How We Chose The Best Reusable Cotton Rounds
The reason to choose reusable should be obvious: single-use beauty products are a significant contributor to landfill and ocean waste.
Beyond that, cotton production is one of the world’s dirtiest crops, adding 220 million tons of CO2 emissions annually and consuming more than 10,000 liters of water to produce a single kilogram.
What’s more, single-use cotton pads cannot be recycled and are non-biodegradable. This is because they’re not entirely cotton, filled with synthetic toxins, bleach, and often synthetic fabric blends.
If you use two pads a day, that’s 730 rounds a year—or hundreds of millions annually in the USA alone.
Like all ethical and sustainable beauty, finding the best reusable cotton rounds means more than face value so we consider the following:
Materials:
What is the best fabric for reusable cotton rounds?
When it comes to reusable facial pads, cotton is the go to—but we narrowed that down to organic cotton specifically.
Organic bamboo cotton or hemp fabric also get our vote for sustainable fabrics that can be composted.
Just be sure the thread used is also natural, or remove before composting.
Supply chain & labor practices:
When it comes to human ethics, cotton has rightly held a bad rep for a long while, which is why humanely harvested cotton is a must.
These brands support ethical cotton, fair trade certified factories, safe working environments, and above-living wages.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Bonus points to those who hand-make their reusable face rounds, or use renewable energy, waste reduction practices, recycled packaging, carbon offsets, and other means to reduce the eco-impact of our skincare routine.
Ideally, products are packaged in something that’s biodegradable and/or paper-based.
Community & charitable giving:
We love clean reusable cotton rounds that truly come full circle by giving back to other do-good organizations.
Final Thoughts On Reusable Cotton Pads For Faces
Conventional beauty is ugly for our planet and our skin. (Just peep these ingredients to avoid in skincare.)
The best reusable cotton rounds naturally exfoliate and remove dead skin cells, but they don’t have to simultaneously kill our planet.
A zero waste skincare routine featuring reusable rounds or cotton balls will keep us earth-friendly, healthy, and beautiful.
Because beauty might be skin deep, but sustainability goes far deeper.
And the onus is on us to keep a beauty routine without the mountain of cotton and plastic waste that comes from conventional cotton rounds.
So do yourself a solid and make the investment in reusable eye makeup remover pads to keep your skin glowing and the earth pristine.
The next time your fully painted-up girlfriends ask, “But how to use reusable makeup remover pads?”, slide this article into their DMs for a happier face… and face of the Earth.