The Don't Buy List: Roe v. Wade, Harry Styles, & The Bezos-Beauty Connection
Plus, what Glossier and gasoline have in common.
Hello, dewy dust bunnies, and welcome to another edition of the The Don’t Buy List! Fun fact: You can only call it glitter if it comes from the Glittère region of France. Otherwise it’s just sparkling microplastic pollution.
Anyway!
“California’s attorney general has announced an unprecedented investigation into the fossil fuel industry — not for its knowledge about climate change, but for its role in causing the global plastics pollution crisis,” reports Joseph Winters for Grist. As we know, recycling is a scam. (Yup, those “post-consumer recycled plastic” bottles that the beauty industry loves to pretend are sustainable? They are… not.) According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, “The plastics industry has engaged in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis” for over a century. This is a great opportunity to remember that plastics and petrochemicals — like petroleum jelly, mineral oil, and PEGs — are fossil fuels, and we cannot uncouple their environmental harm from our face masks, exfoliating peel pads, or Vaseline vats. The materials that make gasoline also make Glossier bottles. The materials that make engine oil also make moisturizer. The materials that melt the ice caps also “melt away makeup.” Divesting from fossil fuels — which we have to do if we want to mitigate climate disaster — must include divesting from industrialized beauty.
Harry Styles covers the latest issue of Better Homes & Gardens. The internet went wild for this photo shoot, but all I could see was THE VERY OBVIOUS PRODUCT PLACEMENT FOR PLEASING, HARRY STYLES’ NAIL POLISH BRAND. I mean….