Three BPC brands channeling the conscious beauty movement

7 June 2021 --- With the naturals trend in beauty and personal care (BPC) shifting to the more holistic conscious beauty trend that puts people, communities and the planet at the top of the agenda, BPC Insights talks to three brands on what conscious beauty means to them.

True Makeup Freedom

Tmf (True Makeup Freedom), which describes itself as a clean, organic and vegan color brand from Australia, has a very clear and strong vision of what conscious beauty means to them at Tmf. “Conscious to me, is a complete awareness of other people, their perspectives, struggles and challenges from every angle. To also have complete empathy and help people and animals in need whenever possible without gaining anything in return,” says Jill Chambers, the brand’s founder.

Click to EnlargeTrue Makeup Freedom is a vegan organic brand from Australia. Source: TMFCommenting on how Tmf sees conscious beauty: “For us, it was never a trend, being clean and green was a totally conscious choice and movement from the very beginning.” A statement that strengthens the idea that green, clean and conscious beauty trends are interwoven and take inspiration from each other. When Chambers started developing TMF in late 2013, it was as a “direct response and need in the industry for a ‘changing of the guard’ when it came to eradicating animal testing for good and developing products with 100% natural ingredients and preservatives to help people’s skin and also to minimize environmental impact,” the founder relays. 

Talking about how Tmf runs with consciousness in mind, Chamber adds: “As a brand since the start we have always been completely inclusive and supportive of every person.” 

The brand has also implemented a ‘Choose your Charity’ section on its website where 10% of every purchase goes directly to the charity the customer chooses. “Being a clean, vegan, non-toxic brand means we’re conscious through our objection to animal testing and our minimized environmental impact due to using only 100% natural ingredients,” shares Chambers. 

L’ODAÏTÈS

Click to EnlargeFrance based L’ODAÏTÈS is a luxury apothecary skin care brand. Source: L’ODAÏTÈS.

L’ODAÏTÈS, a luxury apothecary skin care line manufactured in France explains what consciousness means to the brand. “For us, conscious beauty is a holistic approach to the beauty business that not only offers a clean and green beauty product, but it goes beyond that by optimizing and caring about the ecological, societal, health, economic and ethical impact of this product throughout its life cycle: meaning from manufacture to its post-consumption by, for example, offering upcycling opportunities,” shares the brand’s general director, Nabila Chemillier.

L’ODAÏTÈS runs the brand with this awareness in mind, highlighting the importance of storytelling. Learning and seeing her grandmother, who was an apothecary, make her virtuous mixtures of active botanical ingredients to prepare balms and creams, influences the brand in all that it does. Chemillier shares that as her grandmother mixed her blends, she explained the purpose and the importance of the quality of each of the ingredients: “We have been made aware of quality since our childhood; that was the beginning of our education in cosmetics. This experience and knowledge have founded the values of the brand and still guide us in its development,” Chemillier adds.

The brand has chosen to favor women entrepreneurs among their suppliers to give them the opportunity to prosper in their business. The team also favors suppliers who use cooperatives that offer work opportunities to women. This is, for example, the case for their desert date palm oil supplier and date extracts supplier, who are all based in Saharian regions and employing women, Chemillier highlights.

L’ODAÏTÈS also selects suppliers from the Mediterranean basin whenever it is possible in order to reduce the carbon footprint, and manufactures all its products in France, to limit its and its consumers’ carbon footprint. The brand notes all of its plant extracts are organic and that it guarantees a content of natural ingredients between 98% and 100%, depending on the product. 

The brand also develops its products with the aim of offering effective care with minimum ingredients. Its cleansing oil, for example, has seven ingredients. It also does not formulate with palm oil. 

L’ODAÏTÈS chooses cold emulsifiers as much as possible to avoid energy waste. Its bottles are made of glass or recycled PET, it uses recycled cardboard for parcels, limits the use of boxes to fragile products, and has opted for recyclable paper printed with vegetable-based ink. 

Displaying its commitment to sustainability even further, Chemillier explains it has eliminated all leaflets, banned plastic spatulas and opted for olive wood spatulas (hand-carving them to provide an additional income for women artisans), and avoids flyers as much as possible, replacing them with QR codes on product labels.

“Quality of life at work is very important to us,” says Chemillier. “We are committed to ensuring the development of each employee and thus offering a working environment that stimulates mutual support.” 

“Team spirit is the key to our development. We actively encourage it. Meals are a convivial moment for the whole team and allow us to freely discuss new topics and get to know each other better,” Chemillier emphasizes.

Ipsum Skin

Ipsum Skin is an Australian certified organic luxury skin care brand that features native plant oils. Ever since its inception, the brand’s founder Janet Hayward has had a clear vision to produce a range of beauty products that are “uncomplicated” in nature and that have a “definite place” in the consumer’s everyday skin care routine that convey their benefits. 

Janet Hayward, founder of Ipsum Skin talks through how she runs the brand with this 'consciousness' in mind: “I have always been a huge fan of plant oil skin care, embracing the fact that the unique, complex and concentrated compounds developed by plants for their own survival are the same nutrients that are highly beneficial for our skin—and are also impossible to replicate in a laboratory.”  

Ensuring that the entire production process is ethical is vital to Ipsum Skin. Grown in their native habitat and without the use of chemical pesticides “ensures the integrity of the quality of plant oils and ensures maximum efficacy,” Hayward states. Describing the decision to create a COSMOS organic certified range as “a natural choice,” Ipsum formulates with only native plant oils, esters and waxes, with strict regulation around cultivation, harvest, transportation, extraction, formulation and manufacture of the products to ensure no harm to humans, animals or the environment. 

“We are also a proud supporter of Bush Heritage, a not-for-profit organization that partners with Aboriginal groups to plan and manage conservation work of the Australian landscape to protect our unique animal and plant species and preserve Australia's biodiversity,” shares Hayward.

The brand packages its products in recyclable materials, however, it is waiting for a solution for its bottle’s labels, which currently need to be removed before the bottle can be recycled. This highlights the nature of continuous improvement within conscious beauty that Ipsum Skin derives from its meaning and stands by with its commitment to research and evolution.

By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist