The beauty industry's exploration and use of biotechnology is growing fast as we heard in the previous episode with Josh Britton, CEO and co-founder of Debut Biotech. Large corporate cosmetics companies are turning to biotech - or synthetic biology - to grow their high-performance cosmetic ingredients sustainably in labs. The contrast in approach between the industrial and artisan beauty sectors is intriguing. The indie beauty sector, represented by the Formula Botanica community, shows minimal engagement with biotech. When we searched the Formula Botanica online forum for mention of biotech, we found just a handful of comments and queries about it. In this opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier explores these diverging paths and their implications for the future of beauty. Could the advent of biotech prove the key difference between the artisan-scale indie beauty brand and the mainstream? Much depends on the availability of bio-based ingredients for small-scale brands as well as the mission and mindsets of artisan founders and formulators. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

In this ground-breaking episode of Green Beauty Conversations, we dive into the world of biotech beauty, a realm where the age-old practices of botanical extraction meet cutting-edge science. For millennia, the natural world provided the raw ingredients for cosmetics. The early 1900s brought chemistry to bear on ingredient manufacture, but now, with the massive rise in demand for all-natural beauty products, we are seeing demand for plant-extracted cosmetic ingredients outstripping supply. Factor in the costs to the natural world associated with growing, harvesting and processing plant-based ingredients, and you begin to realise that biotech could be the sustainable solution for the beauty industry. Biotech ingredients that mimic plant extracts like for like can scale, be created sustainably in a lab, reduce costs, claim efficacy and be high-performance cosmetic ingredient sources. Are we at the cusp of a massive shift to biotech in the cosmetics industry? Are we also about to see ingredient wars between the all-natural, plant-extracted camp and the biotech pioneers? Our guest, Josh Britton, CEO of Debut Biotech, guides us through the revolutionary changes biotechnology is bringing to the cosmetic industry. Join podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier as she uncovers how Debut Biotech is leading the charge in this new era, transcending traditional methods to create high-performance, sustainable ingredients. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Growing up in the Netherlands, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier learned the value of recycling plastic from an early age. However, the prevailing culture of single-use plastics Lorraine experienced in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States was in stark contrast to the practices she grew up with in the Netherlands. Now, with her career in the cosmetics industry, and background as a Chartered Environmentalist and a biologist, Lorraine is finely tuned to any cosmetics firms’ claims about sustainable packaging, plastic-free alternatives and other green credentials. While many big players are moving towards more responsible packaging systems, a pressing question remains: what really happens to our recycled plastics? Is the labeling of certain plastic cosmetic packaging as recyclable, blindsiding us and akin to greenwashing? In last week’s podcast, Lorraine interviewed Dr Suvi Haimi, Co-Founder and CEO of Sulapac, who brought to light the myth of plastic recyclability, revealing that some plastics can only be recycled once. In today’s Green Beauty Opinions, she explores this crucial issue. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website. 

In this episode, we’re delving into an issue that lies not only at the heart of the green beauty industry, but one that we raise in our conversations time and again on this podcast – sustainability and tackling plastic waste. When we come across innovative answers and practical solutions to help reduce plastic waste in the beauty industry that are also within reach of small, indie beauty businesses, we are keen to explore them and spread the word about how they deliver on their promise. Podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier is joined by Dr Suvi Haimi, CEO and Co-founder of Sulapac, a pioneering company based in Finland that is on a mission to replace conventional plastic with sustainable alternatives. We’re proud to say that some of our graduate beauty founders and brands are already using Sulapac’s packaging and contributing to a plastic-free future in the beauty industry. If you wish to follow their lead, we encourage you to listen in to our interview with Suvi as we explore the innovative ways Sulapac is combating plastic waste and contributing to a greener planet. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

As the world’s number one online formulation school with award-winning courses, it is particularly validating to see how far and wide Formula Botanica teaching is spreading. Before the advent of online learning, cosmetic chemistry was taught only in a small number of universities, mainly in the UK and US, which meant formulation training was not as widely accessible as it should be. Formula Botanica has changed that in a big way. Its teaching now reaches over 19,000 students in over 190 countries. In this opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier sets out a vision for a better global cosmetics industry; one that sees it entirely normal for local, indie beauty entrepreneurs to create premium skincare brands to rival any of the global big brands out there today.  In fact, Formula Botanica graduate founders are doing just that, as we heard in the previous episode with self-made beauty entrepreneur Dewi Kauw.  In doing so, they will be challenging the dominant, Eurocentric perception of beauty which should no longer be valid, and certainly needs to be changed. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.    

