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Sustainability unwrapped a conversational podcast about responsibility, ethics, inequalities,

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climate change and other challenges of our times where science needs practise to think about awards and how to make our society more sustainable.

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One forecast at a time. Recently, the North American edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit took place,

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the summit began in 2009 and since then has been hosted in the major geographic regions of the world organised by eco intelligence,

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formerly organic matter.

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The aim of the summit is to encourage sustainability in the beauty industry by bringing together key stakeholders and debating major industry issues.

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The prior European edition discussing the sustainability implications of the

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covid-19 pandemic on the beauty industry was held online last November 2020.

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According to the Finnish cosmetic and hygiene industry,

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our continent is the leading market for the cosmetics and personal care industry, with a share of about 80 billion euros.

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It employs directly about one hundred fifty thousand employees, but indirectly,

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with the inclusion of suppliers and other sources, the total is about one point five million employees.

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It is a research based industry relying on the investigation of about 26000 scientists.

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In general,

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Europe offers great opportunities for natural cosmetics market players due to the EU's ban on one thousand three hundred chemicals in cosmetics alone.

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Enforcement of strict laws that require manufacturers to prove product safety

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has resulted in increased production of natural cosmetics within the region.

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Forty five years ago, well known organic brands, the Body Shop and losartan were founded,

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they were considered groundbreakers then aiming to stand beside cosmetic giants such as Elizabeth Arden,

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Shiseido Hills, to name a few brands that have been around since the eighteen hundreds and still continue to exist today.

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And yes, from then on, numerous newcomers have taken the limelight,

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literally sprouting everywhere under the banner of natural cosmetics products dubbed as kind to Mother Earth for today's podcast,

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Cosmetic World Sustainability and Beauty, Beauty and Sustainability.

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We have two women representing the natural cosmetics industry in Finland to share

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their knowledge of the business sector and their vision of a sustainable world.

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Today, we welcome Emily Writing and the marketing manager of Nailbiter and Adam Becky Taylor, founder and CEO of In-Q-Tel International.

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Hello, everyone, and thank you for the invitation.

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I'm super excited to be here.

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I am Emily Lifestream, marketing manager for Narisetti Cosmetics, a fast growing Finnish cosmetics developer and manufacturer established in 2012.

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By Unmilitary, we specialise in natural cosmetics suitable for sensitive skin.

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Our brand portfolio is very comprehensive and includes skincare brands sold by beauty professionals in salons as well as in pharmacies,

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department stores and other online retailers. Novita brands include Eco Pharma, Orthopaedic, Motomura, Variety and Pure Beauty, just to name a few.

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And then, in addition to our own brands, we also engage in private label activities.

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I would say that one of the main strengths is in our own in-house product development team.

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This gives us total control of the ingredients we produce and purchase, as well as the freedom to be innovative with our product formulation.

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So everything from product development to production, storage and shipment takes place in our own production facility in Helsinki today.

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We employ over twenty nine people with a turnover of five point seven million euros in 2010.

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Hello, everybody, my name is I am with Ken Taylor,

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I am the founder and the owner of In-Q-Tel Organics and also in traditional African therapeutic massage.

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I'm originally from Ghana and then moved to Finland in 2005.

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And around 2007, I had the chance to register my business and my business was born.

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I am a trained automobile engineer. I had the opportunity to work with multi national companies that employed me

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and gave me life skills to run my own business in a foreign land like Finland.

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And as we all know, my company was born when my daughter was born with skin issues.

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So the product that we produce are for real people who have real skin problems, like sensitive skin acne that our African blood absorbs.

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We introduce Shibata to the system that you can use Rauschenberger to heal eczema, atopic and Ozcan problems.

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We also engage in hair care products for people of colour, as well as people who have issues with this scalp in Kyoto.

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When it started back in 2007,

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I remember when I started because my background was I also grew up with a father whose father or grandfather who was a herbalist.

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So I had a lot of knowledge in her hips as well.

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And when I came to Finland,

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I taught the Chinese from their little knowledge that I have with also the training or the training certificates as I have as automobile engineer.

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I go to the Finnish forest and I pick herbs and create products with the natural,

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organic and raw materials that I import from my home country, Ghana and Africa as a whole.

