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A new trend is emerging from the climate crisis: waterless skincare.
While wrapping-free, vegan toiletries have long had a place on British high streets, thanks to independent brands such as Lush, the new wave of waterless – or anhydrous – beauty products is driven by a combination of ethical concerns, innovations taken from Korean skincare and new developments in packaging.
You can find waterless beauty products in the form of powders, sheets, sticks, and bars. These products either eliminate the need to drink water or allow you the ability to add it at home.
2020 Global personal care launches account for almost 12% In the soap, shower and bath category, claimed to be waterless. They now account for 23% in the US personal care market In the UK and Europe, interest is growing. According to a business analyst Future Market Insights: Waterless cosmetics sales are expected to grow by 13.3% between 2031 and 2031.
Before he founded the waterless brand SBTRCT, Ben Grace was the managing director of British skincare firm Bulldog. “A lot had changed in a short time – awareness of the climate crisis, water waste, overreliance on palm oil,” he said. “That’s what brought me to solid, waterless and zero-waste skincare. Developing a high-performance range that could do this, but without any compromise on efficacy, made perfect sense to me.”
Grace points out that most traditional skincare formulations are between 60% and 80% water. “That’s just crazy,” he said. “Consumers should be paying for active ingredients. Condensed and waterless solid formulations give you the best ingredients but without bulking out formulations with water.”
Ethique is a New Zealand-based companyBrianne West, a student loan holder, started the company. The company sells skin care, haircare, and just recently launched home-compostable lipsticks.
“By removing water, we remove plastic, meaning solid bars are not only saving water and plastic, but also fossil fuel emissions,” West said. “Our bars have an average carbon footprint of just 8% that of bottled products.”
She believes she is beginning to see real changes in the beauty industry. “In the 10 years since Ethique started, we’ve noticed bars going from a hard-to-find, niche concept to an accepted alternative on the shelves in forward-thinking retailers. I believe the industry can grow and become the dominant format over time. All we need is for retailers to make the jump – consumers are increasingly used to the idea and willing to give things a go.”
As well as helping the planet, anhydrous products’ innovative designs can be useful for consumers, too. British start-up Plus Body WashIt is a simple-to-use formula that only requires water and 100% dissolvable packaging. This allows you to shower while it goes down the drain. Its manufacture uses 38% less water than traditional wash and it’s easy to transport on holiday or to the gym.
Waterless products are becoming increasingly popular in the luxury market. South Korean beauty regimens are very popular in the west. Many of these products are waterless, less because of environmental concerns. Sheet masks will be a $392 million global industry by 2026..
Stephanie Hannington-Suen grew up helping out in her parents’ acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic. She started Homework, a natural skincare line that includes anhydrous products, after working as a graphic designer.
“As a graphic designer by trade and growing up around TCM, I wanted to create products that apply a modern approach to ancient Chinese philosophy with the guiding principle of living in harmony with nature. So waterless beauty products seemed the obvious choice,” she said.
West encourages customers to consider the social and personal benefits of their beauty regimens. “Look for products that offer more than just ‘solid’ or ‘waterless’. Products that are vegan, cruelty free or solid are great – but they will offer far more environmental benefits if they offer all three, if they can demonstrate a commitment to their producers – direct trade or fair trade – and employees, and a genuine plan to reduce and offset their carbon production.”
As 844 million people don’t have access to clean water currently worldwide, any action by the beauty industry to change consumers’ behaviour is positive. “Water scarcity is a very real problem,” Grace said. “To keep using it unnecessarily as the biggest ingredient in skincare formulations just isn’t sustainable. We must tackle it, and when I say we, I mean the whole industry – brands, retailers, manufacturers, raw material producers, everyone. The beauty industry can’t run from that.”