Imagine going from cafe owner to mother to cosmetic formulator, teacher and contract manufacturer in less than 10 years having created a beauty empire built on turning problems into solutions and roadblocks into opportunities. In this episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine talks to Dewi Kauw, a school graduate and founder of Skin Dewi, an award-winning, Indonesian-based, organic skincare and bodycare brand. What began as a mother’s quest to alleviate her baby’s skin issues has grown into a formulation and manufacturing empire with a mission to educate on lifestyle and wellness while helping its audience and customers care for a myriad of skin issues. Dewi explains the trials and tribulations of not only launching a plant-based organic skincare line in Indonesia, but also the challenges she faced on a manufacturing front. She dared to dream of building her own manufacturing facility and with determination and creativity she made it happen. Tune in for an enlightening interview full of juicy entrepreneurial tidbits and wise advice on how passion and perseverance can move beauty mountains. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website. 

AI is being leveraged by the beauty sector to help increase productivity, reduce costs, automate task and improve decision-making. In last week’s guest episode, Lorraine heard how AI was impacting the beauty industry and what can be expected of this powerful technology in the future. Taking a cue from her interviewee, Lorraine decided to take up the challenge of seeing how capable one commonly-used AI tool – tech darling ChatGPT – is of formulation. Could it help, for example, formulate a solid facial serum bar with vitamin C? In this opinion episode Lorraine walks us through her experiment with ChatGPT, which went through a number of stages before ending with a stunning conclusion. Listen in to find out if AI is able to formulate skincare successfully despite lacking that essential ingredient - “human-ness” - the Formula Botanica and indie beauty community bring to the equation. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Suddenly, AI has gone mainstream and people are discovering how efficient and effective it can be to complete all sorts of tasks. There are so many benefits to using AI and its potential is boundless. However, the beauty industry continues to grapple with AI and what it could mean for the industry. Could AI in the future design our cosmetics, formulate for us, or make the beauty industry more sustainable? AI is in its nascent stages so who knows what the future holds. In this episode, Lorraine talks to Yann Chilvers, the Co-Founder of Covalo, the world’s largest beauty ingredients’ platform. Yann explains in detail how Covalo leverages AI and data analysis to give its customers a competitive advantage. He also outlines AI’s shortcomings and how human participation in any technology system will always be required on some level. Settle in for a fascinating conversation on how AI is currently impacting the beauty industry and what it may have in store for us in the future. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Reusing what would normally be considered waste byproducts is not only an innovative way to repurpose a wide variety of materials, but also a smart beauty business move and good for our planet. Upcycled ingredients are set to play a larger and larger role in the future of beauty. In the last guest episode, Lorraine interviewed Geoff Chapin, CEO of Carbonwave; an innovative company from the USA transforming Sargassum seaweed into a number of amazing products including an all-natural plant-based emulsifier for the cosmetic industry. He turned an environmental disaster into upcycling gold. Join Formula Botanica CEO, biologist and chartered environmentalist Lorraine Dallmeier in this episode as she covers just three fascinating upcycling techniques already in use in the beauty industry. These are just a hint at the possibilities for upcycling and circularity in the beauty industry of the future. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Seaweed is an amazing, multipurpose marine plant. It offers a habitat for marine life of all shapes and sizes, grows and regenerates quickly and has a magical way of helping heal the ocean by absorbing harmful ingredients washed into our oceans by large scale manufacturing and farming. In the context of the global climate crisis, this is highly encouraging. However, human activity has a nasty way of interfering with the planet’s finely-balanced eco-system and also affects what nature intended for seaweed. Take for example sargassum seaweed, which, as a result of excessive nutrients being flushed into the ocean, creates massive algal blooms every year that bring with them their own destructive ecological and economic problems. In 2020, an innovative team of entrepreneurs and STEM experts started to investigate what consumer products could be made from sargassum. Fast forward a year and they became the world’s leading developer of ultra-regenerative, plant-based biomaterials from seaweed. In 2021, they brought to market the world’s first all-natural, sustainable, plant-based emulsifier for cosmetic use and it has taken the beauty industry by storm. In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Geoff Chapin, CEO and co-founder of Carbonwave on his inspiration behind the business of upcycling seaweed. If you are interested in hearing more about this amazing marine-based functional cosmetic ingredient, you don’t want to miss this exciting conversation about a field of cosmetic research that is taking the industry by storm.

In the last guest episode, we heard from Formula Botanica graduate and indie beauty rock star Leslie Reichgelt, founder of Bella Botanicals, who has managed to smash every preconception we have about what a beauty brand should be and how one should operate. She shared some amazing tips on how to build a beauty business on a budget by simply networking and being visible in your own community. Prompted by Leslie’s experiences, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier uses this episode to reflect on her early career and how difficult it was to put herself out there. Being the visible face of her business was terrifying at the start, but Lorraine persevered. It is daunting starting a new business and we all have moments of doubts. But, the key to success lies in getting out of your comfort zone and taking a leap of faith towards personal growth and your dreams of becoming a beauty entrepreneur. How do fledgling beauty entrepreneurs shift their mindset to be successful in today’s economic climate? Listen in to an exciting and inspirational episode that offers a simple road map to pushing past your biggest fears and creating a successful beauty business on a budget and on your own terms. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website. 