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So the first products that we I remember I introduced was something to do with the blueberry ice cream that was back in two thousand nine.

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And it was something that wasn't made in Finland, and I also remember when I went into the I had the opportunity to be enlisted in an organic.

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Shops and was packaging my my share, but not in something that is called colobus and the Finnish system, people didn't know what colour was this?

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Calabashes just look like a watermelon, which was so beautiful.

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But because it was organic stuff, the lead was inclusive, like tightly.

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So it raised concerns. People thought that all the products might get contaminated and stuff like that.

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So we we have to listen to the voice of the people and we stop in the way to cut.

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A long story short, as I said, we produce for real people with real skin problems so that those people can embrace the skin.

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And also, you know, have the confidence in in in their daily lives,

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because most of these people who have skin problems sometimes have this issue of self-confidence,

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you know, so, yeah, we also empower women through our skin care from my home country.

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So these women are the people that we know and they make their raw materials for us.

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And we believe that products that have that are spiritually, economically,

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culturally and environmentally sustainable are the kind of products that we incorporate in our formulation.

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And as Emily said. Oh, so to say that to repeat that,

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we also do our research and development and we produce uncropped every product that we put out there and we make sure that quality is not compromised.

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All right. Well, thank you so much. You know, it's really, as it says on your website, the skin care with an African touch.

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Very exotic, very appealing.

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And and by the way, what does In-Q-Tel mean in your language in Kyoto is one of the main names or a little Cordelia's for.

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But OK, here. But I'm right cause because I mean, my main one of my main ingredients here, shibata that.

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So I decided to call it here later. OK, yes, very good.

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So at least we know one guy in a word. Yes. I'm sure Emily is going to be talking about their raw materials in a short while.

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But just going back to the idea of shopping, OK, out of sheer curiosity,

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I checked the number of natural cosmetic and personal care items on sale in some of the beauty shops downtown.

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And could you give me a guess of how many products are on sale?

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Oh. It's quite a lot must be well over thousands.

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Yes, thousands. Several thousand. Yeah. Yeah.

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All right. Well, you know, the death of family added, oh, if I had lawn have about over 30,

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then people like Emily and Luminaires and all these other flow Francina,

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I think for the ones we know and internationally, I think it would be well over two thousand if I'm not.

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Yes. Well, my investigation proved that one well known very well don't shop downtown had forty five items and another.

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Three thousand fifteen natural beauty products in just one store, three thousand and fifteen.

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I'm not surprised. Oh, well, but that can make decision making rather difficult, especially one is on a tight budget.

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You know that moment, Emily? Yes. Think about it.

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Just how many products you use in the morning.

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Several cosmetic products from your toothpaste to your deodorant, shampoo and conditioner you use or if you use makeup products.

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So it's really important to be aware of what products you use and the impact that it has on.

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Your environment and your skin. All right, you.

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I have no doubt about that.

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However, it used to be that, you know, buying all these toiletries, makeup and perfume, they were simply a matter of personal taste.

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And we bought them because we needed some or because we liked them.

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So, well, thankfully, there's been a change now because nowadays we are more conscious as consumers,

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or at least in the process of becoming more conscious and consistent,

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we buy because we know what is better for us, for the greater humanity and for our planet.

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So hopefully, listening to both of you today, you can shed more light on how to choose wisely amongst a variety of products.

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Could each one of you now tell us a little bit about your cosmetic production, like the choice of raw materials,

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like Antonet mentioned a while ago, certification and packaging, for example, our products derived their strength from finished,

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locally sourced and then also forest grown berries and plants for its own ingredients

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are particularly sustainable as they don't require additional watering compared to,

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let's say, farmed ingredients. In addition to being particularly high in important vitamins and antioxidants,

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they are sustainably harvested and the transportation to our production facilities in Helsinki is reasonably short.

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So by utilising Finnish raw materials in our products, we also support other local businesses, which is important.

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We also use some raw materials from abroad, as do most, in order to be as sustainable as possible.

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We only use the highest quality ingredients with a I would call it less is more when you're thinking a

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perfect example of this would be our skin care and skin care brand called pure beauty with its natural oils.

