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The new normal is that your next customer might never see a search results page. Instead of typing “best budget foundation” into Google, they’re asking ChatGPT or Claude “what’s the best budget foundation for oily skin?” and buying whatever comes back first. That shift is already well underway.  

Foundation’s new AI SEO Beauty Guide (July 2026) found that over half of UK AI users now search with AI several times a week, and 27% do so daily. 

For beauty brands, this is a visibility question with a completely new rulebook. There’s no bidding system, and your follower count barely moves the needle. So, we ran the numbers to find out what drives beauty AI SEO, and what quietly does nothing. 

What we did

We built 20 prompts around the way real shoppers talk to AI, things like “how do I get a glowy base without looking greasy,” then put each one to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, three times over.  

Every brand named, its position, and every source cited went into the dataset: 1,335 brand mentions and 690 citations.  

The full findings live in the guide, but here’s what surprised us most. 

The same brands keep winning, and position sticks

AI recommendations isn’t the lottery.  

The rank correlation between runs sat at 0.75 to 0.77, so a brand that ranks well one week almost always ranks well the next. e.l.f. was the standout, named in 17 of 20 prompts and appearing as the first recommendation 40 times, three times more than any other brand. The first slot matters more than any other, because that’s the answer people read and act on. 

Visibility comes in categories, not one big list

This finding has the biggest implications for beauty AI SEO. There’s no single beauty leaderboard. e.l.f., Maybelline and NYX own the budget and dupe conversation. ILIA, Kosas and Tower 28 own clean and vegan. Charlotte Tilbury, NARS and Giorgio Armani own luxury.  

A brand that dominates one is close to invisible in the others, because the models match each question to the associations they’ve built around that specific topic. A brand that tries to win everywhere wins nowhere. 

AI is reading the press, not your product pages

The models overwhelmingly cite third parties writing about brands rather than the brands themselves.  

Editorial and glossy coverage made up around 44% of citations, the “best X for Y” listicles in titles like Vogue, Allure and Who What Wear. Those roundups map almost perfectly onto how people phrase questions to AI. More unexpectedly, Reddit was the single most cited source in the whole dataset, just ahead of Vogue and Allure, because beauty subreddits generate the peer-to-peer discussion models treat as genuine consumer signal. 

What strong beauty AI SEO looks like for your brand

The takeaway is to be selective. ChatGPT and Gemini reward glossy editorial.  

Perplexity leans hard on Reddit and retailer pages like Boots.  

Claude tends to reflect a content footprint built over years. 

 Pick the category you can realistically own, land in the roundups your customers are effectively quoting through AI, and build content that answers real questions about skin, ingredients and routines rather than just selling. 

Get that right, and AI visibility stops being a mystery and becomes a measurable, repeatable channel you can tie to activity, which is exactly what our services and digital PR teams help beauty brands do.  

If you’ve read our guide to optimising your beauty brand on TikTok Shop, you already know the fundamentals: 

• Optimising your product listings
• Building an affiliate creator network
• Investing in live shopping
• Treating the platform as a paid commerce channel 

TikTok Shop is now the UK’s fourth-largest beauty retailer, with 60% year-on-year growth in the beauty category in 2025 and over one million UK shoppers buying beauty products directly through the platform. One beauty product is sold every second on TikTok Shop UK! These numbers aren’t a coincidence — they’re the result of a handful of brands executing social commerce better than anyone else.

In this post, we’re breaking down the beauty brands that are effectively using TikTok Shop in 2026, what they’re doing differently, and what every beauty brand can learn from their strategy.

What separates good from great on TikTok Shop

Before we get into the brands, it’s worth naming the common thread that runs through every success story on this list.

The brands winning on TikTok Shop are not just selling, they’re educating. TikTok Shop users increasingly discover products through a search–research–convert funnel. Searching first by skin concern, ingredient, or routine rather than brand name. The brands that understand this behaviour and build their content strategy accordingly are the brands that are really winning.

Let’s take a look at the brands setting the gold standard.

P.Louise

If there’s one brand that has defined what TikTok Shop live commerce looks like in the UK, it’s P.Louise.

Founded by professional makeup artist Paige Williams, P.Louise built its TikTok presence the hard way: through relentless consistency, authentic founder-led content, and a real understanding of what its audience actually wants to see. The brand became the best-performing beauty seller on TikTok Shop UK in 2024, and it has built on that position since. In a single Christmas TikTok Shop LIVE event, P.Louise generated over £2.7 million in just 14 hours, a UK record (at the time)!

