French initiative launches online marketplace for natural, ‘responsible’ cosmetics
It is a model that has been put into action in the food industry and is now stepping into the beauty arena too.
The products range from facial cleansers to hair serums, as well as deodorants, shampoos and baby care items, as part of the Slow Cosmétique movement, which is a French initiative, originally set up in 2012 by Julien Kaibeck.
Kaibeck believes the current ecological and psychological impact of cosmetics is too large and set up the non-profit organisation with the idea of promoting a more responsible way to consume cosmetics.
Since then it has been growing pace and has now stepped things up to the next level with the launch of the online marketplace, accompanied by Facebook and Twitter accounts that will soon be branching out in other languages too, besides French.
From wasteful packaging to brand marketing campaigns that are not sufficiently ‘transparent’, the concept aims to get customers to think before they buy when it comes to beauty.
“Our association wants to raise awareness amongst consumers about what we call ‘cosmetic brainwashing’. Therefore, we would like to communicate with people and organisations in order to point out how better cosmetics can be and how we could be more sensible to them,” says the group’s mission statement.
The group target cosmetics that are 100% natural and do not use excessive packaging or promotional material. A lot of the products appearing in the marketplace are also organic certified products, as well as fair-trade.
This is not always an easy thing to do in the cosmetics industry, but Kaibeck says that with consumers becoming increasingly aware of what is in their beauty products, many brands are adopting the approach, and the natural trend is growing.
Another value for the Slow Cosmétique Association is that the marketing of products is transparent, as well as the pricing, with campaigns that are not misleading or use Photoshop on images.
The movement is also concerned with cruelty-free products too.
