In the past two decades, the global market has seen a huge change in buying habits. With concerns about environmental issues such as global warming growing each year, the average consumer is now far more invested in buying from brands with eco-friendly credentials. In one report from 2018, 57% of consumers reported that sustainability was one of their key criteria when buying new clothes & cosmetics.

For brands in the luxury sector, this transition has been made easier by their customer base: affluent, discerning individuals who are typically willing to pay more – and to wait longer – for a quality product.
 
With all this in mind, the word luxury is increasingly being reserved for brands that embrace traditional techniques, utilise ethical supply chains, and shy away from speedy mass production in favour of small runs of unique, painstakingly crafted goods.

The beauty world

Sustainability has become a particularly important buzzword for beauty brands, with manufacturers being confronted over issues such as animal testing, landfill waste, and excessive plastic usage.
 
In the perfume world, specific attention has been placed on the use of both traditional ingredients such as ambergris and castoreum, which are sourced from animals, and synthetic ingredients, which are often manufactured using polluting petrochemical reactions.
 
In an effort to meet the demands of the new, informed consumer, luxury perfume brands are now going out of their way to ditch conventional methods and ingredients, and create fragrances that don’t harm the environment.

What makes a perfume sustainable?

There’s no specific definition for a “sustainable perfume” but it usually boasts some of the following:

• Ethical supply chains 
• All natural, renewable, biodegradable ingredients
• Minimally polluting manufacturing processes
• Vegan products
• Cruelty-free products
• Sustainably-sourced packaging
• Recyclable or refillable bottles
   

Fragrance companies currently doing well with sustainability include Clean Reserve, which manufactures its ethically-sourced scents in a solar-powered factory, and Floral Street, which offers vegan scents in biodegradable packaging.

Case study: Cultus Artem

Recently the GPA Luxury team collaborated with Cultus Artem, a luxury fragrance brand that launched in 2019 proudly wearing its sustainable credentials on its sleeve. The brand is the brainchild of jewellery designer Holly Tupper, and the perfume line it carries took 15 years to plan and develop.
 
Tupper’s passion for perfumery was inspired by her travels. Many of her signature scents recall specific smells and places from her past – vetiver grass in Chennai or champaca blooms in Singapore – and she sources her raw ingredients from small, family-owned suppliers around the globe.
 
Based around the concept of “slow beauty”, Cultus Artem specialises in small batches of perfume that use traditional, labour-intensive techniques. All eight fragrances in the collection are cruelty-free and concocted only from fragrance oils, distilled water and perfumery alcohol (which means no parabens, additives or synthetic dyes). Moreover, Cultus Artem’s in-house manufacturing processes have been carefully refined to minimise waste.
 
The brand’s attitude towards packaging is similarly eco-conscious, as it focuses on reuse and durability. The presentation boxes our team recently manufactured were designed with little overt branding, allowing for them to be repurposed by the end user and kept for many years as a treasured keepsake.
 
Though Cultus Artem has only been on the scene for a year, we have a feeling bigger perfume brands could learn a thing or two from Tupper’s impressive approach.

Sustainable packaging for luxury fragrances

Here at GPA Luxury, eco-friendly packaging is one of our specialties. Get in touch today to find out how we could help bring your sustainable brief to life.

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