11 Sustainable Beauty Brands Creating Clean Green Cosmetics
We go beyond skin deep with sustainable beauty brands that are good for our bodies and the planet.
What is sustainable beauty, exactly?
It’s about considering ethics as well as aesthetics and cleaning up the beauty industry by designing products with minimal environmental impact.
The best eco-friendly beauty brands use nourishing plant-based, natural skin care ingredients and tackle plastic waste by using eco-friendly containers like refillable glass jars and minimal compostable paper packaging.
So, where can you go for natural face serums, salves, butters, and balms that are better for all beings?
Everything we recommend to you on Sustainable Jungle is independently researched and we ask all brands to confirm their claims. To avoid waste, we test products on an as needed basis. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about why we do this here.
Ethical Beauty Brands We Love
Meow Meow Tweet is the cat’s meow with their handmade vegan and certified cruelty-free beauty range made from organic and non-GMO ingredients.
Axiology simplifies your sustainable beauty routine with plastic-free and multipurpose color sticks for your minimalist sustainable makeup bag.
For ethical skincare brands in the UK, Conscious Skincare’s award-winning plant-based products tick all our sustainable beauty boxes. They’re vegan, cruelty-free, non-toxic, palm oil-free, ethically sourced, and sustainably packaged.
To find out how we chose the crème de la eco crème of ethical beauty companies, cleanse, tone, and moisturize your way down to the end of the article.
The Full List Of Sustainable & Eco-Friendly Beauty Brands
- Meow Meow Tweet | Visit Store
- ĀTHR Beauty | Visit Store
- EcoRoots | Visit Store
- Fat and the Moon | Visit Store
- Conscious Skincare | Visit Store
- Axiology | Visit Store
- Andrea’s Organic Market | Visit Store
- Dab Herb | Visit Store
- One Love Organics | Visit Store
- Butter Me Up Organics | Visit Store
- Ethique | Visit Store
1. Meow Meow Tweet
About Meow Meow Tweet’s Sustainable Beauty Products
Meow Meow Tweet specialize in small-batch vegan products made using high-quality natural ingredients.
We’re talking raw plant butters, cold-pressed natural oils, and in-house herbal extractions, which you’ll find in everything from their natural deodorant to body care and hair care products.
For the purrfect, head-to-toe moisturizer, their All Over Lotion contains aloe and rose water to balance pH and provide your skin with all the TLC it needs. It’s sensitive-skin friendly, too.
Its reusable or recyclable aluminum bottle makes it the perfect zero waste lotion.
All of their sustainable products are vegan, Leaping Bunny certified cruelty-free, and palm-oil free.
About Meow Meow Tweet
Founded by a vegan couple and named after their pets (two cats and a bird), Meow Meow Tweet makes products “for every person, every body, every identity”.
This philosophy and their entirely vegan and cruelty-free range puts them among the most ethical skincare brands—as well as one of our favorite zero waste skin care brands.
Committed to low waste and developing circular systems, their packaging is made from either compostable paper, recyclable metal, or glass.
Products are handmade in small batches in their Californian Microfactory using organic and non-GMO ingredients.
Meow Meow Tweet gives back via donations to various environmental, social justice and animal justice organizations.
Also available on EarthHero
2. ĀTHR Beauty
*Note ĀTHR Beauty uses RSPO-certified palm oil. We are confirming policies directly with this brand.
About ĀTHR Beauty’s Ethical Beauty Products
ĀTHR Beauty is a gem among sustainable luxury beauty brands.
From mascara made with crushed black diamonds to crystal-infused eyeshadow palettes and lip stains made with organic cactus flower extract, this brand brings the power of nature to your sustainable beauty routine.
The plant-based formulas are free from over 3000 banned harmful chemicals and synthetic ingredients.
The Rose Quartz Crystal Gemstone Palette features ten desert-inspired shades made from moringa seed oil, organic shea butter, organic cocoa butter, and rose quartz.
