Facing up to plastic proliferation is critical to our future, and with zero waste face wash, you can unblock your pores without blocking up the planet à la single-use plastic.
These sustainable face cleaners are tackling the waste-stream head-on as much as they can tackle those pesky black-and-white heads. And here at SJ, we’ve personally tested almost every single one of these brands so we can let you know first-hand they work.
But beyond cleaning pores and the planet a la plastic-free packaging, with our new Brand Rating System, we’ll soon be reexamining these brands and products across a total of 22 criteria, including more broad-scope concerns like climate action and sustainable sourcing practices. Scrub through the full rating methodology here or read on to sustainably scrub your face.
We independently research all featured brands and we ask them to confirm their claims. In many cases we personally review recommended products. This post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you buy something. Learn more here.
The Best Sustainable Face Wash For a Chemical-Free Cleanse
Activist keeps your skin actively supple and dewy fresh thanks to their collection of refillable cleansing oils and gels, which triple as a cleanser, makeup remover, and moisturizer.
Brixy offers colorful face wash bricks that truly “raise the bar” with their concentrated formulas of facial goodness all packed into a facial bar that save water, the planet, and your complexion.
For zero waste face wash in reusable aluminum bottles, Certified B Corp Plaine Products is a skin win, plaine and simple.
Index: Sustainable Face Cleanser Brands
- Brixy Jump to brand
- Activist Skincare Jump to brand
- Plaine Products Jump to brand
- EcoRoots Jump to brand
- Conscious Skincare Jump to brand
- etee Jump to brand
- 100% Pure Jump to brand
- Ethique Jump to brand
- HiBAR Jump to brand
Brixy
Brixy’s Zero Waste Face Cleanser
Price: $16–$43
Brixy’s plastic-free face wash comes in the form of soap-free facial “bricks”, which protect against environmental stress and support a healthy skin barrier.
Featuring science-backed ingredients like ceramide NG, niacinamide, antioxidants, and humectants like castor oil, these bars deliver a silky and soft skin experience. Not to mention, we love how nice and foamy they get!
Brixy facial cleansing bars are gentle enough for sensitive skin like ours—which normally does not like foaming soap of any kind—and they’re pH balanced with premium ingredients to ensure a healthy skin mantle and microbiome. They’re also non-comedogenic and free from sulfates, phthalates, parabens, PEGs, and synthetic scents and colorants. We also love how concentrated they are. A single bar equals two standard bottles of face wash so they last a really long time in our experience.
With three different bars available—Hydrating, Brightening, and Blemish Control—we suggest purchasing their Gift Set, which comes with all three so you can switch depending on skin’s current needs.
Brixy’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
“Beauty That’s Better For The Planet” is their slogan, and Brixy accomplishes just that thanks to their bar-based sustainable body wash, fash wash, and shampoo that have replaced over 900,000 plastic bottles and saved 140,000 gallons of fresh water.
The brand is Leaping Bunny-certified cruelty-free and they educate about sustainable living and supporting the planet through their non-profit of the same name. Talk about raising the “bar”!
Activist Skincare
Activist’s Cruelty-Free Cleanser
Price: $37–$42
Pro-planet, pro-healthy skin activists everywhere (i.e. anyone likely reading this) can enjoy a spa-like skin cleansing experience with LA-based Activist.
The refillable beauty brand touts oil cleansing as the perfect solution for all skin types—even oily and zit-prone skin—since it gently removes excess oil and impurities without over-drying your skin or its barrier.
Thanks to the light blend of USDA certified organic ingredients and its “planet-positive chemistry,” this oily gel glides effortlessly over skin and delights the senses with a bright botanical aroma of cucumber, pink grapefruit, and lavender essential oils. Oh, and that beautiful blue is a product of antioxidant-rich (and thus free-radical fighting) spirulina algae, not dyes.
We’ve tested one of their three cleansing options in the Sea To Skin Cleansing Gel and we’ll just say that FINALLY washing our face feels like less of a chore. We especially love this “soft, decadent cleanser” (which is right on the money!) because it also doubles as makeup remover-slash-moisturizer and fully absorbs in less than an hour, making it the perfect before-bed cleansing and moisturizing ritual.
Activist’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Stay active with Activist by purchasing their stylish glass packaging once and refill the bottles yourself at home via lightweight pouches that produce 99% less CO2 and 75% less plastic waste than normal recycled glass or plastic containers. They’re still working on a compostable pouch, which we look forward to.
All ingredients are also cruelty-free and vegan and shipping packaging comes in boxes made from PCR recycled content. As active activists and members of 1% For The Planet, they also give 1% of all profits to environmental advocacy organizations.