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Oregano is one of our best sellers containing only two main ingredients.

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So we have called the premium oregano and then vitamin E to preserve the product.

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That's it's. Wow, amazing. Well, when it comes to encounter raw materials and sustainability, sustainability, actually, for us,

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it has been the call or the genesis of our brand and I don't know if I mentioned it earlier on.

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I grew up from this kind of sustainability environment.

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Natural is not new for me. Organic is not new for me.

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And sustainability is not something that is new.

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And also, we when we started as a business, we wanted to give back to the people that make our raw materials,

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which are mostly women and widows and orphans.

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And as I mentioned, they are people that we know our raw materials made that we can also have this traceability of the some of the raw material.

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And we try so much to source products that are biodegradable.

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So the product that we formulate,

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the product that we put to our customers are things that something in that product is is made by somebody that we know.

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We try to me personally, maybe that is also influencing the way I formulate is I am very lazy, so I always want to use minimal skincare.

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Yes, you know, I can't see myself putting layers upon layers upon layers of skin.

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Go on. Yes, I. I clean. I don't I moisturise and that's it.

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You know, use our tips when they are necessary. And I also want to.

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What is it called. I would love to grow gracefully so I try to use a minimum skincare as possible.

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And when it's, it's not about the the final products.

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Our consumers have the power now and they can read the ingredients and then they can question us.

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We the producers. Hey, what this ingredient how is it sourced.

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You know, is it is it's something that it's made by children, children involved, like some of the cocoa from my country.

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We knew that some of the cocoa butter and the chocolate, you know, being the children are being what is the right word to use child labour,

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you know, and even the Mitka that we used, I have fallen victim to I don't want you to use the word victim.

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I could say that.

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I must say at a point I'm guilty because sustainable sourcing or raw material, when I knew that I take my car is the same that you use your makeup.

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So you should be OK. Until I knew that my car was being mined by children in Pakistan and India, I got chills and I was like, Oh.

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Do I really want to use this and is there any other alternatives?

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So, yes, it's it's sustainability. It's a long way.

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It's it's not like a one size fits all thing.

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But we are working so hard in In-Q-Tel. That is why everything that we make that are handcrafted, we try we try to use biodegradable.

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That is good for the environment, that is good for the producers and then also good for the end user.

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So it becomes a win win situation for all the cycle that we try to work with.

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OK, lovely. Nothing good about certification. Emily, do you have a say on that?

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Well, there are a lot of important aspects contributing to the sustainability of the entire production process for consumers.

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I would say the easiest way to recognise a sustainably produced product is by purchasing certified natural cosmetics.

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It's also the easiest way to avoid purchasing a greenwashing product.

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Natural cosmetics takes into consideration the entire lifecycle of the product from the sustainability of the ingredients,

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as Adam said, to the final product and its packaging.

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Natural cosmetics typically allow only five percent of synthetic ingredients, whilst the other ninety five percent should be of natural origin.

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Most of our brands are not certified cosmetics, and if any of your listeners are interested in reading more about this,

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you can go to see if there is a certificate for finished natural cosmetics.

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And in short, the certificate prohibits synthetic ingredients that aren't sustainable.

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The list is quite long. There are petrochemical products, chemical sunscreens, synthetic fragrances and dyes, silicone compounds,

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etc. But then also the packaging should be recyclable and as environmentally friendly as possible.

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Yes, that's quite a list. Yes, Adam, you were mentioning about impotence packaging.

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When it comes to certification, some of our products that we purchase are soil association certified or equal states.

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But we ourselves, as a brand, it is our calling that we don't have our own.

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One thing, the reason why it doesn't have its own is that we realise that back in 2006,

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when we had the trace of starting this, we were interested in eco sets Neutra.

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We apply to all of them. And then at a point in time we realised that.

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Presents lots of points, and I'll call names, one of the certification said that, oh, did you do some asset products and plastic?

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But then later on, we realised that all the products that were being certified were in plastics.

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And then here is a case different from the producer that someone needs to certify that

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they are organic and then the producer or the person selling have to be certified.

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And then, you know, and then you, the the manufacturer also have to certify.

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So at the end of the chain, by the time your product gets to the consumer, they sell a lot of money and things that have gone.

