Green brands: Faith in Nature

Faith in Nature is a beauty brand rated as a sustainable brand by 91% of respondents who had recently bought from it in our survey asking about sustainable brands.

Which? carried out a survey in February 2023 into member perceptions of sustainable brands. We asked members to rate how sustainable they thought a brand was and then to give us their reasons why. They had to have bought from the brand in the past two years. 

We then took a further look at some of these brands to see whether the reality lives up to the perception.*

The top reasons given by Which? members in our survey for Faith in Nature’s sustainability were its use of natural/non-toxic ingredients (69%), that it offers refills/refillable products (46%) and because it’s cruelty-free (29%).

We've looked in more detail at the sustainability initiatives and actions of beauty and toiletry brands Faith in Nature, Grüum, Lush and The Body Shop, as these were the brands that members viewed as sustainable in our survey, to dig into whether people's thoughts about the brands' sustainability records are backed up.

Read on to find out more about how Faith in Nature did, and what you need to know about sustainability issues in the beauty industry.

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Faith in Nature: in summary

It's worth bearing in mind that despite all brands having some inevitable shortcomings, the companies featured in this green brands guide have been selected by members as being more sustainable within their markets. 

These are generally brands doing better than average in their sector and should be recognised as such.

Who owns Faith in Nature?

Faith in Nature has been around since the 1970s, when it was founded by Rivka Rose in Edinburgh. It's still a family business and all products are made in the UK, near Manchester.

As well as personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner and body wash, Faith in Nature also makes laundry and washing-up liquid.

Faith in Nature and ingredients

Faith in Nature doesn’t use phthalates, triclosan, parabens, silicone, SLS or SLES.

Faith in Nature says its formulations are 'a minimum of 99% biodegradable'. For its cleansing surfactants, this means that 60% will have broken down into carbon, hydrogen and oxygen within 28 days. For other ingredients the amount of time that this will take is not specified, as it says it is dependent on the environment the products biodegrade in. 

Without a time frame, something being 'biodegradable' is not a particularly useful claim, given that nearly everything breaks down/biodegrades eventually. However, Faith in Nature does say that it chooses its ingredients specifically to minimise impact on the environment.

Faith in Nature and palm oil

Faith in Nature doesn’t use palm oil as an ingredient, but some of its products contain palm oil derivatives. Its website says that 16 of the 93 ingredients they use are palm oil derived. Derivatives account for around 60% of global palm oil use.

Faith in Nature says that all of its palm oil derivatives are certified by the RSPO as either ‘segregated’ or ‘mass balanced’ but doesn’t give further information on this on its website. Mass balance is a weaker form of certification that allows for the mixing of both certified and non-certified oils throughout the supply chain.

We contacted the brand to ask about its palm oil certification and were told: ‘We buy a mix of segregated and mass balance raw materials across the range; we find the availability of identity preserved raw materials to be quite scarce on the market and not available for the raw materials which we buy. The precise percentages of each certification change depending on what is available on the market as availability can be very variable.'

Faith in Nature refills and packaging

Faith in Nature has a good range of solid bars of shampoo, conditioner and, of course, soap. These cut down on packaging and are plastic-free. Solid bars can also cut down on transport emissions as they are more concentrated than liquid soaps (as you add the water when you use them).

All its 400ml liquid bottles are made with recycled plastic and are recyclable. Its large refill bottles used to be made of recycled plastic, but are now made from new 'virgin' plastic. This is due to shortages of recycled materials – a challenge for many manufacturers trying to source recycled plastic at the moment. In total, 64% of the plastic it used in 2021 was post-consumer recycled plastic.

Its 20-litre bottle holds the equivalent of 50 smaller ones, which means a lot less plastic for the same amount of product – if you have space in your home to store the larger container.

Its pumps don't include metal springs, which means they are also fully recyclable.

It says it is working on reinstating a closed loop recycling system, which it used to offer but doesn’t currently. It says this is because it acknowledges the limitations of our recycling systems.

You can also refill your Faith in Nature products at many independent shops all over the country.

To find out more about refills and packaging read our guide on how to buy refillable products.

Is Faith in Nature cruelty-free?

Yes, Faith in Nature is cruelty-free and Leaping Bunny approved.

Animal testing for cosmetic products is banned in the UK and the EU, and it has been for some years. However, there are certain exceptions. The European regulation REACH can require animal testing to assess certain chemical hazards. It is possible that ingredients requiring this testing could be found in cosmetics.

Additionally, in the past a brand might have said it didn’t test on animals itself, but have sold its products in mainland China. Up until 2021, Chinese trade law required that all imported cosmetics sold in physical stores must be tested on animals before sale. Therefore those brands couldn't claim to be fully cruelty-free – to sell their products on the Chinese market they had to pay for animal testing in China. 

