The beauty industry's exploration and use of biotechnology is growing fast as we heard in the previous episode with Josh Britton, CEO and co-founder of Debut Biotech. Large corporate cosmetics companies are turning to biotech - or synthetic biology - to grow their high-performance cosmetic ingredients sustainably in labs. The contrast in approach between the industrial and artisan beauty sectors is intriguing. The indie beauty sector, represented by the Formula Botanica community, shows...

In this ground-breaking episode of Green Beauty Conversations, we dive into the world of biotech beauty, a realm where the age-old practices of botanical extraction meet cutting-edge science. For millennia, the natural world provided the raw ingredients for cosmetics. The early 1900s brought chemistry to bear on ingredient manufacture, but now, with the massive rise in demand for all-natural beauty products, we are seeing demand for plant-extracted cosmetic ingredients outstripping supply. ...

Growing up in the Netherlands, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier learned the value of recycling plastic from an early age. However, the prevailing culture of single-use plastics Lorraine experienced in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States was in stark contrast to the practices she grew up with in the Netherlands. Now, with her career in the cosmetics industry, and background as a Chartered Environmentalist and a biologist, Lorraine is finely tuned to...

In this episode, we’re delving into an issue that lies not only at the heart of the green beauty industry, but one that we raise in our conversations time and again on this podcast – sustainability and tackling plastic waste. When we come across innovative answers and practical solutions to help reduce plastic waste in the beauty industry that are also within reach of small, indie beauty businesses, we are keen to explore them and spread the word about how they deliver on their promise. ...

As the world’s number one online formulation school with award-winning courses, it is particularly validating to see how far and wide Formula Botanica teaching is spreading. Before the advent of online learning, cosmetic chemistry was taught only in a small number of universities, mainly in the UK and US, which meant formulation training was not as widely accessible as it should be. Formula Botanica has changed that in a big way. Its teaching now reaches over 19,000 students in over 190...

Imagine going from cafe owner to mother to cosmetic formulator, teacher and contract manufacturer in less than 10 years having created a beauty empire built on turning problems into solutions and roadblocks into opportunities. In this episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine talks to Dewi Kauw, a school graduate and founder of Skin Dewi, an award-winning, Indonesian-based, organic skincare and bodycare brand. What began as a mother’s quest to alleviate her baby’s skin...

AI is being leveraged by the beauty sector to help increase productivity, reduce costs, automate task and improve decision-making. In last week’s guest episode, Lorraine heard how AI was impacting the beauty industry and what can be expected of this powerful technology in the future. Taking a cue from her interviewee, Lorraine decided to take up the challenge of seeing how capable one commonly-used AI tool – tech darling ChatGPT – is of formulation. Could it help, for example, formulate a...

Suddenly, AI has gone mainstream and people are discovering how efficient and effective it can be to complete all sorts of tasks. There are so many benefits to using AI and its potential is boundless. However, the beauty industry continues to grapple with AI and what it could mean for the industry. Could AI in the future design our cosmetics, formulate for us, or make the beauty industry more sustainable? AI is in its nascent stages so who knows what the future holds. In this episode,...

Reusing what would normally be considered waste byproducts is not only an innovative way to repurpose a wide variety of materials, but also a smart beauty business move and good for our planet. Upcycled ingredients are set to play a larger and larger role in the future of beauty. In the last guest episode, Lorraine interviewed Geoff Chapin, CEO of Carbonwave; an innovative company from the USA transforming Sargassum seaweed into a number of amazing products including an all-natural...

Seaweed is an amazing, multipurpose marine plant. It offers a habitat for marine life of all shapes and sizes, grows and regenerates quickly and has a magical way of helping heal the ocean by absorbing harmful ingredients washed into our oceans by large scale manufacturing and farming. In the context of the global climate crisis, this is highly encouraging. However, human activity has a nasty way of interfering with the planet’s finely-balanced eco-system and also affects what nature...

In the last guest episode, we heard from Formula Botanica graduate and indie beauty rock star Leslie Reichgelt, founder of Bella Botanicals, who has managed to smash every preconception we have about what a beauty brand should be and how one should operate. She shared some amazing tips on how to build a beauty business on a budget by simply networking and being visible in your own community. Prompted by Leslie’s experiences, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier uses this...

In this episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier talks to indie beauty founder and graduate Leslie Reichgelt of Bella Botanicals, a natural and organic skincare brand based in the USA. Leslie shares her story on how she has built a successful beauty brand from the ground up, and talks of the highs and lows that she has experienced along the way. Leslie’s honest, practical and personal story shows how it is entirely possible to create a sustainable and successful...