In this episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier talks to indie beauty founder and graduate Leslie Reichgelt of Bella Botanicals, a natural and organic skincare brand based in the USA. Leslie shares her story on how she has built a successful beauty brand from the ground up, and talks of the highs and lows that she has experienced along the way. Leslie’s honest, practical and personal story shows how it is entirely possible to create a sustainable and successful natural beauty business from your own home, and dispels the myth that the market is too crowded for "yet another beauty brand". Listen in for the pep talk you need to follow in Leslie's footsteps. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

In a world brimming with beauty products and services, have you ever wondered what happens to them once they’ve served their purpose? As we immerse ourselves in skincare, haircare and makeup, it’s easy to forget that beautifying often comes at a cost to our planet. The beauty industry, with its myriad companies, products, and services, has inadvertently – or perhaps also blatantly – contributed to the mounting waste crisis that plagues our planet. In this opinion episode of Green Beauty Conversations, host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier – also a Chartered Environmentalist and biologist – presents a new and pressing concept for all of us in the beauty industry to think about and make centre stage: “end-of-life beauty planning.” Listen in to learn why we should buy, manufacture, and formulate cosmetics with their end in mind. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

The next time you go for a regular hair cut, take a moment to think about what happens to the waste hair you’ve just left behind. If you had a hair colour or highlights, then your visit has a larger waste footprint as it will have generated left-over colourant, aluminium foils, and empty plastic bottles. There are over a million hair salons of all sizes in the USA alone creating waste like this, and a similar story happens the world over and across the beauty industry in nail bars, spas, barber shops and esthetician salons. But, one person’s waste is another’s solution. In this guest episode, we hear from Shane Price, an eco-preneur with a background in molecular biology and biochem, whose visit to a barber's over a decade ago gave him the motivation to come up with solutions to the environmental impacts of the beauty industry. Listen in as Formula Botanica CEO and host Lorraine Dallmeier discovers some astonishing ways Shane’s initiative with  Green Circle Salons is saving waste, one salon visit at a time. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Just when you thought the beauty industry had exhausted its lexicon, along comes “cleanical”. At first glance, cleanical seems innocent enough and quite easy to decipher; it’s a mash-up of “clean” and “clinical,” and aims to describe formulations that are both clean beauty formulations and clinically proven. What’s the harm in using it on labels, social media, or in the beauty media? For a start, cleanical should be seen as controversial as it has no scientific basis. To explain why, Lorraine Dallmeier, the host of Green Beauty Conversations and CEO of Formula Botanica, unpacks the term and presents her view on the use of “cleanical” in the beauty industry. In this episode, she argues why this buzzword should be abolished from our vocabulary and how it is yet another term that perpetuates misconceptions about clean beauty. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Clean beauty has been espoused for almost three decades and in that time there has been no real clarity on what "clean" really means in the beauty landscape. Initially tied to the Southern Californian wellness movement of the early ’90s, the broad interpretation of clean has only become wider and more confusing. However, now there is a new beauty movement afoot that is challenging clean. Strictly speaking, “clean beauty” remains a marketing term that would require evidence-based proof to substantiate the claims some beauty brands use it for. In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier is joined by colleague School Education Manager Ana Green to discuss this hotly-debated term. Listen in to make your mind up about the future of clean beauty.  To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Inspired by the 9th generation herbalist interviewed in the previous guest episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier asks us to think about the plants and herbs native to us that have been revered for centuries for the beauty secrets they hold within. Lorraine dives into three herbs native to her in the UK which were documented in the 16th century by one of the country’s most renowned and pioneering herbalists of his day, Dr Nicholas Culpeper, in his “Complete Herbal: a book of natural remedies for ancient ills”. How do the age-old and folkloristric benefits of herbs stand up against today’s scientific assessment of their powers? Listen in to be surprised by ancient wisdom and inspired to do your own research into the secrets of herbs growing near you.

Natural formulation may seem a new sector of the beauty industry today – barely 20 years old – but it was there long before the dawn of mainstream commercial cosmetics. Its roots lie in thousands of years of home formulation, herbology and traditional and folkloristic medicine with recipes handed down by word of mouth across generations. If you love the thought of being involved in an exciting, modern natural beauty movement that is part of the great continuum of ancient knowledge of the power of plants, then you will want to listen to this guest episode. Formula CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Dr Jenelle Kim, a 9th-generation master herbologist, doctor of traditional Oriental medicine, best-selling author, cosmetics formulator and wellness expert, who shares her rich heritage of plants of East Asia. Dr Kim has woven plants into her life and her career, and they are the powerhouses in her performance cosmetics. If you want to hear exactly what it means to infuse your ancestor’s knowledge into the formulations you create, join us for a fascinating story. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

