Host Lorraine Dallmeyer (chartered environmentalist, biologist, CEO of Formula Botanica) argues that major beauty retailers are increasingly acting as de facto regulators by imposing and enforcing standards for claims (clean, cruelty-free, vegan, recyclable) because government regulation is slow (the host cites the US taking 84 years to update cosmetics legislation). Retailers face legal risk for brands' claims and are responding by requiring proof of substantiation and restricting ingredients—creating a patchwork of retailer-specific standards. This environment advantages compliance platforms (e.g., Novi) and can disproportionally burden indie brands, risk confusing consumers, and potentially stifle innovation. Episode closes with calls to action: listener engagement on Instagram (ormulabotanica), try a free formulation course at formulabotanica.com, and subscribe/review the podcast.
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Have you noticed that your favourite beauty retailers seem to now be dictating what's clean or what's ethical these days? Because it's no longer just about the beauty brands themselves, it's now the retailers who are stepping in to decide what gets to be on their shelves. Now, this might sound like a logical step towards transparency, but is this maybe a sign that these retailers are becoming the new regulators of beauty? After all, the regulatory bodies themselves, they're slow. We know this because we see it everywhere around the world. In the USA alone, it took 84 years to update the legislation that regulates the cosmetics industry. 84 years. And even now, parts of it aren't yet fully clear. It takes time to regulate and to legislate. But shoppers don't hang around to wait for the regulators to define, for instance, what clean beauty means or to legislate against greenwashing. The consumer world moves at a rapid pace. It's totally out of step with legislation, which means that beauty needs to be held to account somehow. And now we're seeing that retailers are stepping in to fill that void. But are they perhaps overstepping? Should our retailers be the ones policing beauty brands? Or should we be doing that as shoppers? But how do you do that when it feels like you need a PhD to understand what's going on? And that's what I want to explore today on this podcast episode. Are beauty retailers really our preferred choice to be the arbitrators of what is and isn't permitted in beauty? Let's explore this together. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, 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 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 let's talk about retailers stepping up as the new gatekeepers of beauty standards. As we heard last week on the podcast, I interviewed Kimberly Schenk, the founder of novi, a US based platform that helps retailers and brands to meet this surging consumer demand for these different standards. And if you haven't heard that episode yet, make sure you cue it up now, as Kimberly shared so many fascinating insights. And we discussed together how in the absence of clear regulations, retailers such as Target, Sephora, Ulta, even Amazon are becoming the ones to set the bar for what's acceptable in beauty. Because they're now requiring proof from brands to substantiate claims such as clean, cruelty free, vegan, recyclable, recycled. And they're also effectively regulating which ingredients can and can't be used inside the formulations that they sell. This means that they're familiar retail giants that we've relied on for so long for convenience. They're also becoming the self appointed regulators of our shopping choices. So why is this happening? Well, it turns out that the retailers are also being held accountable, sometimes even legally, for the claims that brands make, those brands that they sell on their platforms. These retailers are then stepping in to demand transparency. Because, you know, quite honestly, if brands can't substantiate their claims, it's sometimes also the retailers who end up facing lawsuits. And this shift may seem logical, even necessary, but it does raise some serious questions about who is truly responsible for holding the beauty industry to account. Because here's the issue. Retailers are not regulatory bodies. We know this. They're businesses with a bottom line to consider. And in the rush to keep up with consumer demands for transparency, they're setting their own standards, each with their own unique version of what, for instance, the word clean does or doesn't mean. And this patchwork of retailer standards is then adding to what some people call an Alphabet soup of claims and certifications. So for small indie brands, meeting all of these different benchmarks can be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, which means that compliance then isn't a level playing field. But in an interesting twist, we're also seeing that some of the bigger brands are being held to account to standards originally set by the indie sector. This is truly a fascinating development and I can fully understand why companies such as Novi are thriving in this environment. Because quite simply, brands need them. So are retailers simply filling a void left by regulators or are they overstepping? This is a really complicated question, but it's also one with quite big implications. Because if we continue down this path, we may end up with a situation where beauty brands can't compete unless they meet a retailer specific, sometimes arbitrary criteria. And that isn't necessarily a fair system. So retailers then become the de facto gatekeepers of the beauty industry. But at what cost? Because without clear, unified standards, we run the risk of confusing shoppers and, and maybe even stifling innovation. So my challenge to you this week is to consider what you expect from the beauty brands you buy from. How transparent are they? And do you feel that the retailers you buy through are setting reasonable standards? Or are they simply moving goalposts to stay competitive? I want you to take part in the conversation and leave me a comment on our Instagram channel, ormulabotanica. I want to hear from you because we need to be tackling these topics together if we want a truly transparent, sustainable and equitable beauty industry. 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.
