Eco-friendly beauty products are becoming more and more popular as the expert studies, beauty brands and finally celebrities suggest more ecological ways of getting pampered and made up. But all this labeling and marketing can be confusing to the end consumer. There are a few tips that will help you choose the best eco-friendly beauty products out there.

Eco-friendly cosmetics has many differences to regular, organic or natural cosmetics. First of all, the ingredients the products are made of are natural and obtained with eco-conscious methods and not tested on animals. But it’s not all. The packaging also matters a lot for eco-friendly cosmetic brands as they commonly try to make it as eco-friendly as possible offering recyclable wrappings or containers made of recycled materials.

 

How to Choose Eco-Friendly Cosmetics

Read Labels
Read labels whenever you are buying cosmetic products. Some brands would use mostly natural ingredients like oils and plant extracts but they would add some preservative ingredients like parabens, which are believed to be allergenic and carcinogenic. Eco-friendly cosmetics don’t usually contain such ingredients as well as formaldehyde, tolulene, DBP, sodium lauryl, laureth sulfate, propylene glycol, petrolatum, mercury, lead and others.

Read About Packaging
The packaging would usually also contain information about how it was made or how eco-friendly it is. Some brands like Lush would offer to return containers in exchange for products. Others would refill their containers you already have. Opt for minimal packaging in beauty products.

Animal Testing
Eco-friendly brands don’t test their products on animals. Though some labels would use ingredients that were tested by other parties. To learn more about it read the animal testing policies of particular brands that interest you. Usually brands would give information about how they source their ingredients and whether they test on animals.

Besides there is an organic certification of cosmetics. If you are into organic cosmetics then look for a certification label on the packaging. Certified cosmetic brands are not allowed to use certain ingredients as well as claim to be ‘organic’ without being certified. Certification regulates the use of the label ‘organic’ to esure the authenticity.