In a world brimming with beauty products and services, have you ever wondered what happens to them once they’ve served their purpose? As we immerse ourselves in skincare, haircare and makeup, it’s easy to forget that beautifying often comes at a cost to our planet. The beauty industry, with its myriad companies, products, and services, has inadvertently – or perhaps also blatantly – contributed to the mounting waste crisis that plagues our planet. In this opinion episode of Green Beauty...

The next time you go for a regular hair cut, take a moment to think about what happens to the waste hair you’ve just left behind. If you had a hair colour or highlights, then your visit has a larger waste footprint as it will have generated left-over colourant, aluminium foils, and empty plastic bottles. There are over a million hair salons of all sizes in the USA alone creating waste like this, and a similar story happens the world over and across the beauty industry in nail bars, spas,...

Just when you thought the beauty industry had exhausted its lexicon, along comes “cleanical”. At first glance, cleanical seems innocent enough and quite easy to decipher; it’s a mash-up of “clean” and “clinical,” and aims to describe formulations that are both clean beauty formulations and clinically proven. What’s the harm in using it on labels, social media, or in the beauty media? For a start, cleanical should be seen as controversial as it has no scientific basis. To explain why,...

Clean beauty has been espoused for almost three decades and in that time there has been no real clarity on what "clean" really means in the beauty landscape. Initially tied to the Southern Californian wellness movement of the early ’90s, the broad interpretation of clean has only become wider and more confusing. However, now there is a new beauty movement afoot that is challenging clean. Strictly speaking, “clean beauty” remains a marketing term that would require evidence-based proof to...

Inspired by the 9th generation herbalist interviewed in the previous guest episode, podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier asks us to think about the plants and herbs native to us that have been revered for centuries for the beauty secrets they hold within. Lorraine dives into three herbs native to her in the UK which were documented in the 16th century by one of the country’s most renowned and pioneering herbalists of his day, Dr Nicholas Culpeper, in his “Complete Herbal:...

Natural formulation may seem a new sector of the beauty industry today – barely 20 years old – but it was there long before the dawn of mainstream commercial cosmetics. Its roots lie in thousands of years of home formulation, herbology and traditional and folkloristic medicine with recipes handed down by word of mouth across generations. If you love the thought of being involved in an exciting, modern natural beauty movement that is part of the great continuum of ancient knowledge of the...

In this opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier delves into the intriguing world of “skintellectuals” and the significant influence Gen Z is wielding in the beauty industry. But who are these self-proclaimed “skintellectuals” and what do they stand for? With scientific jargon bombarding beauty consumers, it’s only natural that individuals seek to understand the terminology and concepts behind skincare ingredients.  Accessibility to knowledge has given rise...

If sustainability is to make headway in the beauty industry, it is future generations who will be shaping it and seeing it through. So, how are generations like Gen Z thinking about sustainabilty in the cosmetics industry, both as beauty shoppers and future formulators? In this episode, Lorraine interviews Riley Cowen who is a graduate student of ISIPCA, a Paris-based institute for post-graduate studies in perfume, cosmetics products and food flavour formulation. Riley has insights into both...

“Beauty” – a short, six-letter word that none of us need define. We know what it means. Or do we? The shocking truth is that even many of us in the beauty industry have never looked up nor questioned its dictionary definitions. Now is the time to do both, says Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier. Our guest in the previous episode, Shaun Russell, owner of Scandinavian-based fragrance and lifestyle brand Skandinavist, and chair of B Corp Beauty Coalition, drew our...

Some beauty brands are cajoled into taking action on sustainability by their customers or competitors. However, others are not waiting around. They are taking the lead and cooperating in setting themselves the highest environmental and social standards to hold their beauty businesses to account. B Corp Beauty businesses are in this latter group. But, what is B Corp and what role does a sub-set group called the B Corp Beauty Coalition play? If you haven’t heard of this forward-thinking,...

Get ready to see marine ingredients – specifically algae – featuring everywhere in cosmetic products. Seaweed is moving on up from its traditional role in the spa sector and as a functional gelling and colouring agent. While we usually don’t take much notice of the latest trending ingredient, which is here today and gone tomorrow from our cosmetics, algae is one category of ingredients that is worth investigating, and, we hope, set to stay. If you listened to our previous episode in which...

The fundamentals of formulation, such as the techniques of emulsifying, don’t really change over the decades. What does change however are the ingredients. Each year, manufacturers release the latest innovative ingredients their R&D teams have been keeping under wraps. Interestingly too, we see old ingredients rediscovered and revamped into new forms. Tens of thousands of cosmetic ingredients exist, but there is one place that helps put them into context and shows us where the cosmetics'...

In this Green Beauty opinion, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks about the resistence to change both consumers and the natural skincare formulation community face from the established beauty industry. Her guest in the previous episode, Candice Quinn, founder of MANISAFE is just one example of this in action, and Lorraine mentions others that proved to be less than music to the mainstream industry’s ears. Yet, as Formula Botanica graduates have proved, time and...