When she created Juni, makeup artist Madeleine White aimed to combine luxury, high performance, and green beauty in a sustainable line. For example, she endeavoured to pack her formulas with packs as ecodesigned as possible.
Zero plastic
“I have grown aware of the huge problem of plastic in the beauty industry. Over 142 billion pack units are produced every year around the world in the beauty sector, 95% of beauty packs are thrown away after only one use, and only 14% are transported to a recycling centre. ‘Good plastic’ does not exist,” Madeleine White tells Premium Beauty News.
Following this logic, she aims to develop a lipstick line completely free from plastic. “About 900 million lipsticks, mainly in the form of single-use plastic tubes, are sold in the world every year. We were determined not to contribute to this plastic pandemic, but to produce an innovative alternative,” she adds.
Dissatisfied with the packaging solutions currently available on the market, she chose tailor-made design with a local designer team.
The final choice is an infinitely recyclable single material: aluminium. Free from the usual twisting mechanism that requires plastic machinery, it features a push-button system inspired from a 1930s tube.
“Our lipstick tubes are fully made of aluminium. By using only one material, we avoided the tricky, costly separation which often hinders or prevents packaging from being recycled. Aluminium is infinitely recyclable,” explains the founder.
This initiative mirrors that of turnkey cosmetic solution supplier Meiyume, inspired from the tube patented in 1915 by American inventor Maurice Levy, or the one made of machined aluminium recently unveiled by packaging creation agency Cinqpats, also inspired from vintage tubes.
Recyclable rather than refillable
By design, the Juni tubes are fully recyclable by the users, who can also return them empty to the customer service, so they can be reused or recycled. Madeleine White deliberately chose not to offer a refillable version.
“Although refillable cosmetic products are gaining ground, we do not believe they are the best solution for all products. Our products are not refillable right now, because it is extremely difficult to transport delicate makeup like lipstick without secured primary packaging. Refills require extra packaging or plastic components that cannot be recycled. We will make no compromise,” she concludes.
