Green Beauty Conversations by Formula Botanica

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EP122. Lab-grown skincare: the new normal? Aug 18, 2022

Show notes

Would you buy lab-grown skincare? While this might seem futuristic, biotech cosmetic ingredients are here now, and going to become more commonplace on our beauty shelves – and sooner than you think.

In this Green Beauty Opinion, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier follows up on key takeouts from her interview with Dr Barbara Paldus, the founder of biotech company Codex Beauty Labs. In that episode, we heard how lab-grown ingredients derived efficiently and sustainably from single plant cells rather than from vast fields of crops will become the new normal in cosmetics.

But, are we as consumers and natural formulators ready to embrace lab-grown ingredients?

The scene seems set for biotech beauty to be the next naturals vs synthetics' battleground. But, as always, the issues are nuanced.

Lorraine proposes we approach biotech beauty with informed debate and open minds. There is likely to be a hybrid model in the cosmetics industry as plants have given us a sense of calm, grounding and well-being for millennia and are inherent in our cultures, rituals and rites. And for now, biotech cannot efficiently lab grow every ingredient.

Lorraine's challenges us to be receptive to the radical solutions required to sustain the industry and the planet and to look into the research from suppliers of biotech ingredients. How would we react if our favourite plants were threatened by climate change?

The advent of biotech beauty brings with it searching questions, but ones we need to think of answers to now, not in decades to come.

EP121. Biotech beauty, the controversial new frontier Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

The natural and organic cosmetics world loves sourcing the purest, sustainable plant-based ingredients that are ethically picked, plucked, farmed and harvested, and processed with as little artifice as possible. On this podcast, we have covered a raft of natural ingredient sourcing and formulation concepts from wild-harvesting and biodynamic farming to blue, waterless and upcycled beauty.

All of these topics, we have assessed through the lens of sustainability. It is worth reiterating and remembering this as we tackle the topic of this episode of Green Beauty Conversations - biotech beauty.

The next most potent, active botanical is possibly being engineered from plant stem cells using biotech right now, as a breakthrough natural cosmetic ingredient.

But does the sound of lab-grown plant actives in your cosmetics excite you or worry you? Is it too futuristic or something you'd adopt willingly right now? How receptive would you be to using biotech-based ingredients if your ideal of natural organic cosmetic ingredients is their farming or wild harvesting from forests and fields?

The truth is that biotech beauty is happening now, and is gaining momentum - in part, as an answer to some of the key sustainability issues surrounding the farming of crops as cosmetic ingredients.

To give us insights into the world of biotech beauty, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier, herself a biologist and chartered environmentalist, talks to Dr Barbara Paldus of Codex Beauty, a firm pioneering biotech cosmetic formulation.

Listen in to this eye-opener on biotech which, given current climate change predictions, could be the new normal for sourcing natural, and even organic, cosmetic ingredients sooner than you think.

EP120. How many certification schemes does beauty need? Aug 04, 2022

Show notes

We expect to find beauty brands that are certified clean, green, sustainable, Halal, vegan, carbon negative, plastic free and more. But, would you know which to choose if you had to opt for a vegan or plastic-negative version of the same product. "Have we over-certified the beauty industry to the point of confusion?", asks Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier.

In this opinion short, Lorraine says that even those of us in the beauty industry struggle to make sense of all the schemes, so it is inevitable that many beauty consumers will simply have no clue about their merits. Now, retailers like Target and Sephora are coming up with their own standards and choosing to reject stocking brands on the basis of their own criteria.

In her last guest episode, Lorraine interviewed Yashi Shrestha, Head of Science & Research at Novi Connect, an online platform helping cosmetic formulators comply right from product inception stage with a variety of standards. Similarly, another platform Provenance, also a recent podcast guest, helps with product transparency by using blockchain to verify brands' claims.

But, even with these innovative, pioneering platforms, Lorraine says she keeps coming back to the question of whether the beauty industry needs all these certification schemes. Has the beauty industry gone too far and made life impossible for itself and its consumers?

This podcast has covered a large number of the most commonly used terms and certifications on beauty and we urge you to delve into the archives to play catch up on them. All seem open to interpretation though.

The fact remains that many cosmetic formulators are relying on obtuse supply chains that may not have all the documentation required to verify a claim or help certify a standard. The beauty industry is still working in the dark having made a rod for its own back by creating standards that for many are simply unattainable.

Lorraine challenges us as formulators and beauty shoppers to ask ourselves what really matters to us. What standards and claims do we prioritise and why? Or, are we simply too exhausted and confused by the schemes to know?

Listen in to another Green Beauty Opinion that challenges us to make the beauty industry a better, more sustainable place.