In this opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier delves into the intriguing world of “skintellectuals” and the significant influence Gen Z is wielding in the beauty industry. But who are these self-proclaimed “skintellectuals” and what do they stand for? With scientific jargon bombarding beauty consumers, it’s only natural that individuals seek to understand the terminology and concepts behind skincare ingredients.  Accessibility to knowledge has given rise to a so-called “skintellectual movement”, that can only gain momentum. Lorraine proposes that it should play a pivotal role in challenging beauty brands on issues like sustainability. Only by questioning and demanding transparency, can we contribute to cleaning up the beauty industry and making it more environmentally conscious. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

If sustainability is to make headway in the beauty industry, it is future generations who will be shaping it and seeing it through. So, how are generations like Gen Z thinking about sustainabilty in the cosmetics industry, both as beauty shoppers and future formulators? In this episode, Lorraine interviews Riley Cowen who is a graduate student of ISIPCA, a Paris-based institute for post-graduate studies in perfume, cosmetics products and food flavour formulation. Riley has insights into both the marketing and business side of the industry as well as cosmetic science and product development. At 22, she brings a unique perspective as a young industry insider on Genz Z’s take on sustainability in the beauty industry. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

“Beauty” – a short, six-letter word that none of us need define. We know what it means. Or do we? The shocking truth is that even many of us in the beauty industry have never looked up nor questioned its dictionary definitions. Now is the time to do both, says Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier. Our guest in the previous episode, Shaun Russell, owner of Scandinavian-based fragrance and lifestyle brand Skandinavist, and chair of B Corp Beauty Coalition, drew our attention to the definition of beauty, asking us to see it as encompassing the beauty of the natural world, not only the world of cosmetics. He pointed out that in buying beauty products, we should think of their impact on the beauty of the planet. Beauty should be defined by the world around us, not by how we appear to others. In this opinion episode, Lorraine takes a cue from Shaun’s comments and investigates the world of the word beauty to uncover some shocking and depressing truths about it. Listen in to make your mind up on whether it’s high time to redefine beauty. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

Some beauty brands are cajoled into taking action on sustainability by their customers or competitors. However, others are not waiting around. They are taking the lead and cooperating in setting themselves the highest environmental and social standards to hold their beauty businesses to account. B Corp Beauty businesses are in this latter group. But, what is B Corp and what role does a sub-set group called the B Corp Beauty Coalition play? If you haven’t heard of this forward-thinking, non-profit organisation or the active lead taken by over 60 of its beauty brand members, it is time to put them both on your radar when you wish to shop for sustainable beauty. Lorraine talks to Shaun Russell, founder of B Corp-certified, Scandinavian fragrance and lifestyle company Skandinavisk, who is also co-founder and chair of B Corp Beauty Coalition, an initiative of over 60 B Corps worldwide united in working to improve the sustainability standards of the beauty industry. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Get ready to see marine ingredients – specifically algae – featuring everywhere in cosmetic products. Seaweed is moving on up from its traditional role in the spa sector and as a functional gelling and colouring agent. While we usually don’t take much notice of the latest trending ingredient, which is here today and gone tomorrow from our cosmetics, algae is one category of ingredients that is worth investigating, and, we hope, set to stay. If you listened to our previous episode in which Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier and colleagues discussed the latest cosmetic trends seen at this year’s in-cosmetics Global, the world’s largest trade fair for the industry, you will have heard how marine ingredients are dominating the agenda. In this opinion episode, Lorraine takes a closer look at why algae, seaweeds and other marine ingredients herald a new era in sustainable cosmetics.  Listen in to hear 4 reasons to love algae in your cosmetics. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

The fundamentals of formulation, such as the techniques of emulsifying, don’t really change over the decades. What does change however are the ingredients. Each year, manufacturers release the latest innovative ingredients their R&D teams have been keeping under wraps. Interestingly too, we see old ingredients rediscovered and revamped into new forms. Tens of thousands of cosmetic ingredients exist, but there is one place that helps put them into context and shows us where the cosmetics' industry is heading; and that is in-cosmetics Global. This massive, annual trade fair draws in thousands of industry insiders  to explore the hottest trends in cosmetic ingredients. The Formula Botanica education team attended the 2023 in-cosmetics Global in Barcelona and is here to report on the latest trends that will filter into our teaching, in particular The Lab, our CPD membership site, as well as inspire all of us in natural formulation. Podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier is joined by colleagues School Education Manager Ana Green and Cosmetic Scientist Beatriz do Amaral to pick out the highlights of in-cosmetics Global 2023 that are shaping the future of our cosmetics.

