This Earth Day, Genuist Beauty is excited to spotlight an important issue near and dear to our CEO and Founder’s heart—the environmental impact of beauty packaging waste. The beauty industry is known for its extensive use of plastics, which too often ends up in landfills or polluting our oceans because it cannot be properly broken down and processed through regular household recycling. Genuist Beauty’s Alyson Hoag is here to change that.
An Earth Day Message from Aly
Since the very beginning of my career as a makeup artist and brow expert, I've been passionate about beauty and wellness, but I became increasingly concerned about the harmful ingredients hidden in beauty products and the environmental impact of the packaging in cosmetics. That’s when I began relying on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics (EWG) Database to make sure the products I sold to my clients at my beauty salon in Atlanta were free from endocrine disruptors and other hazardous substances. This vigilance was driven by my commitment not only to beauty but also to the health of my clients and the planet.
Motivated by my passion to offer clean products, I decided to create my own beauty line, Genuist Beauty, with ingredients that were not only effective but also clean.
Yet, clean ingredients and sustainable packaging were just parts of my broader vision. I was also deeply troubled by some of the beauty industry’s unhealthy marketing practices, especially those that marginalized women over a certain age and promoted unrealistic beauty standards for younger women.
These practices not only skewed perceptions of beauty for all people but also perpetuated harmful mental health impacts, like poor self-esteem and body image issues. It was crucial for me to challenge these norms and advocate for a more inclusive and empowering approach to beauty.
Determined to address these issues, I began the process of packaging products in reusable glass vials whenever I could, which not only helped minimize waste but also added an element of elegance to my customer's experience.
To further my commitment to sustainability, I became involved with Pact, an incredible nonprofit collective that unites the beauty industry to take responsibility for our packaging waste and work collaboratively toward more circular solutions for beauty.
This initiative and their makeup recycling program allowed me to take an active role in reducing the environmental footprint of the beauty industry by providing my customers with an easy way to recycle their beauty product packaging.
Through these efforts, Genuist Beauty stands as a testament to my belief that beauty should be beneficial for both people and the planet. Talk about beauty with a clean conscience!
An Ugly Issue in Beauty: A Major Packaging Problem
The beauty industry is notorious for its use of plastics and complex packaging, which sadly often ends up in landfills or our oceans because they cannot be processed through regular household recycling.
In general, roughly “48 million tons of plastic waste is generated in the U.S. each year; only 5 to 6 percent of it is actually recycled, according to the Department of Energy. The rest ends up in landfills or is burned,” that's according to a recent news article from CBS News.
According to Pact, the beauty industry creates a whopping 120 billion cosmetic packages, but only a fraction of that gets recycled. Most will end up in the landfill because our industry’s packaging is too small, too flexible, or made of too many materials to be traditionally recycled, and much of this packaging doesn't meet the criteria for municipal recycling programs, leading to significant environmental pollution.
A Pioneering Partnership with Pact
To tackle this pressing issue, I teamed up with Pact, a nonprofit collective, dedicated to improving the recyclability of beauty product packaging. Pact's mission aligns with my commitments at Genuist Beauty to sustainable beauty, and our desire to clean up the beauty business by creating products that rely less and less on plastics and also encourage proper recycling channels to deal with our waste problem.
We have a ways to go but we are working on doing our part to make products we can be proud of- down to the box that each is housed in.
An Innovative Recycling Solution & A Special Offer for Genuist Beauty Customers
In our commitment to sustainable beauty, Genuist Beauty is encouraging our customers to recycle their finished beauty product packaging.
You can either stop by our sister studio, Authentic Beauty Makeup Salon & Brow Studio, located in Atlanta or you can mail us your Genuist Beauty recycling to 4674 Roswell Rd NE. Atlanta, GA 30342, and we will make sure your items get properly recycled through Pact.
As a thank you for joining our sustainability efforts, enjoy a 25% discount on a refill of Revival Brow, Renewal Brow, and Brow Primer. Plus, for every clean, empty glass vial returned to us through the mail, you'll receive an additional $5.00 credit towards your next purchase with us.
For those who have purchased Roller Brow, Roller Brow Defining Pen, and the Tiny Liner, returning your empty packaging will also grant you a $5.00 credit to use on your next Genuist Beauty product purchase.
Why Participate?
Our makeup recycling initiative is about more than just repurposing materials—it's about fostering awareness and changing behaviors. By offering a simple and rewarding recycling option, our goal is to inspire our customers to consider the lifecycle of their beauty products and take active steps towards a cleaner and greener planet.
This Earth Day, let's redefine beauty one recycled beauty product at a time. It’s not just about looking good but doing good, ensuring our beauty habits contribute positively to the world around us.
Read more about our makeup recycling program and Genuist Beauty's sustainability efforts here.
