Flawed Agricultural By-Products Made into Valuable Cosmetic Ingredients
Published 15 January 2024
As covered in Waste Material Brands to Know, inspiring sustainable brands are championing waste as a resource and giving by-products a new lease of life. Leaning into this, South Korea-based LG Household & Health Care recently unveiled its new conscious beauty brand Ugly Lovely, which upcycles “ugly crops” into cosmetic ingredients.
The brand rescues undesirable agricultural waste that’s unattractive in appearance, making it less marketable despite retaining a high nutrient content. Five products are included in the launch – two wash-off masks, one sleeping mask and two sheet masks – each with a natural derivative index exceeding 90%, based on ISO16128 standards, and certified as vegan by Korea Vegan Certification Agency. For example, the Fig Mask is a sugar scrub containing extracts from pesticide-free ugly figs grown in South Jeolla Province and ground food by-products, such as walnut shells and apricot seeds. Meanwhile, the Yuja Mask is formulated with yuzu extract obtained from the Goheung County in South Jeolla Province, which accounts for about 40% of the country’s citron production.
Additionally, the brand’s box packaging is created from 100% recycled paper, while the mask pack uses 100% waste-plastic pyrolysis oil as a raw material for its container, cap and spatula. And the sheet mask is an upcycled coated sheet, made using sugar cane and packed in a pouch that’s 48% recycled plastic.
Ugly Lovely joins the rising number of Asian beauty brands celebrating waste materials to formulate cosmetic ingredients, infusing it with a cheerful and witty approach and inviting more consumers to engage with waste-derived beauty products.
For more on how brands are valuing waste, see Beauty Sustainability Round-Up: September 2023.