Why it works:

P.Louise treats every live shopping event as a proper broadcast production. There’s urgency (limited-time offers and exclusive drops), interactivity (real-time Q&A and product demos), and a community feel that makes viewers want to stay because they feel like they’re part of something. The brand sells two products every second during peak live events- a rate that’s only possible because the audience truly trusts Paige and her team.

The lesson here isn’t just “go live more.” It’s that live commerce on TikTok Shop that rewards brands that have invested in genuine community building before they ask for the sale. P.Louise had an engaged following before she began setting records. 

Key TikTok Shop tactics:

• High-frequency live shopping events backed by paid promotion
• Founder and team-hosted sessions that feel authentic rather than scripted
• Exclusive event-only drops that create urgency and reward loyal viewers
• Consistent daily content that maintains audience warmth between live events

Made by Mitchell

Made by Mitchell is the brand that put TikTok Shop properly on the map as a serious retail channel in the UK. Founded by makeup artist Mitchell Halliday in 2020, the brand became the first UK business to hit £1 million in a single day on TikTok Shop during the 2024 Summer Sale. They sold one product every second across a 12-hour live event featuring 144 exclusive product launches.

That success wasn’t luck. It was the result of sustained, consistent investment in the platform over the years, built on daily livestreams, a creator affiliate programme, and Mitchell’s own personality as the face of the brand.

The real proof of the TikTok Shop model came when Made by Mitchell launched into Boots – showing that TikTok Shop successes can translate into high street credibility.

Why it works:

Made by Mitchell understood early on that TikTok Shop rewards volume and consistency. By showing up every day in live sessions, with creator content and shoppable videos, the brand built a strong, engaged audience that drove conversion at scale.

Mitchell Halliday’s inclusivity-led brand message also resonated powerfully with TikTok’s audience. The brand harnesses 25.8 million likes and over 925,000 followers because it stands for something that its audience cares about- not just products, but values.

Key TikTok Shop tactics:

• Daily live shopping was a core part of their strategy, not just occasional events
• Community-first brand positioning that built loyalty before driving sales
• Creator affiliate programme across a diverse range of influencer sizes
• Using TikTok Shop success as a springboard to develop retail partnerships

Beauty of Joseon

Beauty of Joseon is the standout example of how a global brand can use TikTok Shop to crack an entirely new market and in doing so, they reshaped consumer behaviour across a whole category.

The K-beauty brand known for its traditional Korean ingredient-led formulations, has been the driver behind the 125% surge in Korean skincare searches on TikTok Shop UK in the second half of 2025. The AOVs of K-beauty baskets on TikTok Shop are nearly 35% higher in value than the overall skincare average, and K-beauty brands have Beauty of Joseon to thank.

The brand’s TikTok Shop strategy is built around education at scale. Rather than just pushing it’s products, it invests in creator content that explains how and why their formulations work and which skin concerns they address. This approach aligns well with how TikTok Shop users use the platform and shop: by skin concern first, then brand second.

Why it works:

Beauty of Joseon has mastered the discovery commerce model by producing and enabling creators to produce detailed and educational skincare content. By using trending hashtags like #glassskin and #kbeauty and other skin concern hashtags, the brand reaches users at the exact moment they’re trying to solve a problem. The product then becomes the solution to that problem.

The brand’s creator community programme (the BOJ Creator Club) is also worth noting. By formalising creator relationships with tiered rewards, exclusive kits, and meaningful ongoing partnerships, Beauty of Joseon has built a creator network that generates authentic content at scale, rather than one-off paid posts (that audiences see through)!

Key TikTok Shop tactics:

• Education-first content strategy targeting trending skin concerns and ingredients
• A large and ttiered creator affiliate network 
• Capitalising on the K-beauty trend and aligning its content to high-volume hashtags
• Using TikTok Shop as a UK market entry point

The Ordinary

The Ordinary is proof that TikTok Shop isn’t just for indie challenger brands. As part of the DECIEM family (and now owned by beauty giant Estée Lauder), The Ordinary has leveraged TikTok Shop to do something that most legacy skincare brands struggle with: making scientific ingredients feel both accessible and shoppable.

