🌱 Two Big Steps for the Beauty Industry
Featuring Circla, Beauty Kitchen, Evolve Beauty and more...
Happy Friday!
This week we’re focusing on two major currents within the beauty industry: circularity and impact reporting. We cover:
Are we one step closer to a circular cosmetics industry? Circla think so.
How Beauty Kitchen is leading the pack of beauty B Corps.
In case you missed it: Evolve Beauty’s already Plastic Negative, now it’s working to be regenerative, featuring Laura Rudoe, Founder and CEO.
> Good News This Week
🎯 Wiltshire Farm Foods announced their Collect and Recycle Scheme, alongside new fully recyclable trays, bringing them one step closer to producing a ‘zero-packaging’ ready meal.
🎯 Glenfiddich has started converting their delivery trucks to run on low-emission biogas made from waste products from their own whisky distilling process, as part of their "closed loop" sustainability initiative.
🎯 Angus Soft Fruits, a scottish fruit supplier, will eliminate over 150 tonnes of single use plastic over the next 12 months as the company switches to 100 percent recycled material across certain ranges.
⭐️ Lanzatech and Lululemon have partnered to create the first yarn and fabric made from recycled carbon emissions.
⭐️ UK startup Soap2O has developed a line of powdered soap sachets that dissolve in water, enabling significant transport savings and eliminating plastic entirely for large-scale commercial businesses.
⭐️ In partnership with Big Clean Switch, IKEA is offering every home that switches to a greener energy supplier through their page £35 of free energy. So far, Big Clean Switch and IKEA have together saved IKEA customers over £2.4 million on their energy bills.
⚡️ Foodsteps announced the launch of their new labelling scheme for food producers, restaurants, and retailers to easily calculate, reduce, and report on the environmental impact of their food.
> Click on each link to read more.
> Quick Take
Circla: Make your cosmetics shelf more… circular!
Circla are changing the way consumers engage with the refill movement. As the name suggests, they’re aiming to transition the beauty ecosystem to a more circular model of consumption. Over 95% of beauty packaging is thrown out after just one use, and of that only 14% of plastic makes it to a recycling centre and only 9% is actually recycled!
How does the platform work?
Customers order online from their selection of independent, environmentally conscious home and personal care brands.
Circla deliver the products to your doorstep via bike courier or electric van.
Once you’re finished with your products, you can manage your refills by booking for Circla to pick up your empties. Alternatively, you can sign up for ‘auto-replenishment’ on a schedule.
Circla will collect your empties and replace them with refills, earning you points on your next order. Note: Circla currently only reach London Zone 1 and 2.
By taking the responsibility to decipher packaging labels and appropriately dispose of products, or refill goods manually, out of the consumer’s hands the chances of products ending up in landfill is reduced. The bonus? There’s very little extra effort needed by the consumer. Circla will pick up your used goods as they deliver your new ones. Recent recipients of a Marie Claire UK Sustainability Award, Circla is the last-mile, closed loop innovation that embodies the ‘cradle-cradle’ product journey many brands aspire to achieve.
Since their March 2021 launch, Circla have curated a selection of 25 independent beauty brands stocked on their website. Brands include; UpCircle, Bao Skincare, Evolve Beauty, Tabitha Eve and more… Check out the full range here.
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> Brand Spotlight
Picture and Planet Perfect: Beauty Kitchen is leading the growing pack of beauty B Corps.
The UK’s £27 billion beauty industry is changing. Consumer trends have long indicated a widespread shift to cleaner, vegan and cruelty free beauty. Just last month, Kylie Cosmetics (worth $1 billion) re-launched their entire range as vegan, cruelty free and ‘clean’. However, the definition of ‘clean’ is open to debate, and now, there’s a global shift for beauty brands to be quantifying their environmental impact too.
One group to look at for inspiration is the growing collective of beauty B Corps.
First, what is a B Corp?
Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
What are the requirements to certify as B Corp?
Brands must score at least 80 points in the B Impact Assessment (BIA) tool to certify as a B Corporation. To maintain certification, B Corps update their BIA and verify their updated score every three years. Read more here on how to certify as B Corp.
The current group of UK-founded Skincare and Feminine Care B Corps:
We’re taking a look at one brand in particular who is leading the way for UK based beauty B corps: Beauty Kitchen UK Ltd.
Founded in 2014, Beauty Kitchen was the first beauty brand in the UK to be certified as B Corp. 95% of their range is vegan, with the other 5% representing beeswax - classifying as vegetarian. All products are officially registered with the Vegan Society. They use 100% natural ingredients, their Leaping Bunny approved (signalling their cruelty free standards), and all products are made in the UK. They also donate 2% of all sales to charities such as Plastic Soup Foundation.
Beauty Kitchen have quantified their impact: 4,000,000 million plastic bottles saved, 600,000 kg of CO2 offset and 6046 trees planted. They champion their sustainable packaging, which utilises rock paper labels, compostable solutions and minimised packaging design. On top of that, their ‘Return-Refill-Repeat’ scheme aims to turn the tide on waste in the beauty industry.
Now, their range is 120 products strong, and they’re stocked in major retailers such as Boots and Sainsburys. Read more about their journey here.
Support Beauty Kitchen via their shop:
Want to support other B Corp beauty brands? Shop their products!
> In case you missed it
💥 #2 - Impact Initiative: Evolve Beauty’s already Plastic Negative, now it’s working to be regenerative.
Featuring Laura Rudoe, Founder and CEO.
