I Got $3,000 In Free Beauty Products & Reduced My Carbon Footprint At The Same Time

In an effort to reduce my personal carbon footprint, I completely stopped buying new clothes six years ago, but I found that other daily necessities were trickier to source second-hand. When I learned about Buy Nothing groups — online hyper-local gifting economies primarily organized on Facebook, where anything from cans of beans to guitar lessons are on offer — I was elated. What I didn't expect was the overwhelming haul of beauty products that came my way: by my estimation, roughly $3,000 worth — all for free from my neighbors.

My obsession with Buy Nothing didn’t begin with beauty. Two old suitcases cluttered my small Brooklyn apartment pre-pandemic. Too guilty to throw functional objects into a landfill, but too lazy to lug them over to Goodwill — which has become increasingly inundated with donations they are unable to sell — a friend suggested my local Buy Nothing group. Within 14 minutes of my first post, a neighbor arrived at my door, profusely thanking me for my luggage. 

When Kerin Morataya, a graphic designer and law student in Los Angeles, joined Buy Nothing, a lot changed for her. “I went through this period where I really didn’t care about my appearance.” Then, while offering her first gift to the group — two remote controls — she met someone who became a romantic partner. “After we met, I became interested in makeup, and got a few eyeshadows from the group. When I received these things, it definitely opened the door back into the beauty world for me.”

In her local Silverlake group, Morataya went on to create a beauty round robin. Neighbors add their names to the list, and every couple months, Kerin begins a bag with new or barely used products that makes the rounds. Folks take what they want, add items of their own, and keep it moving. 

In the past few years, I have given and received from my groups feverishly. A brand new bike obtained from a neighbor within 24 hours of mine being stolen. Bags of clothes purged. And then, the beauty products: from bottles of SK-II to Biologique Recherche, OPI nail polish to Drunk Elephant luxury face oil, and hair sprays to body lotions I was thrilled to try, it dawned on me that Buy Nothing groups may be one of the best ways to combat the beauty industry's waste problem. For anyone concerned with the hygiene of it all, I once received a bag containing hundreds of dollars worth of Yves Saint Laurent and MAC lipsticks. Most were unopened and unused, but for those the previous owner had tested, she’d cut the tops off and included some extra alcohol wipes. And when things don’t work for me? I sanitize the products and regift them back to my group.

Becca Strassberg, a content editor based in Brooklyn, told me about her Buy Nothing beauty gifting journey: “During the pandemic, I was so bored I signed up for Ipsy or Birchbox or one of those, and after that phase…there was an obscene amount of stuff I never used. So many palettes! I’m 30 and still have palettes from high school. And I’d only used a single color on each! I realized by joining Buy Nothing that people wanted these things.”

What’s especially satisfying is that the magic isn’t limited to receiving treasure; joining your local group is a guilt-free way to empty your own cluttered medicine cabinet.

Case in point: Last year, I bought a big expensive bottle of curl cream to try and tame my mane, but it left my hair matted. I couldn’t bear to just toss it because of what I’d spent, but ended up gifting the product to a teacher who lived down my street. Buy Nothing may be the only corner of the internet (or life!) where doing what's good for the planet, smart for your wallet, and great for your community (I always see her at the bodega!), may result in your own collection of luxury products. 

Tamika Daniels, a stay-at-home mom in New York, described this feeling: “With beauty products, it can be so hit or miss. It’s nice to, of course, not waste your own money and throw it in the trash. But it’s also nice to help someone else beautify themselves.” Daniels recalls a time when she had just a pump left of her favorite facial cleanser, then found someone gifting the same product in her local group. “I typically buy it in a 4oz. bottle, so I was ecstatic when I went to pick up the gift and realized my neighbor was giving me two 8oz. bottles!”

What surprised me most about these groups, especially in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, is the age, racial, and socio-economic diversity and non-judgmentalness they demonstrate. In my South Brooklyn group, where fancy brownstones sit across the street from public housing, group members ask for groceries, baby supplies, and space heaters, while others give away designer handbags. Everyone is eligible for everything. If you would donate to a local food pantry, why not give things away to your own neighbors? And in the land of Buy Nothing, these donations are seen purely as gifts in the form of food, household items, and yes, even a bottle of Chanel No. 5 your mother-in-law sent you three years ago. 

I know I sound like a zealot, but rightfully so. Over the past few years, I’ve acquired  thousands of dollars worth of beauty products and more from my neighbors for free. And this doesn’t even begin to speak to the amount I’ve been happy to let go of, guilt and stress free, to people I see walking their dogs on my block. In my own sustainability journey, I’ve learned that finger-wagging at people about waste and overconsumption simply doesn’t work. But my friends do want to know how I got three free bottles of Supergoop!, and what to do with their bags of hoarded hotel shampoos. 

Even if you don’t overhaul your consumption in its totality, this platform is a great first stop before you buy or donate elsewhere. Are you nearing the end of your bottle of moisturizer? Join your local group. Have a drawer full of samples you’re never going to get through? Offer it up! You can find your local group here.  

Earth Day tends to focus heavily on buying from better companies, and while corporations bear the biggest responsibility for combatting waste, the most valuable thing we can do as consumers is just to buy less. Or, in this case, Buy Nothing.