Beautiful Products Embracing Nature and Technology that Heal

Since our earliest days as humankind, and in nearly every indigenous culture all around the world, we have looked to our Earth for healing and caring for our bodies. Aloe vera and honey were used to soothe skin conditions, castor and sesame oils were used as moisturisers, and turmeric was used to improve complexion. Today, new clean beauty brands are looking back to our herbal past and using new technology to move forward toward cleaner, greener beauty. Read more to find out about small beauty brands that are combining natural ingredients and driving clean practices in Beautiful Products Embracing Nature and Technology that Heal.

Herbal Medicine

Yup, we have seen the online chatter. The beauty industry is moving towards ‘all-natural’ ingredients and green techniques. We’ve seen Project Pan, using up all our products before buying more, and we’re trying to underconsume altogether. We’ve seen the push for biodegradable, plastic-free packaging. We are craving honesty about our products, and we want cleaner ingredients. Except, this is actually a heritage rooted in botany, which dates back to ancient times. Really, this is a human tradition; it can be found in China, the Indus River Valley, and Mesopotamia, all the way to the Amazon Basin. We’ve always used ingredients from native plants to create ointments and pastes that heal our bodies. Practically, botany could cleanse and purify the body and relieve skin symptoms and conditions. Not only that, but we’ve also used it for personal expression and religion, with some believing they could attract potential suitors or ward off enemies during battle.

Picking of heads of Arnica montana, 2008

Technology in manufacturing

When we celebrate nature, we don’t really consider science. We might think of them as opposites, but technology and natural ingredients have always been used side by side in the beauty world. In fact, during the Industrial Revolution, advances in chemistry brought these ideas to new audiences. New manufacturing processes and artificial ingredients, such as chemical preservatives and emulsifiers, helped bring beauty and health products to people all over the world. Now, these natural products could survive past a couple days without spoiling. And then came the mid-20th century, with its single-use plastic packaging becoming standard, allowing for cheap, flexible, durable containers that could handle shipping globally. Alongside the ability to produce cheap portable carriers came better science.

Biotechnology

Today, this technology has brought us a combination of herbal heritage and modern innovation. Natural ingredients are great at what they do, and our foreboders would agree with that. But sadly, they use a lot of natural resources and aren’t sustainable in the long run. However, new lab-grown ingredients might help keep this plant-based practice around for longer. Imagine ingredients which have all the same health benefits our ancestors enjoyed, but are entirely artificial and yet still ‘natural’ at the same time.

Using fermented yeasts, plant sugars, and bacteria, these new beauty ingredients are made efficiently in a stable lab environment, avoiding waste and using less energy and water than traditional crop farming. Advances in biotechnology have allowed for the creation of cosmetic ingredients which are nearly identical to the natural versions, but without using up all the available plants and using significantly less energy and resources. It’s as if we have gone back to old methods and brought them up to today’s standards.

What’s exciting for those who love beauty products is that there is an exciting plethora of new niche brands leading this greener movement. These are brands that are doing their very best, exploring new sciences and new business models to bring us cleaner beauty.

Image by Ibrahim Khairov

Hotel, Mike

Hotel, Mike is a bath and body-care business that truly embodies the stunning combination of classic natural ingredients and the capabilities of biotechnology. Shop, from candles to body care with lotions, body washes, oils, and bath salts. Scents range from Ginger, Marine, Eucalyptus, and Moss, giving an exciting new upgrade to your self-care days.

Harriet Murphy, the self-proclaimed ‘metaphorical botanist’ behind the brand, finds and collects one-of-a-kind ingredients from around the world. However, rather than taking these specimens and depleting the world’s supply, these samples are recreated in a lab to make her rare and unique product.

From production to packaging, this brand is committed to giving value products that are, first and foremost, clean and sustainable. The brand employs a variety of other techniques to mitigate waste and pollution, such as ingredient fermentation, upcycling waste products from other industries, and cold pressing to reduce chemical waste.

Not only are their products environmentally conscious, but their packaging is creatively sustainable. Their collection of candles not only smells great, but Hotel, Mike also encourages you to repurpose the gorgeous ceramic holder designed by artist Andrea Roman for your daily life. They suggest using it as a coffee cup, but how about organisational storage, or filling it with potpourri?

Sustainable Packaging Materials

Innovations in packaging are also helping reduce the amount of plastic waste in landfills, taking classic products we know and love and presenting them in a novel way. Some brands are looking to help this with a shockingly simple idea: keep what can be reused and replace what can be disposed.

We’ve seen the rise of reusable products in nearly every field; you might remember the steel water bottle hype with Stanley Cups. Our antecedents had the same idea. Since ancient times, we’ve used durable and natural materials like clay and wood for jugs, barrels, and baskets to hold our stuff, which could be washed out and reused. In the 20th-century, milkmen may have offered one of the first refillable subscription services. Using glass bottles that could be reused and refilled made the service incredibly sustainable (and their vans were electric). While we’ve largely done away with milkmen, the idea is being used today, but this time in the beauty industry.

Estrid

Body razors, for many, have become an essential part of daily grooming routines. A habit that started with cavemen removing body hair with sharpened flint (to remove the problem of lice), evolved into safety razors in the 1760s France, and now into plastic disposable razors. While these disposable razors make shaving convenient at home, there might be some merit in looking to our past to find a greener option.

Following in the footsteps of brands such as Le Labo, Fenty Beauty, and Hourglass, Estrid, a vegan body care brand, is bringing refillable beauty to the razor industry. Similar to the original safety blade, customers are given a durable stainless-steel handle. Now with upgraded delivery technology, Estrid’s razor-replacement subscription service allows people from all over the world to reuse their razors efficiently.

Their refillable antiperspirant shares the same idea, with a sleek, minimalist case and an insertable rollerball providing 48-hour odour protection. The rollerball comes in four fresh scents to choose from, and the best part is that once you finish one ball, you can try a new scent without needing to buy another case. The antiperspirant contains prebiotics to balance the skin’s microbiome and is gentle on the skin, so you don’t have to sacrifice quality products for an environmentally conscious idea.

Environmentally Friendly Lifestyle

We’re always intrigued by new ideas, and as we’re trying to progress into a cleaner industry, how interesting it is that these new ideas are returning to elements from our past. By using what we know works and using innovations to keep these ideas fresh, we’re moving towards a cleaner future for ourselves and for the world. There are lots of small brands out there that are at the forefront of this environmental movement, prioritising active experimentation and creativity to find the best possible solutions. We’re moving forward, and our future is looking green.

Find out more about Hotelmike.co.uk here, and find out more about Estrid.com/en-gb here.

Enjoyed reading Sustainable Beauty Products that Embrace Old Practices and New Technologies, why not read Beyond The Surface: Love From Inside To Out

.Cent Magazine London. Luxury Mindset.