Hiding flaws and accentuating features
Cosmetics are actually doing more(harm) than that
Cosmetics and personal care is a multi-billion-dollar industry.
A study reveals that most women are exposed to 515 synthetic chemicals from their daily skincare and makeup routine.
These chemicals are known to disrupt our hormone function and if they wash down the waterways, they end up getting consumed by marine life.
Our regulations have not been able to keep up with the new ingredients that have come up in this industry.
Result- Millions get affected before these ingredients are banned or regulated.
Let’s see how these 3 startups are building safer alternatives- better for people and the planet⬇️
Innocent until proven guilty…Cosmetic and personal care brands in the US are allowed to use harmful ingredients in their products until they are proven harmful. So you can launch a product with ingredients that are linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity and the FDA will not question you. This leads to a large number of American women using toxic chemicals on their bodies everyday.
They have a job to do…Clean beauty has become a buzzword but the US market is full of brands that are greenwashing or sustainable brands that refuse to do the job. After all, sustainable products have to perform as well! Co-Founders Melanie Petschke and Kelly Weston realized this gap in the market and set out to start Crunchi, where they are delicately balancing safety, sustainability and product performance.
Crunchi’s makeup products are made with safe, certified organic or EcoCert ingredients.
They do not use any plastic in the primary packaging but when it’s unavoidable (think caps and pumps), they use BPA/BPS & phthalate-free plastic.
The brush handles of all Crunchi Vegan Makeup Brushes are 100% recycled aluminum.
Gotta think about the planet too…The brand screen prints directly on the glass packaging, which reduces the resources and improves the recyclability (not sure if they use non-toxic dyes to do that). The materials used to pack and ship Crunchi’s products are made from recycled material. It has recently ventured into apparel as well, where it uses bamboo and organic cotton.
Let’s call ourselves organic, that sells…The beauty industry has mostly been self-regulating, especially across developing nations like India. Brands don’t shy away from calling their products natural or organic by eliminating or including a few ingredients. The plastic pumps and perfume tubes used in the industry pose a recycling challenge and they eventually end up in landfills or oceans. Palm oil, used in 70% of cosmetics, has led to massive deforestation.
2 years ago…Co-Founder Sukriti was looking for a clean and conscious luxury cosmetics brand in India. After realizing a gap in the market, she decided to start one with her mother-in-law, Asha. A vegan and cruelty-free brand, asabeauty is using botanicals and safe synthetics to create high-performing products for the Indian skin tone.
Their products are 92% natural(like the transparency) and are free of toxic ingredients like mineral oil, ammonia, sulphates, paraben, palm oil.
As they use fewer preservatives, the products have a lower shelf life- forcing the brand to stay away from mass production.
The brand has ensured that its entire supply chain stays in India- lower carbon footprint.
Instead of using plastic casing… the brand decided to use aluminum, which is endlessly recyclable. This allowed them to create a refillable system, where customers can simply order refills instead of a new product.
The next time you get your cosmetics order…just count the number of plastic wrappings, paper inserts, cardboard sleeves and foam used. The global cosmetics industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging every year. Most of these materials would be lying around for another 1000 years. And if you’re thinking about recycling, read this(spoiler- less than 10% of the plastic is recycled).
What do I do about this overflowing cosmetics bag?… Suzanne Carter was looking for a compact makeup case for herself- something that could fit different cosmetic products into a portable design. While searching for that, she visited a few film sets in Vancouver and realized that even they did not have that and were actively looking for one. That led to the birth of M·Y·O Cosmetic Cases, a socially conscious beauty company that has developed a first-of-its-kind cosmetic case.
Made from food-grade, recyclable plastics, the cases can accommodate multiple types of products, including pencils, creams, liquids and powders.
Magnetic pods keep products like pan makeup in place and can be personalized for individual actors for between-take touch-ups.
The makeup teams at Netflix shows like Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why, The Good Doctor and Vikings are some of the loyal customers.
Encouraging users to refill and reuse…At the end of its lifespan, they take back the case, offering the customer a discount on their new case. They are trying to turn carbon positive through initiatives like producing the products close to their office in Canada, procuring 90% of the materials from North America and using an electric car for transportation.
For one of Epic’s episodes last year, I spoke to Suzanne. Watch the conversation below or you can listen to it on Apple or Spotify Podcast.
🔍Want to know more about cosmetics?
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☑️Want to invest in safer products?
Avoid these 10 toxic beauty ingredients
Before purchasing, quickly search for an ingredient or brand here
As a rule of thumb, choose products whose ingredients you can read and pronounce
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