A solo episode of the Green Beauty Conversations podcast (Green Beauty Opinions) in which Lorraine Darmeyer—chartered environmentalist, biologist, and CEO of Formula Botanica—delivers a positive, persuasive monologue about the benefits of sustainable beauty. Key positives highlighted include multifunctional/longer‑lasting solid formulations, circular packaging and refill systems (with reported high return rates), reduced packaging waste, biodegradability combined with sensible eco‑design, brands reducing/offsetting environmental footprints, and a more inclusive beauty culture. She references a previous interview with Anisha Gupta (Bluebird), encourages listeners to adopt sustainable choices, and issues calls-to-action to subscribe and leave reviews.
Questions this video answers
2023-06-08
Anisha Gupta of Bluebird
75% to 80% return rates
Chapters
On this podcast, I talk about all sorts of issues around sustainability in the beauty industry, and I love unpicking all of the challenges and issues we face in the cosmetics sector. But I recognize that sometimes we get a little bit bogged down in the depressing bits, and it might seem like an insurmountable challenge when we get caught up talking about waste and carbon emissions and water footprints and biodegradability. Everything might also sound really scientific and clinical and just really, really hard. So this week I'm going to quote Monty Python and we're going to look on the bright side of life. Because as we discussed in last week's podcast episode, sustainability is a really great positive thing. Last week I interviewed Anisha Gupta of Bluebird, a US based company that's created a fascinating impact assessment tool for beauty brands. And while we were talking about Bluebird's really cool widget, I admit I may have referred to sustainability as sexy. And I kept thinking afterwards about that interview, particularly focusing on the fact that doing the right thing is awesome. Now, not everyone likes this message, of course, as one of our more irate listeners recently referred to me as, yes, insanely woke. But I will gladly take that compliment and take it further this week by talking about all of the positive sides of sustainable beauty. Hi, it's Lorraine Darmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions in which I share my main takeaways from the podcast episode we released last week and challenge you to join me in making the green beauty sector a better place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So let's run through all of the amazing positives of creating sustainable beauty. Well, firstly, sustainable beauty involves multifunctional, longer lasting formulations. I love this personally. I'm using solid soap, solid lotion bars, solid shampoo bars, solid conditioner bars, and solid toothpaste tabs at the moment. Have you tried solid formulations yet? Because they are amazing and all of them are lasting a really long time for me and they're so easy to take traveling and they can be used on different parts of your body, which means that you're buying fewer formulations overall and they're lasting longer. Using a formulation for a longer period of time can also generate more goodwill towards the brand that you're buying from, which can then encourage greater loyalty. It's a win win all round really. Now next up Sustainable beauty is circular, which is one of the most exciting parts of the future in beauty. And I've interviewed so many incredible entrepreneurs on this podcast who are embracing circularity. And I encourage you to go back into the archives and listen to those episodes. Almost all of them are seeing 75 to 80% return rates on their packaging. And I'm sure that as circularity becomes the norm, those numbers will continuously creep upwards. Just think how good it will feel to return packaging for refills. Just think how amazing it will be for all of us when this is the norm. We'll all feel collectively just so incredibly proud. So following on from that, sustainable beauty gets rid of the huge packaging and waste problem faced by the beauty industry. It goes beyond simply using recyclable packaging to thinking about circularity, like I just said, or no packaging at all. It changes the way that all of us interact with our cosmetics, which is a huge positive for all of us as we free ourselves from continuously adding to the mountain of plastic that we've created on planet Earth. I love this component of sustainable beauty, and it ties so perfectly with the solid formulation movement too. I feel better about myself as well when I have less packaging waste, and I'm sure you do too. Now, sustainable beauty is also biodegradable, which will benefit all of us, as waste is clearly, like I just said, a massive issue in the beauty industry. And many of the ingredients and packaging created for cosmetics will be around for hundreds more years to come. Isn't that a terrifying thought? And that's why I'm so excited about what biodegradability and beauty could actually mean for us and for our environment. Using ingredients that we know will break down easily and quickly is a huge benefit for all of us. Of course, biodegradability isn't the only thing we're aiming for. We also want to make sure that we don't overload our waterways or our environment with too much of any ingredient, which is where sensible eco design comes in. Again, this is a super positive step towards a much healthier planet for all of us. Next up, sustainable beauty is made by companies who do lots of work to reduce and offset their footprints and to do good in the world. And these are the companies that care for because they understand that it's their responsibility to transform the global economy to benefit all people, all communities and the entire planet. Lifting up companies like this will completely change the beauty industry landscape. We will force this approach to become the norm. That means other companies will have to follow suit. And much like the mainstream beauty industry has had to go along with like the natural ingredients movement. They will also soon become pariahs if they're not getting on board with the sustainability conversation in a meaningful way. And then finally, sustainable beauty is inclusive to everyone because it rejects the toxic narrative in the mainstream beauty industry. And wouldn't that be amazing if we could achieve that for everyone? I love the idea of people buying formulations simply because they like the feel of them on their skin or hair, or they feel that these formulations keep their skin and hair healthy, rather than all of us feeling like we won't be accepted as human beings unless we buy the latest wrinkle busting serum. I think this is a big one and making this change would allow us to all emerge better, stronger, happier, as well as creating a significantly better beauty industry. So that's my positive list of positivity in my insanely woke world of sustainable beauty for this week. My challenge for you this week is to also think about all of the positives that you embrace in your life when you start to buy into sustainable beauty. Just think about all those amazing changes that you can make by just shopping more sustainably. I promise you that you'll feel better about yourself too by making great choices in your beauty products. It's the way forward for all of us, and it's a big part of creating a better world for ourselves. Thank you for listening to my Green Beauty Opinions. 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. RA.