Rather than using live sessions purely to drive sales, The Ordinary uses them as live customer service opportunities: helping to answer questions about skincare routines and addressing specific concerns. They also build product bundles on the fly based on what viewers are asking for in real time – viewers share that they love combining two products, the team then creates that bundle in the live session and makes it available to purchase immediately.

The Ordinary executes the feedback loop between content, community and ecommerce better than almost anyone, and TikTok Shop enables this seamlessly.

Why it works:

The Ordinary’s audience on TikTok already expects ingredient-led and transparent communication so TikTok Shop’s live and shoppable video formats are a natural fit for a brand whose content is built around product education. The transition from learning about a serum to buying a serum is seamless.

Key TikTok Shop tactics:

• Live sessions are used as education and real time customer engagement, not just selling products
• Live time bundling based on audience feedback
• Shoppable video content that’s tied to ingredient and routine education

Wonderskin

Wonderskin is a different kind of TikTok Shop success story, it’s one built almost entirely around a single hero product: the Wonder Blading All-Day Lip Stain.

The brand won Breakthrough Beauty Seller at the TikTok Shop UK 2025 Awards, having sold over 413,000 units of the lip stain on TikTok Shop UK alone. Wonderskin is described by TikTok’s own Head of Beauty as “a true TikTok-first brand that has achieved standout success on the platform.”

The lip stain is a perfect TikTok product: it has a dramatic, visible transformation – the product goes on as a coloured gel and peels away to reveal a stained, long-wearing colour- making incredibly eye-catching content. 

Why it works:

Wonderskin’s success story shows the power of choosing the right product to lead with on TikTok Shop. The Wonder Blading Lip Stain has everything an algorithm-friendly product needs- a visible before and after, a satisfying application process, and a result that’s easy to show in under 60 seconds. Creator content around the product feels naturally authentic because the product genuinely performs in front of a camera.

This is an important takeaway for beauty brands building a TikTok Shop strategy – that your product selection matters as much as your marketing. Products with visible transformations, whether its skincare, makeup, or haircare, will always outperform products whose benefits are invisible or slow-building.

Key TikTok Shop tactics:

• Leading with a single, visual hero product 
• Enabling large volumes of creator content around the product’s visual transformation
• Scaling affiliate activity once the hero product has proven its virality
• Using TikTok Shop as the primary launch channel rather than a secondary one

What all these brands have in common

Looking across these five brands, we can see some clear themes emerging that separate these TikTok Shop leaders from the rest:

Showing up consistently. Whether it’s daily lives, weekly creator content, or ongoing affiliate activity, none of these brands treats TikTok Shop as a campaign channel. It’s always-on.

Education before conversion. The most successful brands on TikTok Shop have understood that the platform’s audience comes to the platform to learn first and foremost. Content that educates about ingredients, routines, concerns and techniques converts at a higher rate than content that simply pushes its product.

Community over sales. P.Louise, Made by Mitchell, and Beauty of Joseon all built engaged audiences before the record-breaking numbers came. The community came first and the sales followed.

Affiliate creators are core to their success. Every brand we’ve mentioned runs a meaningful affiliate creator programme that are active and consistently produces product content. 

Production value counts. Successful live shopping events on TikTok Shop aren’t casual affairs- they need to be structured, have real-time interactions, and include exclusive products and promotions behind them.

What this means for your beauty brand

The opportunity on TikTok Shop is real, and it is still early enough for your brand not to arrive late to the party. TikTok Shop posted 60% year-on-year beauty growth in 2025, and it’s hosting over 6,000 live shopping sessions every day in the UK, and still converting at rates that make other digital channels look slow.

But the window for relatively low-cost entry won’t stay open indefinitely. The brands that are building their affiliate networks, live shopping capabilities, and TikTok Shop-optimised product strategies now will have a significant advantage over those that wait.

If you’re a beauty brand, particularly in skincare or colour cosmetics, where before-and-after content formats perform strongly, and ingredient or routine education drives discovery, then TikTok Shop should be one of the highest priorities in your digital commerce strategy right now.

At Foundation Agency, we work exclusively with beauty brands to build and execute TikTok Shop strategies that drive real commercial results. From creator affiliate programme management to TikTok shopping ads and supporting live shopping events, we know what works and we know how to scale it.

