The INNOCOS events have been running since 2012 and are small-scale international summits for beauty insiders and executives. According to the event website, “The summit gathers a selection of leaders from the beauty industry to address the innovation in marketing, product development and retail, showcase technology solutions and discuss consumer insights and future trends. [However,] the annual INNOCOS summit isn’t only about business. It’s about building relationships and community.”
A portion of the programming at the recent summit in Arizona was focused on environmental sustainability. And Beauty Heroes founder Jeannie Jarnot was on hand as a speaker. She also partnered with INNOCOS this year to launch the Blue Beauty Awards.
The idea behind the competition is that “every business and individual need to take actions to put the plant first,” as Cosmetics Design reported in January when the awards were announced. “To this end, and to inspire innovation in sustainability, [INNOCOS and Beauty Heroes launched the] first ever Blue Beauty Awards.”
The 2020 Blue Beauty Award Winners
Several categories were open to entrants in beauty, wellness, and lifestyle: categories such as marketing, packaging, formulation, community engagement, and content.
Awards this year went to brands making strides in zero-waste, packaging innovation, and environmental impact. In fact, 3 brands were recognized for their achievements in environmental impact.
The 2020 zero-waste beauty innovation Blue Beauty Award went to the US-based makeup startup founded by Tiila Abbitt, Aether Beauty. The brand was recognized, according to an announcement posted on the INNOCOS site, for is its game-changing eyeshadow palettes, “using uncoated paper, recyclable aluminum pans and foregoing mirrors, magnets and other components, Aether demonstrated, for the very first time, that it is possible to manufacture beauty that is both functional, formula forward, engaging for the customer and zero-waste.”
The 2020 packaging innovation Blue Beauty Award went to the Cyprus-based skin care brand founded by Inna Orlova, Kypwell. The brand launched packaging made from cork scraps at the start of the year. And this upcycling strategy as well as the fact that the brand “Kypwell will take the cases back for a discount on your next product,” as the INNOCOS post explains, are the reasons why this brand was honored.
In the Environmental Impact category Honua Skincare, Teadora, and True Moringa all received 2020 Blue Beauty Awards.
Kapua Brown founded the Hawaii-based skin care brand in 2016 and won this year’s Blue Beauty Award for supporting sustainable agriculture in that state. “To date,” according to the INNOCOS post, the brand has “supported local farmers of heirloom turmeric, native sandalwood, vetiver, taro and kukui nuts.”
Teadora is based in Portland, Oregon and was founded by Valeria Cole in 2013. And according to the brand’s about page on LinkedIn, Teadora “ingredients are fair trade sourced, sustainably harvested, carbon reduction focused, recyclable and biodegradable, plus always cruelty free.” But it’s even more nuanced sustainability initiative for which the brand won a 2020 Blue Beauty Award: among other things “Teadora works with women-owned local harvesting communities in the Amazon basin, where the majority of their ingredients are sourced, taking special care to pay these communities above market as well as find ways to keep more money in the community so the forest is worth more standing and less susceptible to illegal mining and lumber harvesting,” notes the INNOCOS post.
True Moringa, founded in 2013 by Kwami Williams and Emily Cunningham, won a 2020 Blue Beauty Award for having “planted over two million moringa trees in Ghana using solar-powered irrigation,” according to INNOCOS. “Every part of the moringa tree can be used; the seeds for a nutrient-rich beauty oil and ingredient, the leaves for nutritious food and the waste for fertilizer and animal feed and the flocculant to aid in water purification.”
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Deanna Utroske is a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement. As Editor of the news website CosmeticsDesign.com, she writes daily articles about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders.
Find Deanna on LinkedIn and follow #duviews to learn more about in beauty innovation and sustainability.