Dear Humans,

Today I shall elucidate the slow death and ugliness your vanity products have brought upon to my beautiful world. As I have mentioned before, there are environmental consequences throughout the life cycle of any beauty products. It starts from the production process where you create artificial scents in your fragrance products like perfumes and air fresheners or exploit unsustainable methods such as mass production of plastics and palm oil. 

Manufacturing of fragrance products

Using air fresheners indoors

Those who consume are as guilty. You create demand for these products and continue to support these unsustainable brands. “When I falter, you falter”, as you use the fragrance products indoors – not only does it harm me, it fosters toxicities in your very own home environment. Together with the production of beauty products, at the End-of-Life of these products – they continue to pollute and destroy my land, my ocean and my skies. I implore you to recognise that you are pursuing your beauty at the expense of mine. 

Microplastics at the End-of-Life in landfills

There are many possibilities for our beauties to coexist. Changes and modifications to be made at every stage of the beauty products’ life cycle such as more sustainable methods of productions and your participation in take-back programmes to facilitate better disposal. I will expand various stages of the life cycle to help you better understand and see the destruction you have failed to see. This time, let’s be beautiful together.

Calm and peaceful vibes,

Mother Nature

Dear Humans,

I am Nature, Mother Nature. I have been on this Earth for more than 4.5 billion years. There was a time where the skies and waters were clear and I thrived. However, as we entered the Anthropocene and Capitalocene, I have been suffering. I am speaking now, and this time you’d better listen. My trees have been brutally chopped down, my icebergs have melted drastically and my animals have been losing their homes.

Despite this, I have to admit that there have been efforts and initiatives by you all to promote a more sustainable relationship between us. The Sustainable Development Goals have been a starting point to ‘Save the Planet’. However, you humans have been incredibly focused on the big ideas like protecting and restoring terrestrial ecosystems and halting biodiversity loss. To save me from your poison,  you have to first review your everyday actions and lifestyles. Look at issues you have been neglecting. Look at the problems you are pretending not to see. Look at the mess your beauty industry has caused me.

Your beauty products have the ability to make one feel confident, smell good and look beautiful. Well, I’ll  show you the ‘ugly’ side of beauty. That is, the price I, Mother Nature, have to pay at every stage of the life cycle of your beauty products. It spans from the production, consumption and end-of-life. Now, I beseech you to see how a seemingly small and harmless product can ruin all the beauty I have created and bring out so much ugliness of the world. To save yourself and I, change starts today.

Stormy and distressed vibes,

Mother Nature 

(Disclaimer: We are Crystal & Rexanne, NUS GE3246 students embarking on our Environmental Pollution Blog with a focus on the pollution of Beauty Products. We would like to utilise this opportunity to raise awareness of this largely overlooked topic so that people can do their part in their daily usage of these products. We were inspired by the ‘Nature is Speaking’ campaign for this blog post. Thank you Prof David Taylor and Wei Ting for your help and guidance.) 

Hi friends,

I am Rexanne, a Year 3 NUS Geography major. Before I begin, take a minute to ponder. How often do you wash your face with a cleanser? How often do you brush your teeth? How often do you shampoo your hair? All these ordinary activities we do everyday mindlessly are actually slowly ruining our planet. Personally, the thought of my vanity harming the planet has never ever crossed my mind. And I’m guessing I’m not the only one. Thus, Crystal and I saw the need to help everyone including ourselves recognise how our seemingly ordinary lifestyles can lead to detrimental impacts on the environment.

Let’s reexamine our daily beauty regimen and the amount of products involved. 

My basic daily routine consists of:

• • • • • • • • • Brushing my teeth 
                • Washing my face
                • Putting on make-up
                • Applying deodorant/perfume 
                • Removing my make-up
                • Washing my face
                • Showering

Beauty products that I use on a daily basis

Just these simple tasks require so many products ranging from a toothbrush to shampoos to cotton pads! Also, a not-so-fun fact about your air fresheners and perfumes is that long term usage can actually cause you to suffer from adverse health impacts. How shocking is it to hear that such an ordinary product can actually ruin our health?! Apart from that, have you ever wondered what happens before and after you use your products? Continue to read our blog and we will unravel the ugly side of beauty together! 

Cheery vibes,

Rexanne

Hello friends! 

I am Crystal, a Year 3 Undergraduate at NUS. I am one of the writers of this blog together with Rexanne. As we enter adulthood, it has become vital to look presentable and put-together. This has led to the craze on beauty products such as concealers, hair conditioners and perfumes. As we were researching on our blog topic, Rexanne and I were horrified about the devastating consequences that beauty products have on the environment. Hence, from this blog, I hope that we will be able to raise awareness about the pollution of beauty products and hopefully provide valuable advice to users about more sustainable practices. Personally, I would like to be more aware of the pollution I am causing as well and do my part to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. 

My favourite beauty product!

Personally, my favourite beauty product would be my Chloe perfume. It’s small, classy and produces the best smell! It’s definitely part of my ‘getting ready’ routine before I leave the house. 

Another favourite I’m not able to resist would be the FRESH Face Mask with Rose petals and Aloe Vera. It’s a product I use whenever my skin is feeling a little dry and it always works wonders. 

Everyday habits with beauty products

Honestly, I am not one that checks ingredients on beauty products I use before getting them. Hence, most of my products may be contributing negatively to the environment unintentionally. Although I am not one to use make-up products frequently, I still utilise other beauty products to a large extent. Let me take you through my everyday routine. The following pictures are some of the products that I use daily from morning to night. 

Through this introduction, I hope that you know a little more about me and my aims and goals for writing this blog. Thank you and see you soon! 

Happy vibes,

Crystal