Shopping for sustainability

People use personal care products every day, and often they don’t realize how much waste they create as they go about their day. From makeup to menstrual products to skincare, it can be hard to find companies that make products with the environment in mind. Vancouver, as a major Canadian city that is often pretty environmentally conscious, has some companies that strive to lessen their environmental impact, while still preserving quality. This can mean anything from reducing wasteful packaging to almost entirely eliminating waste.

Here, we’ve compiled an assortment of Vancouver-based companies that sell and produce sustainable personal care products.

When it comes to beauty products, it’s often quite hard to find anything very affordable, especially in an expensive city such as Vancouver. While this list keeps affordability in mind, there aren’t many options that are both sustainable and affordable. Some products are expensive as a one-time cost and some are unavoidably pricey. The intersection of affordable and sustainable is hard to come by, and this is something that could hopefully be addressed in the future by these brands. U Words by Sam Smart Illustrations by Ayra Faiz

Well Kept

This company makes shaving products, most notably its plastic-free safety razors that are meant to reduce waste and provide a good shave. The safety razor can fit any standard razor blade, and it sells its own blades as well. The price of its safety razor is $68, which is a lot up front. But with repeated use, it could end up being cheaper than buying disposable razors.

A pretty well-known company for menstrual products, Lunapads produces period underwear and reusable pads. The underwear costs about $40, and the pads range from $5.99 to $29.99. It claims each pad replaces over 125 disposable pads and that, based on its sales, it has diverted more than 2 million disposable pads and tampons from landfills every month. Lunapads seeks to reduce waste when it comes to menstrual products, which are a necessity for every person with a period. Lunapads MOONDOG is another menstrual product company based in Vancouver, but it sells only one thing at the moment: a black period underwear for light-to-medium flow days for $20. It seeks to create an affordable and low-waste product, and comparatively its price is much lower than the better known Thinx and Knix. MOONDOG

ILIA

This makeup brand seeks to make products that use natural and organic ingredients as well as safe synthetics. It also tries to make sure its packaging is eco-friendly by using materials such as recycled aluminum and recycled paper. Its prices are more on the mid-range side, which unfortunately seems to be the case with a lot of Vancouver-based beauty brands.

Another makeup company, RMS not only seeks to create more clean products that are safe for skin, but it also uses packaging that is minimal, recyclable or reusable to create less waste. Its products, like ILIA’s, have prices that are mid-range. RMS Beauty

While it’s not a brand, The Soap Dispensary is a store that sells refillable soaps, cleaners, personal care products and more with the intention of reducing waste by encouraging the use of reusable containers. The products it sells are also biodegradable and have minimal environmental impact. It’s located at Main Street and E 21st Avenue, and it also opened a zero-waste grocery store next-door called Kitchen Staples.

The Soap Dispensary