Following my review post of Aroma Zone shop, I wanted to write another post with the DIY cosmetics, zero waste skincare stores that I have moved to. I personally tested all of these, talked to their customer service and they fulfill my personal sustainability criteria. Some of these shops are sort or like Aroma Zone, with basic cosmetics ingredients for DIY, some have already made clean beauty producs (or a bit of both). Let’s have a look at Aroma Zone alternative(s).
The simplest Aroma Zone alternative is your local zero waste store if you are lucky to have one. But if you don’t, and most people don’t, I would first look in:
- organic stores for small producers of carrier oils, essential oils and clay.
- your local Indian or Asian store for plant powders and henna
- fair trade and direct trade shops for oils and butters.
Aroma Zone alternative in France
Day by day chain zero waste store has a couple of basic DIY ingredients you can buy in bulk in your own container. They also have zero waste beauty finished products.
Slow Cosmetik maybe closest alternative to Aroma Zone, they have DIY ingredients from various smaller brands but you order and pay on the Slow Consmetik page and your full order is shipped together no matter the producer.
They also have Ayurvedic plant powders, that are sometimes hard to find. They are also great for purchasing finished clean beauty skincare. Not everything is zero waste or plastic-free though.
The selection is big enough to complete with Aroma Zone, and so are their shipping rates: for deliveries in France: 4.90 euros Colissimo and 3.90 euros Mondial Relay.
Revel Essence is another certified organic shop to buy cosmetic ingredients with prices really comparable to Aroma Zone. They work directly with producers, without intermediaries. The website gives a sort of similar feel to Aroma Zone, they have a really wide selection of essential oils and more plant extracts.
My cosmetik is another shop selling most DIY cosmetics ingredients, emulsifiers, butters, equipment, and all that jazz. In full disclosure, I haven’t ordered anything from them yet in quite a while, since most things come in plastic bottles, and plastic bags and there are already decent alternatives in the top two suggestions.
Private Green is a vente prive deal page for organic brands only. So far, I have seen My Cosmetik, Formule Beaute, and other brands selling DIY cosmetic ingredients, oils, and they often have zero waste sales as well. The savings are really up to 50%, they didn’t just inflate price to make it look like you are getting a deal.
I also have to mention a herbalist based in Paris called Maison Neroli. They sell essential oils, floral waters, perfumes, and oils from small French distilleries.
Joliessence is a France-based bauety shop with international shipping (though many countries excluded). See my review below.
I sometimes also use Beaute Prive. They are an aggregate for all sorts of beauty brands (and small spa companies), big and small, the nasty and organic, small and zero waste. Essentially, it’s a private sale site for all skincare and makeup related brands with reductions up to 60% or so. For organic or zero waste products, select the category on the left side.
They get their products from overstocked stores or special discounts and in my experience, the items were always original and in mint condition.
Zero waste or organic brands they carry are the likes of Lamazuna, Feel Natural, NAE, Alepia, Beauty formula (cosmetic ingredients), Blinx (menstrual undies), Fleurance nature, Nacomi, Christian Lenart (I wasn’t a fan), Glamza, Nuxe Bio, Pulpe de Vie (had the apricot scrub, was OK), Boho Green (low waste -ish makeup), Retour à l’essentiel (organic essential oils)… you get the idea. Using this link, you get 5EUR off a 15€ purchase.
I also purchased essential oils directly from Pranarôm, La Compagnie des Sens, Ladrôme all with good success. All are organic and made in France (and available in my organic store or a bigger parapharmacie).
Aroma Zone alternatives based in Europe
Joliessence is a Provence based lab working directly with producers and artisans to eliminate much of the handling resources and costs. They have organic certified oils, essential oils, pure organic cosmetic ingredients, and some cosmetic packaging as well. They also have harder to get essential oils of higher quality than Aroma Zone for medicinal purposes.
Their shipping is zero waste too, my packages are always wrapped in craft paper. For shipping costs, I can say they are one of the most reasonable ones for shipping outside of France as well and their shipping policy seems to be based on Aroma Zone’s shipping policy. They have a smaller fee for small packages and international orders can be as low as 5 EUR to Germany and 12 to the UK.
Ordering via this link will get you an additional 5,00€ (on an order of 35€).
Bioflore is another great all-rounder based in Belgium, doing deliveries all over the world. They have everything, essential oils, carrier oils, floral essences, but also soap making ingredients and emulsifiers. I like the page layout, it’s a lot clearer and simpler to Aroma Zones. You can surf based on your concern, and they will have just the most potent and tested ingredients. The recipes are simple and efficient. Love.
Free shipping for orders over a reasonable amount, 4.95€ for shipping to France, 7-12 for other European countries, and they also do worldwide shipping.
Kosmetikmacherei is a small shop in Vienna, Austria. They have all the basics plus some more. They are also the only shop where I could buy aluminum tubes for DIY creams. Though totally optional in your DIY cosmetics, metal tubes help preserve homemade cream for longer by preventing oxidation. If you happen to go there in person, be mindful of opening hours, they aren’t open every day.
Eccoverde is a European online store with organic products, oils, clays, good quality plant powders, makeup, and finished products. You can really get anything there, prices are a bit higher than Aroma Zone, but the quality is often higher, plus you are supporting local artisans.
They carry many European and foreign organic brands, some bigger ones and many smaller ones as well, like Dr. Hauschka (all plastic-free packaging, it’s either metal or glass), Zao, even have the Korean skincare brand Whamisa with some glass containers.
They deliver CO2 neutral to over 90 countries and the shipping rates are very reasonable.
Where to buy craft paper/bamboo packing for DIY cosmetics?
After many hours of searching, I found 2 options, and only 1 is suitable for an occasional DIY maker, like me. Dynamica, a Swiss company, has some kraft paper/bamboo packaging for lips balms and and small pots. From what I can tell, orders from Switzerland have limits, orders from EU start from 95 EUR. That is still too big of an order for me, I just don’t use/make that much.
Which brings me to the next option…
Etsy. There are a couple of sellers selling paper lip balm tubes and paper tubes for zero waste deodorants. Where and how they are made is often not disclosed. Etsy has changed their rules years ago, even back in the days when I had my store on it. They allow factory-made imported products to be sold as handmade, so do a bit of research where things actually come from.
For personal use, I ordered a couple of refillable metal lipstick cases from Lush. The cases are made in France.
To conclude this Aroma zone alternative post, let me leave you with this last shopping address from my grandma. Europe has a great (now somewhat forgotten) tradition of herbalists and herbal pharmacies, not found online. They have all sorts of forgotten plants available in tea, powder, maceration forms… Often those are found also in monastery shops, an ancient tradition from the times when monks were local healers and medicine men.