Plaine Products
Plaine Products’ Zero Waste Face Cleanser
Price: $15
Plaine Products’ face wash in a refillable aluminum bottle is anything but plaine. In fact, we personally find it nothing short of extraordinary thanks to its refreshing burst of aloe, cucumber, green tea, and vitamin C, along with its vegan, biodegradable, and hypoallergenic properties—along with a super foamy formulas that gently cleanses without stripping our skin of its natural oils.
Available in either unscented or naturally scented citrus, you won’t find synthetic fragrances, palm oil, phthalates, parabens, or sulfates. Instead, the citrus is scented with high quality pink grapefruit, sweet orange, and lemon essential oils.
The refill version comes without the pump and bottles can be sent back to Plaine Products to be reused in the same box as your initial order, or recycled curbside.
About Plaine Products
Certified B Corp Plaine Products was started by two ocean-loving sisters with a vision to reduce plastic in the world. Hence their range of chemical-free hair and body care products in refillable and recyclable aluminum containers.
To make sure their Leaping Bunny certified cruelty free and made in the USA products are completely non-toxic, they run each ingredient through the Environmental Working Group’s database. They’re also members of the Plastic Pollution Coalition and 1% for the Planet.
EcoRoots
EcoRoot’s Cruelty-Free Face Wash
Price: $12–$24
Get back to nature’s roots with the nourishing face wash bars from EcoRoots that harness the power of nature in their cold-pressed bars that are handcrafted in small batches using organic plant oils, herbs, and clays. Available in four types—Charcoal Tea Tree, Shea Oatmeal, Orange Bergamot, and Pink Clay—each one is guaranteed to unclog pores and improve your complexion.
For oily skin, both the Charcoal Tea Tree and Orange Bergamot bars will gently clean pores, without irritation. For sensitive skin, the Shea Oatmeal bar is unscented and full of antioxidants and vitamins, which leaves our skin feeling super smooth and smelling great.
We haven’t tested this one, but EcoRoots also offers a Powder Face Cleanser made with kaolin and bentonite clay, beetroot powder, and vitamin C that blends with a few drops of water to become a light pink paste that nourishes and cleanses while promoting skin elasticity and a radiant complexion.
EcoRoots’ Ethical & Sustainability Practices
EcoRoots is one of the best zero waste online stores for stocking up on sustainable personal care products. Everything is vegan, cruelty free, mostly palm oil-free, SLS-free, and packaged and shipped plastic free. They manufacture in the USA and donate 1% of their profits to the Ocean Conservancy.
Conscious Skincare
Conscious Skincare’s Sustainable Face Wash
Price: $4–$19
Conscious Skincare uses organic castile soap and organic glycerin to moisturize and maintain a consciously clean complexion.
You can choose between four formulations depending on your skin’s needs: Enrich, Neutralize, Rejuvenate, or Gentle. We especially love Neutralize, which contains organic lemongrass and organic lavender essential oils to cleanse and tone. We also recommend their Gentle formula, which relies on anti-inflammatory organic calendula and chamomile, making it one of the best options for dry skin.
Each comes in a fully recyclable glass bottle with or without a pump dispenser. They also offer 500ml refill bottles made from 100% recycled plastic.
Conscious Skincare’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Based in Wales, this award-winning sustainable skincare brand offers a huge range of products that are vegan-approved and certified cruelty-free by Cruelty Free International and PETA. They’re also gluten-free, palm oil-free, and contain only ingredients rated “safest” by the Environmental Working Group.
Conscious Skincare was awarded the Ethical Consumer “Best Buy” status and supports local charities like the Greenacres Animal Rescue through product donations and fundraising.
etee
etee’s Non-Toxic Face Wash
Price: $29
Say “so long” to plastic with etee’s 100% plant-based Facial Cleanser Concentrate. It’s truly a breakthrough (not breakout) cleanser created by a team of cosmetic chemists and a PhD in microbiology to ensure a perfectly clean concentrate that achieves the desired results.
Featuring ceramides, gentle surfactants, and natural superfood extracts like Goji berry and ginseng, the blend of natural science and gentle chemistry results in a formula that soothes, brightens, and cleanses and removes makeup without drying your skin.
Since this comes as a concentrate, simply mix it with 100ml of potable water in the glass bottle and shake. Afterwards, the green beeswax pod is fully home compostable. We’ve composted many of these over the last couple years and never have any trouble having them break down in a timely manner.
For a more classic clean, they also offer a Charcoal & Aloe Facial Cleansing Bar.
etee’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
One of our favorite alternatives to Amazon, Canadian company etee is a one-stop shop offering everything from toothpaste to laundry soap detergents, all cruelty-free, plastic-free (including the packaging), and manufactured using renewable energy. The company makes donations to various charities including the Mississauga Food Project and Safe Horizon.
