Sustainable Beauty Survey: Buyers Care About Natural Ingredients

The health and beauty industry, like many others, is putting more of a focus on sustainability and eco-friendly products. In fact, the organic beauty industry is in a state of flux as consumer preferences change, according to Cosmetics Business. So how many health and beauty buyers care about buying organic or eco-friendly products? We asked 1,000 respondents about their thoughts on sustainability when it comes to health and beauty purchases.

Sustainable Health and Beauty

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 8% of respondents said that they only ever purchase health and beauty products that they consider to be sustainable or eco-friendly. 19% purchase sustainable beauty products most of the time. 26% do so about half the time. 23% rarely ever purchase sustainable health and beauty products. 12% never do. And another 12% were unsure about the sustainability of their health and beauty products. Burt’s Bees seems to be the most popular brand among eco-conscious health and beauty buyers. But some also mentioned other brands like Dove, Honest, Lush, Tarte, L’Oreal and Aveeno. A fair amount also seemed unsure about which brands they have purchased sustainable health and beauty products from.

Product Labels

Of those who have purchased eco-friendly health and beauty products, 75% said that they are most likely to care about buying items that are made with natural ingredients. 44% care about buying humane health and beauty products. 43% look for organic products. 35% care about buying products that are made with recycled or recyclable materials. And 17% look for vegetarian or vegan health or beauty products.

Future Buyers

Looking forward, 54% of consumers said that they’re at least somewhat likely to consider sustainability when purchasing health and beauty products within the next year. According to Personality Radar, those who are interested in purchasing sustainable health and beauty products seem to be those who are fairly adventurous and interested in trying new things.

Key Takeaways

There are already several health and beauty brands that offer some sustainable features, from using natural ingredients to organic labels and more. But there’s still room for more brands to make names for themselves in that space. One way for brands to succeed is to create messaging that is targeted to adventurous customers who are interested in trying new things. That could mean offering samples at stores or events where shoppers are likely to be interested in buying items they haven’t tried before. Or it could mean focusing ads and marketing messages on websites and publications that are geared more toward things like travel and sporting goods instead of sticking to traditional health and beauty avenues where many customers have likely already found their brands and products of choice. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

‍