Beauty: Been given a gift set that’s not quite ‘you’? Donate it to Toiletries Amnesty

A moisturiser, a body wash, a lipstick, a perfume: you were given them for Christmas and they’re lovely. . . just not quite ‘you’. What to do? Don’t leave them in the bathroom cabinet to gather dust: instead donate them to Toiletries Amnesty, the Cambridgeshire-born NGO working to end hygiene poverty and divert beauty industry waste around the world. Alice Ryan talks to founder Karen Harvey MBE

To begin at the beginning: tell us how Toiletries Amnesty came to be? It started 10 years ago, with me coming across two bottles of shampoo in the airing cupboard that I couldn’t use. Rather than waste them, I thought of donating them to a homeless shelter. I reached out to Wintercomfort in Cambridge, who gave me a list of what they needed, including hotel miniatures. They explained these were particularly helpful as they could be handed out individually, giving people a small but meaningful boost.
At the time, I was writing a blog and decided to use it to put out a call for donations. The idea was simple: like a gun or knife amnesty, people could hand over unused or part-used toiletries with no questions asked. The response was overwhelming. People sent packages from across the UK, and soon we had enough to support multiple shelters.
The need was clear, and I couldn’t stop there. I created a small directory of organisations needing toiletries and continued to grow from there.

A decade on and the organisation’s support has reached more than 1,000 locations and six million people worldwide in the last year alone: that’s incredible! How does it work? Put simply: we divert thousands of tonnes of beauty industry waste away from landfill and into the hands of people who need it, by connecting individuals and brands with surplus products to organisations supporting people in need.
We support homeless shelters and hostels, women’s refuges, mental health services, end-of-life care hospices, food banks, NHS Trust services, refugee services, LGBTQ+ groups, prison services, children’s centres, young people’s services, schools, colleges, community groups, and other organisations that need us.

The mission for Toiletries Amnesty is twofold, isn’t it? Yes. Number one is access: to provide hygiene and beauty products to people who wouldn’t normally have access to them. Number two is sustainability: to prevent perfectly usable items from ending up in landfill or incineration, fostering a circular economy.
We also give brands the chance to repurpose unsellable stock — whether due to outdated packaging or minor imperfections — into something meaningful. By redistributing these products, we’re helping people regain dignity and autonomy while reducing environmental waste.

Waste is a huge issue within the beauty industry, isn’t it? It’s really hard to quantify, but as an example: one brand, which is massive, invited me to its warehouse in Northampton where they had two whole rows of shelving filled with unwanted product set to be shredded - we’re talking millions of pounds worth of stuff.
One of the biggest problems is that it’s so easy for people to order something online, send it back because they change their mind or it’s not right for them, and it can’t then be restocked - beauty products can’t go back on sale like a pair of jeans or a T-shirt. So the brands have to dispose of that product, and their easiest option is to put it on a skip.
To give you a sense of the scale: this year we’ve received a small percentage of the returns of just one product from a major makeup brand, which sells probably 30 products in total, and we’ve received in the region of 12 tons.

Hygiene poverty is an equally huge issue. Is need growing, do you think? Again, it’s hard to quantify. In the last 12 months, we’ve supported 1,000 locations and six million people - it’s mad. Maybe we’ll plateau at a certain number, but I expect it will grow again this year. I don’t know whether that’s because the need will grow, or because we’re reaching more people as more people hear about us.
There are always going to be people who have less than others; that’s just the way it is. We’re never going to end homelessness, we’re never going to end poverty - the system doesn’t allow it, does it? This is a way of sharing and caring for people. If we want to rebuild a better society, we do it by sharing and looking after our neighbours - I think that’s the biggest thing for me.

These donations make a very real difference to people, don’t they? If you’re living in hygiene poverty, it means you’re already living in other types of poverty. You’re could be homeless or in a hostel or in a refuge, or be a refugee. You might also be a 2.4-children family who can’t survive on what you’ve got; you go to work, come home and have to decide do you put the heating on or cook a dinner?
Toiletries are lower on the list of necessities. Being able to make those toiletries available - and some things that are a treat, like a perfume or fancy hair products - can have a real knock-on effect on someone’s self-worth.

Without wanting to impinge on privacy, are there any personal stories you can share? This one made a big impression on me. A lady got in touch to say she’d just come to the end of chemo, things were looking good, and she’d been given a gift box of high-end hair products, part of a donation of remaindered stock. She was keeping it on her bathroom shelf, looking at it every day, and couldn’t wait to use it when her hair grew back. It’s such a small thing to us - it’s someone else’s waste, it’s their spare - but it makes such a big difference.
When you see those adverts for cancer support charities, you never see a patient walking into the appointment with tatty clothes, do you? But people living in really drastic situations - who can’t even afford to feed themselves or put the heating on - also go through things like cancer treatment. . . It’s horrific.

It’s about giving without taking away dignity, isn’t it? I don’t want to put anyone in a position where they feel vulnerable or looked down upon or like it’s a hand-out or any of that. This is about sharing: if you don’t need something, somebody else needs it; if they’ve got something, they’ll pass it on. When you give someone a smile or you say hello, it’s the same principle. All these things have value.

We know transparency is very important to the organisation too? When you donate, it’s not going to some secret place; it’s completely transparent. Using the directory, you choose where and how you make your donation, whether you want to drop it off locally or post it somewhere else. It would be lovely for people to tag us on Instagram if they do donate, actually, so we can see and share and say thank you.

You’ve just announced a very exciting collaboration with John Bell & Croyden, the iconic London pharmacy! Tell us about that? We’ve done collaborations before, but this is next-level. It started with us winning Best Local, Community or Charity Initiative at the Country and Town House Future Icons Awards, which was a brilliant thing in itself. I was included on the Future Icons Power People 2025 list too - in good company: King Charles was next on the list after me!
Alexander Johnston, general manager of John Bell & Croyden, was one of the judges for the awards. John Bell & Croyden is iconic: founded in 1798, it was pharmacist to Her Majesty The Queen for more than 60 years. After the awards, we were introduced, he was really interested and wanted to get involved; he’s a lovely human, who genuinely wants to help people. We’ll be partnering with them for the foreseeable future, and launching the first campaign together in January, asking people to donate unwanted Christmas presents.

We've all been there: you’re given a beauty gift at Christmas, which is lovely but you know you won't use it. Donating is the perfect solution, isn't it? You feel guilty for not liking it, don’t you? I know I do. Donating it to Toiletries Amnesty solves that problem. It’s great: you’ve been given a lovely gift, which means someone cares about you, and you can pass on that gift, showing someone else you care. It’s a beautiful thing.

Show Your Support: Toiletries Amnesty is an award-winning NGO working to end hygiene poverty and divert beauty industry waste. Supporting more than 1,000 locations, in 2024 it provided access to toiletries and hygiene products for six million people around the world.
Donating your spare toiletries is easy: use the online directory at toiletriesamnesty.org to find your nearest location, check what they accept and how best to share your items with them. If you don’t have any toiletries to donate, please don’t buy them especially. Instead, consider making a monetary donation: Toiletries Amnesty is entirely self-funded and every penny counts! Again, visit toiletriesamnesty.org for details.