Talk to our paid social team today to find out how we can help your brand get ahead on TikTok Shop.

TikTok’s future in the United States is in jeopardy. Under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), passed in April 2024, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has been given a deadline of January 19, 2025 to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban. Despite challenges from ByteDance, both the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court have upheld the law, leaving little room for a turnaround. Although the deadline has been extended by President Trump to April 2025, due to ongoing trade negotiations, a final resolution is yet to be reached.

Why the US Wants to Ban TikTok

The push to ban TikTok in the U.S. stems from national security concerns tied to its Chinese ownership. U.S. lawmakers fear that TikTok could become a tool for the Chinese government to access the personal data of millions of American users, from location information to browsing habits. The app’s algorithm has also raised alarms about its potential use in shaping public opinion and manipulating content on political issues. These concerns have led to calls for action, including the potential ban.

How U.S. Beauty Brands Are Reacting to TikTok’s Uncertainty

In response to the looming threat of a TikTok ban, U.S. beauty brands are already adjusting their digital strategies. Brands that have thrived on TikTok, like e.l.f. Beauty and Fenty Beauty, are diversifying their social media marketing efforts. They’re increasing efforts in Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest, where short-form video content continues to gain traction. These platforms provide brands with an alternative way to engage their audiences while maintaining a strong digital presence.

Other brands, like Glossier, are focusing on building stronger relationships with their audiences via owned channels such as email newsletters, SMS, and loyalty programs. These channels allow brands to foster direct relationships with customers, reducing reliance on any single platform. Rare Beauty and Milk Makeup are further embracing experiential marketing, doubling down on in-store activations and live events to keep brand momentum alive — even if their TikTok-driven growth slows down.

How UK Beauty Brands Can Future-Proof Their Digital Strategies

While the U.S. navigates the potential TikTok ban, UK brands should be proactively adjusting their beauty brands digital strategy to future-proof their marketing efforts. Here’s how:

1. Diversify Your Platform Strategy

Example:
Sol de Janeiro, whose “Brazilian Bum Bum Cream” and body mists are often featured in GRWM and self-care TikToks, may need to redirect its influencer content to Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. For UK-based campaigns, this shift may mean increased competition and higher CPMs on these platforms as U.S. brands flood the space.

Recommendation:
UK beauty brands should begin A/B testing content formats across platforms like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest now — before ad prices spike or algorithms shift significantly. Refy or Beauty Pie, for example, could experiment with creating engaging Reels content and monitor its performance against TikTok metrics. This approach helps future-proof your brand while capitalising on the growing popularity of these platforms.

2. Build Your First-Party Data

Example:
The Inkey List could launch a TikTok Shop-exclusive skincare bundle, offering early access or discounts to users who join their “Ask Inkey” email series. This would build a loyal community while collecting valuable first-party data and reducing dependency on third-party platforms.

Lush UK, which previously quit major platforms due to ethical concerns, has focused more on owned media (like blogs and editorial-driven landing pages) and community events.

Recommendation:

Building first-party data through loyalty programs, gated editorial content, and email capture — especially during TikTok Shop campaigns — gives brands a buffer against platform volatility, and gives them full control over their customer relationships.

3. Repurpose Content Across Platforms

Example:
Charlotte Tilbury collaborates with U.S.-based beauty creators like Mikayla Nogueira on TikTok. If TikTok access becomes limited, those creators may lose a significant portion of their audience.

On the flip side, UK influencers like Danielle Marcan could see increased demand from international brands looking to diversify their influencer partnerships away from TikTok.

Recommendation:
Encourage influencer partners to repurpose their TikTok content across Instagram and YouTube. Negotiate content usage rights that extend beyond TikTok so your investment in influencer partnerships lasts longer than a single platform’s lifespan.

4. Stay Ahead of Shifting U.S. Trends

Example:
If TikTok users shift toward Reels or YouTube Shorts, trends like “glass skin” or “underpainting” may no longer originate on TikTok. Brands like CeraVe, which built momentum through TikTok skincare routines, should track where Gen Z beauty enthusiasts are migrating and seek new trends accordingly.

