Skin Nerd: How to make Your skincare more sustainable

Natural organic botany and scientific glassware, Alternative herb medicine, Natural skin care beauty products, Research and development concept.

Getting the best out of your current routine and making small changes can make a world of difference

If you were to ask anyone in the beauty industry, from marketers to formulators to consumers, what the biggest trend is in beauty for the next few years, they will likely say “sustainability”.

However, it is the “trend” mindset that makes the beauty industry not as sustainable as it should be.

As a brand creator, I am very aware of the importance of sustainability, and behind the scenes, there is a lot of research going into making as much in the Nerd World as possible as sustainable as it can be.

Until brands like ourselves and others across the world can get these wheels in motion, what can we do to make our beauty routines more sustainable?

A lot actually.

The easiest, simplest and fastest way to start making your skincare routine more eco-friendly is to cut down.

Now, I don’t mean start cleansing every second day, far from it – what I do mean is finding products that multi-task, and that provide multiple benefits in just one packaging unit!

This is a core part of The Skin Nerd philosophy: The effective yet minimalist approach.

Rather than having a separate antioxidant and hydrating serum... Switch to a hydrating antioxidant serum.

Bring your vitamin A serum up around your eyes as your eye cream (so long as it is eye-safe), and try to find yourself a moisturiser than can work as a night cream, if you are a serum-moisturiser-and-separate-night-cream type human.

Using an exfoliating cleanser negates the need for a toner for most, too, so you can knock that

toner off your bi-monthly skincare shopping list, and there are plenty of moisturising SPFs that will do both jobs at once.

If you’re looking to step further into it, that’s when you need to start looking at the packaging being used on your products.

Although for now it may not be possible to get everything you need for your specific skin concerns in eco-friendly packaging, switching to a product or two that does have sustainable packaging still makes an impact.

The Bia Collection by Codex Beauty is chockful of ‘bioactives’, ingredients of botanical origin that have key skin ingredients such as vitamins and fatty acids, and their product components are made of green polyethylene, a more sustainable plastic that uses sugarcane, which is a renewable resource.

Nunaïa, another Irish-founded brand, package their products in fully recyclable materials, and both brands have an Eco Cert COSMOS Organic certification. What this means is that their modes of production and processing and their use of natural resources, among other things, have been deemed environmentally friendly upon audit and review by Ecocert.

Cutting down on the single-use products in your skincare routine makes a difference too! Swap your cotton pads and wipes for a reusable alternative such as the Cleanse Off Mitt (€6.50, cleanseoffmitt.com and selected online stockists) - full disclosure here, this is my own product.

The Cleanse Off Mitt removes makeup when you add just water and can be used while cleansing also to give you a more thorough cleanse. We recommend replacing each COM of yours after 3 months for best results, and in Nerd HQ, we give old COMs new life by using them to clean our car dashboards, using them as an in-shower cleaning tool... Or you can take a leaf out of Karen Constantine’s (LovelyGirlieBits) book and use an old Cleanse Off Mitt to protect your sunglasses in your handbag.

Take the small steps that you can now, while the beauty industry works on bigger steps.

I can assure you that in the next few years, you will have a lot more choice when it comes to sustainable skincare solutions.

The Nerdie Pick

REN Evercalm Global Protection Day Cream (theskinnerd.com and selected online stockists)

Those with sensitive, dry skin sometimes need a layer of nourishing protection, and this is what the REN Evercalm Global Protection Day Cream is, with omega-rich botanical ingredients and antioxidants galore. It helps to reduce redness and soothe the skin, and aids it in feeling more resilient. REN are on a mission to make all of their packaging sustainable, and the new packaging of the REN Evercalm Global Protection Day Cream is made of recycled plastic that can go on to become recycled again. Now, we can get behind that!

REN Evercalm Global Protection Day Cream (€32, theskinnerd.com and selected online stockists)