Upcycled Beauty

Upcycled ingredients, sometimes called byproduct beauty, is an emerging skin care trend that is part of the clean beauty movement. Upcycling is the use of waste material repurposed into functional cosmetic ingredients. Although anything can be repurposed, food waste and plant-based byproducts are primarily used for beauty products and cosmetics.  

For instance, leftover pulp from making juice, byproducts from gin distillation, or coffee grounds and seeds can have skin care benefits after their initial use. This is not to say you can dig through your trash to create a DIY face mask. Ingredients that have been cast off by other industries are collected and processed with minimal energy and given a new life.  

The benefits of upcycling are many, and proponents of this trend argue the two biggest advantages include lowering the beauty industry's impact on the environment and putting the surplus of waste from other industries to good use.  

However, upcycling comes with its limitations. Ingredients can't be upcycled if they have "been altered by overheating, high pressure, or chemical degradation in the initial processing.”¹ Further, there are limitations on the ingredients currently available that have been upcycled. The good news: With consumer demand, more and more upcycled ingredients and products are coming to market. 

The beauty industry has been a target of criticism for years over the purchase of petrochemicals, waste, and pollution produced on a global scale. In 2018, in the US alone, 7.9 billion units of plastic were created just for beauty care products.² But it’s not just environmental impact and waste that is a concern. Ingredients used in beauty products have largely been unregulated.  

The clean beauty trend has also fueled new bills in congress. The Safer Beauty Bill Package introduced four bills into Congress 2021–2022 to make beauty and personal care products safer for everyone by removing toxic chemicals, reducing unsafe chemical exposure, and making ingredient transparency the industry standard.³ On December 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Omnibus Reform package, which included the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA). This reform brings more regulations to the cosmetics industry.  

Looking for more great content about upcycled beauty? In episode 165 of ASCP Esty Talk, Ella and Maggie discuss what upcycling is, its benefits and limitations, and how this impacts product usage in the treatment room.  

Notes 

1. Popsugar, “’Upcycled’ Beauty Is Giving Would-Be Food Waste a New Life,” accessed March 2023, www.popsugar.com/beauty/upcycled-beauty-products-48214984. 

2. Plastic Pollution Coalition, “The Ugly Side of Beauty: The Cosmetics Industry’s Plastic Packaging Problem,” accessed March 2023, www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2022/1/25/the-ugly-side-of-beauty...

3. Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, “Safer Beauty Bill Package,” accessed March 2023, www.bcpp.org/resource/safer-beauty-bill-package-2021/. 

 

Resources 

The Zoe Report. “Why Your New Favorite Face Cream Might Use Food Scraps to Formulate.” May 18, 2022. www.thezoereport.com/beauty/upcycled-beauty. 

Glossy. “From Apples to Olive Leaves: ‘Upcycled’ Food Ingredients Gain Traction Among Beauty Brands.” May 7, 2021. www.glossy.co/beauty/upcycled-ingredients-gain-traction-as-beauty-brands...

Live Kindly, “Upcycled Beauty Isn’t a Trend, It’s a Movement.” www.livekindly.com/upcycled-beauty-movement/.