Clean & Ethical Beauty Video Series Episode 2: Behind the Brands

After kicking things off in our first episode​ exploring the significance of this trend, we are going in-depth into how beauty brands operate in line with the movement.

Our first speaker is Jo Chidley, founder of a UK-based beauty brand that is aiming to be the most sustainable beauty brand in the world.

Chidley kicks things off by diving into the issue of packaging waste and how her B-corp certified brand tackles it by pre-cycling.

"We have redesigned and reformulated all of our products into packaging that can be returned, washed and re-used. Using digital technology to track and return the packaging through a national network of reverse logistics.”​

We also discuss how brands who want to adopt the cradle-to-cradle approach to beauty can start to begin their journey into a complicated world.

Later we hear from Johanna Monange, founder and CEO of Maison 21G, a personalised perfumery house based in Singapore.

Monange brings us into the world of clean fragrances and what it means to run a business ethically in perfumery.

"We need honest labelling in perfumery. Today when you buy your product it can read: perfume, water and that's it... I think it’s the right of the consumer to know what is inside their products. For instance, what are the natural ingredients, the percentage, the level of biodegradability of your perfume, the level of recyclable carbon..."​

Monange also discusses the debate between natural and synthetic fragrances and talks about how brands can include clean synthetics into their products.

The COVID-19 effect​

The two founders believe that moving forward the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will have a lasting impact on the clean and ethical beauty movement.

“There's been a negative impact on single-use plastic at the moment with things like gloves and masks and hand sanitisers, what I think that has done is really pushed the message to consumers about how single-use happens so easily and it can build up into billions very quickly,”​ said Chidley.

Monange added that she saw the impact of the outbreak as an opportunity for her brand.

“I see it as an opportunity for the perfumery to rethink the models and people will pay more attention into the products they use... People will be afraid to go these crowded places for a while and having the opportunity to come to a little shop like Maison 21G where you can have private meetings where we take care of you will be a huge hit.”​

Clean & Ethical Beauty: The experts​​

Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen​​

She is Beauty Kitchen’s toughest critic, inspecting everything from the efficacy of the products, to the way the ingredients are sourced, right down to the packaging sustainability for each product. Sustainability in packaging is a subject that is close to her heart and inspired Beauty Kitchen’s RETURN • REFILL • REPEAT programme.Jo Chidley is a chemist and the Founder of Beauty Kitchen. Widley regarded as one of the pioneers of sustainable beauty, Jo is driving the beauty industry forward with better practice approaches, always.

Jo has won industry awards, including the ‘Who’s Who in Natural Beauty’ and business awards such as ‘Scale Up Entrepreneur of the Year’.

Johanna Monange, Founder & CEO of Maison 21G​​

Armed with a wealth of knowledge from her 20 years in perfumery, working with various fragrance powerhouses such as Firmenich and IFF, Ms. Johanna Monange, Founder and CEO of haute perfumery Maison 21G, aims to revolutionise bespoke scents by welcoming everyone and anyone into her Maison (French word for home).

Located in the heart of Singapore’s chic neighbourhood in 77 Duxton Road. Although Monange hails from a corporate background, her approach to this craft is far from conventional. Johanna Monange wants to enable everybody to create their own perfume in total freedom by removing all intermediaries, creating transparency and bringing scent creation directly to the consumer.