Podcast 269: When beauty misses the big picture – The truth about sustainable beauty

What if some of the most hyped innovations in sustainable beauty – dissolvable sheet masks, waterless shampoos, wild-harvested botanicals – are unintentionally part of the problem?

In this powerful solo episode of Green Beauty Conversations, Formula Botanica CEO, Biologist, and Chartered Environmentalist Lorraine Dallmeier kicks off a bold four-part podcast series challenging everything we think we know about sustainable beauty.

Drawing on seven years of expert interviews and hundreds of insights from the global cosmetics sector, Lorraine exposes one of the industry’s most uncomfortable truths: clever isn’t always the same as sustainable.

From seaweed farming to dissolvable wipes, this first episode urges us to zoom out and ask what happens if everyone does this.

Tune in now because this new 4-part series is a shift in tone and depth, and you won’t want to miss a single part.

“Clever is not the same as sustainable.” — Lorraine Dallmeier

Key takeaways:

• Why many ‘sustainable’ innovations are context-dependent. Biodegradable, dissolvable, refillable – they sound great in isolation. But Lorraine explains why even the smartest solutions can fall short when scaled globally. The question isn’t just “Is it better?” – it’s “What happens if everyone does this?”
• The truth about waterless beauty. Waterless formulations may reduce shipping weight and packaging, but Lorraine unpacks the hidden water footprints of ingredients and consumer habits. Without tackling overconsumption, “waterless” risks becoming another sustainability soundbite.
• The cautionary tale of wild-harvested and regenerative ingredients. Wild-harvested botanicals and regenerative seaweed farming hold promise, but they can quickly become extractive when demand spikes. Lorraine shares real examples that highlight the fragility of ecosystems once small-scale sourcing becomes big business.
• Why the waste hierarchy still matters. Most beauty innovations focus on end-of-life solutions like composting or recycling. But Lorraine urges a return to basics — reduce, reuse, recycle — and challenges brands to innovate not just for novelty, but for actual system-level sustainability.
• How to think like a systems designer in beauty. Real sustainability happens at the systems level. Lorraine shares how brands can ask better questions and assess the bigger picture before scaling. If 8 billion people adopted a product, would it still be considered sustainable?

Next week on the podcast, Lorraine will explore the meaning – and misuse – of the word “sustainable” in beauty. Until then, challenge yourself to see beyond the buzzwords!

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.