This month, retail giant Selfridges has launched their first major sustainability initiative: Project Earth. They’ve partnered with environmentally-conscious groups Green Peace, Woodland Trust and WWF to work on making their business more sustainable by 2025. 

One of the main areas that we’ll see change is the beloved beauty section. For as long as we can recall, the beauty industry has faced one huge obstacle when it comes to sustainability - single use plastics. According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic bottles take around 450 years to decompose on average, not to mention  the fact that plastic waste is a huge threat to sea life. But, the industry has been working on reducing this impact by way of refillable beauty products.

The brand has become one of the first major retailers to have a refillable fragrance bar in their stores stocking a wide variety of brands that weren’t available to refill before. Since their implementation, refills have always been a great avenue, just not widely available enough to make them a viable solution to the industry’s packaging problem. But, Selfridges new scheme feels like a step in the right direction. 

Tom Ford’s Rose Prick, Gucci’s Flora Gorgeous Gardenia and Kilian’s Good Girl Gone Bad are among some of the perfumes available to refill. A large selection of Le Labo’s fragrances from Santal 33 to Rose 31 and Neroli 36 are just some of those you can top up too.

Experimental Perfume Club have also joined the initiative with a selection of their fragrances available, including their Jasmine and Osmanthus EDP and Amber and Iris EDP.

And it’s easier than you’d think to use. Once you’ve purchased a perfume from the store, you can bring it back to the fragrance workshop and that brand will refill your fragrance. Depending on which fragrance you’re looking to refill and its specific cost, Guerlain’s prices start from £125 and Ormand Jane are offering a 10% discount on their scents. A personalised perfume from Experimental Perfume Club will cost around £105 for 50ml, but refills are £50.

Those who love Gucci’s Flora Gorgeous Gardenia will be able to refill their bottle at the cost of £42 for 50ml and £57.50 for 100ml, whilst Le Labo are offering 20% off the fragrance price for their refills.

The majority of these fragrance refills are done at the Selfridges store in London, however the Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia is also available to refill at the Manchester Exchange Store and Le Labo’s refills are available at the Manchester Trafford and the Manchester Exchange stores.

The eco-conscious initiative has also permeated the fashion, home and technology sections as well as the rest of their beauty range. Make-up brands including Bobbi Brown and Charlotte Tilbury and skincare brands Dermalogica and Kiehl’s have agreed to take part in the programme.

The fragrance workshop is available to use at the Selfridges London store now. Fore more information on the initiative, head to selfridges.com. 

Images: courtesy of Selfridges.