It’s nice to know that in an industry focused on facade and outer beauty, there is still an emphasis on creating inner beauty through charity.
October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, a time during which many of beauty’s biggest brands — from Lancome to Estee Lauder to YSL to Too Faced to Shiseido — launch special edition products to raise funds for breast cancer research and to go along with that signature pink ribbon.
Other beauty brands are socio-economically conscious, too, working with organizations and high-profile figures to better the greater good of man, health and the environment.
Kiehl’s “Aloe Vera” Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser ($16.50). Fully endorsed by Hollywood’s golden boy (well, man) Brad Pitt, this product is made from 100% biodegradable ingredients, is paraben-free and comes in a 100% post-consumer bottle. Sales proceeds benefit JPF ECO SYSTEMS, a charity created by Kiehl’s and Pitt to foster environmental sustainability.
La Prairie Advanced Marine Biology Collection (prices vary). Celine Cousteau, the granddaughter of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, teamed with skincare brand La Prairie to support this specialty line of products, which uses ingredients from marine plants cultivated on land through a process called mariponics. Profit from the sale of jars from the collection goes toward the Ocean Futures Society, a marine-minded organization founded by Celine Cousteau’s eductor and filmmaker father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and of which she acts as International Program Coordinator.
Avon Women’s Empowerment Bracelet ($3). Over the past few years, Avon has led the beauty brand charge for giving back. With Reese Witherspoon as ambassador, bracelet net proceeds benefit the new Avon Empowerment Fund, ending in a goal of donating $1 million to the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
The Body Shop “For Me, For You” Shea Lip Care Stick Duo ($15). Rich with shea better, vitamin A and vitamin B, this product not only leaves kissers soft, its shea butter also helps give fair wages to more than 400 women from the Tungteiya Shea Butter Association in northern Ghana. It also benefits The Canadian Women’s Foundation to help stop domestic violence.
Remember, outer beauty can come from a swipe of lip gloss and a stroke of blush, but true inner beauty and social awareness can only come from you.