They’re moving towards sustainable beauty packaging with the first zero waste palettes for their eyeshadow. No mirrors and magnets means they are easily recyclable—just remove the eye pans from the paper palette for separate recycling.
Their lip and cheek stain containers are made from post-consumer recycled materials and recyclable via a partnership with Pact Collective.
All products are vegan and cruelty-free, as certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny.
About ĀTHR Beauty
This relatively new sustainable beauty brand is based in Tuscan, Arizona, and uses desert-derived ingredients and crystal infusions for its unique range of sustainable cosmetics.
Raw materials and ingredients are ethically sourced and fair trade where possible. They only work with factories in the US, Canada, and Europe that can ensure safe and ethical working conditions.
Packaging is recycled and recyclable.
ĀTHR Beauty is a member of 1% for the Planet and each product is linked with a different charity.
3. EcoRoots
*Note: The majority of EcoRoots products are palm oil free.
About EcoRoot’s Eco-Friendly Beauty Product Fange
For the top sustainable beauty brands in the USA, put EcoRoots on your list.
They take care of all your bath and beauty needs, including soap bars, razors, lip balm, lotion bars, facial cream, masks, and moisturizers.
Their nourishing Rosehip Facial Cream is made with organic coconut oil, rosehip seed oil, and hibiscus extract, meaning it’s high in antioxidants and vitamin C for a sustainable skin glow.
All products are cruelty-free, vegan, and non-toxic, though some products (like the aforementioned organic face cream) contain palm oil derivatives.
About EcoRoots
Colorado-based EcoRoots is a one-stop store for ethical online shopping.
In addition to their beautifying goods, you’ll find plastic-free goods for your zero waste kitchen, including laundry detergent sheets and reusable dishcloths.
Packaging is either cardboard or glass jars with aluminum lids and all orders are shipped plastic-free.
EcoRoots gives back via its 1% for the Planet membership.
4. Fat and the Moon
*Note: Many of Fat and the Moon’s products are vegan, but some (including the body lotions) contain beeswax.
About Fat and the Moon’s Environmentally Friendly Beauty Products
Fat and the Moon is one of the best sustainable beauty companies for sensitive skin.
They offer face and body lotion, face masks, exfoliating paste, eye coal, highlighter cream, lip balm, and much more, all made in small batches from nourishing plant-based ingredients.
For head-to-toe moisturizing, the Aloe Face And Body Lotion is an unscented, soothing, and hydrating lotion that gently nourishes dry and sensitive skin. (Note, it does contain beeswax).
All products are palm oil free.
About Fat and the Moon
This women-owned zero waste beauty brand makes all its products in-house using (mostly) organic and ethically harvested ingredients.
With glass jars and bottles, cartons made from post-consumer recycled paper, and paper sifters, they’ve thought carefully about their sustainable packaging for beauty products.
Their Regenerative Packaging Guide explains how to responsibly deal with your empties.
Fat and the Moon gives back via donations to several charity partners.
Fat and the Moon has featured in articles on zero waste shaving cream and zero waste deodorant.
5. Conscious Skincare
About Conscious Skincare’s Natural Eco-Friendly Beauty Products UK
For sustainable beauty brands UK, Conscious Skincare has a full range of natural face and body products, including butters, cold-pressed oils, exfoliants, lotions, masks, serums, toners, and more.
All products are vegan, cruelty-free, palm-oil free, and have the Environmental Working Group “safest” rating. They use fair trade ingredients as much as possible.
They also sell organic face cloths and reusable makeup pads to pair with their organic face wash and natural makeup remover. The latter contains organic sesame and castor oils to dissolve makeup and gently cleanse your skin.
About Conscious Skincare
If you’re looking for eco-friendly toiletries, look no further than Conscious Skincare.
This Wales-based sustainable beauty brand has won multiple sustainable beauty awards for its range of natural products, including Ethical Consumer’s “Best Buy” status.
They use glass or aluminum packaging for standard products, and the refill bottles are made from 100% recycled (and recyclable plastic).