100% Pure
100% Pure’s Chemical-Free Face Wash
Price: $30–$38
100% Pure isn’t just a name—their commitment is to use 100% pure ingredients that encourage environmental sustainability, compassion, kindness, and empathy for all living things.
The brand offers 20+ different sustainable face wash alternatives to the chemical-ridden drugstore version. Each one is non-toxic and biodegradable, meaning they won’t be giving our planet a makeover of the hideous kind.
One of their most popular is the Blood Orange Cleansing Balm, an uplifting, energizing, moisturizing facial cleanser made with blood orange, coconut oil, and olive oil to remove even the most stubborn makeup and grime.
However, our personal favorite is the Matcha Cleansing Balm, and we’ve been using it religiously for the last year or so. It’s a really thick, paste-like formula made of coconut oil, shea butter, and avocado oil that does leave a bit of a greasy residue on the skin, much like your favorite moisturizer. For that reason, we prefer to use this in the shower in combination with a washcloth to remove the excess, and we like to use it before bed, as that way our skin can absorb all that moisturizing goodness through the night, so we wake up with smoothe, non-greasy skin that’s ready to take on the day.
100% Pure’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
True to their name, natural skincare brand 100% Pure is 100% committed to chemical-free, clean, non-toxic face wash and other skincare and beauty products. Everything is naturally derived and mostly organic—we’re talking even pigments from things like cocoa, fruit, tea, and vegetables, along with premium quality essential oils, plant oils, and vitamins.
All products are cruelty-free, and most are vegan aside from organic honey. To further show their love for animals and the planet, 100% Pure donates a bowl of vegan dog food for every order or plants a tree.
We’re hoping their packaging will soon catch-up to their 100% pure ethos, with the brand vowing to reduce petrochemical-based (ie plastic) packaging by 75% and to replace all packaging with post-consumer recycled (or recyclable) materials by 2024.
Ethique
Ethique’s Plastic-Free Face Cleanser
Price: $17
Ethique caters to all skin types with two unique biodegradable and plastic free face wash bars that contain coconut oil, kaolin clay, exfoliating sea salt, and the like.
You could be tempted to eat their creamy, dreamy Bliss Bar Gentle Solid Face Cleanser, whose creamed coconut is super sumptuous and perfect for sensitive skin. Or for an extra deep cleanse, their Deep Green Bar features French green clay that effectively cleanses and balances the skin’s microbiome.
Both face bars are soap-free and pH balanced, making them ideal for sensitive skin—in addition to being certified vegan, cruelty free, palm-oil free, and wrapped in compostable packaging.
We’ve long been fans of these bars, not just for their super concentrated money-saving formulas—which are the equivalent of three plastic bottles—but for the gentle and honestly very effective formulas that clean deep in the pores and reduce our tendency to break out.
Ethique’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Certified B Corp Ethique has a bar for all your zero waste skin care and haircare needs. Scrub up with a clean conscience knowing that they’re a Climate Positive company that offsets 120% of emissions and all packaging is minimal and compostable. Ethique donates 20% of its profits to charity and plant a tree for every order via their partnership with Ecologi.
HiBAR
HiBAR’s Zero Waste Facial Cleanser
Price: $15
HiBAR has created the world’s first amino acid face wash bar to gently cleanse your skin without stripping its natural moisture—or stripping the planet of its precious natural world. Each of their four different face wash bars is vegan and fragrance-free with no soap, mineral oils, parabens, sulfates, or phthalates, making it a face-tastic option.
Cleanse has the most cleaning agents, while remaining gentle and pH balanced, while Hydrate provides super-moisturizing olive squalane for extra hydration. The Solid Oil Cleanser blends skin-loving natural oils and active plant-based ingredients that melt away make-up, sunscreen, dirt, and grime.
And lastly, Renew combines amino acids and olive seed powder for some feather-light exfoliation. This is the one we’ve tried and while its ingredient list is longer than we typically like, we love that the majority of them are actually just amino acids that really nourish and enrich the skin with things it often doesn’t get naturally—like arginine, which boosts natural collagen products and slows skin aging.
It feels excellent though the olive oil does leave a bit of a post-moisturized feel, and has never caused any skin irritation or breakouts for us.
About HiBAR
HiBAR has high hopes for eliminating single-use plastic with its range of river rock-inspired shaped bars and cardboard tube products, like cruelty-free deodorant, which has become our all-time fave deo for the BO.
Everything is 100% plastic-free and products are Leaping Bunny certified cruelty free and contain natural pigments approved by COSMOS and ECOCERT. Their face wash bars do contain several common palm-derived vegetable oils and cetearyl alcohol, with one supplier unable to guarantee they’re always palm-free.
HiBAR composts what they can, uses commercially compostable EcoWrap film on their shipping pallets, and donate products (including those with physical defects to prevent waste) to those in need, like schools, women’s shelters, and homeless shelters.