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And personally, it's not that I'm against those certification, but the payment is too long and we want it to be,

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you know, cuts all these in people in between and then be honest and fair to our consumers.

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Secondly, you know, there are other.

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Packaging that are coming up like plants sourced, you know, packaging plastic, and from my personal research, it doesn't biodegrade.

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You know, so it's also the same problem, if that's normal plastic is causing the only thing is that is from the plant source.

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Yes. So with In-Q-Tel, we use glass, we use biodegradable plastic where it's necessary to use we use also aluminium cans.

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There was this time that I wanted to put my I have developed some shampoos.

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I have shampoo bars that are not in bottles, but I also have this HD, this plastic that are recyclable.

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Thank God for Finland. Thank God for, you know, thank God for, you know, recycled live.

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But still, there are some that goes astray. Where I come from.

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I have been particularly particularly interested in this plastic thing, because when it rains, it pours.

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Yes. And there is always flood destroying farmlands.

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And then when there is drought, when it's time, when it's sunny, then the dry, the land really dries so that the farmers cannot grow.

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So which is really affecting the sustainability of the people.

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That is why we choose to use the glass and not to model the certification and things that are really cycle level that the system can be eco friendly,

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that we can make it a better place for all of us. Yeah, I'm I'm very glad you actually brought this crop.

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The thing about certification, the thing about packaging is packaging is that can be very controversial.

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What about the Navitaire side, since Antonet already described everything related as well to their packaging?

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Yeah, for us, we also consider when it comes to packaging.

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Is everything necessary so we try to minimise or alter packaging, but then also it comes down to portfolio managing,

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so avoiding unnecessary limited edition products and managing the size of our product portfolio and ensuring that what we

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do have answers to a certain need and and then also using sustainable packaging alternatives such as the SLAPP packaging.

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Slabach is a Finnish company and packaging innovation aiming to reduce the use of plastic materials.

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The packaging itself is made from wood components and is completely biodegradable and plastic free.

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And we were in the first cosmetic producer to use its packaging for natural cosmetics, believe, two or three years ago now.

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Very good. Very, very interesting. We'll have to see that in the future.

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How all these are considered biodegradable packaging actually will will reveal the truth about how good they are now moving back to the industry,

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the male cosmetic market size and its growth has been consistent in the past year.

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You could really see I mean, your input as products can be both for men and women.

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And then Navitaire also has a product line for men.

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However, the beauty industry continues to be dominated by women.

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Now, from your point of view, do you believe that sustainable choices empower women?

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I think. It empowers everybody else they want to create, yes, most of the products we manufacture, all we develop for both male and female.

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You know, there are women who want to grow, you know.

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Hey, and the man who wants to put on makeup.

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So we don't really consider this a male dominated or we process the aftershave that we have.

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Women can use it after shaving their legs or shaving everything when to come back to the.

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Did I say something that. Anyway, to come back to how this empowers women, yes, women have been at the forefront of all us thinking.

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Like I said initially, my mother and grandmother are the people who make this thing and introduce it to us.

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Women have been that the empowering natural skincare, not the Weinzweig set,

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because I should say that when women make it, the whole family goes for it all.

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So much has been made by women.

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If it was ideas has been stolen by men at a point in time, because many years ago women were not allowed to put their faces out there.

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And if you also look at how the trend is going now, natural skincare or cosmetics are being, you know, in their household is the women who say that,

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hey, we are going vegan or we are going we are using organic skincare or we are using those products and not the products.

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So women has been the powerhouse and empowerment, empowering the the sustainability, not the other way around.

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OK, good. That is that's my my my idea.

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And also because we believe in the power of women, that is why the women that we work with,

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we try to empower them economically so that they can really empower the children who are orphans to have education because education is the key.

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If the household how that's basic education.

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It goes a long way. And like me, most of the things that I do was for my mother and my grandmother because I was with them all of the time.

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And they have been and they have been giving me this ideas that sustainability is the best thing to go natural is the best thing to have,

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and everything organic is the best.

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I have to say that I agree with a sustainable choices can definitely empower everyone because they directly affect the well-being of our nature.

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Animals and people for a sustainable choices are empowering as they often

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bring much needed transparency of the production process and the ingredients.

