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As beauty lovers and sustainability advocates, we found it impossible to pass on the unique opportunity to speak to Natassia Nicolao when her story landed in our inbox. We wanted to learn where the idea for Conserving Beauty came from and how she decided to bring something to the Australian market that nobody has done before: the first explicitly water-conscious beauty brand in the country.
Conserving Beauty broke into the beauty market on November 26, 2021, with the mission of reducing the water footprint in the beauty industry through ground-breaking innovation and research.
We had the opportunity to interview Natassia, who shared with us her thoughts on all things beauty from a waterless perspective.
The beauty industry has become too heavily reliant on water as most beauty products contain 70%-90% water – not to mention the additional water footprint created throughout the supply chain to manufacture each product. Being the first Australian water responsible beauty brand means not only formulating waterless products, but also going deep into our supply chain to measure our water footprint and conduct water conservation research. We are proud to be the first global beauty partner of Water Footprint Network, the leaders in global water footprint assessment. Together we are running a custom research project to manage our exact water footprint so we can track and share our savings with our community. We will also work closely with the Water Footprint Network team to ensure our water footprint remains as minimal as possible.
Water is a finite resource. We can only use approximately 1% of our freshwater resources to sustain all life on earth. The United Nations declared 2018-2028 as the International Decade for Action [on] “Water for Sustainable Development” to accelerate efforts towards our global water crisis. Not only do we need water to physically survive, [but we also] need water to create everything we use, including our food, clothes, transport and beauty products. It is our collective responsibility to think about ways to reduce our water footprint and help conserve water.
At Conserving Beauty, we believe that waterless is more – for us, for our formulas and for the planet. By removing water from our products, we ensure that all the clean ingredients we include are never watered down, and our precious natural resources are never wasted.
Sea You Cleansing Balm gently melts away all traces of makeup, sunscreen and impurities. Nourishing oils help restore moisture, leaving your skin clean, hydrated and refreshed. Best used at night to take the day off and reveal skin so pure, we Sea You.
Conserve You is more than a face oil as it does the job of three products; helps restore hydration, soothes and calms your skin, and also helps protect against environmental aggressors such as Blue Light and Urban Pollution. A few drops go a long way as the oil is super lightweight and non-greasy.
Sea Your Glow is not a typical clay mask. Unlike water-based clay masks, Sea Your Glow doesn’t harden overtime and there’s no tight, dry after-feel which is great for those of us with sensitive skin. Your skin will feel clean, nourished and hydrated after treatment.
As a start-up that’s purpose driven, we’re not trying to retrofit sustainability, which does make it easier to make conscious decisions from the get-go. We have thought about each stage of a product lifecycle to consider how it would impact people, our community, and the planet. One of the hardest challenges we had to overcome was formulating without water, palm-oil and palm-derived ingredients. We had to ensure that every raw material dossier didn’t have traces of these ingredients as they don’t align with our conservation approach. All of our conscious decisions to exclude water, palm oil, fragrances, preservatives, animal products, and reinvest profit back into our ecosystem via our partnership with SeaTrees, stems from our core mission to conserve all beauty – yours and our planet’s.
I always knew I wanted to create something that could positively impact people, the community, and our planet. When I completed my Bachelor of Science, I found myself working in the beauty and wellness industry across ethical sourcing, supply chain, product development and later in sales and marketing. It was clear to me that the world didn’t need another beauty brand, but it did need a movement for conservation. Starting with the concept of uniting ESG principles with beauty products, I reimagined a standard beauty product’s lifecycle to help conserve our most precious resource – water. I found a way to merge my long-term love for beauty products with my passion for planet impact, using my science background and commercial experience in the beauty industry to start Conserving Beauty.
It’s definitely evolved to be more considered and minimalistic. Through starting my business, I focused on educating myself so I can make better informed decisions throughout my day, especially around my beauty routine. I now focus on a less is more approach, which is better for both my skin and our planet. Every day I use our face oil and a sunscreen, at night I cleanse my face with our balm. I find only cleansing my face once a day does wonders for my skin. On weekends I’ll usually do a treatment with our waterless clay mask. I made the swap to toothpaste bites, shampoo bars and menstrual cups to help reduce my waste footprint. I also consciously think about ways to reduce my personal water footprint, carbon footprint, and waste footprint. There are so many easy small swaps that actually make the world of difference. For example, turning the tap off in between brushing my teeth or cleansing my face and having short showers.
We are working on our next waterless product development and partnered with some incredible innovators to create ground-breaking waterless zero-waste solution. This collection will launch in 2022 and we can’t wait to share more information with our community when we can.
Huge thanks to Natassia Nicolao for speaking with us about Conserving Beauty – we love what the start-up is working towards, and we look forward to supporting them moving forward!
If you liked this article, you might like our Q&A with Carbon Click CEO Dave Rouse.
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