EP146. Imagine the beauty industry in 2100

I want to tell you a story. It's the year 2100, and humans are celebrating the start of a new century. And we have reason to celebrate because we've turned a corner on the environmental issues faced on our planet, and we needed to turn that corner. Global temperatures rose by 1.8 degrees Celsius in the end because it took us too long to take meaningful action. So we didn't stick to the one and a half degrees that we'd agreed to. And the big floods of 2033 and the megastorms of 2036 and the global protests of 2037, in which almost a billion people took part all over the world, they shook everyone to their core. And forced through profound change, by necessity. In fact, for a few decades, resources were badly hit in the beauty industry. Ingredients were hard to come by, crops were destroyed. Fresh water and energy use was rationed in some parts of the world and therefore couldn't be used to make cosmetics. Also, international shipping ground to a halt for a while, but as a result, we completely and profoundly changed the beauty industry. The desperate need to make big change meant that consumption levels of beauty products were not only brought into question, but for a period of time, people couldn't get a hold of their favorite products anymore because supply chain issues put a temporary stop to this globalized industry. And now everything's changed and it's so much better. Not only do people no longer feel that they derive their self worth from cosmetics, but the decluttering process that happened as a natural result of the climate catastrophe meant that people didn't return to their previous beauty consumption habits and they now feel lighter as a result. I bet you're wondering what on earth I'm talking about this week. Well, let me explain. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions, or in this case, green beauty stories. And this week, I'm going to tell you a story about the beauty industry set in the future. It's a story I wrote after being inspired by my conversation with Candice Joni last week when she and I looked at the nine boundaries of planetary care and we discussed storytelling and activism and in the beauty industry. I want us to picture what the cosmetics industry should look like once we all make big and profound change. So today I want you to tell you a story. Whether it comes true is up to all of us. So let's go back to 2100 and continue with our story. The first thing to go was the plastic packaging. Plenty of people were already complaining that this was unsustainable back in the old days of the 2000s. But it took another 20 years and several major ecological breakdowns for the cosmetics industry to finally stop what it was doing. Virgin plastic Production halted around 2041, when world leaders finally signed a treaty to clean up the enormous plastic mess we'd made in just under a century. Although the beauty industry was generally on board with this approach, there were still a few grumbles about having to completely and radically reformulate their products. But when global landfill and ocean waste was analyzed, researchers uncovered that 20% of all plastic waste had come from the personal care industry. So we made the switch, and it took years for people to get used to not having everything in plastic. But only a few of us now remember what that felt like. Once we ditched the packaging, sales plummeted for a while in the cosmetics industry because all of the usual serums, conditioners and lotions weren't available in the same way. Also, this period coincided with the issues around supply chains and shipping, which meant that all of a sudden we couldn't get hold of many of the big brands that relied so heavily on their global distribution networks. What did happen, however, is that people became more resourceful. DIY beauty took off in a way that we'd never anticipated. Where newspapers and media outlets were sharing recipes on how to make homemade shampoo bars and lip balms. Also, many of the small brands that had carved themselves out a successful niche in their local communities before the so called big breakdown survived by catering for the people around them. The other fascinating side effect of these changes is that all of our priorities shifted. We were more focused on survival rather than consumption. So we found ourselves suddenly starting to question why we needed all of those beauty products in our lives. The Internet at the time was awash with articles from people rejecting the toxic messaging that the beauty industry had spent 150 years injecting into society. The natural human movement took hold. As a result, the big players went very quiet for a while. They hadn't future proofed their brands and had actively contributed to the environmental challenges we faced at the time. So shareholders sold off their stake in droves and abandoned ship. We now lovingly look back on the 2050s as the decade of minimalism. When we started doing more with less, local beauty brands started selling multifunctional solid formulations and refilling schemes were set up all across local cities and towns to help people get the personal care products they needed. Although we had to radically change our habits, I like to think that many of us grew as individuals too. I also think it brought us closer together. We no longer felt like the only way we could be worth it is if we bought all of these cosmetics, and that felt liberating to a lot of people. Instead, a newfound respect emerged for artisans and slowing down our consumption of beauty products. It's now been many years since the big shift happened. The beauty industry has started to re emerge, but it's now completely different. The 2000-80s saw people realize that we had to rebuild in a way that would never allow us to go back to the cosmetics industry of the 2000s. The refilling revolution had already taken hold years earlier, so it was a natural progression to continue with this circular economy that had been created out of necessity. Beauty marketing also changed for good after the wide scale cancellations of L' Oreal and Estee Lauder in the 2050s. Companies had learned their lesson when it came to consumption. Cosmetics are now marketed in a more factual manner as laws have been put in place worldwide to discourage rampant consumerism. I often wish we could have started this transition sooner and done so from a place of wanting to avoid impacts rather than ignore them. But you know what? We got there in the end. While we're still dealing with the environmental effects of our ancestors choices and will continue to do so for many more years, we have emerged from this crisis stronger than ever. I feel confident that we will turn this ship around. You know what? If there's one thing I could go back in time to say to the beauty industry of yesteryear, I tell them to slow down and focus on what really matters. I'd ask shoppers to shift to brands that have found their genuine, authentic purpose in the world. And I tell everyone to stop worrying quite so much about what they look like. The end. Thank you for listening to my story today. I know this episode was a little bit different, but I hope you'll indulge my creative outlet. Storytelling matters. In fact, I believe that storytelling will be the best way to help us visualize a better future for ourselves. Ourselves. I do hope you'll join me in telling these stories. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode. Sam.