Green Beauty Conversations by Formula Botanica

Latest Episodes:

EP111. Are beauty samples sustainable? Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

We all love getting something for free. How many times have you shopped for a new cosmetic product and been rewarded for your purchase with a bundle of free beauty samples?

Some of the sachets popped into your bag or mailer box might have nothing at all to do with eye cream, cleanser or serum you just bought. But does it matter when we love receiving those little sachets of samples for free?

This podcast episode focuses on these tiny beauty products which are in fact staggeringly wasteful. Each year, the beauty industry creates 122bn units of sample sachets, most of which have no clear-cut way of being recycled.

In all likelihood, we consumers don't need them, don't use them and certainly wouldn't like them if we knew that those free gifts have no happy end of life and go on to do untold harm to the planet.

Joining Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier to tackle the topic of planet-toxic beauty samples is guest Mia Davis, VP Sustainability and Impact at Credo Beauty, which is the largest clean beauty retailer in the US.

Mia, a committed, career environmentalist, created the Credo Clean Standard, including the retailer's ambitious and forward-thinking Sustainable Packaging Guidelines.

When Lorraine learned of Credo's bold step last year of announcing it was no longer providing beauty samples, she knew that something seismic was happening in the industry.

So who better to have on the podcast to talk about changing habits of the beauty industry's lifetime than Mia Davis, who has set not just Credo but also the wider industry the challenge of culling samples for good?

EP110. Reject fast beauty May 26, 2022

Show notes

In our last guest episode with the indie beauty co-founder Tara Pelletier, we heard how her business Meow Meow Tweet was not only driving a successful bulk refill scheme for its beauty products, but also how it was shunning the pressure to churn out new products.

But will the beauty media bother with indie companies that can't push out press releases about their latest new product? Will opting for deeper rather than wider product ranges self harm an indie brand?

It takes a brave business owner to call out the traditional beauty business model that is built on bringing out a constant stream of new products. For the sake of sustainability, this should be happening if we are to consume less and save the planet's resources more.

Can we change the culture around product development? Lorraine Dallmeier, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host, says that while she has come across numerous beauty brand and industry stories about improving packaging, finding sustainable suppliers and striving for circular beauty, she has heard none about a brand choosing to slow its growth for sustainability's sake.

The beauty industry model is still all about fast churn; in fact, we can talk about 'fast beauty' just as we do about fast fashion. The beauty media thrives off reporting the latest innovation and product release.

Lorraine's point is that a brand with loyal customers enjoying its current range has no need to keep pushing out new products. Are customers really waiting for something new? And why would an indie brand wish to upstage its hero products with new ones all the time?

Lorraine challenges all brand founders in the indie beauty community, and beauty consumers, to be loyal to the fabulous products already out there and reject fast beauty. By doing so, they can start to shift mindsets on beauty's traditional business model.

Listen in to Lorraine's opinion short in which she asks the ultimate question: can the beauty business model be built on slow beauty?

EP109. A beauty refill scheme where bigger is better May 19, 2022

Show notes

Less is more so the saying goes, but one innovative beauty products' company is turning this on its head and offering 'more for less' with its inspirational refillable beauty scheme.

Meow Meow Tweet, a US-based vegan, low-waste, personal care company has come up with a refill scheme that makes it easy for its customers to buy skincare, haircare and bodycare products in bulk at a discount.

Can you imagine buying face cleanser in bulk? Meow Meow Tweet could and it decided its brand mission was to help customers reduce overall consumption by ditching lots of little pots and going for bulk buys. As the average woman beauty consumer uses about 16 product a day, you can get a feel for just how unsustainable the beauty business is.

By buying more but less often and at a discount, its loyal refill customers have helped Meow Meow Tweet to embrace circular systems of reuse that can eliminate waste entirely. Founded in 2009, Meow Meow Tweet was certainly ahead of its time in acting on sustainability. It was the first brand to introduce 100 percent backyard compostable deodorant sticks and lip balms. Meow Meow Tweet is also a certified plastic negative and climate neutral company.

In this second podcast looking at beauty refill success stories, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Tara Pelletier, co-founder of Meow Meow Tweet about the company's simple, sustainable slow beauty refill model.

Listen in to hear about how one beauty company is quietly doing big things for sustainability.

EP108. Let's celebrate and conserve botanicals May 12, 2022

Show notes

In this short Green Beauty Opinion, Lorraine celebrates the bounty of botanicals, but urges us to think about how to conserve the very plants that provide us with endless inspiration and incredible ingredients.

