The eco-design of cosmetics involves numerous parameters. It includes all stages of developing a hygiene and beauty product. It requires knowledge of ingredient effects, traceability of their origins, and the impacts of manufacturing, use, and end-of-life for the cosmetic product. This process demands complex analysis and evaluation of product life cycles. We invite you to discover the principles of eco-design and its application to cosmetics.

Eco-design in cosmetics: a misappropriated concept to define

Eco-design is an approach that considers environmental issues in the design of products or services. Its objective is to meet consumer needs while improving their environmental impact.

“Eco-design consists of integrating the environment from the design of a product or service and throughout all stages of its life cycle” AFNOR

In the cosmetic industry, few brands fully implement this challenging approach. The term eco-design is often misused, and many projects are superficially conducted.

The ISO 14006 standard defines eco-design as a “methodical approach that considers the environmental aspects of the design and development process with the aim of reducing negative environmental impacts throughout a product's life cycle.”

It involves analyzing each design stage with a multi-criteria approach. This means studying the impact from the extraction of raw materials and energy to the product's end of life, including production, logistics, and use. For each of these, all environmental effects must be considered: energy, material, and water consumption, CO2 emissions, pollution, etc. Eco-design also serves to enhance positive impacts. Eco-design offers real benefits, particularly in preserving biodiversity resources and preventing pollution.

Life Cycle Assessment: a complex evaluation method

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an environmental evaluation method following ISO 14040/44 standards. It considers a significant number of impacts across the entire product life cycle. It is the most comprehensive, rigorous, but probably the most complex tool to use. It is often simplified, although it requires precision and diverse, advanced skills. Its complexity lies in the mass of multidisciplinary knowledge to acquire (material extraction, medicine, chemistry, environment, etc.). LCA is time-consuming and expensive.

Eco-design must integrate life cycle assessment from the research and development stage. However, ecology and health are not always the priority criteria when drafting specifications for cosmetic laboratories. The solutions chosen are often "borderline" to satisfy brands' profitability needs.

Cosmetics manufacturing: major ecological challenges

Impacts of manufacturing methods

The manufacturing process is a stage that poses many environmental problems. Industrial secrecy implies an opacity that makes it difficult to access data concerning the pollution generated by cosmetic production.

The impacts of design are assessed on:

• water consumption;

• energy consumption;

• carbon footprint (CO2 emissions during manufacturing and transport);

• toxicological balance (chemical pollution emitted by design and by the finished product);

• biodegradability and its impact on the environment;

• waste management and disposal.

Problems related to cosmetic production

Many manufacturing methods for hygiene and beauty products are particularly problematic. Ethoxylation, for example, allows the production of widely used surfactants (washing and foaming agents). It causes acute chemical pollution for aquatic environments as well as chronic toxicity. Alternative techniques that seem to be part of eco-design are emerging. They are not as virtuous as one might think.

Industrial solid soaps and shampoos illustrate this phenomenon. Their ingredients are heated to high temperatures (80°C) during manufacturing when ingredients are mixed and poured. Hot saponification consumes a lot of energy and releases a lot of CO2. Some manufacturers even use cooling tunnels which further worsen their carbon footprint. Moreover, these products very often contain palm oil, whose environmental impact is no secret. A significant number of solid cosmetics also contain surfactants toxic to ecosystems, such as Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI). Their cardboard packaging suggests a recyclable and durable material. However, their manufacturing and transport are polluting. The traceability of raw materials and the recycling of these cardboards are often unsatisfactory.

Indeed, almost all packaging on the market poses a problem. Their waste, whether buried or incinerated, generates air, soil, and water pollution. Recycled plastic, which can also project a positive image, releases toxic molecules into the product it contains.

Given this situation, Margerie aims to evolve the cosmetic industry model by truly integrating eco-design into the manufacturing of its products.

Eco-design of a hygiene product

The principle of eco-design applies to all stages of Margerie cosmetics' life cycle. We aim to demonstrate that high-performance, sensory, and elegant hygiene products can be harmless to health and the environment, and supportive. The development of our shampoo illustrates this commitment. It is made:

• Using a limited number of ingredients that are non-controversial.

• Cold to save energy and reduce CO2 emissions.

• With an innovative texture containing very little water and which does not need to be cooled.

• By limiting CO2 emissions (green electricity, short circuits, decarbonized transport).

• Without emitting toxic effluents.

• In reusable and compostable packaging made from upcycled vegetable waste (sugarcane bagasse).

• With contents and containers that decompose without toxicity.

• In minimum capacities to avoid multiplying packaging.

Manufacturing is a stage in the life cycle of cosmetics that has many environmental impacts. Eco-design makes it possible to analyze and minimize the negative repercussions of this production. Margerie integrates these principles into all phases of creating its hygiene and beauty products. It aspires to use science and technology to design modern, innovative, and effective ecological care products.