Are Reusable Make Up Pads Good for the Planet?

Finally, the guilt of throwing away a packet of disposable make up remover pads every week got to me and I bought these Reusable Bamboo Cotton Makeup Remover Pads. But I'm worried -  is this greenwashing or is this actually a good move for Climate Change?

Impact of Disposable Make up Products

Experience of Reusable Pads

Do Reusable Pads Actually have a Smaller Impact?

Are Reusable Products The Future?

Final Thoughts

Impact of Disposable Make up Products

There's a bunch of problems with disposable make up products, even if we only focus on disposable make up pads. For one, they aren't recyclable so they'll all end up in landfill. There's also the work that goes into making them: cotton uses a huge amount of resources which isn't good for the planet. Cotton also uses pesticides which can pollute water and soil. 

I personally hate having to use something once and throw it away. When I see my bathroom bin build up after using them to apply my toner, I doubt if having a good skincare routine is worth the cost to the environment. In a year of using one cotton round every day, I'll use up 1.2 kg of cotton, which has taken the same amount of water to grow as one person drinks in three and a half YEARS according to WWF. It's one thing to put that much of a resource into a T-shirt that you might wear every day, but going straight into landfill? Let's see if there's a better solution. 

Experience of Reusable Pads

With the Bamboo Make-Up Remover Pads, I noticed that the packaging was all recyclable (make from cardboard and paper). This is compared to the Double Faced Oval Cotton Wool Pads where the plastic packaging says 'do not recycle' and that it can be dangerous around infants or children. 

The Reusable Makeup Remover Pads came with 20 pads and cost £9.99, whereas my disposable pads came with 50 and cost £1.79. This meant that the bamboo pads were about 50p each and the disposable ones were 4p each. Although this is a massive difference, there is a big jump in quality. You also need to factor in that each use foe the disposable pads is 4p and each use of the reusable pads is 0.5p if you factor in their maximum uses. 

The reusable pads are thinner and heavier than the disposable ones. The texture is different, like a soft towel material. This is a pro for me since I have a sensory processing disorder and hate the texture of disposable pads. 

I use disposable pads to put on toner so thats how I compared the two products. My skincare routine is the the Clinique 3-Step Skin System for Dry Skin so after washing my face with an electric brush, I used the pad to apply toner. I couldn't tell the difference to my skin between both products, which is a good thing. Sometimes when using the disposable pads for too long (like removing make up), some bits of fluff get stuck to my face, which I didn't experience with the reusable pads. The reusable pad absorbed more product according to reviews, but users suggested running the pad under warm water and squeezing out the excess, as you do for make up sponges, and that seemed to work well. 

I definitely enjoyed the experience more than disposable pads and will be continuing to use them in my skincare routine. 

However, that's just the first round. An important difference between the two products is that you have to remember to wash them. I''m intending to throw them in the laundry. They come with a laundry bag which is a great addition - however other users have warned that this bag doesn't close well and suggests buying a small zipper bag (mine cost £1 from Flying Tiger). These pads are advertised to be used about 100-500 times so the question is, will their quality decrease over time? Some reviews have said stains are very hard to get out which might make users prefer to buy a new pack sooner than the approximately 4+ years that are advertised. 

Do Reusable Pads Actually have a Smaller Impact?

The impact of a fabric is mainly how it's made and what happens after you use it. One of my concerns with reusable materials is microfibre pollution. This is when we wash a material and bits of it break off and get into the ocean. The main problem is with bits of synthetic materials such as polyester being eaten by sea animals, which means plastic getting into the food chain. 

These pads are made of natural cotton and bamboo fabric. Cotton is biodegradable which means that although it does shed (0.2–4 mg/g of fabric according to Zambrano et al.) it breaks down and isn't as harmful to the ocean or wildlife.  Bamboo fabric is a cellulose-derived man-made fabric, and is technically a synthetic fabric known as rayon. Like cotton, it leaks more than polyester but since it's comparatively new, it's unknown whether it has the same harmful effects as polyester. However, it has been found in the deep sea. 

But the unfortunate thing about cotton and bamboo fabric is that the way they're made is not good for the environment. They are both Class E fabrics on the Environmental Benchmark for Fibres, which is bottom of the sustainable list. For cotton, it's because when it grows it uses a lot of resources (particularly water) and pesticides, which pollutes water and soil. For bamboo, it goes through a chemical process to be turned into fabrics. There's some ambiguity with what's in this products - if the cotton was recycled it would be class A, if the Lyocell process was used to make the bamboo fabric, it's a class B. For more information, have a look at the Fibre Eco-Review on Sustain Your Style. 

Although it's disappointing that these reusable pads aren't made from a sustainable material, the disposable pads are also made with cotton. By reusing the product you'd be consuming less of the material over time. 

Are Reusable Products The Future?

No matter how environmentally-friendly you make a product, a big part of whether it will have an impact or not is whether it is used. Is this the direction society is going? For example, I've been a vegetarian for six years and while I couldn't make much of a difference myself by buying vegetarian products, over time the consumer market has shifted towards vegan milk and fake meat products which is lowering the carbon footprint of the meat industry.

There are a few ways to measure this. The top product on amazon for reusable pads has 10,661 reviews (average 4.5 stars) whereas the top product for disposable pads (Johnson and Johnson brand) has 438 (average 4.5 stars). If I clear my cookies, log out, and search for 'make up remover pads' on amazon, 57 out of 64 products are reusable. 

Considering this is a beauty product, we have to look at influencers. Today their audiences are mainly concerned with cruelty-free products, so that's what's being highlighted when influencers such as NikkiTutorials launch their own brands. Looking at the top 10 most subscribed beauty influencers, 90% have never highlighted sustainability in any of their videos, which is shocking. If we look at their skincare routines, James Charles uses cotton rounds to apply toner, NikkiTutorials also uses cotton rounds to remove make up, as does Jeffrey Star and Tati. I haven't seen any reusable products mentioned which is disappointing but hopefully as consumers become more aware of this it will become a standard among influencers as well. 

Another thing I'm considering is how it is used: it struck me that in reviews, people were saying that they'd buy them again. This is a huge compliment to the product and the experience of using it, but it did make me wonder would users end up buying a new pack every few months rather than every 4+ years as is recommended. This means that the product isn't going to be as cost effective or sustainable as it is in theory. Making the most out of your products is a personal responsibility that applies to a lot of things whether they are a sustainable product or not; if you take care of your possessions you can prolong their lifespans and prevent unnecessary waste. 

Final Thoughts

From all this research, I've learnt that make up removing pads in general aren't great for the environment but reusable products (when used correctly) are a better experience and more sustainable than disposable cotton rounds. I'd highly recommend Reusable Bamboo Cotton Makeup Remover Pads for skincare, its a great investment for better skin and a healthier planet. I also want to say that although personal disposable products aren't the driving force for climate change, it's great for all of us to take some responsibility for keeping our planet healthy and small changes like this one can make a difference.