EP119. Taking cosmetics transparency to the next level Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

Confused by the plethora of standards, regulations and accreditation schemes at large in the beauty industry? You are not alone. Whether you are a big brand striving for sustainability or an indie founder needing to demonstrate Halal, vegan, clean, safe, GMO-free or any other mission for your products, there is every possible scheme to apply for and label to slap on your products these days.

But, how do you really know the provenance and composition of your cosmetic ingredients and can your suppliers provide a paper trail to back up any claims?

From Formula Botanica's years of experience working with natural formulators and indie brand founders, we know the pain involved in digging deep on the supply side of cosmetics. But, times are changing. More and more beauty shoppers - and conscious retailers - wish to know the truth about what goes into cosmetics and are pushing the industry to validate its claims.

One innovative platform is managing to square the circle and open up industry minds to a brave new world in which ingredient information is researched in detail, divulged, shared, and validated against claims to the benefit of everyone in the cosmetics' business.

In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host talks to Yashi Shrestha, Director of Science & Research at Novi Connect, a turnkey solution for formulators to build beauty and personal care products that meet the complex transparency needs of today's consumers.

Put simply, Yashi and the Novi team are sorting out the whole mess for formulators and brands keen to make their product development cycles more transparent and sustainable. Listen in for an episode that could make conscious formulating a whole lot easier.

EP118. Plastic is not the enemy - we are Jul 21, 2022

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In this Green Beauty Opinion, we pick up on key issues of plastic waste raised in the last episode with guest Peter Wang Hjemdahl, co-founder of rePurpose Global. Here, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier sounds a note of realism and cautious optimism about how beauty can tackle its plastic dependency.

While sceptical of offsetting and plastic waste credit schemes, Lorraine says that realistically a plastic-free beauty industry is not likely in our lifetimes. Offsetting and credits that help pay for the removal of plastic and global activism on plastic pollution are valid. Entities like rePurpose Global are making us aware of our responsibility to reduce, recycle and repurpose plastic already in circulation. This in itself is a first vital step to tackling the issue.

Sustainability is a journey not a destination and we have to acknowledge that plastic is here to stay. Lorraine explains that plastic in itself is a fantastic invention. It is our use - or misuse - of plastic coupled with the lack of capacity worldwide to recycle and retain plastics within the supply chain that are at fault. Plastic is not the enemy. We are, along with the waste we create.

Beauty and personal care industries should embrace circularity. We have seen this in action with past podcast guests; the US personal care company Meow Meow Tweet is a pioneer of return-and-refill schemes that keep plastic packaging in circulation. If all plastic in beauty could be cleaned and refilled and also made of PCR plastics that would be an enormous achievement.

Lorraine challenges us to seek out beauty brands that use plastic responsibly and to cut down on our own consumption. Using less plastic and being responsible for the plastic on our doorstep is how we start to tackle those staggering figures on plastic waste, and make the beauty industry a more sustainable and better place.

EP117. Should beauty go plastic free? Jul 14, 2022

Show notes

Having looked at the shocking extent to which plastic is present within beauty formulations in liquid microplastic forms, in this episode Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier tackles plastic in beauty packaging. Few of us would disagree that the beauty industry and its consumers should reduce, reuse and recycle plastic packaging more. But, as the figures show, the challenge is great.

Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years and production of plastic has increased exponentially from 1.5 million tons in 1950 to 367 million tons by 2015. An incredible 8 million tons or so of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations. As we know from our episode on biodegradability, plastic can take about 400 years to break down in the environment.

Any discussion on plastic packaging and the millions of tons of waste it produces is fraught with complexity and seemingly irresolvable problems. Where do we start as small beauty businesses to play our part in reducing plastic waste when the figures are so daunting?

There are ways to start small and still make a difference. In this episode, we hear from one pioneering social enterprise that is literally removing plastic waste and helping companies of all sizes to reduce their dependency on plastic.

rePurpose Global is the world's leading plastic action platform dedicated to reducing waste, reviving lives and restoring nature's balance. Lorraine talks to Peter Wang Hjemdahl, co-founder and Chief Advocacy Officer at rePurpose Global, about the creative, yet practical ways the social enterprise is tackling plastic packaging from its source in supply chains to its end of life in waste mountains.

Listen in for some positive news on how our plastic dependency is being be tackled.

EP115. The microplastics hiding in your cosmetics Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

Reducing plastic in the packaging of personal care products is high on the agenda of many mainstream cosmetics' firms, but are microplastics in cosmetics getting the same attention? Even if a brand's packaging is plastic free, the product inside may not be. What goes into the bottle – the formulations we slather on each day – are literally riddled with micro- and nanoplastics. Shocked? So were we.

We have covered the issues of post-consumer plastics, biodegradability and zero waste in the past. But plastic in outer packaging is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the use of plastic in the cosmetics' industry.