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Then purchasing environmentally friendly cosmetics may also encourage sustainable consumption beyond cosmetics,

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for example, when it comes to food or clothes, et cetera. When purchasing raw materials from abroad,

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it's crucial to know the producer and to ensure that the production chain works in a socially responsible way.

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Of course, this is equally important in Finland.

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I would again want to highlight just the origin of our brand, Peoria's Beauty, as a great example of this.

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So the argan kernels that are using our organoid are provided by the Berber women cooperative's from the time in our region in Morocco.

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The women had sought dry and cracked the Argonauts and then removed the precious Argand kernels.

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Their work is of particular importance when the highest quality arbitral is produced.

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So these cooperatives have an extremely important role in improving the social

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status of the local women and providing work in areas where traditionally,

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perhaps it has been difficult for women to find work in these cooperatives that provide

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us the organic kernels in what is currently about two hundred and fifty women,

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and they are constantly employing more. I also want to say that at the same time, sustainable choices offer a new business opportunity.

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As we see in Finland, many new natural beauty brands such as Norway that in fact are founded by women.

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So perhaps this movement is firstly encouraging women to act in terms of making informed purchases.

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That's one.

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But then also driving towards starting new businesses and showing that the way forward is through sustainable innovations and new business practises.

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Very good. Yeah, and did you want to add something else to that?

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Yes, knowing the people like Emily say, knowing the people, it's it's a cool thing for us when we we we produce when we are buying.

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And like she said rightly as well, you know, it's it is an ecosystem.

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So consumers have the power to read labels to know what where they want to direct the sustainability, because honestly, it's a broad topic.

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Yes. You know, it's a very, very broad topic.

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And no, I don't think any company can be 100 percent, you know, sustainable.

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But us, we are all trying and doing our best to make sure that the raw material where you are sourcing your raw material are what you are putting on.

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It's not affecting somebody's pockets or help for your confidence.

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That is why traceability is very important to the people we work with in Ghana and in Uganda and also in in and in Morocco.

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These are people that's our hands on, and we make sure that we trade fairly with those people because energy, human beings are energy.

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When somebody I come from a spiritual world, Africa is very spiritual.

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So when somebody is producing, if the farmer who is making farming and you go to buy their produce and you just treat them when they go to the farm,

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they speak to the plants, they speak to the plant.

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So when they are sharing tears, it goes to the plant.

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So at the end of the chain. The person who uses it doesn't feel good, it will feel good.

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Like on the screen, but energy wise, you don't feel you know.

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Good. Example, for example,

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let's deviate from the cosmetics and go to the gadgets that we are using and we all victims because we say that is from blood money,

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bags of cosmetics, if the children who are making or if children are being used.

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In order to produce the raw materials that we are buying and this are hungry and full,

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at the end of the day, it doesn't make a blind cosmetic line sustainable at all.

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So we should we should make sure that whatever we use or what we are used for.

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I'm talking in general, not hytten all the time in Quito, Ecuador, because we have we have the power to change things that produces.

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OK, yes. Wonderful. That was so enlightening.

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And it just shows us that sustainability is is for everyone.

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It's a call directed to everyone. Now we're reaching the end of almost the end of our podcast.

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But since this is a podcast hosted by Hanken, a business school, our listeners are students,

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staff and other stakeholders would certainly want to hear about her company's narrative toward sustainability.

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You've mentioned highlights of it,

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but but maybe talk a little bit more about what have been your challenges and successes in getting partners, for example.

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And then you've talked a lot about hands on about traceability. That's really good.

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What about marketing your ideas or really just trying to maintain your companies?

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Because there's a lot of competition out there.

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How does the future look like as well?

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Yeah, in the beginning of our journey, we worked with a much smaller portfolio of ingredients and also the packaging materials that met our standards.

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And this made the product development process more challenging.

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Also, the market for natural cosmetics was significantly smaller back then with the limited availability.

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Our product formulations are incredibly well developed with science backed ingredients,

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and they've been developing very quickly to create the best user experience possible,

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the effectiveness of the products has without doubt being key to winning over sceptic consumers,

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doubting if natural cosmetics is as good or as effective as traditional alternatives.

