Conserving Beauty solves the industry waste crisis with dissolvable wipes
With a crackdown on single-use face wipes imminent, Australian beauty brand Conserving Beauty has a patented solution for the industry’s waste problem.
The personal care and beauty industry is estimated to produce 120 billion units of packaging every year, according to recycling company TerraCycle.
The waste generated by the beauty industry is an ugly secret and it shows no signs of slowing down.
The global beauty industry is estimated to be worth US$532 billion and is showing no signs of slowing down, according to Forbes.
With single-use personal wipes set to be banned in the UK first, Conserving Beauty has positioned itself as the antidote to the waste problem as governments consider making legislative changes to clean up the beauty industry.
Conserving Beauty’s InstaMelt day dissolver face wipes are designed to remove makeup and then be dissolved during incidental use without leaving microplastics or waste behind.
And as for the packaging, both the individual sachets the wipes come in and the carton box containing all the sachets are home-compostable safe.
“We’re really excited, it’s the right time and right place for a product solution like ours,” said Natassia Nicoalo, founder of Conserving Beauty.
“I think it’s in our name, we always set out to say conserving your beauty and the planet. That’s really what we are.”
Sustainability is at the forefront of both consumers’ and brands’ minds as everyone is taking stock of their contribution to the waste issue plaguing the industry at large.
Transparent Beauty
Conserving Beauty’s mission is to create waterless beauty innovation to help consumers care for their skin and save water, carbon and waste in the process.
Supply chain knowledge is Conserving Beauty’s superpower when it comes to innovating sustainable beauty alternatives.
The goalposts for environmental action have been a moving target for brands as the expectation has evolved from certifications to traceability to circular design.
“It’s very hard once you’ve built a product to try and retrofit sustainability or even traceability and transparency,” said Nicoalo.
The brand has prioritised making its traceable and ethical product lifecycle public for consumers.
For the founder of Conserving Beauty, producing beauty products that are free of animal products, sulphates, parabens and silicone is the bare minimum.
The Australian beauty brand has partnered with Provenance, the global leader in sustainable marketing technology whose purpose is to drive change through transparency.
Provenance uses its Proof Point technology to connect brands’ ‘green’ claims with evidence from the supply chain, or accredited third-party verification.
The founder attributes the brand’s success to the product’s quality and transparency, especially with its cult product Conserve Your Face Oil, which it says is a best-seller at Australian beauty retailer Mecca.
“I think that’s just because people notice a real change in their skin when they use it and because the product also tracks water waste and carbon,” said Nicoalo.
“There’s a whole group of people that really are supportive and get behind the mission and what the products actually try to do – not just for their skin but also the planet,” she added.
Purposeful Beauty
“A lot of beauty brands, I would say if not most, are founded by usually great marketers, brilliant storytellers and they don’t necessarily have the knowledge or the visibility of who’s actually making their product so they trust a middleman contract manufacturer,” explained Nicoalo.
It was this prioritisation of mission values that landed Conserving Beauty its impact fund investors including Giant Leap, The Alice Anderson Fund and Alberts Impact Ventures.
“For me, I really wanted to get environmental impact funds as investors on board because if you have the right people around your cap[ital] table and they choose purpose over profit you’re more often going to stick to your values when it comes to big decisions,” said Nicoalo.
“We’re very much half an impact business and half a beauty brand, I feel like we’re in the middle, We’re not just a beauty brand trying to do sustainability,” she added.
While the beauty market is oversaturated with products and misleading claims of being ‘green’, there are brands that exist to cut through the excess and offer consumers quality products that meet their demands to be good for the skin and good for the planet.
“If you’re a brand founder or business owner most of the burden probably sits with you because you’re the one creating and releasing the product and putting it out there in the world,” said Nicoalo.
“But it does help if everybody within the ecosystem is also calling for change, otherwise no one’s going to prioritise and make an effort to do it”.
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