An estimated 9 out of 10 mainstream personal care products may contain microplastics. These figures aren't plucked from thin air. They come from the Plastic Soup Foundation, a single-issue environmental organisation working to stop plastic pollution at its source. The Foundation conducted scientific research into its database of over 7,000 cosmetics from 10 big brands and concluded that microplastics were present in 87% of the products analysed.

The environmental and human health impacts of these hidden plastics are now the subject not only of research, but also of proposed EU legislation. As we discover in this episode, intentionally-added microplastics are contentious and the very mention of their restriction or outright ban has seen push back from the mainstream cosmetics industry.

To unpack the data from the charged debate, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Madhuri Prabhakar, project leader and campaigner of the Beat the Microbead (BTMB) campaign by the Plastic Soup Foundation. Listen in for some shocking revelations about plastics in cosmetic formulations.

EP114. Influence for sustainable beauty Jun 23, 2022

Show notes

Influencers have an exciting opportunity given their reach and reputations to change hearts and minds of beauty consumers. Imagine influencer product reviews mentioning how easy it is to refill packaging or that a beauty brand has gone plastic free or is working towards zero waste or carbon negative goals?

In the last episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier discussed the world of the beauty influencer with School Education Manager Ana Green and questioned whether influencers were talking about, let alone talking up, beauty brands' sustainability.

One key thing hit home in that episode: the power and great responsibility beauty influencers have. In a recent survey, some 49% of shoppers interviewed said they relied on recommendations of vlogggers, YouTubers, bloggers and social media influencers in making purchases, viewing their opinions as they would those of trusted friends.

In this short Green Beauty Opinion, Lorraine proposes how influencers can use their platforms responsibly to drive home the message that sustainable beauty should be the norm, not the exception in the industry.

Influencers are not going to stop covering new product launches, but they could do more to challenge brands about their sustainability credentials and include this information in their regular content. In this way, they will influence consumers to make sustainable choices and to ask their own questions of brands. Changing the beauty industry is a collective job that we all need to participate in.

Lorraine's challenge to influencers is to embrace their power and harness it to promote a more sustainable beauty industry. In doing so, influencers could have more influence than they perhaps realise and make positive, lasting change to the beauty industry.

EP113. Beauty influencers vs sustainability Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

It is hard to imagine that beauty influencers barely existed a decade ago. Now though, hundreds of thousands of influencers take to social media platforms each day to talk about the latest beauty launches and offer their opinion on the promise and performance of products.

Those who dominate social media are as influential and competitive as ever, and perfecting their presences on TikTok, which is the platform of the moment. Few influencers make a full-time living on social media, but all have one thing in common: their attraction to shiny new beauty products to test and talk about.

But, with new products comes a tidal wave of samples as well as tens of thousands of units of unrelated, often unsolicited promotional merchandise which big cosmetics' brands think will influence the influencers. As we discussed in our recent episode with responsible beauty retailer Credo, samples' packaging is mostly not recyclable and comes laden with plastic.

In this episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier discusses the business model of influencers with the school's Education Manager, Ana Green. Ana, once a beauty blogger herself, has valuable insights into influencer and brand relations and suggests how both parties can foster a more sustainable beauty industry as they partner to promote products.

EP112. The dirty business of beauty packaging Jun 09, 2022

Show notes

Beauty shoppers are clamouring for green packaging and sustainable beauty. The industry is coming out with innovative packaging made from recycled plastics that themselves can be recycled. So isn't this a positive landscape and a happier space for the beauty industry to be in than a few years ago? If only sustainable beauty packaging were so simple.

In this Green Beauty Opinion, Formula Botanica CEO, Chartered Environmentalist and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier praises the strides the beauty industry is making on sustainable packaging, but also unearths the truth about how much is recycled. Consumers still know little about what our beauty packaging is made of and where it ends up in its afterlife.

In this opinion short, Lorraine explains that while we are becoming familiar with acronyms for plastics, like post-consumer recycled PET plastics, and are better at deciphering recycling symbols, the reality is that very little plastic waste is recycled. Plastics are still shipped from rich countries across the world to be dumped in open landfills. Ultimately, much ends up polluting the oceans.

Innovative packaging solutions are well and good, but are let down by a recycling infrastructure that can't close the loop and sustain a circular economy.

Lorraine's challenge to all of us engaged in beauty, whether as shoppers or industry insiders, is to start having more conversations about the environmental harm of beauty packaging.

Whether indie founder or mainstream big beauty business, we need to tell our customers just what our packaging is made of and how to recycle it. Make our customers lives easier by making videos on how to recycle that airless pump bottle, for example. As shoppers, we must be prepared to ask beauty brands how to recycle and reuse their packaging, whatever it is made of, and pile the pressure on them to respond with clarity.

While R&D is coming up with the next closed-loop, circular economy packaging, we can start having an immediate impact by simply having conversations and educating each other. And remembering that because innovative sustainable packaging can be recycled, it doesn't mean it will be.

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