The Beauty Of Regeneration: The New Generation Of Clean Beauty

When we think of clean beauty, one of the first brands to pop up in our minds is LUSH Cosmetics. As a brand that strictly adheres to Earth care, people care, fair share, and animal rights, they offer products that benefit not just our skin, but also the surroundings that we live in. And they don’t stop at just that—more than doing business, LUSH is on a mission to spread awareness on advocating practices that have a positive impact on consumers, communities, and the world.

In their recent webinar with LUSH Global Buying Coordinator Gabbi Loedolff, she talked about the next best thing after sustainability—regeneration. Sustainability continues to make a big impact in the beauty industry, with more and more big and small enterprises discovering sustainable ways to create products for consumers. However, Gabbi points out how regeneration changes the way we do beauty.

“In its simplest form, regeneration is about having a positive impact on every system that we touch,” she says. It covers all areas, from sourcing to production to consumption, like restoring landscapes, having a positive impact on communities, and even in the financial department.

While sustainability is helpful in ways that it uses materials and ingredients in its pure, raw form, keeping systems as they are and making sure that nothing further degrades, regeneration amplifies its contribution by finding areas to improve. “A lot of systems are too degraded to keep as they are. We need to take the opportunity to restore these and return them to a healthier place,” Gabbi adds.

Presently, the brand focuses on this practice to make LUSH products better. With the help of their partner communities across the world, they seek for local resources per area with proven methods of regeneration to make more value addition on the ground. From there, they connect networks and collaborate to maximize the opportunities available.

Case in point: Sourcing in-demand natural ingredient cocoa butter from an organic supplier who’s been investing to help restore Sierra Leone's Gola rainforest in Africa by opening farmer field schools that teach regenerative agriculture and supporting local farmers.

There’s also the partnership with the Twala women from Kenya who discovered the uses of aloe. With the help of Joseph Lentunyoi, a Maasai man who founded the Laikipia Permaculture Centre and introduced these women community to LUSH, they were able to learn about permaculture principles and turn their artisanal ways with aloe as a permanent livelihood source.

With a decade of bringing innovation in clean beauty, LUSH plans to unearth better ways to care for our physical well-being without damaging effects elsewhere along its processes.

“I'm excited about the innovation we're making in the product ranges. I see more collaboration and transparency in terms of sharing our learning and being able to work with other people to maximize opportunities. I'm also excited about working with existing suppliers on their ideas on how we can collaborate to bring about regeneration in their industries,” Gabbi ends.

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