Over the last decade, the beauty industry has created spectacular Christmas Advent calendars which have gained a cult following as consumers rush to purchase them. However, with sustainability a key trend driving purchase decisions – how sustainable are these products with layers of excess packaging and no responsible instructions for disposal?

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With only 61 days until Christmas, the search term “Beauty Advent Calendars 2022” is +170% on Google Trends over the last 30 days. Sustainable accreditation organisation and consumer shopping guide app ethy is looking at the importance of ‘clean beauty’ and sharing how customers can make better choices when it comes to their beauty Advent calendars.

What should customers be looking out for when purchasing beauty-based Advent calendars? 

ethy’s Co-Founder Kaisa says:

• Customers should look for calendars from verified sustainable and responsible brands because they are more likely to have considered the impact of the product on the planet and taken steps to make it as sustainable as possible.
• Look for Advent calendars made from sustainable, recycled, or recyclable materials. Avoid plastic where possible, ideally, calendars will display plastic-free or reduced plastic labels.
• Alternatively, make your own 12-day Advent calendar with products from verified sustainable and clean beauty and vegan brands to be sure the products and packaging will be kind to the skin as well as the environment.

What is clean beauty? 

Kaisa explains: “Clean beauty is about acknowledging that there are ingredients in our everyday beauty products that we may perceive as harmless, however, we’re seeing that some of these are quite problematic and for consumers, it’s really difficult to know the difference.

“Like with the whole topic of sustainability, the beauty industry is complicated and even the sheer amount of info and ingredients is confusing to anyone who is not working on it daily.

“We wanted to allow brands and consumers to define clean beauty products and to be able to buy with confidence. It’s complex, but we’re doing our best to keep really high standards on the ingredients.”

For brands to be accredited with the Clean Beauty Standard by ethy it must not use aggressive ingredients, synthetic fragrances, or colourants (incl. animal-derived dyes) in any of its products.