Sustainable Beauty is all about trying to make the world a better place. In the beauty world it’s about what kind of ingredients you are using, are they non-toxic, cruelty-free, vegan and palm oil free? If Palm oil is used it should be RSPO certified palm oil (which means you need to research to make sure this is truly sustainable, making sure the supplier and the entire supply chain are RSPO Supply Chain Certified and practice RSPO Principles).
Does this brand practice sustainable and ethical business practices? Are they working with suppliers that ethically source the ingredients they are purchasing? Is the packaging thoughtful to our earth? Is it recyclable or biodegradable? Is this brand resourceful with a waste management policy? Are they charitable? Do they give back? Do they practice free-trade?
Just a few criteria’s in what constitutes a sustainable brand. YASOU “a toast to your health” skin care met quite a few of these criteria’s when we first launched five years ago and now we find our journey to sustainability growing and changing all the time.
We started with our top priority: to choose non-toxic, plant based ingredients that are really good for you, also making sure they were safe as well! Our packaging was all recyclable but last year we decided to let go of our recyclable plastic containers for our hydrating body cream and moved into recyclable glass jars giving us the opportunity to implement a refillable initiative for our 13oz tubs. We are finding that people love this and so far it’s working out very well.
The point is that it’s a never ending process. Every year we try to think of better ways to be better to our earth and our world. Sustainablity is never ending! We can only promise to do better and I believe there are many new companies and people in general out there trying to do the same.
Last year before the pandemic came knocking at our doors, here in Chicago we had our first Luxe Sustainable Marketplace called “Bide Market,” which was a sustainable, plastic-free, vegan, cruelty-free, luxury shopping experience. The founder Parisa Morris who also has a beauty line called “Town & Anchor, launched it with selected vendors and like minded individuals to gather and sell their goods. It was a hit.
I was really proud to be part of this community and at that time it made me stop and dig deeper into what I could do with YASOU skin care to elevate our commitment to sustainability for the good!. Guess what? We decided to eliminate all our outside packaging for all our body creams (they come in three sizes and two variations -with essential oils or aroma free) and for our vegan hand creams (with oils or aroma). All together we eliminated 8 outside packages that just get thrown away. No one has complained if anything they saluted us!
Ask your self what can I do to elevate my sustainability for our earth? Every little bit counts and believe that it does. Just think, you will be making a difference.
YASOU and here’s to a cleaner, better world!