Recommendation:
Use social listening tools (like Sprout social or Brandwatch) to monitor where U.S. creators are heading. This helps you identify where Gen Z beauty trends are evolving, so you can quickly adjust your content and marketing strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

5. Increased Scrutiny Over Data and Transparency

Example:
The Ordinary has a strong international audience and runs direct social commerce on TikTok Shop. With the spotlight now on data handling, brands should audit TikTok pixel usage, cookie policies, and CRM integrations for compliance – especially with a GDPR lens.

Recommendation:
Being proactive with privacy and transparency (e.g., FAQ pages, consent modals, privacy-first messaging) helps preserve consumer trust as scrutiny grows. This will also help future-proof your brand’s reputation amid increasing calls for data regulation.

Building Resilience Beyond Trends and Platforms

The potential TikTok ban serves as a crucial reminder for UK beauty brands to prioritise long-term brand resilience over short-term trends. 

By being proactive, UK beauty brands can not only navigate the potential TikTok upheaval but also create stronger, more sustainable digital strategies that will set them up for long-term success in a rapidly evolving beauty landscape.

Brand storytelling, community building, and product experience should be at the core of your strategy — not just your social platform of choice. Focusing on these areas will help you stay adaptable and relevant.

At Foundation, our team of specialist beauty marketers stays ahead of the curve, from TikTok shifts to emerging beauty trends and platform strategies. Whether you’re navigating uncertainty around social platforms or looking to strengthen your brand’s digital presence, we’ll craft a strategy rooted in your brand’s goals and audience. Ready to build lasting relevance into your beauty marketing plan? Fill out our contact form to get started.

The beauty industry is dynamic and ever-evolving, with brands selling their products both through their own Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) websites and via major retailers like Look Fantastic, Space NK, Cult Beauty, Feel Unique, Boots, M&S, John Lewis, Selfridges, and Harrods.

However, many beauty brands face a common challenge: how to increase direct sales while maintaining strong relationships with retailers and etailers.

As a leading beauty marketing agency, we specialise in helping brands navigate this delicate balance and maximise their D2C potential. Here’s what you need to know:

The pricing challenge: Retailers have the upper hand

When partnering with retailers, brands generally set a Recommended Retail Price (RRP). However, retailers aren’t legally bound to stick to that price and often use promotions, discounts, and loyalty programmes to entice consumers.

Google Shopping further heightens competition by displaying all prices up front—giving retailers who can afford to undercut brands a clear advantage.

Common Brand Dilemmas

Can brands simply undercut retailers?
Not really. Retailers often operate on lower margins and rely on deep discounts to attract customers who’ll then buy additional items.

Preserving retailer relationships is also crucial for securing large wholesale orders.

Should brands offer exclusives?
Yes, but it may also be more lucrative for you to offer exclusives to key retail partners. Strong retailer relationships can result in bigger orders and better platform positioning.

Winning Strategies for Beauty Brands

Rather than competing on price, brands should emphasise their unique strengths to drive direct sales:

Become the Ultimate Authority on Your Products
Your brand website must be a treasure trove of product knowledge, including detailed descriptions, ingredient insights, usage tips, and expert advice. Some client examples of this – Dr. Sam’s does this brilliantly by offering extensive educational content on their site and we worked with Wayne Goss to integrate videos on every product page – reinforcing his expertise.

Curate and Bundle Products
Glossier bundles complementary products at a small discount, both boosting Average Order Value (AOV) and showcasing how well items work together – something many retail partners overlook.

Incentivise Direct Purchases
One powerful approach is offering added value with every order. Charlotte Tilbury, for instance, frequently includes deluxe samples or mini products for customers who spend above a certain threshold – this small gesture pushes shoppers to increase their basket size. Meanwhile, brands like Cult Beauty focus on simplifying the purchase experience with free shipping above a set spend, boosting overall conversion rates.

Another tactic is building genuine loyalty through membership or rewards. Elemis’s ‘Skin Wellness Club’ grants points for every purchase, redeemable for future discounts or exclusive items. MAC Cosmetics leans on early access and VIP perks to keep customers feeling valued, while Charlotte Tilbury’s AI-driven ‘Magic Beauty Stars’ quiz personalises recommendations, making every shopper feel seen and understood. Beauty Pie takes a subscription-based route, offering high-end formulations at a reduced cost for members, encouraging long-term loyalty.

