Ren

Taking a moment



Bruce Weber
When did self-care become a dirty word? The concept originated in the late 60s by radical feminists wanting to empower women by teaching them to get to know their anatomies. But in recent years, ‘self-care’ has come to encompass the Goopification of beauty, aka a capitalist catch-all that couches healthy habits and ancestral rituals in spa language and posh packaging. My take on self-care is somewhere in the middle. Nice-to-have products (that don’t have to be expensive) and free DIY practices to maintain health and wellbeing rather than ‘optimising’. (more…)

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Shop the post: Liberty’s ‘conscious beauty’ push



Liberty Conscious Beauty

Liberty has launched its Conscious Beauty campaign this month, with the news that searches of ‘vegan beauty’ on Liberty‘s website are up 135% and sales for ‘conscious beauty’ products have increased by 43% year on year.

For the duration of the campaign, Liberty is housing a ‘Beauty Empties’ drop-off point in the store, where all packaging will be collected and recycled with TerraCycle. And here are some DIY tips on upcycling your empty luxury beauty vessels into home decor items. (Side note, if you’re interested in this shift in beauty consumption, don’t miss my panel talk!) (more…)

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Come to my panel talk – A Just Cause at The Pilgrm Hotel



Jacques Henri Lartigue

“We’ve been living in a world where packaging equals luxury. Now packaging equals waste. People don’t want it any more.” REN CEO, Arnaud Meysselle.

A radical shift is happening in beauty, fashion and, well, lifestyle generally. As REN CEO Arnaud Meysselle points out in The Guardian, consumers are waking up and smelling the (artisanal, transparently produced) coffee in a bid to live more considerately…

Which brings me to a panel event I’ll be moderating in a couple of weeks at The Pilgrm Hotel in Paddington. ‘A Just Cause’ brings together REN’s Arnaud Meysselle (of the above quote), Workshop Coffee CMO Richard Frazier, and Grenson owner and creative director, Tim Little to discuss their takes on cause and purpose and what they’re doing to champion the movement of responsibility. (more…)

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On circularity, beauty and solving the cost of convenience



Axe deodorant is part of the new Loop circularity platform
I think about the cost of convenience a lot. We’re so hung up on things being quick, accessible and easy that we forget that there’s a cost associated with it. For example, two of my bugbears – getting hooked on free media consumption means we’re now slaves to Mark Zuckerberg and his ilk, and the obsession with a cashless society is a burden for older people who can’t keep up with technology and miss the human interaction of bank counters and supermarket checkouts. (Not to mention the simple fact that cashless culture means you spend more.) And then there’s a third – the environmental cost of our disposable culture.

The good news is there’s finally some progress being made in the field of packaging. We still want the convenience that comes with disposable goods but we’re not changing our behaviour fast enough for recycling to make a significant difference. (more…)

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