In this Green Beauty opinion, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks about the resistence to change both consumers and the natural skincare formulation community face from the established beauty industry. Her guest in the previous episode, Candice Quinn, founder of MANISAFE is just one example of this in action, and Lorraine mentions others that proved to be less than music to the mainstream industry’s ears. Yet, as Formula Botanica graduates have proved, time and again, there are plenty of niches in which they are pioneers whether in serving their customers’ needs more closely, or in adopting eco-beauty practices. One beauty entrepreneur at a time, we are seeing more and more Candice Quinns dare to find solutions to problems the industry won’t even admit to. Join Lorraine in this episode as she celebrates indie beauty's entrepreneurial mindset. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

We all know the saying:”your hands really show your age”. Your grandmother or mother may have told you to take care of your hands and to protect them, not just your face, from the damage caused by UV exposure and other environmental stressors. Wearing gloves while doing housework may be your mantra already, but listen up. If you love caring for your hands and are in love with the perfection and durability of gel manicures, you may be exposing the skin on your hands to UV damage. Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Candice Quinn, who is the Founder of MANISAFE, a multi-award-winning small business with a mission to make gel manicures kinder to hands’ skin. MANISAFE created a collection of fashion-statement, UV-protective gel manicure gloves designed to protect the skin on your hands from the harmful UV light emitted by nail lamps to cure gel polish. Candice’s aim is to save hand skin from damage in all situations – including their beautifying. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Sustainable beauty can seem a mission impossible. Whether appraoching it as a beauty consumer or indie beauty brand, we can get dragged into a complex and depressing world of carbon emissions and waste recycling and despair that we can ever do the right thing for the planet. But, as we heard in the previous episode with Anisha Gupta of Bluebird Climate, sustainable beauty can be accessible to all and need not be costly, complex nor confusing. Bluebird's fascinating impact assessment tool for beauty brands and rather cool - yes, we can apply that word to sustainability - website widget puts a positive spin on the matter. In this Green Beauty Opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier explains the many reasons we have to be positive about embracing sustainable beauty. Let's call this episode a look on the bright side of the future of beauty. Forgot about overwhelm and start being overjoyed that we live in the era that will see sustainability go mainstream. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website. 

Sustainable beauty is a term laden with grand visions and vague concepts. It is enough to scare off even those indie beauty brands wanting to do their best to reduce their carbon impact and waste.  Unraveling sustainability as a small business is complex, so imagine our excitement at coming across a new platform aimed specifically at making sustainability a simpler process for small beauty and wellness companies to navigate. In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Anisha Gupta, chemical engineer, sustainability expert and co-founder of Bluebird Climate, a climate-tech firm handholding small beauty companies in their mission to decarbonise their operations and make lifecycle assessments of their products. Based on low-cost access to their transparent benchmarking tools, Bluebird believes that it doesn’t have to be complicated to tell a sustainability story. If sustainability has been on your mind, and whether your beauty business is pre-launch, a start-up or established, this is an episode to help you get going on your brand’s sustainability journey. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

The word gentle is touted around in the beauty industry and familiar to consumers. However the ingredients inside certain cosmetics may be anything but gentle to our skin. The beauty industry creates products to help reduce the visible signs of ageing, like fine lines and wrinkles, by over cleansing, exfoliating and peeling our skin. But this removes the microbiome we so badly need for good skin health and for the maintenance of our skin barrier. We heard about the human microbiome and its vital role in maintaining skin health in our previous guest episode with Leo Salvi of Kind to Biome, a firm developing rigorous, verifiable tests to assess the microbiome gentleness of cosmetics. In this opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier asks: "Isn't it time we see the industry formulating with a different and gentler agenda than antiageing and turning back the clock on our skin?" To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.

Imagine the human microbiome as a planet with millions, and possibly billions, of microorganisms living in harmony to protect their host - our skin and scalp. Incredibly, one square centimetre of our skin, depending on the part of the body, could have that number of microbes living on it. We are in early days of scientific research on the skin's microbiome and its function in maintaining the health of our skin and body. How then is it possible to have cosmetics sporting labels that say their formulations are microbiome friendly? Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier dives into the mysterious and magical world of our skin's microbiome. Her guest is Leo Salvi, a chemist, qualified safety assessor for cosmetics and the Co-Founder and Head of Science at Kind to Biome® which provides a scientifically-validated methodology to back up microbiome-gentle claims for beauty products. Will microbiome-friendly cosmetics be the next big industry trend? Listen in to discover and make your mind up. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

In this opinion podcast, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier asks us to look back and laugh – or else we’ll cry with despair – at her chart-topping ten most ridiculous claims that the beauty industry has made. In the previous episode, Lorraine and colleague Ana Green unpacked the facts behind one of the latest claims in cosmetics’ marketing – fossil fuel-free beauty. It proved to be yet another misleading term. As a follow up, Lorraine takes us through her choice of most ridiculous claims starting over a hundred years ago at the beginning of the modern cosmetics industry. While today, most of those historic claims could not be made, Lorraine notes that we still find similar, if subtler messaging circulating in the beauty industry. Look back and laugh or look back and be angry about what many global beauty firms are communicating today. We leave it up to you to decide. Listen in to an astounding round-up of ridiculous claims. You won’t believe what makes Lorraine’s top three.

