THESE ARE THE VIP'S OF BEAUTY PRODUCTS WITH REFILLABLE PACKAGING

REFILLABLE PACKAGING HAS BECOME A MAINSTAY FOR BRANDS WITH SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES. THESE ARE OUR FAVORITES, RANKED BY AESTHETICS AND PRACTICALITY, AS WELL AS OVERALL QUALITY.

TEXT LOGAN VERLAQUE IMAGE GOOGLE

With the beauty world’s focus zeroing in on natural ingredients, sustainable packaging, and greener production methods, more and more brands have been designing products that allow for refills. This means that you buy a beautifully designed package that you can replenish with product; eliminating the waste you would generate from throwing out the entirety of, say, a tube of mascara, and instead just replacing the makeup itself. While several brands are beginning to offer such products, the concept isn’t entirely novel. Guerlain created ne m’oubliez pas, its first refillable lipstick case, back in 1870. Chanel no 5, a signature feminine scent, has been offering refills for years as well. Now, we see modern beauty brands following suit, most notably, Kjaer Weiss. Below, we’ve selected our favorites. Give ‘em a try!

““If 5,000,000 jars were replaced with refill pods, that would save 1,000 pounds of plastic, which is significant.””

— P&G BEAUTY

REFILLABLE MAKEUP

Zero Waste Week reported that more than 120 billion units of packaging are produced globally every year by the cosmetics industry. This adds up to a lot of waste. Several makeup brands have made it their mission to reduce the generation of unnecessary waste by offering lipsticks, blushes, bronzers, and mascaras in refillable packaging. This means, you invest once in a pretty little thing and when it runs out, instead of throwing it away (and contributing to the ever growing trash problem), you just refill the contents. Kjaer Weiss were undoubtedly the first major brand to swing this, but Hermes, La Bouche Rouge, Ilia, and Hourglass Cosmetics have followed suit. We can only hope more makeup brands continue on this trend.

REFILLABLE SHOWER PRODUCTS

The number of shampoo bottles thrown out in the United States every year could fill 1,164 football fields. Double that if you count conditioner. Luckily more and more hair care brands are offering their products with refillable options. The Ouai, Follain, Rahua, and L’Occitane are offering shampoos, conditioners, soaps and oils in “reduced waste” form.

REFILLABLE SKINCARE

Skincare products with refillable packaging are not as common yet as makeup products or even hair products. Yet, we are seeing more and more crop up as we type. Tata Harper, a leader in green and natural ingredients, offers some of her products with sustainable packaging options. Heavy weights, including YSL and Dior are also beginning to offer their creams and potions as refills. We are also seeing refillable deodorants and razors becoming more available, including Miro. We can’t wait to see what other brands endorse the refill.

REFILLABLE FRAGRANCE

Chanel No. 5 has been offering refills for a while now (fun fact: JRR even wrote her thesis on this!). Le Labo does as well. Considering fragrance tends to last quite a while, it is a smart move to buy a refillable product. Especially since most fragrance bottles are so beautiful, who wants to throw something like that in the trash?