The space between the beauty industry and its impact on the natural world is shrinking. Aside from the 120 billion units of beauty packaging produced
According to lab experts Univar Solutions, beauty products are comprised of anywhere between 60 – 95 per cent water. And with the United Nations reporting that one in nine of the world’s population still does not have access to clean water, with around 5 billion people due to be effected by water scarcity by 2050, it should come as no surprise that ‘waterless beauty’—which originated out of Korea and is now being spearheaded in the west by a slew of emerging brands—is becoming a vital trend.
“The entire beauty industry is grappling with sustainability issues,” says Susanne Langmuir, the Toronto-based founder of waterless skincare brand aN-hydra. With water attracting mould and bacteria, it means that most beauty products are bulked out with harmful preservatives. AN-hydra is built off of a simple sustainable premise: minimise the amount of product and packaging by creating a simple three-product powder-based line (a foaming microbiome facial wash, a Hyaluronic Acid moisturiser and a powder-to-serum Vitamin C formula).
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Opening picture: “Thirsty, Then Boosted” is a project by Cornelius de Bill Baboul, described by the artist “like Charles Baudelaire’s ‘Les Fleurs du mal’, but in the age of the energy drink”.