In the newest wave of clean beauty, the concept of Blue Beauty, is looking to become the latest beauty trend for 2020. While over the past decade, focus has been on making beauty regimes more sustainable; breaking down ingredients list to favour natural and eco friendly products, there is still more progress to be made. Unlike previous trends such as the green beauty movement, Blue Beauty is primarily focused on helping and working with brands to achieve an end goal of producing and using products with sustainability in mind.

Primarily about limiting plastic wastage, thereby making it easier for consumers to recycle and protect oceans from chemicals found in beauty products, the founder of the movement, Jeannie Jarnot, has stated that ‘A lot of people associated blue with ocean-friendly. And that is a part of it, but there’s more to it. Blue Beauty brands are making sure their products are safe for the environment – which includes being ocean safe as well as sustainably sourced, minimising carbon footprint etc. – but are also looking at ways their practices are contributing back to and having a net positive effect on the environment.'

With more than 120 billion units of cosmetics packaging being produced globally every year, this has a large impact on the environment. According to WWF, one dump truck full of plastic waste enters the ocean every minute, which is equivalent to 8 million tonnes of plastic every year. This undoubtedly leads to excess waste which has a huge impact on sea life.

While the answer to this is not necessarily to switch to products in alternative packaging as no matter what the material, this can still lead to negative environmental impacts, the key is to identify how to make beauty products with packaging that could be refillable or reused for another purpose. Where packaging is unavoidable, being able to return this packaging for recycling purpose will ensure that this reduces the overall carbon impact in production of these products.

As discussed, blue beauty is not just about using clean and sustainably sourced ingredients, it is about identify how packaging impacts marine life, as well as water wastage and damage to oceans. With the start of a new decade, it is important to consider how our beauty regimes impact the overall wellbeing of our planet. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans that fish which means that an urgent change is needed and hopefully, the attention brought to this issue will bring about that change.