Brand Rating:

Avon

Name: Shifting Gaia brand review: Avon
Item: Avon
Rating: 2
Author: Shifting Gaia

Poor

4/10

Score 4/10

The Shifting Gaia rating evaluates brands based on sustainable practices, ingredients and materials, and social responsibility, among others. Below are a few factors influencing this brand's score:

Certifications

Leaping Bunny

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Rated: July 15, 2026
Category: Beauty care
Subcategory: Skincare

Overview:

Sustainability 4.9/10

Non-toxicity 4.0/10

Avon is a heritage direct-selling beauty company that makes affordable skincare, make-up, fragrance, and bath and body products, sold worldwide through a network of independent representatives rather than through shops.

Highlights

Cruelty-free, Leaping Bunny approved

Sustainability

score : 4.9/10

Packaging

Avon states that around 80% of its packaging across all categories is already reusable, recyclable, or compostable, with a target of 100% by 2030 and a commitment to reach 50% recycled content across all plastic used by the same date. The company has also begun introducing refillable formats, including fragrance refills that cut the price of a repeat purchase and refill sizes for some Anew serums. These are meaningful steps for a mass-market brand of this scale.

That said, the everyday reality of the range is still dominated by virgin and lightly recycled plastic across pumps, caps, tubes, compacts, and sachets, with glass reserved largely for fragrance. We saw no evidence of compostable or plant-based packaging materials in the core range, no third-party packaging certifications such as plastic-neutral or home-compostable verification, and no clear use of soy or vegetable-based inks. Recycling guidance is provided, which helps, but it places the burden on the customer rather than designing waste out at the source. Refill options exist but remain limited and recent rather than central to how the range is sold.

Ingredient Sustainability

The dominant pattern is a heavy reliance on petrochemical-derived and synthetic inputs. Across the sample we found silicones, synthetic film-formers and thickeners, petroleum-derived waxes, ethoxylated PEG compounds, isopropyl palmitate, and the synthetic antioxidant BHT. Several of these are persistent in the environment rather than readily biodegradable, and the lipstick contained nylon-12, a plastic powder that contributes to microplastic pollution. For a brand at this volume, the cumulative environmental load of these materials is significant.

The plant-derived ingredients present are a mixed picture, and this is where a closer look matters. Jojoba oil is generally low-impact: it is drought-tolerant and grown with minimal water. Less reassuring are the higher-pressure botanicals. The Ultra lipstick contains avocado oil, whose surging global demand is linked to deforestation and water stress, and the Anew Power Cream contains both coconut oil and shea butter, two ingredients whose sustainability hinges entirely on sourcing: coconut carries monoculture and habitat-loss risk, and shea can strain wild tree populations where harvesting outpaces regeneration.

Castor oil, used widely in the colour cosmetics, sits in a moderate tier that depends on farming practice.

We did not, however, see product-level certification (organic, Fair Trade, or RSPO labelling) confirming responsible sourcing for these botanicals across the range.

Energy Use & Carbon Footprint

The company reports having cut its operational greenhouse gas emissions (scopes 1 and 2) by 53% against a 2005 baseline, surpassing its earlier 2020 goal, and it has since set science-based targets for 2030 covering its factories, distribution network, and the footprint of individual products. It reports its emissions data publicly through its parent group's annual reporting and is working to source materials and ingredients with lower carbon footprints, supported by the life cycle assessment process applied to new formulas.

The honest caveat is that the headline 53% reduction applies to the company's own operations, while the largest share of a direct-selling beauty business's footprint sits in scope 3: the products themselves, global distribution, and the printed brochures that drive the sales model. Avon has set targets that reach into these areas, but the heavy reliance on frequent print campaigns and a globally dispersed representative network remains carbon-intensive.

Waste Management

Avon reports sending zero operational waste to landfill as of 2023, a credible operational achievement, and runs recycling programmes alongside efforts to reduce virgin plastic. The recent introduction of fragrance refills and refill sizes for some serums points toward a more circular model and is a positive direction of travel.

