The Beauty Industry's New Normal: ISLA Beauty Sets the Standard for Transparency and Accountability
The power dynamic among beauty brands is shifting.
According to a 2022 survey, four out of five shoppers were skeptical about the sustainability claims made by some of their favorite beauty brands. While almost all of those surveyed said that sustainability was important to their shopping habits, a rising number of greenwashing scandals in the beauty and skincare industry have contributed to growing distrust among loyal shoppers.
And, rightly so. I wouldn’t want to support a brand that is lying to me about its sustainability initiatives either. The thing is, greenwashing — the term for when companies deceptively suggest their products are kind to the planet (when they’re actually not) is rife.
Enter: radical transparency. As a result of greenwashing concerns, the industry is now starting to shift toward enhanced transparency and accountability. And, it’s taken on a new form. Radical transparency in the beauty world is basically the antithesis of greenwashing, as it relates to brands providing as much information as possible about ingredients, manufacturing, and the environmental impact of the brand. It goes way past just promoting sustainability as it also relates to businesses being open about their pricing, marketing and packaging. It’s about TIME!
This appears to be the response to more shoppers trying to make informed decisions about the products they buy. It signals a move toward brands working together to support smart shoppers instead of trying to pull the wool over their eyes. A few popular beauty and skincare brands have jumped on this bandwagon — and we’re happy to see it. But, today, we’re shining a spotlight on one of the champions of the transparent skincare movement: ISLA Beauty.
Key Initiatives and Practices of ISLA Beauty Shaping Sustainable Trends
ISLA Beauty (pronounded “Eye-Luhh”) is a skincare brand fast growing in popularity thanks to its radical transparency approach. Founded in 2019 by friends Tracy Dubb and Charlie Denton, the pair joined forces with one goal: combating the lack of transparency within the beauty world. As a result, ISLA Beauty was conceived with the mission of pulling back the curtain on the beauty industry.
Stocking an array of aesthetically pleasing products such as skin serums and exoliators, ISLA Beauty has firmly become a trailblazer in the radical transparent beauty world. What makes ISLA Beauty different is that they’re not just transparent about their ingredients, they’re also transparent about the thought process behind everything including their price points. For instance, they’ll openly tell their customers that there a 2x markup on their products. Which sounds expensive from the outset, until you’re told that most other brands have a markup between 6-10%. This is both interesting and shocking to me.
They’re also open about their formulas such as where it comes from, what extracts and active ingredients are used and what countries they’re originally sourced rom. Their third transparency pillar centers on the materials used for their products. So, consumers can buy ISLA Beauty products knowing exactly what materials their bottles are made from, and the recyclability of their packaging. $1 from each purchase is also donated to the Clean Air Task Force.
Speaking about their company’s unique sales strategy, Charlie recently told Raydar Magazine: “Being in this industry for a long time, there was obviously a push of clean beauty and that started to get a bit convoluted and misconstrued. It was almost like the marketing messages weren’t actually accurate and based on fear-mongering rather than science. We’re not trying to oversell you or overhype anything, we want to educate you at the same time and give you really great product.”
The Future of Transparency and Accountability in Beauty
According to Tracy, the brand’s co-founder, one of the main driving forces behind the emergence of radical transparancy is that shoppers are getting more educated and involved.
“The consumer is so much smarter than they used to be, and so much more skeptical, and we feel that as a brand we have nothing to hide. What we know about our brand is that we are uniquely positioned to make high-performance, innovative products at a price that's not going to be beaten somewhere else,” she’s quoted as saying in Elle Magazine earlier this year.
Smart consumers is also linked to an increased awareness about regulation and governmental policy as well. For instance, in 2022 Joe Biden signed the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act into law, unlocking more power by the U.S. government to recall and and investigate products fo quality standards.
Let’s be clear, the power dynamic has shifted. Consumers are now in a powerful position to help shape the brands that dominate the beauty world. The emergence of the radical transparency movement is a testament to that. Beauty lovers are getting educated about the ingredients they use, and how sustainable these products are. They’re doing this through social media, word of mouth (and obviously publications like TIB).
In a world where we have access to so much more information than ever before, it seems like this heightened degree of transparency is also here to stay. From a shopper’s perspective, this level of information will gradually become a critical feature when it comes to our shopping decisions. Brands that listen to consumer demands for greater transparency and visibility will obviously come out on top.
WHATS UP NEXT …
