Blue-Beauty: The New Frontier of Sustainability
Meiyume continues to empower beauty for a sustainable future
January 2023 – Meiyume continues to empower beauty for the future by revolutionizing and redefining the newest frontier of sustainability. From our Smart Refill System to our Infinite Aluminum Range, the newest sustainable innovation to be on the lookout for is Blue Beauty.
What is Blue Beauty?
Jeannie Jarnot, health specialist and CEO of Beauty Heroes®, coined the term Blue Beauty. Blue-Beauty is a subsection of sustainability that not only ensures safe, sustainably sourced ingredients, but also incorporates ocean-safe ingredients that are reused, recyclable, or refillable packaging. This emerging tier of sustainability ensures that brands must consider the cyclical environmental effects of their product lifecycle towards oceans and skies, including ingredient sourcing, production, packaging, shipping usage disposal as well as giving back to communities.
How did Blue Beauty emerge?
Blue-Beauty has emerged through a heavy focus within the sun-care industry. With approximately 14,000 tons of sunscreen ending up in the world’s oceans, key active chemical ingredients in SPF such as octinoxate and oxybenzone have been noted as environmental stressors towards coral reefs and marine life, inspiring the industry standard of “reef-safe” and “ocean-safe” claims within products.
The Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Ocean Initiative’s report indicates that 83% of the general public is concerned about issues affecting the ocean 26% are “very concerned”. Such demands led to the SB 2571, Act 104 to come into force in Hawaii, banning the sales of sunscreens that contain oxybenzone and octinoxate, resulting in brands investing in alternative ingredients to protect the skin and oceans.
Green vs. Blue Beauty
Unlike the current clean beauty movement that focuses on the overall use of environmentally and socially sustainable products, blue beauty is a subsection of sustainability that is focused on the preservation of the oceans, which over 90% of all life on Earth depends on. Current sustainability efforts have often taken the form of the exclusion of toxins within formulations or advocating for vegan and cruelty-free formulations. Blue Beauty on the other hand focuses on the environmental impact on oceans, water preservation, and aquatic life.
The Future of Blue-Beauty: Waterless Beauty
Four billion people — almost two-thirds of the world’s population — experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year, according to UNICEF. Anhydrous beauty, also known as waterless beauty, are cosmetics that are formulated without water as an ingredient. A proponent of the Blue-Beauty movement includes stick packs, since stick packs can hold solid, anhydrous formulations, the optimal solution for water preservation.
This growing need for Blue-Beauty initiatives reflects the growth of the global stick packaging market. The Business Wire Research and Markets Report estimates that the Global Stick Packaging Market will reach $406 million by 2027. The Stick Packaging market in the U.S. was estimated at $86.4 million USD in 2020. China, the world’s second-largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of $71.9 million USD by 2027. USA, Canada, Japan, China, and Europe will continue to drive a 3.5% CAGR within the stick pack market.
To further propel ocean preservation, Meiyume has created The Canvas range, an innovative product solution made to encase anhydrous solid formulations. The Canvas range fuses simple and environmentally friendly materials such as paper, aluminum, and PCR. The Canvas range includes mono-material PCR PET and aluminum lipstick tubes, paper and moulded pulp push-up sticks, dual-function refillable sticks, and slim-sized options.
Made to resemble the simplicity of a blank canvas brought to life with a splash of paint, the outer packaging is intentionally minimalistic to allow for the color formulation to be the focal point.
Not only does the range include primary packaging, but it also offers secondary packaging for lipstick refills. The refill packs are composed of two parts – a moulded pulp front and a cardboard back. Moulded pulp offers the resilience to be shaped to accent the contours of the product within. The flat cardboard on the back provides space for product information to be printed.
In addition to such product packaging options, the Canvas line offers vanity clutches to perfect the consumer’s product experience. Brands can opt for eco-conscious materials such as RPET or Piñatex, a lesser-impact textile that includes a composition of pineapple plant leaves, to design go-clutches that can hold lipstick and up to two refills.
Further ocean preservation efforts include Meiyume’s Begin Again Collection. Our Begin Again collection includes plastic-free containers, replacing the packaging of beauty essentials with three key recyclable materials: aluminium, paper, and glass. As well as virtuous resin, which minimizes environmental impact through the use of recyclable or recycled material, including bio-based resins and post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins.
The Begin Again range delivers plastic sticks, fully derived from virgin recycled plastic (PCR) and recyclable polypropylene (PP). The Begin Again range’s primary packaging can be adorned utilizing silk screen printing. Both the Canvas and Begin Again collections include minimalistic stock pack designs that can hold an array of versatile formulations, including lip and face balms, deodorants, skincare, and solid bars.
According to the SPICE Assessment Tool powered by L’Oréal and Quantis, encasing a 75-millimeter 100% Post-Consumer Recycled material will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 70% and energy consumption by up to 30%. Moreover, water consumption will be reduced by 93%. Furthermore, the incorporation of lipstick case refills in just 3 uses reduces 50% of CO2 emissions, fossil energy, and water consumption.
Empowering Beauty for a Sustainable Future
Sustainability has been the DNA of Meiyume’s offerings and will continue to be. By revolutionizing innovation in design, material and development, Meiyume will continuously update and improve our sustainability offerings. Within the next 5 years, all of our product offerings will be traceable regarding both origin and environmental impact. By 2025, 100% of Meiyume’s product and retail solutions will be recyclable, eco-friendly, biodegradable or intended for recovery.
Further sustainability initiatives include our Eco-Skin Refill. Our Waste management programs collect on land plastic litter in a 50-kilometer perimeter from coastlines to reduce sea pollution, then utilizing these remnants to transform them into resin pellets.
Environmental savings regarding virgin versus 100% PCR for the bottle and sleeve reduces climate change and CO2 emissions by 8%, fossil resource use by 18% and water consumption by 15% according to the Spice Assessment Tool with L’Oréal.
Sustainability is intrinsic to every aspect of Meiyume, and we are committed to leading our industry in the reduction of water consumption and minimizing the impact of waste on our oceans. Through materials implemented, from supply chain practices to educating brands and consumers on the newest frontier of sustainability, Meiyume aims to continue to revolutionize the future of (blue) beauty.