Conscious beauty….the way forward
With the world’s environment deteriorating at a fast pace, it is important for all businesses
and individuals to take sustainability seriously and pursue eco-friendly methods and alternatives. Beauty industry is one such industry where the use of chemicals is high and has
a sizeable direct impact on the environment. People associate environmentally damaging
chemicals and animal cruelty often with the industry. We at SMUK stand for changing that
perspective.
Here at SMUK, we are a completely sustainable vegan beauty salon delivering luxurious hair,
beauty and lifestyle services to the people of London. The products that are used by our
stylists are all completely organic, natural and adhere to your wellbeing. The brands we use
are industry leaders in sustainable cosmetics and are used by stylists all over the world for
their signature quality and performance. With their sustainable packaging practices definitely stand in a league of their own. The brands we work with are Oribe and Oway,
each having their USP.
The brand Oribe blends craftsmanship, performance, and decades of styling
experience from the top of the editorial and salon worlds to create a new category in hair
care.
Today, Oribe is a best-selling, award-winning brand that has sparked deep connections with
its consumers. While the products are ultra-high-tech, the formulations are innovative and
modern — formulated without parabens and sodium chloride. All the products are gluten-
free, cruelty-free, colour and keratin treatment safe and have UV protection for hair and
they perform like magic. Only three products in the entire product line are non-vegan as
they use bee’s wax. Oribe, strongly believes in big hair-and a small carbon footprint.
Hence, they proudly introduced "Litre Refills". As part of their continued commitment to sustainable packaging, they have created new refill pouches for their most popular litre-sized shampoos and conditioners and their luxurious products. Each pouch uses 71% less single-use plastic than their litre bottles.
In 2013 Oway converted all their Agri cosmetic containers into glass bottles and aluminium
tubes, the first to do so in the professional cosmetics sector. They ship them inside boxes of
the right size, forgoing over-packaging without giving up on protecting the content. Use only
produce ultra-concentrated formulas with a very high percentage of plant-based and
biodegradable ingredients.
They combine biodynamic and organic raw materials with pure oils, waxes, butters, and the most effective and least impacting active ingredients. They have achieved to eliminate all superfluous packaging and, only, when necessary, they resort to reusable materials such as wooden or cotton cases, or tree-free paper, ecological and fully circular.
Instead of synthetic ingredients, they use raw materials of natural origin such as extracts,
oils, hydrolytes, and macerates, sourced from biodynamic and organic agriculture. They
practice biodynamic agriculture and look to spread this grow-ecological method to other
farmers. This, because they believe in respecting the land and in the importance of keeping
it fertile, counteracting intensive exploitation from conventional agriculture that
impoverishes and degrades it.
By S. Galla