Ethique: Vegan Brand Focus
Ethique was founded in 2012 by New Zealand entrepreneur Brianne West. It’s a zero-waste beauty and lifestyle brand, with a wide range of skincare and haircare products, which is a real concern to many trying to ditch single-use plastic and save our planet. Ethique’s mission is to help reduce plastic packaging in our world, which is manufactured and disposed of soon after. In short, they’re aiming to revolutionize the cosmetic industry.
“I started Ethique out of frustration for the abhorrent amount of waste created by the cosmetics industry, and in particular, the amount of plastic and waste created by our bathroom essentials. I figured out that up to 95% of your bottle of conditioner is made up of water – which is just ridiculous considering you have water in your bathroom! I have always been deeply passionate about the environment and science and so I set about learning cosmetic chemistry and looked to formulate a solid shampoo. I figured that switching to a solid product would be the answer not only to the water waste issue, but also plastic waste. ”
Why Do We Like This Brand?
Ethics
This brand puts 20% of profits go toward causes that strive to protect the environment. Ethique believes that because humanity is responsible for the harm brought to our planet, it’s important to give back and restore what we’ve lost.
Plastic has a huge negative impact on the earth. In fact, despite our good intentions, only 9% of plastic worldwide is actually recycled, and we produce about 300 million tons of plastic waste each year (8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean). As a result, according to global studies, about 9/10 fish have ingested microplastics.
Sustainability
Ethique has not only plastic-free products, they also use plastic-free packaging and plastic-free shipping, which has been a real challenge, since the use of plastic is deeply engrained into most warehousing systems. Even so, they’ve been able to save 10 million pieces of plastic from entering landfills!
By being plastic-free, they are contributing to the reduction of carbon footprint in the world which is manufactured using massive amounts of oil or natural gas and energy. This is incredibly helpful to the environment since over 40% of total plastic use comes from product packaging.
Health
It’s humbling to learn that plastic not only affects the lives of marine animals but also our health — we unknowingly consume 40,000 pieces of microplastics every week, which is enough to make one credit card.
This brand not only helps us create a cleaner and healthier environment, it’s also helping us reduce the chemicals in our water, like chlorine and acid, which can pollute waterways and intoxicate fish.
Our Top 5 Favorite Products
Ethique Botanica Lavender & Vanilla Solid Deodorant
A personal go-to, Ethique's plastic-free and beautifully scented deodorants absorb sweat without blocking your sweat glands! They're also long-lasting, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and gently adjust your skin's pH to beat any odors. Eco-friendly and crafted with gentle, natural vegan ingredients like bamboo, jojoba and almond oil, and magnesium hydroxide, this one's sure to become one of your faves!
Frizz Wrangler
For those who put their hair through hair dryers, hot irons, curlers, or even bleach constantly, this is the product to go for. It’s super smoothing without weighing your hair down, and makes it soft and easy to style it out — bring your hair back to life with Ethique’s Frizz Wrangler!
St Clements
Struggling with excessively oily hair? This one’s for you! Through the use of lime and orange oils, this shampoo helps to balance out your scalp’s oil production, deeply clean it and freshen up your locks. It’s pretty much all you need to keep your hair looking and feeling amazing.
Deep Green
A solid facial cleanser for oily to normal skin types. Deep Green is a deep-cleanser for oily-normal skin, made with French clay, sea salt, castor oil, and sweet orange oil. It’s super gentle on the skin and can get rid of all impurities from your face, making it look and feel fresh.
Multi-Purpose Kitchen Spray Concentrate
It can be pretty hard to find a plastic-free kitchen spray that gets the job done; thankfully Ethique’s Multi-Purpose Kitchen Spray Concentrate, is the one. Made with sweet orange oils (which smells amazing), it helps a lot in dissolving excess oil and grease leaving your kitchen incredibly clean without the use of hard or dangerous chemicals. This product is made with 100% naturally-derived and ethically-sourced ingredients.
