Brianna Lapolla

When I made the leap from the fashion industry to the beauty industry, I was so excited to finally be in a space where individuality is celebrated rather than shunned. (Not a size 2 millionaire? Fashion thinks you should be!) When it comes to beauty, you have permission to play, create and experiment no matter your age, race or gender. This spoke to me.

Plus, it’s just so damn fun. I finally mastered the art of no-makeup makeup, learned how to appropriately layer my skin-care products and even learned the tricks to humidity-resistant pin-straight locks in August. (Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray, for all you sleek hair devotees.)

But none of those things are as valuable as my biggest takeaway: Just how wasteful the beauty industry is.

See, being a beauty editor means testing new products. But that also means trying a lipstick or mascara once, realizing it’s not your thing and then having a basically unused plastic-encased product that you can’t give to anyone else (because germs) and you can’t recycle (because the product is still very much in there). I can barely open the door to our beauty closet in the office, because it’s jam-packed with samples, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any other publication or media company that doesn’t have the same issue. I know, I know. “You have so much eye shadow; cry me a river.” But this excess and waste is literally keeping me up at night.

How bad is it?

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