Luxury beauty isn’t a waste of money – they just need to do more to justify their price tag. One step this industry can accomplish is to make their brands more functional for longevity. This includes taking big steps into building a sustainable world, such as offering refillable options. I argue that sustainability should be the priority that contributes to their luxury status. 

Luxury beauty is often defined as beauty that aims to include natural ingredients, sophisticated packaging, and longer-lasting quality. Although I am mostly impressed with the performance of these items, I will not lie: The prices I witness have me questioning my financial choices as a consumer. Yet lately, I have been thinking about how our consumption choices connect with our environmental ones. How important is sustainability in the luxury beauty industry?  

As mentioned, packaging is what separates luxury from drugstore beauty, but both are designed to be disposed of when finished at the end. This is my pet peeve when I look at luxury makeup because I believe it needs to do more to fulfill its delivery of a luxurious experience that the price signifies. For an industry that masks itself with exclusivity, quality, and artistry, I argue these companies insult themselves by creating products that produce excessive waste. 

After coming to The New School and learning about sustainability from a first-year class, Sustainable Systems, being a makeup enthusiast with an enlightened and greener mind,  I figured investing in a refillable product would also help me be more financially savvy while maintaining packaging sustainability. It’s easy; when I’m done with my product, I can purchase my replacement. I pop it in my case and continue throughout my day without worrying about spending extra on another piece of packaging I already have in my hands.

One of my first luxury and refillable products was a compact cushion foundation from the Korean brand Hera, which I was gifted from my family a few years ago. To this day, I have been loyal to this product. The foundation feels so lightweight on my face, and the ingredients that make me look radiant are sealed in a beautiful magnetic compact. I was delighted to see that a refill came with the product. Hera keeps its customers updated on their eco-friendly methods, mentioning that its cushion cases are made of around 50% recycled PCR. 

My experience with Hera’s cushion foundation inspired me to explore better refillable makeup options.

Jennifer Okafor from TRVST, a platform dedicated to promoting sustainability, reported in her research from Zero Waste Week that around 120 billion units of trash are from beauty packaging. Okafor’s primary examples included paper boxes, plastic, and metals. In addition, the British Beauty Council reported in 2020 that 95% of cosmetic packaging is discarded after use. 

Fortunately, many luxury brands have been reinventing their ways of presenting their products while pushing themselves in a greener direction. 

Prada recently released their beauty line, which took the beauty community by storm. From bottled items such as fragrances and foundations, to pallets including eyeshadows and lipsticks, the fashion powerhouse designed various refillable items that also retail for less. 

Another high-fashion brand that launched a beauty line is Dries Van Noten. Although Dries Van Noten Beauty currently has a smaller collection than Prada, there is a heavy emphasis on sustainability through its line of beautifully packaged refillable fragrances and lipsticks. The paper packaging comes from renewable wood-fiber sources processed from James Cropper, a company that strives in producing innovative and sustainable paper, thus contributing to eco-friendly environmental resourcing. 

Prada and Dries Van Noten are strong examples of how actively participating in a sustainable movement helps define their luxurious status. They provide a long-lasting experience between the brand and customer through refillable options, and use their resources to invent themselves in progressive ways. 

Unfortunately, not all luxury brands have been successful in prioritizing sustainability. NARS Cosmetics made attempts to be more environmentally positive by releasing their Explicit Lipstick earlier this year, selling for $40 USD. I checked out this new lipstick myself and was impressed with the lipstick case. It felt heavy, sleek, and the 3D sculpting of the logo felt of quality to me. The case was magnetic, which created a sophisticated snap when closed. But what makes this lipstick stand out compared to other NARS lip products is that it is refillable, and the refills retail for $24 USD, which is about 60% less than the initial product’s total price. 

However, I discovered that on the NARS USA website, only 10 out of the 36 vibrant colors were available in refills. It felt like NARS was offering sustainability to some but not others by demanding $40 to be spent again for most of their shades. 

I could give NARS the benefit of the doubt as this lipstick line is relatively new. Nevertheless, it is disappointing to discover that despite the empire NARS has built over the past three decades, they can’t even deliver on sustainability for one product. 

The question of whether luxury beauty is worth the cost has long been debated. While I strongly believe that it is up to the individual to invest in the products they are interested in, I also believe there are certain ways luxury cosmetic companies can fulfill their promises of an elegant experience for a lavish price. 

Even if some beauty lovers and experimenters have no interest in investing in a newly revamped lavish brand, these brands can set positive examples for others to develop their own eco-friendly methods. Makeup brands have duped and copied each other for years now, so why not dupe some sustainability?