Brands should leverage Affiliate Marketing to compete with retailers. Many beauty brands overlook the power of affiliate marketing in driving direct sales. Publications and influencers frequently feature beauty products in roundups like “Best Lipsticks 2025,” but the decision of which product to link to often comes down to commission rates. Retailers such as Boots, Look Fantastic, and Selfridges offer competitive commissions to incentivise publications to feature their product links over the brand’s direct website. For example, if Boots is offering a 5% commission and your brand offers 6% through an affiliate platform, the publication is more likely to link directly to your site, maximising your visibility in high-traffic beauty guides. Monitoring and matching these commissions ensures your D2C channel remains competitive and doesn’t lose out on valuable exposure. Brands should actively track stockist commission rates and adjust their affiliate offerings accordingly to remain the preferred choice for editorial placements.

Finally, consider harnessing the power of word-of-mouth and exclusivity. Glossier provides store credit for successful referrals, turning satisfied customers into advocates. Fenty Beauty releases limited-edition, online-only collections that whip up excitement and urgency. Incorporating real-life user experiences and testimonials, like The Ordinary and Summer Fridays do with before and after photos, this further strengthens trust and authenticity.

Accept and Adapt to the Retail Landscape

Modern consumers are less brand-loyal, so aim for realistic goals aligned with market behaviour. An old client of ours, Arkive Headcare, for instance, recognises that D2C will remain a small slice of its revenue. Instead of prioritising direct sales alone, they invest in upper-funnel campaigns to bolster retail sales and even funnel some of their ad spend directly to retailer sites.

The Halo Effect

Even if consumers don’t buy from your website, heightened brand awareness fuels in-store sales. If someone sees your campaign online, then walks into Boots later, they’re much more likely to choose your products – a gain that’s hard to track but crucial in the long run.

How to Build Brand Awareness

• Influencer & UGC Marketing: Work with influencers who resonate with your brand and encourage user-generated content.
• SEO-Optimised Content: Publish high quality blogs, video tutorials, and product guides that rank well and educate your audience.
• Social Media Engagement: Take a leaf out of Rare Beauty’s book by using Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to start conversations and cultivate a community and loyal following.
• PR & Editorial Placements: Take digital PR seriously and get featured in esteemed outlets like Vogue, Elle, and Refinery29 to enhance credibility.
• Paid Social & Display Ads: Targeted advertising on Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest keeps your brand in front of potential buyers.
• Brand Collaborations: Exclusive collaborations or limited editions- like those from Fenty Beauty to generate a buzz.
• Retailer Support Campaigns: Co-branded activations strengthen retailer relationships and secure premium shelf space.

We’re Foundation, the beauty marketing specialists

We specialise in understanding the intricacies of the beauty world and crafting digital marketing strategies that balance brand goals with retailer priorities. Whether you aim to refine your direct sales approach, stand out as a top Charlotte Tilbury stockist, or enhance partnerships with major retailers, we can help. Our proven expertise in beauty marketing ensures your brand will succeed in a crowded market.

Need a tailored strategy for your beauty brand? Get in touch today.

As this year’s theme for Earth Day 2024 is Planet vs. Plastics, we thought it fitting to take a dive into Earth Day and look how the beauty industry has been a driving force when tackling environmental factors. 

With many brands making it a focus to swap to more sustainable packaging, we’ll take a look at who are leading the way to be the UK’s most sustainable beauty and wellness brands. 

A bit of history

First celebrated in 1970, this year marks the 54th Earth Day. As a reminder of the importance of environmental conservation and sustainability, Earth Day is now a widely recognised awareness day across the world, serving us a call to action to address these pressing issues facing our planet. 

Plastics vs Planet

Throughout the years, there have been many different ‘themes’ to Earth Day, from Climate Action, Invest in our Planet and Protect Our Species. 

Over the last 60 years, 8 billion tons of plastic has been produced. According to a study by Science Advances, 90.5% of this plastic has not been recycled. National Geographic claims that half of all plastics ever made have been produced in the last 15 years, with production expected to double. This is one of the many reasons that Earth Day has decided to tackle this problem head on, challenging a 60% reduction of all plastics by 2040.

While reducing plastic consumption has become more widely adopted, we still have a long way to go – more than 1 million plastic water bottles are sold every minute and worryingly, plastics, and more commonly, microplastics are everywhere, including in what we eat. Environmental charities are pushing businesses to see change across the entire supply chain.   And sadly, the beauty industry is a large contributing factor, producing 120 billion units of wastage each year.

