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Earth Day & K-beauty

Since its creation in 1970, Earth Day aims to bring awareness to climate change and pollution among everyone, aiming to inspire consumers and companies to help preserve our planet for future generations. It’s important for us to be more aware of how we live and how we affect our environment, not only so that we are always aware of how fragile our planet is, but also so that we can live a more healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

In conjunction with Earth Day (22nd April) we would like to share two ways on how we can help support a greener lifestyle when it comes to beauty products:

Cosrx is cruelty-free

Cosrx

Cosrx is a super popular brand, both among our Altheans and global beauty-lovers alike. This is why it’s amazing to know that the brand is also cruelty-free! However, Cosrx is not vegan as they have a line of products that are derived from snail mucin, which some of you may recognize as a popular ingredient in K-beauty.

Cosrx’s manufacturer (like most snail mucin extractors in Korea) is required to create an environment that’s comfortable for the snails, allowing them to have enough rest to optimize mucin production.

Some of Cosrx’s best-sellers

Klairs – a vegan and cruelty-free brand

Klairs

100% vegetarian, 100% cruelty-free, and 100% committed to becoming a vegan, animal-friendly brand. Although they are not yet a vegan brand, Klairs has been against animal testing and has believed in relying on plant-based ingredients to formulate their products since they started in 2010. 

In Korea, where it is not as common to find vegan brands, Klairs recognizes the greater responsibility they hold to not only be good to the skin but also to the environment and the animals that live on our earth. Presently, about 80% of their products are suitable for vegans. 

Klairs focuses on plant-derived ingredients like black sugar

Purito features natural and organic ingredients

Purito

Both cruelty-free and vegan, Purito is a brand that is perfect for those looking for products with simple, uncomplicated ingredients. With sensitive skin types in mind, Purito’s products are formulated with natural and organic ingredients, making them free from parabens, sulfates, ethanol, and silicone.

They also feature environmentally friendly packaging made out of recycled paper, and instead of separately printing out a sheet of paper for instructions, they actually print information inside the box to reduce their waste.

Purito’s eco-friendly packaging (Source: Purito)

2. Upcycling & Recycling Old Product Containers (Empties)

But what happens after the purchase? You’ll soon find yourself with lots of empties. What do you do with these empties? You upcycle and recycle! This is important because it prevents our waste from going to landfills thus saving valuable landfill space and reducing environmental effects. Preventing our waste and microplastics from ending up in rivers and oceans, keeps us from harming the fish and other aquatic life.

How To Recycle Empties?
To recycle, first, you must clean and dry your empties before taking them to a recycling facility that would accept plastics, glass, and packaging. Some even reward you for your recycling efforts. Find out how you can recycle by researching a place near you where you can bring your empties to.

Hey, What’s Upcycle?

While recycling involves the destruction of waste in order to create something new, upcycling takes waste and creates something new from it in its current state. One creative way to upcycle your old product containers is to use them as containers: 

Another way to upcycle product packaging is to use them as storage! As you may know, some Althea orders come packaged in our special Althea boxes. As they’re pretty good quality and come in various limited designs, our Altheans have shown their creativity by collecting our boxes and using them as storage to keep their skincare and other items, effectively reducing waste!

Whether it’s being more selective (or selfish) with the brands you use or actively recycling and upcycling old product packaging, it’s important to know that your actions make a difference in keeping our Earth safe and healthy for our future generations.