Beauty brands are helping Ukraine

Here’s how beauty brands are extending their support to Ukraine! French beauty giant L’oréal, along with making an immediate donation of €1 million through its L’Oréal fund for Women, is staying in contact with its 326 Ukrainian employees as well. On the other hand, to pay homage to the people of Ukraine, the digital concept store Net-aporter, has halted all trading with Russia. Natural skincare brand Raven Botanicals, first donated 100 per cent of sales on one day to United Help Ukraine and Razom for Ukraine. Now, the brand has pledged to donate 50 per cent of all sales for the rest of the month. Beauty conglomerate Estée Lauder Companies is also harnessing its power by committing $1 million to relief efforts in Ukraine via its inhouse charitable foundation. And Yuliya Tertilova-Kristell, founder of Sann Beauty, has pledged all the proceeds from one of her most popular lip balms to help Ukraine.

Major beauty brands suspended operations in Russia

In beauty and personal care, several major brands and retailers have cut business ties with Russia. The Estée Lauder Companies closed all stores and operations earlier this month. Chanel shuttered all boutiques and suspended e-commerce. LVMH also announced the temporary closure of all its Russian stores. L’Oréal temporarily closed all stores and would suspend investments and Sephora stopped all brick-and-mortar and e-commerce operations in the country. Russia accounted for 1.9 per cent of the total estimated value of global cosmetics and toiletries in 2021, according to GlobalData. Consumers are able to easily switch brands with little impact to their daily lives if they deem necessary as not all of them set out to purchase only from brands with identical political stances and views to their own. Brands that recognise this power are in turn attempting to align with mainstream consumer sentiment to mitigate risk of boycott.

Epicutis, the first EWG-Verified pro skincare brand is here

Epicutis, a beauty brand that markets medical-grade luxury skincare, announces its Environmental Working Group (EWG) certification and commitment to clean ingredients and has become the first EWG-Verified professional skincare brand in the US. The brand has worked with the EWG, and its EWG Verified programme, which certifies personal care products against the strictest safety standards. Earning the EWG certification means Epicutis can use the EWG Verified mark in marketing and on packaging. In the US, its new status marks the brand as a leader in “the non-toxic skincare industry”. It is committed to complete transparency and using premium ‘clean’ ingredients. Its therapeutic ingredients are sourced from in-house manufacturers. The brand is also vegan, non-GMO, Prop-65 compliant, and meets the EU’s rigorous standards.

BASF offers personalised beauty solutions with B2B cosmetics

Created by B2B Cosmetics, the Emuage technology allows users to create customised skin, hair and sun care products. Customers can select capsules to achieve their desired texture, active ingredient and fragrance. BASF is now rolling out the technology to its global beauty customers in a bid to meet growing demand for personalised beauty products. Their strategic relationship with B2B Cosmetics is essential in their ecosystem to help their customers answer consumer demand for customised beauty products. BASF is supporting B2B with second-round financing for Emuage’s production to scale up and enter the global markets. Following two years of development and a positive consumer feedback, the move builds on BASF and B2B’s long-term partnership to develop customised personal care solutions. In the meanwhile, B2B Cosmetics will be opening its first Emuage stores in Switzerland, France and the Middle East in the coming months.

Wella backed by KKR aims for IPO

Owned by KKR & Co and Coty Inc, the cosmetics maker Wella Co, plans an eventual initial public offering as demand from beauty salons for professional haircare products recovers. When KKR became a majority investor, Wella was spun off from Coty in 2020. Wella’s revenue has recovered strongly as economies reopened. Sales increased 24 per cent in 2021, a similar rate to that of L’Oreal’s professional products division. Wella sales accelerated in January amid the popularity of products such as Color Fresh Mask. Young-Scrivner, who was named to lead Wella in October 2020, forecast that haircare will undergo a boom similar to that of skincare. When we look back, people had two, three skincare items, and now, it’s much more specialised. That is something that is predicted to happen with hair as well.