The customer is always right

As awareness grows, more and more consumers are looking for sustainable beauty brands. 

A report by First Insight shows that 90% of Gen Z consumers are willing to pay 10% more for sustainable packaging and this expectation that brands must act in a sustainable way is stretching across older generations too. Across generations, 73% (combined) feel that sustainable packaging is very or somewhat important today.

Sustainable beauty brands

With sustainability being a core focus for the beauty industry, we’re proud to have worked with some great brands making waves in the space.

Tropic Skincare

We’ve worked with some remarkable brands in the past, and most notably for their sustainability is Tropic Skincare. Tropic’s values of creating a healthier, greener, more empowered world, is evident in everything the brand does.  From the ingredients used in formulation methods, to  packaging – sustainability is at its core. For example, check out how Tropic’s inner bottle balloon works, which helps reduce product wastage and is 100% refillable. Tropic also has a fantastic recycle reward scheme which you can learn more about here. 

Lush

Most internationally known for its stance against animal cruelty and ethical practices is Lush. Since launching in 1995, Lush have continuously proved that a brand doesn’t need to test on animals to create effective, amazing smelling products. Charming sustainable initiatives such as its Knot Wrap, provide consumers a sustainable alternative to gift wrapping. Since launching in 2009, Lush have sold (and consequently upcycled) 47 tonnes of these beautiful scarves. 

Weleda

When we think of a green tube, we think of Weleda’s famous Skin Food moisturiser. Less well known is Weleda’s commitment to biodiveirsty and that the brand has been awarded the Look For The Zero badge, showing that none of its products contain any form of plastic. Weleda does so much good through its products. Both tradition and innovation are important for Weleda and act as a basis for its commitment to environmental, social and economic sustainability. 

Spectrum Collections

Another brilliant client we’ve worked with is Spectrum Collections. While lots of brush companies market themselves as sustainable, with its bamboo brushes and synthetic bristles, Spectrum was leading the plastic reduction revolution and in 2018 cut its plastic packaging by 50%. Spectrum also gives 1% of its gross revenue to plastic clean up concerns. We also love and appreciate Spectrum’s transparency when it comes to packaging. The brand isn’t perfect, but it’s not claiming to be, with admissions that while plastic reduction is important, so is hygiene and quality. 

Neal’s Yard

Another iconic, sustainably focused wellness brand is Neal’s Yard. Not only were Neal’s Yard the first UK brand to become Look For The Zero certified, it’s been carbon neutral since 2008 and has a great recycling scheme available in all stores. There’s a huge long list of all of Neal’s Yard sustainable initiatives, go check it out here. 

So, what can you do?

Beauty consumers are continuously looking for brands to be more transparent about their supply chains and provide clearer messaging on what they’re doing to be more sustainable. If your brand is plastic free, or you’re taking active measures to become more sustainable, there are loads of recognised initiatives, badges and awards that will act as social proof for consumers. 

There are a lot of benefits in creating dedicated landing pages (both from a consumers findability perspective and also these landing pages can add SEO value to your site). These landing pages are a great place to showcase the sustainability efforts your brand undertakes, you can go into detail about these issues, whether its how your brand has or is trying to cut plastic, how you give back to community or your ethical sourcing methods, consumers love to read it.  

More than ever, consumers are doing their research and following up sustainability claims. 

You can provide proof to your sustainability claims by gaining certifications, awards or badges. There are so many different schemes available, from becoming b-corp certified, joining forces with Positive Luxury for the butterfly mark or proving your commitments with the soil association, to name just a few. Talking about these certifications on your social media and adding the badges to your website- on the homepage and product pages, demonstrates your commitment to sustainability in the most authentic, legitimate way.  

Craft the right message, with Foundation

There are so many other brilliant beauty brands that are innovating and making waves when it comes to sustainability. While before, for brands like the Body shop, sustainability was a USP. In recent times, ethical sourcing and a focus on sustainability is not just a nice-to-have; for many, it’s essential.

Foundation has heaps of experience articulating important brand messages across various channels, be it through paid adverts, PR campaigns or onsite content. Speak to one of our team to find out how we can help you do the same.

For more information on how you can get involved in Earth Day 2024, visit earthday.org to find out what you can do to help. 

We also have created a white paper on the topic – sustainability in beauty – check it out here.