Against this, the consumer-facing side of the business remains largely single-use, and the brochure-led sales model generates substantial recurring paper waste across millions of catalogues.

Business Model

Avon's model is built on high-frequency campaign brochures, constant promotional cycles, and rapid product turnover. The current storefront alone carries multiple overlapping offers: buy-one-get-one deals, discounts of up to 50%, fragrances from a few pounds, and seasonal and trend-led launches. This structure is designed to drive volume and repeat impulse purchasing, which runs against the principle of slow, intentional consumption.

Non-toxicity

score : 4.0/10

Using the same five-product sample described above, this section assesses ingredients purely from a human health perspective, separate from their environmental impact. As a company selling in the UK and EU, Avon's products comply with some of the strictest cosmetic safety regulations in the world, and the sampled skincare avoided the most flagged ingredient classes: we found no parabens, no formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, and no SLS in the Anew serum and cream, which lean on water, glycerin, niacinamide, and mild preservatives such as phenoxyethanol and caprylyl glycol.

The difficulty is that moderate-risk ingredients appear routinely across the wider range. Synthetic fragrance (parfum) is present in almost every product, carrying its usual load of declared allergens such as limonene, linalool, citronellol, coumarin, and hydroxycitronellal, and its undisclosed composition limits transparency for sensitive users.

The synthetic antioxidant BHT, a possible hormone disruptor and skin sensitiser, recurs in both the body oil and the lipstick. The colour cosmetics and fragrance add further concerns: the lipstick contains the chemical UV filter ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate (octinoxate), and the Far Away fragrance combines benzophenone UV filters, which are associated with hormone disruption, with synthetic colourants and a high allergen count. Because a lip product is partly ingested and a fragrance is applied directly to skin, these matter.

Social Responsibility

score : 6.8/10

Fair Labor

Avon operates within Natura &Co, a group with a relatively developed environmental and social governance framework, and publishes a modern slavery statement alongside a commitment to identify, prevent, and mitigate human rights risks across its supply chain and operations by 2027. As a self-described company for women, its direct-selling model has historically provided flexible earning opportunities to millions of representatives, predominantly women, which is a social contribution.

The qualifications are real, however. The human rights due-diligence programme is a future commitment rather than a completed system, and we found limited evidence of broad third-party labour certification (such as SA8000 or Fair Trade) across Avon's manufacturing and supplier base. The representative model, while empowering for many, places earnings risk on self-employed sellers whose income is not guaranteed. Supply chain transparency is improving but not yet comprehensive.

Community Engagement

Through the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, launched in 1992, the company and its foundation have directed more than 800 million US dollars to breast cancer awareness, research, and care worldwide, and total giving across breast cancer and gender-based violence has exceeded one billion dollars across more than 50 countries.

In the UK specifically, Avon reports raising over 25 million pounds across 25 years for breast cancer charities and organisations supporting women facing domestic abuse.

Beyond fundraising, Avon's End Violence Against Women work funds frontline domestic-abuse services and runs awareness and education campaigns that reach around a million people a year, mobilising its representative network as a distribution channel for that messaging.

Animal Welfare

Avon has a long and substantive record on animal testing. It was among the first global beauty companies to stop testing on animals, has campaigned for regulatory change for three decades, and in July 2023 secured Leaping Bunny approval from Cruelty Free International, the most rigorous independent cruelty-free standard, beginning with its Fragrance, Care, and Anew lines and rolling out across the wider portfolio.

That certification requires supplier monitoring, supply-chain checks on ingredients, and annual re-auditing, and Avon has also worked with bodies such as the Institute for In Vitro Sciences and been recognised by PETA for advancing non-animal testing methods. The active advocacy for ending cosmetic animal testing globally is a leadership signal.

What keeps this short of the top tier is that Avon is not a vegan brand.