Conserving Beauty founder Natassia Nicolao has made it her mission to find ways to improve water conservation. The owner of the Melbourne beauty brand believes that waterless formulates in beauty products are better for the planet.

“Without water, the ingredients in our formulas aren’t diluted,” Nicolao told Broadsheet in January. “This means that not only are our precious natural resources never wasted, but also your results are never watered down.”

Many beauty products contain as much as 70 to 90 per cent water – not to mention the additional water footprint created through the supply chain to make each product. Nicolao argues that the inclusion of water in beauty products makes no difference to efficacy, as it can’t be absorbed through the skin, and it’s often used to pad out products.

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In keeping with the brand’s ethos, Conserving Beauty launched the world’s first dissolving sheet mask in June. The Instamelt Skin Soothing Sheet Mask has been developed using a patented water-soluble polymer fabric technology that is dissolvable in water after use, leaving behind no microplastics.

In addition to being environmentally conscious, the masks are infused with eight potent, nasty-free ingredients to calm inflammation and redness, brighten skin, reduce pigmentation, and hydrate skin. Some of these ingredients include bakuchiol, which beauty experts dub “nature’s retinol”, and long used in Ayurvedic medicine. Then there are reishi mushrooms, the extract of which combats inflammation and reduces redness and puffiness in the skin, along with jojoba and sunflower seed oils. Conserving Beauty advises using the sheet masks as the final skincare step under make-up, or left on overnight to thoroughly absorb into skin.

The brand recommends that following the use of each sheet mask, it’s dissolved during daily incidental water usage, such as when showering or while brushing your teeth. The masks will also biodegrade completely within 14 days if not dissolved. Each mask comes packaged in recyclable sachets and 100 per cent post-consumer recycled waste cartons.

The brand has also partnered with non-profit organisation Seatrees, which preserves and protects coastal ecosystems through mangrove restoration projects. For each sheet mask purchased, Conserving Beauty plants a mangrove tree on Biak island in Indonesia, helping to protect it from storm-surges and rising sea levels, as well as providing sustainable employment for two villages on the island.

“We focus on the entire product life cycle, as true sustainability is about transparency, traceability and how we treat all the people in our ecosystem, as well as managing our water, carbon and waste footprint,” says Nicolao.

The Instamelt Skin Soothing Sheet Mask can be purchased via the Conserving Beauty website and in-store or online at Mecca. $15 for a single face sheet or $45 for a pack of three.