Beauty innovation: The biodegradable, vegan makeup sponge for a greener routine

After mascaras, eyeliners and other sustainable makeup essentials, makeup tools too are embracing the green revolution with a first vegan and biodegradable beauty blender.

Bathrooms of the future will have less waste, more natural materials and fewer ingredients that are harmful to skin (and health).

The cosmetics industry, like many other sectors, is undergoing a revolution to meet new consumer demands.

This includes developing the kind of personal care products, cosmetics and makeup essentials that we’re not used to finding in the beauty departments of our favorite stores.

In recent months, this has given rise to a zero-waste mascara with refills for life, an eyeliner that transforms into flowers at the end of its life, and a deodorant made of natural wood that is guaranteed for life.

And products like this look set to multiply in the coming months to help drive down the environmental footprint of the cosmetics sector.

This week’s beauty innovation comes from the EcoTools brand, which, after unveiling bamboo brushes with removable heads, has launched a makeup sponge that’s entirely biodegradable.

It is, more precisely, a beauty blender, an essential tool for the application of foundation, concealer and other correctors, usually made from silicon, although more and more brands now offer plant-based alternatives.

Here, the brand has come up with a compostable sponge that is able to degrade naturally in 180 days.

Dubbed the “BioBlender,” the sponge is made with five natural ingredients, including water, corn, a natural preservative, a natural pigment, and Bionanopol — a compound that makes the sponge biodegradable and compostable.

All in all, it’s a short ingredients list that’s both natural and vegan, designed to respect skin as well as the planet. This biodegradable makeup sponge retails at around $6.