful first step is to:
Determine what issue is most important to you.
For some of us, the planet may be our absolute number one concern and knowing this will direct how we shop for our routine. If not contributing to the landfill is the reason behind greening your routine, you may consider a “less is more” beauty approach, which is the ethos of brands like Vintner’s Daughter who has just three products in their whole collection. Founder April Gargulio believes your skin can get everything it needs in these three steps. Not to mention, they come in easily recycled glass packaging leaving behind almost no waste. Another brand that takes on simplicity status is Ayuna. Each of their products is a multi-functioning skincare cleanse for your face. In a few simple steps your skin gets everything it needs to perform and look its absolute best.
Maybe you’re a mom-to-be newly navigating the ingredient lists of all your products and wanting to make the safest choices for yourself and your little bundle of joy. For this, you might choose Tata Harper’s Superkind line, developed without over 85 of the most common irritants and allergens. Superkind is a complete line of highly effective products engineered for reactive skin and pregnancy safety.
Making the move to a more organic lifestyle? Try Kindred Skincare or One Love Organics. Both brands use small batch methods and use almost all organic ingredients in their formulations.
In 2004, while on a journey to heal from chemical toxicity in her body, Rose Marie Swift (a career makeup artist) began a website called Beauty Truth to exposed the truth about harmful ingredients in makeup. She later began her own beauty line, RMS Beauty, to give those who love to have a makeover the option to do it in a healthy way. So you don’t have to toss your mascara or lip liner because our shelves are stocked with options for a smokey eye or a Taylor Swift red lip that won’t add to the toxic load.
If you're not sure which brand aligns with your values stop in and talk to our team. We will gladly assist you in finding the products that serve what matters most.
Switching out your old products.
Your next step is to make the switch and there is no right or wrong way. Sometimes it just feels right to do a major spring cleaning. In one sweep simply remove those bottles and jars that have lived in your makeup bag or cosmetic cabinet for years and replace them with new, clean beauties.
Other times, a slow shift is needed. Maybe you want to commit to finishing what you already have, then, one by one find replacements that give you the same glow, shine or sparkle that you have grown to love with your old products.
You might consider treating yourself to a clean beauty consultation with one of our amazing team members. Schedule an appointment today to talk about skincare, makeup, what you loved about your old products, what you want to see for skin and in the future and, of course, which brands most align with your values.
Recycle the Rest
Finally, keeping our beauty product packaging out of the trash bin is easier than ever. Last year Wren & Wild joined the PACT Collective. We recycle the components of beauty packaging that are most likely to end up in the landfill, or worse, the ocean. Read our recycling guidelines, bring what you can into the store (or find a PACT Collective collection site near you) and we’ll give you 50 Wild Points for helping us invest in the health of the planet.
To celebrate this Earth Day make the commitment to a greener beauty routine. In just a few steps you can make a big difference, in not only your skin, but in your overall health, wellbeing and the betterment of this planet we all share.
Invest in YOU, Invest in the PLANET.