THE CLEAN BEAUTY
BOOM!
For the larger part of the past century, natural cosmetics and skin care products were outliers to traditional products, sold primarily on farms and at farmers’ markets. Products like handmade soaps and lotions were often sold as indulgent souvenirs at summer tourist destinations, like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
But within the last decade, the trend towards more natural products has provided unique opportunities for these local businesses, while also inspiring new ones. In Massachusetts, the potential for success is particularly strong, considering the state’s demographic.
In 2014, Global Cosmetic Industry reported that 43 percent of consumers between the ages of 25-34 preferred personal care products with natural and organic ingredients. That same demographic accounts for nearly 14 percent of the population in Massachusetts and 23 percent in Boston.
LOCAL CLEAN BEAUTY PLAYERS
Aisling Organics
One of the recent startups in the industry is Aisling Organics, which started just over a year ago here in Massachusetts. It’s founder, Krysta Lewis, has roots in the cosmetic community. Her family owned the C.B. Sullivan Company, a New England-based cosmetic chain for licensed professionals. They sold the company in 2010.
Lewis was inspired to create her own line of makeup after her health declined, and her doctors couldn’t come up with a diagnosis.
“It came to a point where my options were antidepressants or pain management,” said Lewis. Neither felt like the right choice. “I took a look at all aspects of my life to see what I could be doing better. The one thing I hadn’t thought about was my beauty products.”
It took a while to come up with the formulations. “Chemistry is not my strength,” said Lewis. Additionally, all her family’s past experience in the cosmetic industry was on the business side, not production. “I didn’t know what I was doing at first.”
But after finding a lab that met her standards, Lewis was able to create a makeup line consisting of eight products, and she just launched a new liquid lipstick earlier this year. According to Lewis, her line differs from others in that it is formulated with an herbal-base, which helps improve skin quality. Most other natural cosmetic brands are mineral-based.
“We’re doing really well and that’s primarily because the products stand for themselves,” said Lewis. “It’s a hard industry to be in.”
According to her, the demographic of her customers is women under the age of 40, but there’s also a good chunk of women who are older and looking for something new. “These women [want] to learn and they also want change.”
She’s partnered with makeup artist Sarah Lord. The two share a studio space in Newburyport along with a hair stylist. Lord primarily uses Aisling products in her makeup services.
Lust Cosmetics
In Boston, Samara Walker is working on launching her nail polish brand, Lust Cosmetics. Her polishes are vegan and eight-free, meaning they do not contain eight of the most common hazardous nail polish ingredients, such as formaldehyde and toluene. She is marketing her line as a luxury nail experience and currently look for business sponsors to help her expand. As she is launching her business, Walker is still working a nine-to-five job. Her decision to produce nail polish was inspired by childhood memories of watching her mother do her nails.
Walker is also in the unique position of being a woman of color in the natural beauty world. While the issue is endemic of the entire cosmetic industry, clean beauty offerings often severely lack shades and colors that compliment darker skin tones. And according to EWG, personal care products marketed to women of color are more likely to contain hazardous ingredients.
“A lot of women of color, they feel frustrated…but they love feeling beautiful,” said Walker. “It’s a battle between frustration and beauty.” She said many black women will blend two products to match their skin tone, forcing them to spend double what a light skinned woman will spend on a single cosmetic.
Walker plans to open a pop-up shop next spring.
HOW THE TREND STARTED
Many in the clean beauty industry, like Patsios, attribute the growing demand for natural products to the popularity of Whole Foods and the wellness movement. As shoppers flocked there for the healthier food, they also were introduced to the personal care brands Whole Foods stocked. And thanks to the internet, consumers are better informed than ever about potentially hazardous chemicals in everyday products. And they are using that information to make conscious choices about the things they buy.
The Farmacie Shop
Paulina Patsios run a small e-retail store out of her home in Swampscott while she looks for part-time jobs in the pharmacy industry.
“I mostly sell to family members and friends of friends,” said Patsios.
At age 24, she’s a registered pharmacist, having earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Studies in Worcester. Patsios says that as she pursued her pharmacy degree, family members would ask her about products and if they were safe to use. Once she gave them her recommendations, they ran into a few problems.
“Some people were older. They didn’t know where to get [them]. They didn’t have a Whole Foods near them,” said Patsios. “So I said, an online store would be perfect way for me to [recommend products].”
This summer she started a small, closed Facebook discussion group for potential shoppers and clean beauty enthusiasts to discuss products, health news, and home remedies. According to Patsios, internet access has not only provided an easy way to research ingredients and get information, but also as a way to get more in-depth customer reviews, which helps bring customers over to green beauty.
An analysis of Google Trends within the beauty and fitness category shows a correlation between searches for "organic makeup" and "toxic."
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Since 2009, an increase in search traffic for one term corresponds with an increase in search traffic for the other term.
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The data also shows that searches for both terms had a pattern of steady increase in popularity over time.
Last year, sales of natural and organic personal care products brought in $5.​7 billion. That’s a 9 percent jump in growth since 2015, according to a Kline Group report to be published next year. The natural personal care sector is projected to grow at 10 percent annual rate through 2021.
Right now, natural and organic personal care products is one of the fastest growing sectors of a beauty industry that’s currently worth more than 60 billion dollars. And major distributors are already working to get in on the action.
Cosmetics behemoth Sephora has always carried naturally-branded cosmetics, like Tarte and Josie Maran. But between 2015 and 2017, the company more than doubled its natural beauty offerings, from 25 brands to 52, according to internet archives of the company’s e-retail site. In 2013, they acquired an exclusive distribution deal with the Toronto-based company Bite Beauty, known for its highly pigmented lip products made without parabens, phthalates, or sulfates.
Mass-retailer Target has also increased the number of natural brands it carries. According to Women’s Wear Daily, Target saw a double-digit percent bump in sales of natural personal care products, particularly from brands like Shea Moisture and Burt’s Bees. Earlier this year, the retailer announced that by 2020, it would not carry personal care products containing parabens, phthalates, and formaldehyde or formaldehyde-donors.
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In an effort to make things easier on consumers, small retailers, like Patsios, are curating their inventory of products that meet their high standards. Customers, both online and in their local community, can trust that all products sold there are healthy and effective, without feeling the need to immediately check the list of ingredients.
One major store that innovated that type of shopping experience is headquartered right here in Boston. It’s called Follain.
And over the course of eight years, it’s gone from being a niche eco-beauty vendor in South Boston to being a leader of the clean beauty movement.
