Hello friends!

Today I’ll be sharing my own personal experience as a consumer of beauty products. Before starting on this blog, I did not know that my ordinary everyday routine would have such a significant impact on the environment. Personally, when I am looking for a product, the first thing that I would look for would be the brand and then the benefits it offers. Terms for beauty products (ranging from shampoos to make up products) that often catch my eye would include: moisturising, hair fall control, long lasting, smudge-proof and so many more. But I have never considered my shopping from an eco-friendly perspective. My consumption patterns have largely been motivated by perceived effectiveness of the beauty product and not how sustainable they are and I believe that many of you here are just like me!

Before the COVID19 lockdown, I used one-third fewer skincare products than I do now. With all the spare time I had, I binge watched celebrities’ and influencers’ skin care routine videos online and added so many new products to my collection. Seeing how effective they were and that these public figures were endorsing these products, I wanted to have a go myself! However, I am not the only one, as I live with 3 other ladies at home, we were receiving multiple parcels filled with new beauty products almost every week. The lockdown period was when the entire world was online, this raised consumers’ exposure levels to many new products and online shopping made it easy for us to get them. In just a week I bought a moisturiser, toner, shampoo and so many other make up products.

One thing that I would do every time I purchase something online would be to consider past users’ reviews about its effectiveness, whether its cost-efficient and does what it claims. All this time I could have taken the time to consider and research whether the products I bought were eco-friendly. Were they using sustainable methods of production? Do they include harmful chemicals? Will they harm the turtles? From this I understood the need for all of us to recognise the power we hold in the limiting environmental degradation. So now that you’ve learnt more about the environmental impacts of our consumption of beauty products, I hope the next time you are buying something, you would think twice about its environmental pollution. 

Happy vibes, 

Rexanne