Fossil fuel-free beauty - haven’t we covered this one before on Green Beauty Conversations? Not in its new form. Fossil fuel-free is yet another distinct claim we’ve seen popping up on cosmetics’ labels. You’d be right to think it's familiar as on this podcast we have delved into related claims of carbon-neutral, zero-waste and climate-neutral, along with a host of topics open to greenwashing such as waterless, green, clean and blue beauty. However, while it may overlap with those other terms, we realised that fossil fuel-free beauty needs its own episode in order for us to unpack its meaning. Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier is joined by School Education Manager Ana Green to shed light on exactly what fossil fuel-free beauty is and why it may be among the most confusing and misleading terms yet applied to beauty products. Listen in to decide for yourself if fossil fuel-free is a claim too far. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.   

Big beauty has spent well over a century using fear-mongering to marketing its products to us. Even if today it is more sophisticated in its methods and use of media, the mainstream industry is still telling us we are not good enough or beautiful enough. In effect, it is telling us it’s not alright to embrace and celebrate our unique, inherent beauty and the normal part and parcel of being human – ageing. But, there are some in the beauty industry daring to ditch this messaging and give voice to a different way of looking at beauty; one that celebrates us as we are and makes us feel good in our own skin without using negative messaging to make us buy their products. In this green beauty opinion, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier explains how indie beauty formulators and entrepreneurs are helping dismantle decades of big beauty’s domination of the beauty narrative. Lorraine concludes with a clarion call for more of us to learn to formulate and change the industry for the better. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

If you are thinking of indie beauty entrepreneurship, this episode is a must-listen. It has been a while since the podcast has featured a Formula Botanica graduate brand, and with well over 300 incredible founders and successful beauty brands featured in our online gallery, the decision about whom to approach wasn’t easy. But, one name popped up time and again – Roshanne Dorsett, graduate of the  International Organic Skincare Entrepreneur Program, and founder of The Glowcery. Roshanne has achieved incredible heights for her brand in just three years, having launched The Glowcery, a superfood, natural and sustainable skincare brand, in spring 2020 just before the Covid-19 lockdowns. In this interview, you will hear of the amazing, inspiring personal transformation that Roshanne went through in starting her gorgeous and multi-award-winning beauty brand. But, what are really fascinating are her insights as a new, beauty entrepreneur; how she overcame challenges, bootstrapped her business, grew in confidence and now has plans to take The Glowcery international and develop it as a lifestyle brand. Roshanne drops some mindset bombs on indie beauty entrepreneurship that you need to hear. So settle in for a fantastic episode that could change your life.

There are few corners of formulating beauty that are left untouched. We’ve seen just about every possible formulation category covered on this podcast alone. We’ve heard about carbon neutral, waterless beauty, and clean, green and blue beauty, along with net zero and zero waste and more. But, until our previous episode, with haircare brand entrepreneur founders of Climaplex, we had not come across a cosmetics business actively formulating to protect us from the myriad effects of climate change. Not only is Climaplex doing right by the planet by formulating to ethical, sustainable principles, their haircare products are designed to tackle multiple effects of the fluctuating, and ever more extreme environmental conditions on our hair and scalp. In this Green Beauty opinion short, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier asks if formulating to protect our skin, body and hair from the ravages of climate change could become the norm – in fact, a new gold standard in cosmetic formulation. To learn more about this episode, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

Retail shelves are full of haircare products aimed at repairing our hair. Too dry, too greasy, dandruff, split ends, issues with frizz, more curl or less curl required, or shine and gloss needed? Every product promises hair nirvana to encourage us to buy. But, if we’re honest, many products may not work, or work as described. So, when podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier received a press release from a new haircare brand saying its products were formulated to combat the effects of climate change on our hair, she was sceptical, but also curious to find out more. The brand, Climaplex, has serious credentials. Its co-founders are industry veterans with several decades’ experience in the consumer and professional haircare and cosmetics manufacturing industries. They had invested in clinical development and trials run by a leading EU university to prove the climate change-haircare link and the efficacy of their products. In this episode, Lorraine talks to guests Simon Ostler, a renowned hairdresser, haircare brand pioneer and former industry executive and Giannantonio Negretti, head of a leading, international cosmetics manufacturing group to hear first hand how this new category of climate change cosmetics came into being. And, importantly, how Climaplex is committed to resolving our climate-change-created hair and scalp issues honestly, holistically and sustainably. To learn more about this episode, Lorraine's guests, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website.  

