EP88. Beauty shoppers should vote with their wallets

I've just finished recording an episode with Elsie and Dominika, the founders of Bybee Beauty, who also happen to be Formula Botanica graduates. In our podcast episode, we discussed the way that they're driving their business to become carbon negative. And by the time this recording goes live, you'll already have listened to my chat with Elsie and Dominika in your favorite podcast app because it was released last week. Now, I greatly admire the work that they're doing and I really enjoyed my chat with them because they truly live and breathe the principles they stand for, which is what I believe will ultimately lead to brands like theirs being successful. But during our discussion they raised a really interesting point that I feel is worth unpicking. In this short follow up piece we talked about the fact that all of the time, effort and money that they're pouring into making their brand sustainable won't necessarily translate to a return in finances. They pointed out that unfortunately, a lot of customers don't yet vote with their wallet. They don't put their money where their ethics are. So for that reason I wanted to jump on quickly record this super short opinion piece and challenge you to help me encourage beauty shoppers to prioritize brands that embrace sustainability. 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 share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week. In this short episode, I put forward my main thoughts on the topic we last discussed, as well as setting you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. So let's start off with some of the statistics that we're seeing come out of the cosmetics sector in 2018. A survey of US and UK consumers conducted by an agency called Futera found that 88% of respondents said they want brands to help them make a difference. Backing that up in 2019, Unilever found that 90% of millennial shoppers expect brands to do more to reduce climate impacts. So the desire is clearly there. But does that mean people actually want to put their money where their mouth is? Well, according to further polls, it does seem that this is what shoppers are telling us. Hair care brand Wella then ran a poll of 2,000 adults in 2021 and found that over half of them claim to consider sustainability as a key factor when buying their beauty products. However, more than 60% of those same people said they don't really know if a product is eco friendly or not, and sometimes feel like they have no choice but to buy unsustainable formulations. So there are two points here that sit at the heart of the whole issue. Firstly, shoppers say that they want to do the right thing, but then that doesn't necessarily always happen. And secondly, even if they say that they are going to buy from sustainable brands, they don't really know what they're looking at. And this makes perfect sense, of course, and it ties in with so many of the previous podcast episodes I've released for Green Beauty Conversations. After all, it's so easy to get sucked into a business telling you that they're better for the environment because, for instance, their formulations are biodegradable. But as we found out in episode 69 of this podcast, that doesn't necessarily mean an awful lot. Or they might be telling you that they're inherently better because their formulations are waterless. But as we saw in episode 83, that doesn't really mean much either. We're coming back to the main point, which is the fact that people tell us they want to buy more sustainable products, but maybe actually aren't doing so yet. We need to get consumers to the point that they vote with their wallet. Now, I use that term on purpose, consumer, because it's very easy to think about this concept of a consumer, which is in itself a fairly vague word, as a category of people who are out there spending money on beauty products. But I want to encourage you to remember we're all consumers. We should all be shopping with our ethics in mind. It's easy to blame others, but we are all part of the problem. In fact, I remember having this exact conversation several years ago about the use of palm oil, which is an amazingly efficient and effective natural ingredient for cosmetics. Cosmetics. But its cultivation is leading to wide scale loss of biodiversity because we are consuming too much of it globally, not just for cosmetics, but mainly for food and fuel. And when I talk to people about where the majority of our global palm oil production is going, they tell me it's going to countries where people, and I quote, don't yet care about sustainability. In other words, it's out of my hands, it's someone else's problem, and maybe even someone else's fault. And that's really what my green beauty opinion is all about. This week, the only way we can get shoppers to vote with their wallet is if we all lead the way. Remember, when we're changing hearts and minds, we're changing one person at a time. You can't complain about the way others don't embrace sustainability if you don't do it yourself. So that's my challenge to you for this week. Have you looked into the ethics of the beauty brands you're buying from? And if not, why not? I think all of us, when pushed, would say that we want to buy from brands that do the right thing by the environment. That's why those polls came back with such high numbers. But are we all actually following through on the things we say? I count myself in that too. I have no doubt that I can do better as well. Realistically, unless you live off grid and don't consume anything at all, there's always going to be room for improvement. So when you next go out to buy a beauty product, or in fact any consumer product, do your research. Try to find companies who have incorporated sustainability at the very heart of their brand DNA. None of us are perfect, but if you can buy into a business that is trying to do its very best, then you know that we're all moving in the right direction together. 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 and leave me a five star review. If you enjoy the conversations I host, I'll be back soon with my next episode.