Pedal power: Low-waste beauty brand Oasis to pilot zero-carbon delivery option

Founded in 2018, Oasis Skin is a local manufacturer of organic personal care products that advocates a zero-to-low-waste beauty concept with solid beauty products and a refill-and-reuse concept.

In 2019, it opened the doors to its first retail outlet located on the city fringe. This April, it unveiled a second in a more a residential neighbourhood to be closer to its consumers.

“Our first location was more focused as a production space and now we want to give people a proper retail experience. Being in this neighbourhood as well, it’s just more convenient for people to come by and check us out or refill their products,”​ said founder Hildra Gwee.

Gwee told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that another reason she pushed for a store in a residential district was to launch a zero-carbon delivery service.

“This year, we are piloting a zero-carbon delivery option, meaning a bicycle courier, for our customers that live within two or three kilometres. We’re starting with a handful of cyclists firsts and hopefully we can grow our own fleet of bicycles.”​

According to Gwee, the delivery service would tentatively set the consumer back around SGD4 (USD2.97) but would be free for purchases over $60 (USD44.60).

Not just a ‘cute feature’

Building up this service is one of the company’s main goals of 2021, Gwee emphasised.

“This may seem like a little cute feature, but its actually quite crucial for us in our goal. This is a prelude to what we eventually hope to do, which is to have our very own fully-fledged logistics division. It just makes a lot of sense because aside from delivery, we want to be able to collect back bottles and keep reusing them.”​

She added that ultimately, this option would make things more convenient for consumers and encourage them along in their zero-waste journey. “At the end of the day, being sustainable can be difficult, so we want to make it as convenient as possible for our customers.”​

The firm’s long-term goal is to own a fleet of electric vehicles to be able to extend its reach across the whole island.

“Bicycles are great in terms of being zero-carbon, but obviously it won’t be feasible to cover the whole island. At the same time, having a brick-and-mortar in every neighbourhood would be very costly, so have an electric car is a good option for us,” ​said Gwee.

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DIY offerings

Last year, the company experienced sales growth during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak and has managed to maintain their growth momentum so far.

“Once people started to go out more, we were concerned things might take a dip, but the interest is still there, and people are happy to support local makers. So, business has been growing and we hope it will continue growing especially with the launch of the new store,” ​said Gwee.

This year, Oasis is extending its range of offerings to include raw materials and encourage people to make their own products. Currently, it offers raw ingredients such as soap flakes, multipurpose cleaning liquid and carrier oils.

“The idea is to get them to buy these raw ingredients and go home to make them. We want to tie this in without our workshops as well so we can teach them how to make products on their own. These are all stable ingredients and it will be easy for them to DIY safely,” ​said Gwee.