Conscious Skincare shares the love by donating money and products to local charities, including Greenacres Animal Rescue in Pembrokeshire.
Conscious Skincare has featured in articles on body wash refills and sustainable moisturizer.
6. Axiology
About Axiology’s Eco-Friendly Beauty Range
The best eco-friendly beauty products help us reduce how many different products we need.
Enter: Axiology.
They’re here to tackle plastic waste with Balmies and Multisticks—AKA plastic-free 3-in-1 crayons that can be used for eyes, cheeks, and lips.
Containing minimal simple ingredients, including castor oil, sunflower oil, and hemp seed oil, they come in many different colors to add a vegan and cruelty-free glow to your beauty routine.
The minimal paper wrapping or cardboard push tubes ensures no more plastic lipstick tubes end up in landfill or littering the environment.
About Axiology
Axiology is one of our favorite zero waste makeup brands.
Multifunctional products like their beauty crayons help minimize our sustainable makeup bag and our impact on the planet.
One of the best beauty brands with sustainable packaging, Axiology partners with a women’s cooperative in Bali who recycle the island’s paper trash for the brand’s outer packaging.
Not only does Axiology not use palm oil, but they also support rainforest conservation by donating to Orangutan Foundation International.
Axiology has featured in an article on eco-friendly lipstick.
7. Andrea’s Organic Market
*Note: Most products are vegan, but some contain honey or goat’s milk. These can be made vegan on request
About Andrea’s Organic Market’s Eco Beauty Products
Andrea’s Organic Market offers plant-based and planet-friendly skin care products, including facial bars, balms, creams, oils, body scrubs, tinctures, and more.
But they’re not just a sustainable skincare brand; they take care of your hair, too, with shampoo bars, leave-in conditioners, masks, and serums.
All products are made with non-GMO, organic ingredients, including raw butters and cold-pressed oils.
Everything is free from synthetics and harmful chemicals.
Some products, like their Luminous Skin Facial Scrub for acne-prone skin, are made using goat’s milk, but they can substitute this for coconut milk upon request.
About Andrea’s Organic Market
One of the best ethical skincare brands, Andrea’s Organic Market uses fair trade ingredients where possible.
All products are handmade in their Indiana workshop.
For eco-friendly packaging, they use refillable glass containers and biodegradable packaging for refills. Orders are shipped plastic-free, down to the biodegradable tape and packing peanuts.
8. Dab Herb
About Dab Herb’s Eco-Friendly Beauty Range
Dab Herb is one of the best ethical beauty brands for artisan formulas that harness the power of plants to nourish and protect the skin.
Their range includes foundation, mascara, herb eyeshadows, face luminizer, edible lip balms, and more—all made using certified organic, wild crafted, and/or food-grade ingredients.
Simplify your makeup routine with their 3-in-1 Frankincense Serum Foundation with medicinal herbs and unrefined oils to prime, moisturize, and conceal without clogging your pores.
For something yummy, their organic tea lip balms are made with 100% food-grade ingredients, including coconut oil and shea butter. Choose between Choco-Assam Tea, Hibiscus-Grapefruit, Lavender-Vanilla, and Lemon Balm-Matcha.
About Dab Herb
Dab Herb is one of our favorite organic makeup brands.
Despite their accessible prices, they source only the purest ingredients, most of which are USDA-certified organic and food grade.
The small amount of mica they use is ethically-sourced from the USA.
For sustainable beauty packaging, they use reusable and recyclable glass and metal containers. All orders are shipped plastic-free.
Dab Herb gives back via donations to Made in the Free World, an organization working to eradicate human trafficking and slavery.
Dab Herb has featured in articles on vegan foundation and organic eyeshadow.
9. One Love Organics
*Note: One Love Organics uses beeswax in some products. Palm oil is RSPO-certified.
About One Love Organics’ Ethical Beauty Range
For sustainable cosmetics that show one love for your skin and the planet, turn to One Love Organics.