This has now been waived for most ordinary cosmetics, though some ‘special-use’ beauty products, such as sunscreens, must still be tested on animals.

Faith in Nature doesn't sell its products in China and so doesn't have this issue.

The whole range is also vegan.

Other sustainability information

In August 2022, Faith in Nature became the first company in the world to make 'nature' a member of its board. In practice, this means that it has a position on its board for an appointed independent person who is there to represent nature’s best interests when making decisions for the company, and hold other board members to account. 

The first person to hold the innovative role is the director of legal practice Lawyers for Nature, Brontie Ansell. Brontie told The Guardian at the time that she considered it to be 'similar to that of a guardian acting on behalf of a child in a court of law'.

The company has assessed its scope 1 and 2 emissions and taken steps to reduce energy use, including cold mixing its products rather than using heat. It also ensures it sends zero waste to landfill.

But it hasn’t yet set science-based targets to achieve its goals of reducing its total carbon emissions (including scope 3) as it says it is still gathering the data. It expects to put these on its website and in its sustainability report by September 2023.

Why should we be worried about beauty products' impact on the environment?

Beauty products’ ingredients lists can be bafflingly long and difficult to interpret, but there are certain things to consider when making your choices.

Palm oil

It’s estimated that around 70% of beauty products contain palm oil. It acts as an emulsifier (holds oil and water together), surfactant (creates foam) and moisturiser.

But palm oil has also been linked with rainforest deforestation and habitat destruction. The constantly increasing demand for its use makes it particularly difficult to control how it is produced.

Products might list it as an ingredient, or may use ingredients derived from it. It has a huge list of pseudonyms – lauric and stearic acid being among the more common – which means it can be difficult to avoid. 

Look instead for brands that carry RSPO certification on their packaging or state that their palm oil is sustainably sourced.

The PalmOil Scan app scans barcodes to tell you about a brand’s palm oil commitment and whether it’s an RSPO member. WWF’s online Palm Oil Buyers scorecard can give you more information about a brand’s palm oil policy and how its performing.

If you want to go palm oil free, the Orangutan Alliance Palm Oil Free Seal can be found on some products. Its website also lists ingredient names that may have been derived from palm oil.

Biodegradability

Chemicals in beauty products can have negative impacts on the environment as well as human health. 

Anything found in the ingredients list of cosmetic or personal care products sold in the UK will have been approved as safe for human use. Though they may be restricted to certain amounts – this includes groups of chemicals like parabens. 

Some beauty brands may choose to avoid certain chemicals altogether, or have ranges that avoid the use of synthetic chemicals.

The biodegradability of ingredients used in cosmetics is an important consideration. They may end up being washed down the drain and treated at a water treatment plant – assuming water companies are dealing with it responsibly. But cosmetics may also be wiped off on cotton pads or wipes, which go in the bin. This means they could possibly end up in landfill (though much in the UK will be incinerated). 

Products need to be readily biodegradable in these environments to avoid environmental damage. But the reality is not everything fully breaks down. Synthetic ingredients, often derived from fossil fuels, can be particularly persistent.

Confusingly, the term ‘natural’ is not legally regulated. If using fully natural products is important to you, look for a certification label on the product. This will also increase the likelihood that the natural ingredients are sourced in a sustainable way.

Certified natural and organic cosmetics (the main logos you will see are COSMOS and NATRUE) and household cleaning products (the main logo is Soil Association) are assessed for ready biodegradability. Ingredients will have to break down in a specified time. Cradle to Cradle certification, while not an organic standard, focuses on the full life cycle of a product.

Read more about how chemicals break down in our waterways and how to buy water friendly cleaning products and toiletries.

Packaging

Packaging of beauty products is something to seriously consider when making your choice. According to the British Beauty Council, 95% of cosmetic packaging is thrown away. Items like shampoo and shower gel bottles can usually be recycled with household recycling, but some more complex packaging such as mascara wands and hand soap pumps are unlikely to be recycled. 

Brands that offer packaging-free options, closed loop recycling, refillable options or solid format products like shampoo bars should be commended.

Our research  

* In November 2022 we asked our full panel of members which brands they had bought from or planned to buy from because they believed they were more sustainable than others in the market. The list of brands our members could choose from in this survey was based on the findings from this.

Other beauty brands rated highly by members in our survey were The Body Shop (77%), Grüum (86%) and Lush (81%).

Find out more about what supermarkets are doing about the environment, how to buy second-hand online, or what makes a green energy supplier.