Increased public awareness regarding the ingredients that make up cosmetic and personal care formulations coupled with the growing concern about the dwindling nonrenewable sources from which most cosmetic ingredients like surfactants and polymers are obtained from has led to a strong need to achieve sustainability within the cosmetic industry. It has become the need of the hour to incorporate sustainability at each and every point of the product life cycle. This review focuses on the sustainable sourcing and formulation design of two key cosmetic ingredients-polymers and surfactants. To be able to completely replace their synthetic counterparts, it is crucial that these green products exhibit an efficacy level at par or greater than that of the products already on the market. Hence, various studies that show the impact of these alternatives on various performance parameters such as film formation and rheology have also been discussed. Being a heavily consumer-driven industry, some of the decisive future trends and challenges that the cosmetic industry needs to address have also been explored in this review.