They offer a range of balms, cleansers, creams, mists, moisturizers, oils, scrubs, and serums, all handmade in small batches from high-quality ingredients designed to keep skin pH at an optimal level.
Dermatologist tested through and through, you won’t find any common skin irritants or allergens, like synthetic fragrances.
For one balm that does it all, their Skin Savior Multi-Tasking Wonder Balm is a certified-organic blend containing organic coconut oil, jojoba, mango butter, and chia. Use it as a makeup remover, face mask, and moisturizer.
About One Love Organics
Blending science and nature, founder Suzanne LaRoux combines knowledge from her pharmacist father with her passion for aromatherapy and herbal medicine. The result?
A sustainable beauty company that offers high-quality, Leaping Bunny and PETA-certified cruelty-free products.
OLO is also a Green America certified-Gold business.
Products are made in small batches in their ECOCERT-certified organic laboratory in Georgia. Palm oil is minimally used and RSPO-certified.
They use glass containers for product packaging, but they do contain a plastic pump.
Also available on Credo Beauty and has featured in an article on natural toners for skin
10. Butter Me Up Organics
*Note: Not all products are vegan, some contain beeswax and some contain organic milk.
About Butter Me Up Organics’ Sustainable Beauty Range
Butter Me Up Organics is a “modern-day apothecary” offering a huge range of eco-friendly products for skin and hair, including beard balm, facial cleansing bars, makeup remover, lip balms, sea salt hairspray, hair wax, and much more.
They use high-quality, natural ingredients that include oils and clays. Most ingredients are organic, and all are certified cruelty-free.
For facial cleansing, they offer a range of solid bars, including The Facial Cleansing Bar with French green sea clay. Suitable for all skin types, the clay draws out oils and impurities without drying your skin.
They also offer organic baby skin care products, including All Natural Talc Free Baby Powder, Baby Butt Butter, Calm Balm, and Organic Baby Wash.
About Butter Me Up Organics
A sustainable beauty product good enough to eat?
Not quite the organic bath bomb, but all of this brand’s formulas are non-toxic, in line with their advice: “Don’t put anything on your body that you wouldn’t put in it.“
Naturally, that means that you won’t find any synthetic ingredients, including dyes and fragrances.
Butter Me Up Organics takes a zero waste approach to their sustainable beauty line, using glass bottles, paper bar wrapping, aluminum tins, and paperboard lip balm tubes.
All orders are shipped plastic-free.
11. Ethique
About Ethique’s Ethical Beauty Range
Goodbye, plastic bottles!
One of the best ethical skincare brands, Ethique offers a full range of skin, haircare, and body care, all available in solid bar form and powdered concentrates.
For skin care, you’ll find facial cleansers, scrubs, and moisturizers.
Suitable for all skin types (including dry and sensitive skin), their Bliss Bar soap-free zero waste makeup remover and facial cleanser contains creamed coconut and kaolin clay to cleanse and moisturize gently.
For sustainable hydration, The Perfector is their solid face cream jam-packed with nourishing ingredients, including jojoba and kokum butter.
About Ethique
We love that Ethique’s whole range of eco-friendly bathroom products and home cleaners are 100% plastic-free.
They tick all of our other boxes, too, with their cruelty-free, vegan, non-toxic, and palm oil-free products.
They’re also a certified B Corp, certified climate neutral, and donate a percentage of profits to worthy causes.
Also available on Amazon | Holland & Barrett (UK) | Nourished Life (AU)
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How We Found The Best Sustainable Beauty Brands
Clean beauty, clean conscience.
Getting super picky about the natural skin care products we use is an important part of sustainable living.
We used our ethical and sustainable beauty criteria to choose the most sustainable beauty brands leading the way with sustainable cosmetics.
- Non-toxic: This means knowing which ingredients to avoid in skin care and which ingredients are a better choice for our bodies and the planet. All the better if they’re organically grown or certified by Ecocert COSMOS or USDA Organic.
