Skincare products in glass rather than plastic containers

[suchatiredbunny]

I was watching Autumnwatch earlier and they did a piece about plastic in the ocean which got me thinking. I know to avoid microbeads, but I don’t give my beauty products much thought beyond this (and preferring cruelty free though in this I confess I’m not perfect).

Moisturisers are more likely to come in a glass jar, so I was wondering if anyone can recommend any cleanser/toner/moisturiser etc that comes in glass packaging rather than plastic please.

I've started using products from Ethique, which is a NZ company - not sure whether they ship to the UK! Same reason as you, OP, sick of all the plastic! They're all solid bar products, with paper/cardboard packaging. love them. I use a shampoo and a serum - once my current cleanser runs out I'll buy one of theirs, too. ethiquebeauty.com/

I have a BalmBalm frankincense cleanser that comes in a glass jar, and also cruelty free.

It’s just not something that’s occurred to me to think about before. I always recycle stuff, but I wonder if recycling glass is likely to be more effective than recycling plastic. And, for example, why does soap which comes in a cardboard box need to be inside wrapped in plastic? It’s just very interesting......,
Thanks for those suggestions. I’m not asking with any intention of being preachy or anything, it’s a genuine ask because even the natural companies use a lot of plastic packaging, and how do I know that if I put it in the recycling it’s going to get recycled? Glass jars I’m more likely to reuse at home. But then I’m racking my brain and struggling to think of products to buy that come in glass.

I think some Neals Yard products come in glass…or at least they did. I have a wonderful face wash in a glass bottle.

I think that putting cosmetic products in a glass jar is about tricking customers. You see, glass is heavy, so when you lift up said product you think there's quite a lot of product in the box, when actually the glass jar itself is heavy and the product in it is a minuscule amount.
So you just end up paying more money for a heavy glass jar.

Following for glass jar moisturisers. I'm going to give up my cleanser in favour of plastic packaging-free bar soap as I was using a "facial bar" free in a hotel recently and my skin was slightly better than usual (as long as it's not worse, why not? I'll save money and packaging).

Boots Time Delay moisturiser comes in glass jars.

Yes to Neals Yard, always in dark blue glass. Some White Company stuff comes in glass, too.

Oh, and Clarins. The tubes are plastic but the jars are glass.

Jurliwie does a lot of glass containers

*Jurlique

Time delay is really good as well - I love it!

At the other end of the market, some of the Aldi caviar stuff which they have in from time to time is in a glass jar...

The Ordinary, do Serums etc for skincare in glass bottles with pipettes. Like lots of companies don't think all their products are in glass though.
www.asos.com/prd/7554573 just seen this is back in stock, off to order more...

This company. Their hot cloth cleanser is the best thing I've ever smelt! https://www.balmology.co.uk

If I order things in glass jars online they always come in a box packed out with plastic/paper/Styrofoam packaging or wrapped in bubble wrap. So there's that. Broken glass is a pita.

If I were you OP, I’d find out first what plastic recycling is like in your area before you switch to glass.

In my area it’s excellent, so I’d prefer to buy UK-made products in plastic bottles (Tropics, for example, whose products are lovely and vegan to boot!), than glass with a carbon footprint that knocks out any advantage you might gain from using it.

Lush use plastic pots, which you can return to them, and they reuse. They have also started doing some packaging free products, like moisturiser and shower gel, though I've not tried them.

Ponds cold cream comes in a glass jar, in a card board box, covered in plastic

I agree it's frustrating, but then I'm often found grumbling in supermarkets, because a loose avocado doesn't need to be wrapped in plastic.

I haven't tried their face products, but I love the foaming sherbet sugar body scrub from Trawden soap kitchen. The products are homemade and not tested on animals. Mostly in glass jars. Also if you mention Camp Nibble rabbit rescue at the checkout they'll get a donation but I know they're probably a bit too hippy ish for most S&B posters!

Nothing’s too hippyish for me whatwould!

Thanks for that link - great Christmas stocking ideas for DD!

I hope you find something she likes Suburban the pooka boodley body wash is really nice too. It's a slightly strange texture compared to normal shower gel, but lovely once you get used to it! :)

I don't use anything in a jar these days, sadly. Germ soup. But, i do check that all the packaging is recyclable, & we only fill about half a small wheely bin every fortnight - the rest is recycled.

It would be brilliant if someone could figure out a way of making some kind of flexible packaging for cosmetics that didn't rely on petrochemicals.

I don't use anything in a jar these days, sadly. Germ soup

Surely not, unless you share your cosmetics?

Decleor use glass.

From an environmental perspective, glass is far superior to plastic.

Plastic pollution is a huge global problem and a e.g. a plastic water bottle is estimated to take something like 400 years to break down (it cannot biodegrade). Not only that, but as it breaks down it emits chemicals into the water/earth/atmosphere. According to a recent article in the Telegraph, almost 95 per cent of tap water samples tested in the US contained traces of plastic. The planet's oceans are full of plastic crap.

Plastic can be recycled but there are a lot of different polymer types and forms so it is more difficult to sort and reprocess than other materials. This makes it relatively expensive to recycle and it is difficult for plastic recycling companies to make enough money to be financially viable. The other problem is that as plastic is recycled it becomes thinner and lower quality and new plastic packaging has to be made from scratch. Even if your local council is good at collecting recycling, the fact is that a large amount of plastic waste is sold abroad (in 2014 in the UK two-thirds was exported) where it may be incinerated or buried rather than recycled.

Glass, on the other hand, is easily recyclable using fairly minimal energy and can be repeatedly recycled without suffering any deterioration in quality. So a glass jar can be recycled as a glass jar. It saves on raw materials (e.g. silica, which is mined to make glass). A statistic that is frequently quoted is that recycling one bottle can save enough energy to power a television set for one and a half hours.

If you care about the environment, please buy glass rather than plastic whenever and wherever you can. And if you see excessive packaging waste of any sort, anywhere, complain! I frequently email supermarkets and restaurants like Pret on this topic.