Solo opinion episode (Green Beauty Conversations, EP224) by Lorraine Dallmayer (chartered environmentalist, biologist, CEO of Formula Botanica) criticizing greenwashing in the beauty industry. The host highlights the surge in sustainability marketing post-COVID, calls out specific misleading claims from Rockette, L'Oréal/Elvive and Unilever, notes regulatory scrutiny (UK CMA investigation), and urges listeners to question vague sustainability statements. The episode closes with a challenge to consumers and a promo for Formula Botanica's free course and the podcast subscription.
Chapters
I spend a lot of time in the beauty industry and I can tell you from firsthand experience that there's been a massive increase in the discussion around sustainability in the last few years. So pre Covid, there was hardly a peep about sustainability and it was a fringe topic for beauty, and then suddenly, kaboom, everyone was talking about it. And now every website you go to, every trade show you visit, every company mission statement you read, it alludes somehow to sustainability. And my guest on the podcast last week, Nishit Deidiya, who runs an eco designed contract manufacturing facility in India, he pointed this out too. And he mentioned that he goes to trade shows and everyone's sustainable. You're sustainable, I'm sustainable. It's just one giant sustainability fest. What a sustainable industry we are, right? And yet we're not. The beauty industry is not sustainable in the slightest in its current format, and we all know it. But that doesn't mean that the sustainability claims aren't off the charts. So today, in my podcast opinion, I'd like to share with you some of the ridiculous sustainability claims I've seen from ingredient suppliers and beauty brands. Let's go. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmayer, 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 challenge the beauty industry's terrible track record on sustainability and share my thoughts on how we can make the beauty sector a better and more sustainable place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So the first company I want to look at is a chemical manufacturing company from France called Rockette. I first saw them when I was at in Cosmetics Global in Paris in April this year. And the reason they stood out to me is I was walking past their stand and there was this big sign up that said sustainable beauty is all about skin health and nutrition. And you know what? It stopped me dead in my tracks. Honestly. I whipped out my phone, I took a picture and I thought, I'll investigate this one later. And in the back of my mind I thought this must be a one off stupid sign made for a trade show. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but no, it turns out that they actually have this plastered all over their website and social platforms too. So sustainable beauty is all about skin health and nutrition. Really? Because I could have sworn it was all about reducing consumption and creating a circular economy that the beauty industry can operate in seamlessly. But apparently we can eat and we can glow our way to sustainability instead. And someone might want to gently nudge their marketing department. Next up, let's look at one of my all time favorites, l'. Oreal. There's an awesome website I encourage you to go and visit called greenwash.com go and check it out. It's really well made. And a while ago this website called out Lviv, the hair care brand which is owned by l' Oreal for having the wording on the back of its shampoo bottle for the Elvive Full Restore 5 Repairing Shampoo that said that their bottle is more sustainable because it's made of 100% recycled plastic, although they state that the cap isn't. And they claim that both bottle and cap are 100% recyclable, which is good, although that clearly doesn't guarantee that they will actually be recycled, let's face it. But it's that wording more sustainable that's so very problematic. More than what? And who said it was sustainable in the first place? Who decided that that was a good thing to put on the back of a shampoo bottle? No wonder it ended up on greenwash.com by the way. That claim is still out there in the world for all to see, because I could easily find the shampoo in question on Amazon and there it was in all its glory in the product photo, saying that they're not alone by any stretch of the imagination. Unilever is even being investigated by the UK Government's Competition and Markets Authority, who undertook an initial review and found that they termed a range of concerning practices that might be misleading consumers about a product's true impact on the environment. Now, the government didn't specify exactly which brands or products they found most concerning, but it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure it out. And Unilever responded by saying they were surprised and disappointed and that they refute that their claims are in any way misleading. Now, I have no doubt that the UK government will do its research and publish its conclusions, and I think we can probably all safely say that we know which way this one's going to go when it comes to a brand that produced 53 billion unrecyclable plastic sachets in 2023, according to Greenpeace. It is a shame to see things like this out there because it tarnishes the companies who are genuinely trying to do their best. And there are many of them, big and small. It becomes a minefield though, because how on earth can you tell what's real and what isn't? And if you're a shopper, how do you know who to trust? Where should you put your money? Luckily, I do think that governments are going to start regulating many of the claims you see around you, and I've covered quite a bit on this topic on the podcast recently. I think these coming changes will clarify what brands can and cannot say. Now, it might mean that only brave companies will stick their head above the parapet to tell the world what they're doing in terms of sustainability. But as shoppers, we should end up with a lot more clarity, which, let's face it, is a really good thing. So my challenge to you for this week is to take some of the sustainability claims that you see with a pinch of salt. Or better yet, challenge them. When someone tells you that sustainability means better skin, health and nutrition, go and ask them what on earth that means and pick it apart. You don't have to be an environmental scientist or a sustainability expert to ask even basic questions and watch people flounder about. This is how we challenge the greenwashing in the beauty industry and make the industry a better place. Thank you for listening to my green beauty opinions. 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. Sa.