- Cruelty-free and vegan: No animal testing, ever. Not every environmentally friendly beauty brand on this list is vegan, but they make it clear which products contain animal-derived ingredients and only use those that can be harvested without animal harm, such as beeswax.
- Palm oil free: When palm oil is used it should be ethically sourced, (i.e. RSPO-certified).
- Ethical ingredient sourcing: Brands that consider the supply chain and carefully source their raw materials from sustainable sources get the thumbs up.
- Thoughtful packaging: We’re ideally looking for zero waste or plastic-free packaging that is reusable, refillable, or compostable.
Final Thoughts On The Most Ethical Beauty Brands
Why is sustainability important in beauty?
The cosmetics industry has a lot to answer for.
From lab-created synthetic ingredients that pose a risk to our health and the environment, to the mountains of plastic-waste created by shampoo bottles and other single-use plastic containers, conventional cosmetics are responsible for dirtying the planet.
Switching to products that use planet and pregnancy-safe ingredients and minimal packaging creates a better look for all beings.
Sustainable beauty practices for the win!
Know someone who could use a hand with cleaning up their beauty routine?
Share this article and help spread the word about the best eco-friendly beauty brands that are shifting the beauty industry for the better.
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Hi there! I’ve been looking to get some tubing mascara and was looking at Thrive Causemetics… I was wondering what you think of them sustainability-wise?
Hi Ally, I’m sorry we haven’t done a deep dive on them yet. Thanks for telling us about them though. If helpful we have an article on zero waste mascara here .
Green & Frugal should be on this list! They are a Canadian brand that makes green bodycare affordable and the quality is amazing. Products are actually natural!
Wow, this was so helpful! My goal in 2022 is to learn more about sustainability and only purchase from companies that make sustainable efforts and ethical sourcing. Thank you for this list!
Hello!
Wow, super informative blogs and great listing such a cool idea – so thank you guys! If you’re still taking submissions, I would add The Solid Bar Company. They are a female founded/owned/run skincare business from near Oxford, UK.
They have cruelty free, 100% vegan, non-toxic, 100% palm oil free, plastic free, zero waste, ethical sourcing, biodegradable packaging so would be good to include if you have the time!
Thanks,
Michelle x
Would you guys be able to add Youth to the People to this list? Thanks in advance!
Hello, I would love to see what you all think of Love Beauty and Planet, they are a ‘green’ company but have been accused of greenwashing
http://www.raspberrythriller.com/2019/03/29/companies-that-are-greenwashing/
Thank you
Thanks Tae, we haven’t heard of them until now! Will keep an eye out!
Hello!
Just came across this list. This is such a great project! If you’re still taking submissions, I would add ILERA Apothecary. They are a Black-owned skincare business from Detroit. They are working towards intentional packaging, but their products are definitely trustworthy and ethically sourced 🙂
Thanks Amanda, they sound awesome!
Hi Joy,
I would add Shea Botanics (sheabotanics.com). They are a new brand who are striving to tick all the boxes for clean beauty, being ethical, sustainable and eco-friendly.
Oh my gosh I have a really great brand you need to add that meets all your criteria! Check out seawitchbotanicals.com!! They’re a B-corp, working towards zero waste, all vegan, no synthetics, no plastics, ethical sourcing, and even all their shipping packaging is recyclable OR TOTALLY COMPOSTABLE. I’d love to see them represented here.
You forgot Avirida.com ! They have compostable packaging & plant a tree for every sale
what is the worst cosmetic brands from a sustainability perspective
Hey Ginny, there are so many that greenwash and just don’t care about their environmental and social impact that I wouldn’t be able to pick one and honestly we spend all our time looking for those doing the right things. This article might help as a start: https://www.peta.org/living/personal-care-fashion/beauty-brands-that-you-thought-were-cruelty-free-but-arent/
You might look into Altilis Beauty and consider adding to this list!
Thanks for the tip!
Another great sustainable brand based in the UK is Bianca Elgar!
https://www.biancaelgar.com/
Great thanks, we’ll take a look!