Swiping Away The Skincare #shelfies

We hate to break it to you, but skincare ain’t like shoes. The more isn’t merrier — it generates more waste, and might even cause skin sensitivity

- Chelsea Tang

If you’ve ever been down that rabbit hole… we mean the one on Instagram where it’s seemingly impossible to ever finish scrolling through the many, many, many skincare “shelfies” posted, you’d know exactly how addictive it is. The hashtag #igtopshelfie has, after all, 72.5k posts (at press time), and every picture speaks to our inner skincare junkie. Hand over heart, we know exactly how inanely exciting stocked, filled, and squeezed to-the-brim vanities can be — whether in the form of pictures, or IRL. Admit it: How many times have you caved in and bought your third new serum of the month, or yet another exfoliating toner, just because?

Sustainability is a big buzzword in beauty. It has been, since late 2018, and consumers are slowly (and finally) gaining more awareness of the sheer amount of waste that’s generated by the beauty industry. Zero Waste Week (a UK-based annual awareness campaign for landfill reduction) reports that 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry. The cardboard unicarton that comes with every product purchase? That contributes to the loss of 18 million acres of forest each year.