8 Tiny Conscious Beauty Tweaks You Can Make to Be a More Eco-Friendly Consumer

We're not recommending you give up your 10-step skin-care routine, but you can look to include more eco-friendly and sustainable products. "Support eco-friendly brands with sustainable ingredients," said Allison McNamara, founder of MARA, a sustainably made and ethically-sourced skin-care brand. "You have the power with your dollar to support brands that are doing their part to make a difference."

You can usually determine if a brand is eco-friendly by looking at its mission. "Being more mindful as consumers is the number one thing," said Smith. "Choosing better and buying less. Looking to invest in brands that are practicing what they preach."

Instead of just throwing your empty beauty products away in the trash, recycling them properly with beauty-specific programs. Unfortunately, many beauty products cannot be recycling in regular blue bins with other cans and bottles. That's why programs like TerraCycle exist — they allow you to mail your empty, typically non-recyclable beauty products to them to be properly repurposed.

To take your efforts a step further, you can look to support brands that partner with recycling programs. Garnier, Love Beauty and Planet, and Göt2b, to name a few, are all partners with TerraCycle and reward customers in various ways for recycling their empty products. Nordstrom started their own recycling program in partnership with TerraCycle in 2020 called Beautycycle, where they collect empty product containers via recycling boxes in their department stores.

To help your products get recycled, McNamara explained you should clean them out before tossing them. "I know when you're in the moment it feels like a chore, but anything (beauty, food, etc) with more than 10 percent left in the component doesn't get recycled," said McNamara. "Do your part and rinse out your containers."

There is plenty of room for improvement in your dental routine when it comes to sustainability. Toothpaste is something everyone uses, but do you know what happens to those tubes after you finish them? "Toothpaste tubes can't be recycled and every single plastic toothbrush you've ever used is still sitting in a landfill somewhere," said Lindsay McCormick, founder of Bite Toothpaste Bits, a brand that makes a more eco-friendly, plastic-free alternative for brushing your teeth. "The Bite Toothpaste Bits ($48) are dry toothpaste tablets that come in refillable glass jars."

While you're at it, replace your toothbrush with a bamboo option, like the Grin Charcoal Infused Bamboo Toothbrush Trio ($5), and your single-use flossers with something like the Quip Refillable Tooth Pick ($25). It keeps 180 disposable picks out of the landfill.

If you use a cotton pad every time you take off your makeup or use a toner, the amount you're throwing away can quickly add up. To reduce your waste, switch to reusable cotton pads. "Not only are single use cotton pads wasteful, many contain plastics too," said McNamara. The switch is better for the environment and your wallet, so it's a win-win. "It saves trips to the store and because they last for years, they'll save you money in the long run," said McCormick. We like the Face Halo Original ($22).

Plastic waste in landfills can take hundreds of years to decompose. So, next time you're shopping for things like a toothbrush or hair brush, try looking for biodegradable options. For example, WetBrush's Go Green Oil Infused Brush ($16) is made from all-natural biodegradable plant starch that naturally breaks down in a landfill within five years.

On the list of potential packaging materials, plastic is one of the worst. Glass, on the other hand is endlessly recyclable and is a better option of the two (however, when thrown out or recycled improperly, it can take twice as long as plastic to decompose). Whenever possible, look for zero-waste packaging. This includes items like shampoo and conditioner (try the Superzero Shampoo Bar for Normal/Oily Hair ($18) and soap bars.

More brands are allowing shoppers to buy refills to their favorite products without needing to purchase an entirely new jar or bottle. For example, OUAI sells refill pouches ($56) for their shampoos which use less plastic than rigid bottles. Outside of the shower, the new brand Gelo Hand Soaps ($5) sells refillable, highly concentrated plant-based soap pods that are housed in a 100 percent biodegradable, water-soluble film that activates when combined with water, J.R. Watkins has a hand soap refill pouch ($7), eliminating the need to purchase a new bottle, and in the sunless tan department, Isle of Paradise sells Self-Tanning Water Refills ($22).

Taking it a step further than just single-use cotton rounds, consider cutting back on single-use everything — especially sheet masks, which are fun to use but extremely wasteful. "This is because [the packaging is] made out of complex material in the form of multiple plastic types or a combination of aluminum and plastic, rendering it too difficult to separate and process," said Alex Payne, a publicist at TerraCycle. "As for the sheet mask itself, if yours is nylon or synthetic [editor's note: which you can find by reading the ingredients label on most masks], it is not cost effective for conventional recyclers to clean and process."

Look for sheet masks that are compostable or reusable, like the Honest Beauty Reusable Magic Silicone Sheet Mask ($15), instead. "I stopped using sheet masks and face wipes years ago originally because I realized just how wasteful and unsustainable single use beauty products are," said McNamara.