There wouldn't be a single natural formulator in the Formula Botanica community who wouldn't agree that plants are changing the beauty industry for the good and must be cherished. The groundswell of natural formulators and indie beauty founders is unstoppable.

Lorraine points out that while Formula Botanica has enrolled some 15,000 students worldwide, you might not know that our community comprises some 300,000 people who have taken our free courses as well. Our Free Organic Skincare Entrepreneur Masterclass is open for enrolment now as we air this episode.

Botanical bounty for formulators comes from leaves, roots, seeds, bark, flowers, stems, twigs, marine plants and more. Different parts of the same plant provide us with incredible phytoactive extracts to let our creativity as formulators run wild.

Botanical formulation has the power to ground us in our busy, stressful lives. The term "earthing" refers to our ability to connect deeply with nature around us. Lorraine quotes a report which spoke of improved mental health and overall wellness in female participants of a survey into the effect of living in or near green spaces. Plants have made a presence throughout mankind's history, sharing in rites and rituals, and providing us with the stillness we crave. Little wonder then that we love them as natural formulators.

Lorraine challenges us as natural formulators, indie beauty brands and beauty consumers to make sure our use of precious botanicals does not deplete nor harm them. We must exploit plant power sustainably ensuring the bounty of botanicals thrives and not just survives for future generations. This is a responsibility that faces both the natural and mainstream beauty industry.

EP107. Naughty Alchemist - Formula Botanica graduate story May 05, 2022

Show notes

At Formula Botanica, we have over 15,000 students studying to become organic cosmetic formulators with us and many have already launched their own cosmetics brands in parallel with their studies – and day jobs.

If you are considering bringing natural formulation into your life, then this episode is a must-listen. Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier interviews a school graduate and indie beauty brand owner who has taken her love of botanical beauty to new heights, expanding and diversifying her original business along the way.

Copenhagen-based Stella Nisreen Kanaan, a lifelong learner, beauty salon owner and cosmetic brand entrepreneur, talks about her passion, drive and determination to make plants and nature the foundation of not only her personal journey, but also that of her entire business. Stella infused her new, organic beauty product business into her salon practice and hasn't looked back.

Unstoppable and certain of the business sense of botanicals in beauty, Stella talks us through her entrepreneurial journey, and shows just how possible it is to turn a dream into reality if you really believe in your mission.

EP106. Should indie beauty go local? Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

Our last podcast episode on the sustainability of using tropical ingredients in our cosmetics raised the issue of transparency in supply chains.

In this Green Beauty Opinion, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier examines one solution to this lack of transparency; going local.

Should indie formulators seek to source their ingredients as close to their homes and labs as possible? What implications and advantages are there in doing so? Is it more sustainable to go local than shipping ingredients across the world?

Lorraine points out that supply chains are hard to unravel. We have very little information on an ingredient apart from its safety data sheet (SDS), which says nothing about sustainability apart from mentioning the toxicity of a material. We can't know for certain if any ingredient, local or not, is a sustainable option.

For example, a particular seaweed ended up crossing country borders five times as it was shipped in and out during its processing into a cosmetic ingredient. Would it still qualify as a local and more sustainable ingredient?

Going local in your sourcing of ingredients can however hold out hope for indie beauty formulators keen to be sustainable.

Formula Botanica has always stressed indie formulators should build strong relations with reliable suppliers. If they are local, then you can have even greater chance of making this a success. With strong ties, comes a flow of information, insights and advantages, such as greater quality control and brand differentiation.

Lorraine points to her podcast interviews with international beauty brand founders May Lindstrom, and Sarah Brown of Pai Skincare who both said that that keeping manufacturing in-house and using trusted, mostly local suppliers had given their brands an edge in quality and transparency. By going local you can also infuse your brand with your heritage and with personal meaning.

Every little we can do to help drive sustainability in our formulations and brands is worth it. Going local may not be the complete answer, but by doing so, indie beauty can start to make a sustainable difference and avoid those murky supply chains.

EP105. Are tropical ingredients sustainable? Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

The destruction of rainforests - the world's most bio-diverse ecosystems - and the impact this has on the indigenous peoples living in and depending on them, and on global climate change is imprinted vividly in our minds.

As a community of indie, organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs, we are highly aware of the value of tropical habitats. None of us would wish to add to a greater loss of biodiversity nor cause more environmental and societal harm simply by going about our daily business as indie beauty formulators.