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Today, natural cosmetics has evolved to become a global movement way beyond the temporary trend embraced by a wide range of customers.

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Getting partners and marketing our brands has been relatively easy for us, but it's never easy.

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But as Finnish customers are happy to support local brands with sustainable values, and particularly when you are transparent,

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for example, out of our pharmacy brand, we've opened the entire ingredients list that we use.

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So in alphabetical order,

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every single ingredient that we use because the customers are interested and they deserve to know what the ingredients are and the products.

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But customers also associate Finnish made products with high quality, purity and great design.

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In general, Finnish cosmetics is of great quality, and customers often find Finnish friends to be as good or even better than some

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other international brands historically known for their high quality cosmetics.

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But with that said, the competition is tough and it isn't just enough to rely on great ingredients.

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We always believed in aesthetically pleasing packaging and great branding to give us that competitive edge.

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It's also important to be transparent and let your customers know what you do day to day to be sustainable where you are.

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Yes, Heddon marketing and partnership hasn't been easy, but it has been easy in the way we first got into major retailers.

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So that's back in 2018. And of course that time away, you know, fresh and the the concept of natural skincare was big in Finland.

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So it was easy. We've made it into a big chain store as well.

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So we are very, very pleased with that.

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And we try as much as possible to minimise the kind of products,

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raw materials that we use so that it's easier for the end user to to use it without any sensitive ness of the skin.

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And our products are also developed in use in the way that a day old baby can use our product.

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So this is how how much we have safe with softness of our product or how much we've put into developing things that are good for people who are very,

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very sensitive skin. So, yes, marketing, we have been in fair trade fairs and other places just to market.

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And in Finland, it's quite good that the system also, if you do it once, if you know what you are doing, if you if you register in the right places,

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then the rest is your pocket and, you know, and how much you put out there for people to trust and believe.

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Yes, it's true. Finland is a small market, but we try to also expand by the people here, trust the local brands.

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And they have been very supportive from from day one when Kyoto started.

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So thank you to our listeners. Thank you for for the love and the support that you are putting in our lives.

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That's everything that we do goes a long way to help people who are in need.

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Yes. In other parts of the world. Yes, very good, actually.

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Well, just summing up, I mean, to mention the idea of how does the future look like,

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Emily, you mentioned earlier something about like education in relation to your company.

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Yeah, we are actively working with cosmetology students, almost finished cosmetology schools,

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because we believe that the key towards change is education.

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We provide them with the equal pharma products that and tools that they need to complete their education.

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And in addition to this, we also actively engage in the education of the students.

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This plays an important part in instilling sustainable values and also educating

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on the importance of natural cosmetics and sustainable business practises.

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After graduation. Students are signing salons and cleaning of their own after partner up with us later on.

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It's important for Navidad to continue training students as well as professionals working

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within the industry as change towards a more sustainable future is a team effort.

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Without a doubt. Well, my dear ladies, we could go on for hours because this is such you're giving us such enlightening information.

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There is a lot to think about because cosmetic and personal care will be needed as long as life exists.

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And the two of you have brought through this broadcast much food for thought on natural ingredients and local production and sustainable packaging.

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So much about the traceability that Adam had mentioned, so much about education.

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It's thinking about the human being as a source and not just as an end end user.

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The justice there in the work that is appreciated, whether they are orphans who are trying to get those Shia,

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but through the input code or for example, there may be students who are learning how to use the the all these natural ingredients.

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This is definitely a call for action. For beauty companies,

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whether they are the big market players or the thriving companies to be more sustainable and and

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really overall transparent about what they put into their products and how they produce them.

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But then again, we are, as you both mentioned, we are all in this together.

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It's not just them, it's also us. We need to rethink our daily routine and its impact on others and on our world.

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I have to thank the two of you very much for, as I said, the word enlightening our listeners.

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I would like to end with a quote from Sir David Attenborough, a famous naturalist and broadcaster.

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He said, It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement,

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the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest.

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It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.

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Listening to our two guests this afternoon. It just gives us a feeling.

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I don't know how it is with you, but give me a feeling that there's life is worth living.

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There's a future with sustainability and and with beauty all throughout.

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Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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It's been a pleasure.