The future of glitter? It's plant-based and guilt-free, thanks to this Scandi-founded brand

“The last thing the world needs is another lipstick,” says Zenia Jaeger, the founder of Submission Beauty. It’s early in LA where Jaeger is sitting at home, yet her signature canary-hued hair is perfectly coiffed and she wears an immaculate bold lip. An illustrated ‘Adventures in Christiania’ poster hangs behind her, nodding to her Danish roots.

Right off the bat, Jaeger dives into some of the ugliest truths about beauty – an industry she’s worked in for decades as an award-winning makeup artist. She’s quick to cite over-production as one of its most problematic areas. So why did she, together with Marc Palatucci, and fellow Scandinavians Johanna Nomiey and Stine Rasmussen, decide to add to the masses with yet another brand?

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“In my own past experience, everything that was labelled ‘sustainable’ came in a jam jar or brown packaging,” Jaeger says, noting that on the other end of the spectrum, high-end products are often packaged in single-use plastics. “I wanted to create responsible luxury without compromising on the look and feel. I wanted to create genuine sustainable beauty products with ‘Chanel aesthetic’ packaging.” Cue the launch of Submission Beauty in 2020, offering all-vegan, zero-plastic luxury.

Jaeger kicked things off with a plant-based glitter that does everything you could want a glitter to do while skipping on the irreversible environmental damage. “The usual microplastics of glitter are replaced with a non-toxic formulation using the cellulose base from eucalyptus,” Jaeger says. The biodegradable glitter is housed in refillable glass and tin containers, as are the newer additions to the Submission Beauty family – a balm and highlighter – which are made completely from plants and minerals.

Three years after Submission Beauty’s launch, the team is embracing legal measures recently implemented by the EU banning loose plastic glitter, as part of wider moves to eradicate microplastics in cosmetics, detergents and other consumer products. “It’s such fantastic news,” Jaeger smiles. “Not just thinking about us and our brand, but for everyone that’s interested in seeing positive change in our world.”

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While the brand has been a regular fixture in the arsenal of the top makeup artists at New York Fashion Week for some time now, Submission Beauty also took to Copenhagen for its spring/summer 2024 circuit, responsible for the iridescent silver-slicked eyelids of the models walking the Remain runway. The brand has also recently teamed up with Jaeger’s long-time friend Ditte Reffstrup, creative director of Ganni, for a glittering collaboration that served up three exclusive shades of the coveted sustainable shimmer.

“If we all do something small, it adds up,” Jaeger says. “We need to make a f***ing change.”