As Extinction Rebellion hint at drone-style protests at Heathrow airport and Prada takes a dive into the fur-free promise of their future, this truly seems to be the right time to rethink everything we’re doing. Sustainability is part of the everyday narrative, and Selfridges is now offering a way to get involved while still looking your very best self. Celebrating this year’s World Ocean’s Day (June 8th), their Oxford Street flagship store is replenishing their accessories hall with the Project Ocean Beauty Booth.
Project Ocean, originally launched in 2011, is a scheme created by Selfridges aimed at eradicating plastic pollution within their own store. By providing easy-to-consume information about the issue and alternative approaches to traditional packaging, the department store has started a conversation which is as useful as it is beautiful. Divided in four categories – oral care, skincare, body care and haircare –the brands coming to the ground floor of Selfridges boast reusable makeup wipes, bamboo toothbrushes and shampoo bars – sometimes being vegan just isn’t enough. The department store is entering its 110th year of business, and their mantra is all about “reduce, reuse, recycle,” echoing amongst the counters where these new brands now lie. Their plan for the next three years is to ensure that at least 50% of their products are better for people and the planet. By making the move towards a more eco-friendly way of living, the initial exhaustion of having to go out of your way to embody this lifestyle is swept away and left with an aura of ease instead.
Customers will have the freedom to saunter around the booth and get to know sustainable beauty names such as Beauty Kubes, Acala, Georganics and Truthbrush. In an effort to reduce global waste, Beauty Kubes have created paper wrapped shampoo bars that crumble in your palm to create a usable paste. A product ideal for maintaining the summer festival shine. Sadly, it doesn’t cure hangovers (yet).
Acala encompass “reuse” by celebrating refillable products by eradicating a single-use mentality around beauty. Their founder, Hanna Pumfrey, has produced reusable hemp make-up wipes which can be thrown in a wash bag and into the washing machine. Coming in a pack of five means the weekly wash on a Friday night will have you sorted for the weekend too. Another newcomer are Georganics, founded with an intrigue for the chemicals we consume several times a day. They have created a natural and organic range of oral care products – toothpaste, mouthwash, floss and other products are packaged in a thoughtful manner too. Compostable craft paper and glass jars are topped off with an aluminium lid, spearheading the current movement we find ourselves in.
Unlike other sustainable movements in beauty, this wave of new products in Selfridges will be donating 10% of their sales to the Zoological Society of London, making their efforts for a more eco-friendly industry go even further than the shop floor. With the vast amount of waste from our dressing tables collecting, here’s to hoping this is just the beginning of a beauty revolution the whole world can benefit from.
The Project Ocean Beauty Booth is now open at Selfridges Oxford Street in London.
