Giving Compass' Take:

• Allure provides four beauty companies that give away portions of their sales to nonprofit organizations serving different causes.  

• How can these beauty startups encourage more charitable giving within their industry? 

• Read about how to tell if a beauty brand's philanthropic initiatives are real. 

There are companies that give back. And then there are give-back companies, ones that are built — from day one — with a philanthropic mission at the forefront. These four young beauty lines fall firmly in the second camp.

It's easy to classify any give-back efforts as good, but brands that aren't transparent about, exactly how much they're donating per product or to which charity the proceeds are going are as common as their actually-charitable counterparts. As for these four? They're totally changing the game.

  • Thistle Farms: Peruse the ingredient list for one of Thistle Farms’ lotions, oils, or soaps, and you’ll learn they’re made of simple, soothing ingredients (natural oils, butters, and waxes). Continue to read the packaging and you’ll discover that they were made by women who are survivors of human trafficking, domestic abuse, and addiction. And these women are getting way more than a paycheck: The Nashville-based company’s residential program also provides free housing, medical care, therapy, and job training for up to 32 women at a time.
  • The Lipstick Lobby: Simply and plainly, the company donates $5 from the sale of every lipstick (a minimum of $10,000) to the American Civil Liberties Union.
  • Beautiful Rights: Twenty percent of all sales — not net or gross profits — is donated to causes like women’s reproductive health (through Planned Parenthood), gun safety (through March for Our Lives and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America), and human rights and social equality (through the American Civil Liberties Union and others).
  • Indigo & Iris: Zero percent of the gross profits from every tube is donated to the Fred Hollows Foundation, which specializes in curing treatable blindness in the Pacific Islands, where eyesight-restoring surgeries can cost as little as $18.

Read the full article about philanthropic beauty startups by Jessica Chia at Allure