Organic & "Natural"

These unfortunately aren't necesarily safer, or kinder to the environment. Farms often use pesticides and fertilizers with petrochemicals, equipment that runs on fossil fuels, and production can also release problematic emissions.

• 1g of rose natural essence requires up to 10,000g or 10kg of rose petals.

• Argan oil which makes hair shiny comes from a rare plant that takes over 50 years to grow. Not all sources are harvested sustainably.

• Whales have been killed for enzymes used in perfumes or oil as a base for cosmetics.

"Green Chemistry"

The idea of synthesizing the compounds needed for cosmetics from renewable resources such as agricultural waste.

Amyris uses sugar cane stalk waste, another company uses sawdust waste from the furniture industry, both clever ways to help decarbonize the cosmetic industry.

Swabs & Makeup Removal

Tools & Apps

• Buycott "is a free app to vote with your wallet. Use UPC Lookup or barcode scans to boycott bad products and find sustainable alternatives."

• EWG's Guide to Sunscreens includes information about sun screens, and what precautions can be taken along with sunscreen to protect skin.

• EWG's Skin Deep "Your guide to safer personal care products Backed by science. Designed for you. Learn what’s really in your personal care products."

Asia

India

• The Nature Masons offers products including body care, hair care, and oral care supplies.

Vegan / Cruelty-Free Brands

The following are consumer resources to help you find kinder products.

• Cruelty Free Kitty "We contact brands directly to find out the truth behind their animal testing claims. Our database currently contains 1192 vetted brands so you can shop cruelty-free in confidence."

• Ethical Elephant "Need help with finding a cruelty-free and vegan product? Explore our hand-picked product guides to help you make every choice count and find products that are aligned with your values."

• Cruelty Free (PETA) "the searchable database of companies that do and that don’t test their products on animals! There are more than 6,400 companies in our database that don’t test on animals, including Dove, e.l.f., Herbal Essences, 100% PURE, Dr. Bronner’s, Aveda, and Seventh Generation!" They offer various ways to search including geographical region (by country).

• Zoo Bop  (download app) "We help you shop responsibly." "Find better, cleaner, kinder alternatives." This database helps consumers learn about specific brands, but not specific items.

International

• The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) "is an international coalition of more than 110 public interest environmental and health non-governmental organizations from over 55 countries from around the world formed in 2005 by the European Environmental Bureau and the Mercury Policy Project. ZMWG strives for zero supply, demand, and emissions of mercury from all anthropogenic sources, with the goal of reducing mercury in the global environment to a minimum. Our mission is to advocate and support the adoption and implementation of a legally binding instrument which contains mandatory obligations to eliminate where feasible, and otherwise minimize, the global supply and trade of mercury, the global demand for mercury, anthropogenic releases of mercury to the environment, and human and wildlife exposure to mercury."

Africa

Uganda

• S.H.E.: Keeping Girls in School Initiative "1. Access: Each year, S.H.E. selects primary and high schools in different parts of rural Africa to closely work with, doing a thorough assessment of school attendance before and after each project. We will be providing reusable sanitary pads- a kit with 4 pads of different sizes, storage bags, and underwear that can be used for up to a year. This is an easy solution and one that not only reduces waste but also supports local women manufacturers of Uganda where AfriPads is based. These kits take away the stress of needing a new packet of pads each month. S.H.E. will donate these pads, passing no costs to the girls. Help us do so by donating to the cause.
  
  2. Increased Gender Sensitivity and WASH Infrastructure: We are working with volunteers in the community and our partners to improve toilets and water facilities in schools. We also want to enhance privacy, emphasize waste disposals in toilets- all to increase gender sensitivity, and make them more ideal for periods.

3. Educational Workshops and Booklets: Increased resources and information; also encouraging offline period trackers. We are putting information in the girls’ hands- information that they don’t necessarily have to go out and get. We want to make it easier and quicker for them to have many of their questions and dilemmas answered. With our workshops, the goal is to increase menstrual education and practices but also tap into sexual health education. We do fun workshops to make the topic an easier one to discuss openly, and in a more relaxed setting.  We will be including a lot of boys and male heads in conversations to increase awareness and reduce negative stigma."

Europe

Ireland

• Hygiene Hub "Our vision is for everyone in Ireland to have equal access to hygiene and household cleaning products."

UK

• Help Change Lives "is a UK charity whose purpose is the prevention or relief of poverty, especially in children. We are regulated by the UK Charities Commission and are registered with HMRC for Gift Aid.
  
  We support underprivileged children and their families directly in Kenya. We provide them with education and vocational skills, reusable sanitary pads, food, water, clothing, shelter, health aids, income generating opportunities and counselling.
  
  

We have a large project in Kenya distributing reusable pad kits along with education to help reduce period poverty and keep girls in school. We also sponsor the education of poor children in Kenya at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and have refurbished a large run-down school in Nairobi’s Kangemi slum.

We also support projects in Kenya, India, Uganda, Tanzania, Liberia, Zambia and Malawi by working in partnership with other trusted charities and individuals to enable us to increase our scale and impact. Our focus so far has been on helping street children, differently abled children, providing Covid food and hygiene support, supporting school feeding programmes and providing books to schools."

• The Hygiene Bank "collects new, unused, in-date personal care and household cleaning essentials. For health and safety reasons, we cannot accept opened, half-used or products past their best-before date.
  
  The lists below are not exhaustive; our rule of thumb is, if you need them and use them, if you would gift them to a friend, then it is likely someone else needs and uses them too.
  
  You can donate unused and new toiletries and cleaning products using our network of 1,600 drop-off points across the UK. Some of them are located inside a store or an office building. You don't need to purchase anything in store to donate, you can bring your products and ask for the Hygiene Bank donation box. You can find your nearest drop-off point here.
  
  If you can't get to a convenient drop-off location or don't have any drop-off points nearby, you can still donate hygiene and cleaning products to people in need. You can contribute online using our Common Good Community Wishlists. Choose the products you wish to donate, make a payment, and we will get those products to people pulled into hygiene poverty."