In the last episode, podcast guest Ekwy Chukwuji-Nnene, founder of indie, vegan haircare brand Equi Botanics, said that one cosmetics conglomerate had told her, in effect, that the beauty needs of people of colour didn’t count. Ekwy explained that when she approached the firm with her tried-and-tested natural haircare formulations for coily and textured hair, the executives replied: “Black women will buy whatever we sell them”. Ekwy shed light on what goes on behind the scenes of one giant in the cosmetics industry, but which is likely to be the prevaling attitude found across the sector. So incensed was podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier about the arrogant attitudes – and racism – in the mainstream commercial beauty industry that she just had to get on her soapbox in this green beauty opinion. Can indie beauty founders like Ekwy and consumers counter this arrogance and call the mainstream beauty out for its domineering attitudes once and for all? 

When entrepreneur Ekwy Chukwuji-Nnene was told by a major cosmetics conglomerate that "Black women buy anything we sell them", she was at first stunned and then angry. Founder of indie, vegan haircare brand Equi Botanics, Ekwy was met with scepticism when she pitched her products to a global beauty firm. Ekwy knew that they worked. Her formulations had helped resolve her own devastating hair issues and those of her daughters and had gained her a loyal community of early adopters. She knew also that there was a vast, untapped market of women of colour who were being ignored by the dominant, established beauty brands. Why is it that well into the 21st century, the beauty industry still believes it need cater only to the Eurocentric beauty ideal of a white woman with straight hair? Podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier invited Ekwy onto the show to talk not only about the challenges inherent in caring for coily, textured hair, but also about the struggles facing beauty entrepreneurs of colour. To learn more about this episode, Lorraine's guest, all of the links that were mentioned and anything else, please visit the show notes on the Formula Botanica website. 

From interviewing numerous founders for this podcast, we know that starting an indie beauty brand based on sustainability principles can be more expensive as well as limit your choices of packaging, ingredients, suppliers, partners and more.  However, if you are a beauty brand founder of colour or from a minority, then both anecdotal and statistical evidence shows that you will face almost insurmountable barriers to entry just starting any beauty brand, let alone one founded on sustainability principles. In our last episode on the history of slavery in soapmaking, we heard indie beauty founder and minority community activist Dr Candace Parrish explain that embracing sustainability is expensive and that these extra costs limit entrepreneurs of colour from getting into this industry in the first place. In this green beauty opinion, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier explores the points Candace raises to take a look at the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs of colour and from minorities, especially when it comes to sustainable beauty.

Soap has been the mainstay of personal care for millennia, but in recent years, it has gone from household commodity to luxury cosmetic in homes and hotels. Soapmaking is thriving too as an artisan hobby and has launched many entrepreneurial beauty businesses. Formula Botanica graduate Sandra Velasquez started her successful Latinx heritage bath and body brand Nopalera in 2020, helping elevate soap to new heights.  But, let’s just stop for a moment. Do we ever ask ourselves about the history of soap? It is worth doing so as there is a whole era of soapmaking that has been almost erased from the records of social history. In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier discovers the murky past of soapmaking with guest Dr Candace Parrish, whose studies in public relations, health communication, and visual communication led her to unearth a shameful period of American history and its enslaved soapmakers. Candace went on to create her soap and candle brand Odelia, Marie & Patrice to honour the legacy of African-American soapmakers, and as a platform to support activism for Black and people of colour in America today.

When you start a beauty brand, every aspect of it from your own unique formulations to your packaging and branding are up for grabs. Every detail is in your hands and even if outsourcing tasks, you, as the founder, have control. If you embrace sustainability in your brand mission at the outset, it will drive every detail and decision. How much easier this is than struggling to audit a beauty business later on against sustainability principles and finding it falling short. In this Green Beauty Opinion, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier discusses the advantages nimble, newcomer indie beauty brands have over the “oil tanker” giant firms of personal care. It will still take indie brands boundless energy, resources and resolve to be true to any founding mission to act on sustainability not just talk about it. However, the advantages and the market is theirs if they prepare ahead rather than retro fit sustainability as most personal care conglomerates must do. 

Solid cosmetics are growing in popularity in line with our desire for less-is-more skincare and to do right by the planet. They can be multiuse, potentially use less water in their manufacture, strip out water as a “filler” in their formulation, and may not need preservatives. As they are waterless, they can be less weighty to ship thanks to their minimal packaging. For all their virtues however, solid formulations are often seen as fun, cheap and disposable and not attractive enough to deliver high-performance skincare. We may think of them as glorified bars of soap. However, there are innovative, forward-thinking cosmetics brands that are daring to reframe solid formulations to appeal to a more luxury beauty market. When we heard of the brand SBTRCT, we knew we had to find out their secret of making solid beauty not just the norm, but the luxury norm too. In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to SBTRCT founder Ben Grace about his mission to disrupt the beauty industry and show us that anything is possible; even a facial serum bar perhaps.

