Podcast 119: Taking cosmetics’ transparency to the next level

Confused by the plethora of standards, regulations and accreditation schemes at large in the beauty industry? You are not alone. Whether you are a big brand striving for sustainability or an indie founder needing to demonstrate Halal, vegan, clean, safe, GMO-free or any other mission for your beauty brand, there is every possible scheme for your products these days. But, how do you really know the provenance and real composition of your cosmetic ingredients and can your suppliers provide a paper trail to back up any claims?

From Formula Botanica’s years of experience working with natural formulators and indie brand founders, we know the pain involved in digging deep on the supply side of cosmetics. But, times are changing. More and more beauty shoppers – and sustainability-conscious retailers like Credo whom we interviewed on this podcast – wish to know the truth about what goes into their cosmetics and are pushing the industry to validate its claims.

One innovative platform is managing to square the circle and open up industry minds to a brave new world in which ingredient information is researched in detail, divulged, shared, and validated against claims to the benefit of everyone in the cosmetic business.

In this episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host talks to Yashi Shrestha, Director of Science & Research at Novi Connect, a turnkey solution for formulators to build beauty and personal care products that meet the complex transparency needs of today’s consumers. Put simply, Yashi and the Novi team are sorting out the whole mess for formulators and brands keen to make their product development cycles more transparent and sustainable. Listen in for an episode that could make conscious formulating a whole lot easier.

In this episode on transparency in cosmetic ingredients, you will hear how:

• Brands today wish to feel good about the decisions they are making and meet the various criteria that exist, but they just don’t have the granular level of transparency on ingredients. Novi was set up to be the lens through which the supply-side claims of personal care ingredients can be vetted independently and with authority.
• Even if a brand selects what they believe to be the right ingredients to create a better, more sustainable product, or one that suits their mission, they are still left in the dark about the life cycle of ingredients and their end-of-life footprint. Only total transparency can resolve these issues.
• Novi encourages personal care brands to aim for “progress not perfection” and to start on their journey to transparency as soon as possible as the ingredients’ market and its supply chain are complex.
• Cosmetic ingredient suppliers and manufacturers can be hesitant about sharing their proprietary data, but the tide is turning and more are realising the win-win benefits of transparency.

Key takeouts include

• Novi helps formulators build new products with total visibility of product development from choosing ingredients and packaging all the way to validating any claims they wish to make in their marketing.
• Novi works by data-mining details on the composition of cosmetic ingredients and chemicals by gathering and triangulating data from industry and academic research, manufacturers, suppliers and more. The data is then assessed to provide the basis on which to validate an ingredient or chemical against various regulations, certifications and accreditation schemes.
• Novi has seen ingredient manufacturers use their data to gain greater visibility of ingredient components. Novi provides a level of transparency that benefits all – from the small-scale formulator to personal care giants.
• Retailers can use the Novi platform to be sure that the marketing claims brands make about ingredients in their products stand scrutiny.

Meet the guest

Yashi Shrestha is Director of Science & Research at Novi, a turnkey solution for formulators to build beauty and personal care products that meet the complex transparency needs of today’s consumers. Novi does this by gathering detailed raw material information directly from suppliers and making it possible to easily cross-check against regulations and retailer standards. Formulators can build new products, sample new ingredients, and order raw materials and packaging directly on Novi – enabling transparency and compliance without the paperwork and endless reformulations.

As the Director of Science and Research, Yashi is the lead on building the scientific roadmap. Her job includes managing the features and policies which brands can select to get their products vetted against, as well as processing and managing chemical data from suppliers, working with engineers to provide product requirements for structuring data, and creating rules for doing assessments. Yashi was listed in The GreenBiz 30 Under 30 in 2021.

Find out more:
Novi Connect
Yashi Shrestha on Linkedin

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Formula Botanica Green Beauty Conversations podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please share, subscribe and review this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Youtube so that more people can enjoy the show. Don’t forget to follow and connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

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Lorraine Dallmeier

Lorraine Dallmeier is a Biologist, Chartered Environmentalist and the CEO of Formula Botanica, the award-winning online organic cosmetic science school. Read more about Lorraine and the Formula Botanica Team.