Selena Gomez introduced Rare Beauty in September 2020. The brand—which is available at Sephora—generated as much as $60 million in revenue in its first year.

The company puts an emphasis on vegan and cruelty-free ingredients. It also possesses an external Beauty Without Bunnies certification from PETA.

Unlike many beauty brands, Rare Beauty has a sustainable page dedicated to the company’s environmental impact. “We’ve made a conscious effort to limit waste wherever possible, but we know we have a long way to go,” the site claims. “We’re working harder to do better and plan to gradually introduce post-consumer recycled materials into our packaging beginning in late 2021.” Many of the brands discussed in this ranking do not have a dedicated space to discuss sustainability, so Rare Beauty’s inclusion of this content puts the brand above others.

The brand adheres to the European Union’s cosmetic standards, which bans over 1,500 chemicals from included products. As such, Rare Beauty’s products eschew animal-derived ingredients, parabens, gluten, formaldehyde, and more. 

Additionally, the brand features 100% Recyclable Boxes that is made from responsibly sourced, FSC-certified materials, and are printed with water-based ink. A Rare Beauty package also includes a 100% recyclable welcome card made from recycled fiber, recyclable tissue made from recycled fiber, recyclable tape, and environmentally friendly, corn-based foam that dissolves in water or can be composted. That said, the packaging of its actual products is largely plastic. One product—the brand’s Blot and Go Touch-up Kit is refillable.

Rare Beauty actively promotes reusing some of its packaging, offering a reusable drawstring pouch made of cotton canvas, which helps avoid the use of synthetic fabrics.

It’s clear that Rare Beauty is striving to reduce consumer waste. However, there is little information about the company’s supply chain or carbon footprint, or the recyclability of its individual product packaging, making it difficult to determine how responsible the inner workings of this brand really are.

In addition to prioritizing eco-friendly ingredients, the brand promises to comply with social and environmental responsibility standards to ensure fair labor practices for all aspects of its supply chain. While more transparency around future sustainability plans would be welcome, Rare Beauty is setting a fairly high standard.

Perhaps one of the most well-known celebrity-owned makeup brands, 

Keeping in stride with its penchant for groundbreaking products, Fenty Beauty took the ethics of its brand one step further by quickly introducing a more sustainable approach to both its ingredients and packaging.

Let’s start with ingredients. Fenty uses ethically sourced natural ingredients, as detailed in the brand’s clean ingredients section.

The company is committed to clean beauty and avoids harsh ingredients like parabens, oxybenzone, octinoxate, phthalates, formaldehyde, plastic microbeads, polyacrylamide, paraffin, lead, and more.

In addition to being cruelty and gluten-free, the brand follows the high standards of the European Union, which bans more than 1,500+ harmful ingredients from cosmetics. However, Fenty Beauty isn’t considered vegan, as some products contain beeswax or carmine. 

In terms of recyclability and reusability, Fenty Beauty has come a long way: 

The company is now offering many lipsticks in a refillable format. It is currently the only Fenty cosmetic available in a refillable form, though the brand offers several other makeup products like foundations, concealers, powders, eye shadows, and more, which come in traditional packaging. Each product includes recycling instructions on the packaging, and shipping boxes are also fully recyclable. 

“I wanted the packaging to be beautiful, but also functional with an earth-conscious approach,” says Rihanna on the Fenty site. “We eliminated boxes where we could, we have refill systems, and we use recycled materials where possible. Nobody is perfect, but I really believe we can try our best to do right and we’ll keep evolving as we go.”

The brand prioritizes the three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle. So far, it’s eliminating excess packaging wherever possible, implementing refillable systems, and incorporating more PCR materials into bottles, tubes, and jars. Given the brand’s devoted following and prowess within the industry, even more of-the-moment eco developments are likely on the way.