Natural, indie, clean, green, organic skincare is now commonplace on store shelves and is talked about wherever you are online. This podcast is all about it, but if you’ve listened recently to Green Beauty Conversations, you will have noticed we’ve been focusing more on the topic of natural, sustainable haircare and attitudes to hair. But talk aside, are consumers actively looking to buy natural, more sustainable haircare products? Big, household-name international brands have generally had a comfortable monopoly on our haircare buying habits for decades. But recently, we have seen some high-profile brands having to do product recalls amidst safety concerns. Perhaps this will see shoppers start to question mainstream haircare ingredients. If so, we may have the same situation we did in the early 2010s when a  fear of parabens kickstarted the indie beauty movement. In this green beauty opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier asks what it will take for consumers to move away from the mainstream brands and what role indie brands will play in the future of haircare.

Indie beauty and the organic and natural cosmetics sector have typically focused more on skincare than haircare. This is to be expected; people can be reluctant to change their haircare routines and products once they have found brands that work for them. There are other reasons too for natural haircare lingering behind, such as the perceived higher cost of using natural shampoos and conditioners whose precious ingredients are immediately washed off. However, we are witnessing an exciting rise in the number of natural haircare brands, and also in consumer awareness of the need to seek out more sustainable haircare products too. The tide is turning for the dominance of mainstream haircare, not least on account of some recent high-profile product recalls in the sector. To discuss the kind of changes we need to make the haircare sector more sustainable and, as brand founders, see natural, indie haircare leading the way, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Jana Blankenship. The founder, CEO and lead formulator of green beauty haircare and B Corp company Captain Blankenship, Jana made a conscious decision a couple of years ago to pivot her business to focus solely on haircare and embed sustainability into its operations.

Visualising through storytelling is a good way to set our sights on what is desireable and possible, and then make the imagined become reality. Beauty brands have long used storytelling to create an appealing narrative about their products. It is in this context that Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier dares to air a new format in this green beauty opinion episode – a short story of life in the beauty industry in 2100. Lorraine helps us imagine what may seem impossible today; a truly sustainable beauty industry – one not driven by ever-more consumerism, but founded on sound sustainability principles. Inspired by her guest on the previous episode, sustainability leader, activist, and artist Khandiz Joni, Lorraine asks us to listen to her hopes for a future beauty industry that has avoided breaching the 9 planetary boundaries – or tipping points of sustainability – Joni outlined.

Would you like to hear a single, simple definition of sustainability that you can apply to your daily life in the beauty industry, whether as an indie business founder or consumer? The beauty industry media is clamouring to provide one, and at Formula Botanica, we’ve had journalists approach us for short sound-bites on what sustainable beauty means. Unfortunately, things aren’t so simple. In reducing talk of sustainability to the level of discussing this or that bottle for our beauty products or whether plant A is a more sustainable an option in our formulations than plant B, we are all guilty of missing the big picture. Of course, starting small and taking steps like changing packaging, seeking out refillables and formulating solid beauty products do make a difference. But, we also need to think big if we are to see a more sustainable beauty sector. Our guest in this episode Khandiz Joni, Chartered Environmentalist, independent sustainability consultant and, as she describes herself, a “sustainable-ist”, returns to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast. Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier invites Khandiz to discuss the big conversations the beauty industry, both small and large scale, needs to have about issues fundamental to sustainabilty, such as its use of land and water and role in agriculture and in how it contributes to biodiversity loss.

Whenever podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier has tackled the issue of sustainability in the beauty industry, she has heard time and time again the refrain that various pioneering approaches can't be done or done safely, are too expensive or demand too much from beauty consumers to put into action. In this Green Beauty Opinion Lorraine shines the spotlight on some of the beauty industry's true pioneers to make the point that the "eco-beauty entrepreneurs" of today will be those who eclipse their peers in the future. These are personalities changing the beauty industry for the better as they run successful beauty companies. The future will thank these entrepreneurs of today who are daring to defy the norms and through sheer doggedness and innovation are finding viable, profitable, practical ways to bring beauty products to market with minimal impact on the planet. Who dares wins, perhaps?

As indie beauty consumers, formulators and brand founders, we want to act responsibly when it comes to making, packaging, buying and disposing of our beauty products. Yet, for all our goodwill, it is incredibly difficult to know if the measures we are taking to reduce, reuse and recycle, plastic containers in particular, are making a difference. We've talked to pioneering indie beauty brands running some exceptional return and refill schemes, but our guest in this episode has flipped the idea to create refillable packaging designed to last - not just one or two refills nor a few years, but in theory up to 2,500 years. Instead of worrying about the time it takes a plastic container to biodegrade (which can be up to 400 years), Izzy Zero Waste is an indie beauty company designing permanence into its packaging.  Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Shannon Goldberg, co-founder and Chief Zero Waste Officer at Izzy Zero Waste Beauty to ask if the brand has created the ultimate solution to sustainable beauty packaging.