By Susie Harbour
This is the third in a four-part series on the beauty industry. You can read parts 1 & 2 here.
In honor of Earth Day, we decided to analyze how concerns about the planet are changing the beauty industry. Clean beauty is not a new trend and we have seen a wide sweep of industry leaders, from brands to retailers, adopt a commitment to being “clean” over the last several years. But what does clean really mean?
Evolution of Clean Beauty
It stems from this idea that the beauty industry has largely been unregulated and that many of our everyday products (mascara, soap, cosmetics, shampoo, etc.) are made from toxic ingredients, including known carcinogens. Clean brands make a commitment to stay clear of harmful ingredients in their formulations and be transparent on their labels, but there is no standard definition of what qualifies a product as “clean.” The focus is generally on being non-toxic.
This is a much easier bar for most mainstream consumers than making the commitment to “natural” or “green” beauty where the efficacy, quality, and expense of the products have been problematic for the masses. Clean beauty has been the dominating trend in the industry over the past few years, but we feel sustainable beauty will be the next big trend in the same way we saw clean beauty eclipse natural.
Sustainable Opportunities
What do we mean by sustainable beauty, and what do we see as the opportunity? Sustainable beauty goes beyond clean in that the entire journey of the product matters, from sourcing to packaging to ingredients. Consumers care about sustainability and that is evidenced by the growth and size of the market for these products. Sustainable CPG products are expected to eclipse $150 billion by 2021 and are the fastest growing within all CPG.