Knowing where, how and by whom our natural cosmetic ingredients are grown and harvested and how they travel to us is one of the biggest challenges facing the indie formulator. Today's beauty consumers too are asking hard questions about the sourcing of cosmetics' ingredients. Yet, as we discussed before on this podcast, simply boycotting ingredients won't help sustainability.

In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier and colleague Ana Green, the School's Education Manager, discuss some of the many complex arguments underlying the sourcing of natural cosmetics ingredients from at-risk tropical forests and regions.

Should we be using those gorgeous rainforest ingredients in our formulations even if we don't know how sustainable they are from their source to our skincare pots?

Listen in to the nuanced debate to make your own mind up.

FREE FORMULATION RESOURCES

Free formulation course | Green Beauty Conversations Podcast | Blog | YouTube

Socials: Formula Botanica on Instagram | Lorraine Dallmeier on Instagram

EP104. Entrepreneurial sustainability in action Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to this Green Beauty Opinion in which Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier shares her main takeouts on the last episode with guest Tammy Facey, founder of indie beauty brand Jim + Henry.

In a beauty world struggling to grasp sustainability concepts, let alone act on them, solopreneur Tammy impressed us with her simple solutions for getting a product refill scheme up and running. Where mainstream and big beauty brands stall behind well-meaning reports and set impressive goals for decades ahead, Tammy shows how indie beauty can succeed in doing something about sustainability right now.

Sustainable practices can't wait. If indie beauty adopts simple answers - which in Tammy's case meant picking up the phone and persuading refill stores to join her network - we can start to chip away at the complex challenges and make a real difference. Indie beauty doesn't need to overthink the issues. With the founder often as sole decision-maker, indie beauty can be nimble and pioneer simple, local solutions that make a difference immediately.

Size doesn't matter in acting on sustainability. While indie beauty is world's apart from personal care giants, it can have the advantage of connecting directly to and helping educate its customers on sensible, simple solutions everyone can adopt effortlessly.

Lorraine is sure that an entrepreneurial mindset is the way to driving greater sustainability in the beauty sector. Are you up to the challenge?

Listen in for a thought-provoking opinion in which Lorraine challenges us to be the voice of change and integrity, making the beauty industry better and more sustainable.

EP103. How to run a refillable beauty scheme Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

On Green Beauty Conversations, we have covered some challenging concepts in sustainable beauty such as the circular economy, carbon neutral and climate neutral beauty and zero waste. We admit these are not easy to grasp, but together with some incredible guests, this podcast has tried to unpacked these topics in simple terms.

While we might all nod in agreement with the ideals and aspirations driving sustainability concepts, just how do we in the indie beauty world make them part of our daily lives and business? Isn't the circular economy something that only big beauty brands with significant research teams and funds can put into practice?

In this episode, we hear from one indie beauty entrepreneur whose actions answer this question with a resounding 'No'. We find out that small brands can do just as much to reduce, recycle and reuse and retain resources in the economy as big businesses. It just takes vision, drive and some lateral thinking.

Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier speaks to indie beauty entrepreneur Tammy Facey who single handedly pioneered her own circular economy scheme. In 2017 Tammy founded Jim + Henry, the UK's first brand for Afro and curly hair type to create a leave-in hair conditioner comprised of only eight ingredients.

Committed to sustainable beauty, Tammy set herself the mission of building a refillable beauty business. Listen in to her story and discover how small indie beauty brands can play their part in the circular economy too.

EP102. Use your platform for diversity Mar 31, 2022

Show notes

In this short Green Beauty Opinion, Lorraine challenges us to act now to change the status quo on the discrimination women of colour face every day. Whatever our platform, we all have a chance to alter the narrative that has dominated society's view of ideals in beauty for hundreds of years.

Inclusivity and diversity are words easily slipped into beauty industry discourse. While progress has been made there is a long way to go to erase societal conditioning about Black, Brown and other non-European/Caucasian skin tones.

Change needs all voices to participate and all of us to act if the beauty industry is to drill down into why and how it not just historically, but also today still excludes people.

If we all use our platforms, whatever they may be and however widespread our communities, we can help break the bias the beauty industry perpetuates against people of colour. Not using our voices to effect change would be to do a disservice to them.

Lorraine mentions just three of numerous, glaring and deep-rooted examples of where diversity in the beauty industry is found lacking: beauty product design; marketing and advertising language; and beauty imagery.

In conclusion, Lorraine challenges us all to think about how we can use our platforms, whether in the workplace, socially, as indie beauty advocates, on social media or elsewhere, to call out the inequalities.

How will you use your platform as you move forward?

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Green Beauty Conversations by Formula Botanica

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected