At a glance
Primed as a ‘treat yourself’ gift in the run up to the festive season, over the last decade the beauty industry has created a cult following for their Christmas advent calendars.
Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, tiny vials of your favourite lotions and potions, votives of iconic scents and baby sized glamour essentials are hidden behind each door.
But with multiple layers of packaging, twenty-four beauty miniatures and no responsible instructions for disposal, how sustainable can they really be?
This article weighs in on the environmental toll of the cosmetic industry’s latest Christmas trend and for balance, reviews the business case for their creation. Through comments from industry insiders and a life cycle analysis of the production input necessary, it provides recommendations on how beauty players can evolve this concept for Christmas 2021. Finally, it shares suggestions on moving away from models of constant production to the act of giving during the most wonderful time of the year.
In focus
The start of October is always marked by the launch of the beauty industry’s latest iteration of the infamous advent calendar. When I received Refinery 29’s edit of the top 33 or Glamour’s favourite 49 (yes, 49), I dedicated some time to scrolling through. Notorious for their worth versus retail price, any beauty maven regardless of budget, would be spoilt for choice.
From Diptyque’s deluxe calendar at £320 to Harrod’s beauty box at £250 as well as more accessible options launched by high street names like Lush and Soap and Glory, we’re talking more than a few minis to mark the countdown to Christmas.
In a follow up email, Liberty London celebrated that the online demand for their 2020 calendar has been the largest to date, proving that the popularity of this novelty gift shows no signs of waning.
The packaging dilemma
So, what’s the problem?
At a glance, the environmental impact of beauty miniatures is pervasive. With a higher volume of packaging per product and smaller profit margins, the latest obsession for small sizes of serums are fuelling additional wastage. Over 100 million miniatures are currently purchased every year in the UK, equalling around 980 tonnes of plastic waste according to Circla, a UK based company championing the refill revolution. The composition of the advent calendar itself makes it hard to recycle, think mirrored glass, cardboard sleeves, paper inserts and plastic foam.
At a global level, in 2019 the market value of cosmetic packaging was close to $26.7 billion and is forecasted to reach $32.86 billion by 2025 as reported by Statista. Zero Waste Week also noted that over 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry, the majority of which is not disposed of correctly.
These figures are coupled with UK citizens troublesome relationship with excessive plastic packaging that has the country generate 2.4 million tonnes annually of packaging waste as cited by the latest WRAP figures. What’s more, a mere 12-15% of mixed plastics are recycled in the country at the moment.
These numbers present a clear friction between the Christmas campaign promotions of retailers and the need to turn the tide on plastic and waste.
Founder & CEO of Circla, Claudia Gwinnutt notes “One of the greatest challenges with advents calendars or any ‘mini gift sets’, is that often the products inside are wrapped in plastic or made of plastic. Whilst, there is definitely something endearing about miniatures, the products are often single-use and when disposed of are impossible to recycle due to their size. This means they often end up in landfill or polluting the environment.”
As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation continues to champion a new plastics economy model, this is a polite plea for beauty brands to rethink their advent calendar strategy.
Evidence shows that a more sustainable Christmas edit can be done. Take for example, Neal’s Yard Remedies holiday collection. For each sale of their simple handcare duo set, they have partnered with the World Land Trust to protect trees in the Jaguar del Norte reserve in Sonora, Mexico. Not only this, the company act responsibily through their packaging instructions listed on the website. On each product page, every element of packaging is acknowledged and instructed upon accordingly; they provide advice for correct disposal of the lid, label, plant pot, tissue and sleeve. Case closed.
The carbon footprint
We need a better standard for beauty and packaging aside, this cosmetic Christmas creation needs to be reconsidered on carbon grounds too. Through the lens of a life cycle analysis, we are able to fully comprehend the impact of a Christmas beauty advent calendar. This evaluation covers everything from raw material extraction to the use of energy and water resources in manufacturing, emissions accumulated during distribution, as well as disposal and recycling.
Specific to the production of an advent calendar, critical factors for consideration also include the additional distribution and shipping of at least twenty-five large consignments from across Europe or the Atlantic Ocean to be packed in UK warehouses. Even couriering samples across the city from head office to calendar production warehouses in the planning stage can accrue a carbon footprint. For those familiar with cosmetic production, formulas are often created in Italy and much like a garment that may travel to six different countries before it arrives at its final destination, this too accumulates a sufficient proportion of emissions.
The business case
Let me be clear. I love beauty, I love everything about it from its soothing effect and ability to transform one’s mood to the creative outlet it provides. The magic of walking into a Space NK is what a children’s sweet shop is to an adult woman. Having worked in a buying team, completing projects exactly like this Christmas advent calendar, I can also recognise the hours of pain-staking hard work multiple teams across a business do to deliver this. Founder of sustainable beauty e-commerce platform SUSTbeauty and ex-buyer, Zahra Broadfield notes “Beauty advent calendars are seen as a fun self-gifting purchase which can take up to nine months for a buying team to agree and collate before regularly selling out by the end of October.”
With a purely focused business hat on, the case for these calendars is straightforward. As a key part of the Christmas campaign which customers eagerly anticipate, they are an important promotional revenue stream which is now annually forecasted for. With twenty-five options, for multi-branded retailers, it provides an opportunity for smaller niche beauty brands to gain profile amongst household names and exposure across in-store and digital marketing communications. Additionally, the miniature samples are a powerful tool to convert customers to purchasing full size products they may be unfamiliar with in the following new year.
Yet, even with the rationale for revenue, or support for struggling brands in the era of COVID-19, the environmental toll of this rather excessive gifting treat trumps any benefits.
Beauty advent calendars reconsidered
Reconfiguring the beauty advent calendar will be an essential next move for brands keen to solidify their authentic sustainability strategy. Encouraging responsible consumption and disposal of our mini mascaras, high-tech tonics and cruelty-free creams is possible.
Permanent refillable calendars for future festive seasons are a viable alternative. Claudia from Circla suggests calendars “filled with experiences, small tokens or gestures that can be claimed, or finding products that are plastic free to remove damage from the environment.”
Similarly, SUST founder Zahra puts forward “a possible solution could be to create refillable packaging for each sample so that customers can send the packaging back to the brand once it’s a collection of empties.” Refillable pouches also weigh less and as a consequence would decrease the carbon footprint of a calendar.
Practical steps to reimagine the calendar could also be for buyers to design the product with circularity in mind and to provide disposal instructions to customers which encourage them to return all empties to a respective store. On a philanthropic level, donating profits to charities aligned to company values and wider sustainability causes would be wholly encouraged.
As of late the beauty industry has launched initiatives to encourage these positive behavioural changes. For example, Maybelline’s make up recycling bins in Tesco, Boots and Superdrug nationwide or TerraCycle’s partnership with Nordstrom in the US are signs of progress. But, if we are to reach net zero ambitions and curb the effects of pollution in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the beauty industry needs to quicken its pace.
Final thoughts
In light of the events of 2020, self-care and the uplifting power of a little beauty indulgence is not to be shunned. However, with clear and tangible evidence on the environmental effect of mass-produced cosmetic advent calendars, this holiday promotion needs to be reimagined to prioritise earth, over growth logic.
Christmas is a time for giving. So perhaps, instead of spending in excess of £200 on samples of luxurious minis and taking something out– why not give something back each day in December? Investing this money in essential toiletries to be donated to those in need via Beauty Banks, the grassroots movement combatting hygiene poverty is a cause we can rally behind. Beauty Banks now have collection boxes in Superdrug chains nationwide which could make it the most wonderful time of the year for someone else, as after all – beauty is about what is within.
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