This mondays episode Granger Whitelaw Is joined by Rayssa Barroso for a discussion on sustainability & cosmetic products. The conversation Is part of the Green Trail event month on how to better protect our environment as business owners & leaders.
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Granger: Good morning. Monday morning coffee here. This is Granger Whitelaw. I have a special guest with me today. Many of you may know or may not know Rayssa Barroso. My better half, she’s the one that keeps me on the straight and narrow I think. Or maybe I keep you on the straight and narrow. Good morning. Rayssa
Rayssa: Good morning, how are you?
Granger: I’m doing great. How was your weekend?
Rayssa: It was good, filled with lots of food.
Granger: Lots of food, you like food.
Rayssa: Yes, I love food.
Granger: Well, we had the honor of going to the Marine ball, the 244th anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps, the Marine ball on Friday night at the Reverie, which was beautiful.
Rayssa: Yeah. It was really nice.
Granger: And you looked amazing.
Rayssa: Thank you.
Granger: Yeah. Um, so wow. Really amazing I must say. But uh, and then the rest of the weekend’s been kind of busy with exercise and food. Yes.
Rayssa: Not much exercise this weekend you played tennis yesterday, but I didn’t do much.
Granger: You know, you workout all the time. So anyway, today I want to talk about, sustainable products. We’re doing the Green Trail event on December 1st, the first electric E scooter infrastructure nationwide in any country in the world. And that’s going to be launched here in Vietnam, December 1st. Which you can see at thegreentrail.com pretty exciting. But along the conversation, for the month about renewable energy and, pollution, which we’ve talked about, I want to talk about sustainable products and you are a makeup artist
Rayssa: Yes.
Granger: And I’m very curious about what the makeup industry is doing about products, sustainable products, not countable products, right. For your face, for your skin and health care, or skin care, I should say, and what you guys are doing in the makeup industry.
Rayssa: So in the makeup industry and cosmetics, I think it’s a huge issue because think of all the shampoo bottles, soap containers, moisturizers, cleansers, each thing is made with plastic, what’s in it
Granger: Oh the plastic bottles.
Rayssa: Yeah.
Granger: Right. I read on the shampoo bottle this morning. I was thinking about this because I knew I was going to do this with you and I’m like, Oh, it’s gluten free. The shampoo.
Rayssa: Yes, our shampoo is gluten free paraben free.
Granger: Paraben-free okay. But yeah, all those plastic bottles, that’s a huge issue right there. Single use plastic.
Rayssa: Yes, for sure. It’s a major issue. And I have thought of that many times. You know, the products are small and they have the lid and they have the container. But think of all that plastic containers, it’s a lot, a lot. And you don’t really reuse them. You don’t, not many brands out there are allowing you to go back in and refill it and take it home.
Granger: So there is an opportunity for L’Oreal, or any of these big companies to come up with a reusable container.
Rayssa: Yeah, they don’t necessarily do reusable containers and I think it’s, an issue because of bacteria and things like that. And it’s stuff that you put on your face, in your hair and you know, your intimate self that you don’t want. Definitely chemical contamination or anything like that. So that is one aspect I think why they don’t do reusable.
Granger: That would make sense, right. Because, you get some, contamination in the container opening, closing, traveling and that kind of stuff so well, but if you came up with a way to wash it out or maybe, a pop and replacement for the eyeliner or the lipstick and again, I’m not a makeup guy, but that kind of thing. Is that possible?
Rayssa: Yes. So, a few brands that I use that I love, Kiehl’s MAC and LUSH, which you know, that I drag into those stores all the time and I love those brands. But the cool thing about them is that you can take, they have incentive programs where you can take your empty containers and bottles back and they’ll give you, you know, a free lipstick or free eye shadow or free moisturizer or something like that.
Granger: So those companies really are incentivizing recycling, taking back the products by giving you a discount or products if you do that if you participate.
Rayssa: Exactly. Which I think is awesome.
Granger: Well that’s phenomenal.
Rayssa: Yes, I think that’s really cool. I wish more brands would participate in that because you know, for example, your mascara you’re supposed to throw out your mascara every three months.
Granger: Sure.
Rayssa: So for a woman, that’s a lot.
Granger: I had no idea. Mascara, okay.
Rayssa: That’s a lot of bottles that you can throw out and reuse.
Granger: Right.
Rayssa: But there are, you know, other initiatives that a lot of the major brands are doing. For example, L’Oreal committed to being deforestation free by 2020.
Granger: Really, what’s that mean?
Rayssa: So the huge issue in cosmetics is what they, the process that they go through to create the product. So Palm oil for example, is a huge, huge ingredient in 70% of all cosmetics.
Granger: Oh is that right?
Rayssa: Yes. And there are huge, Palm oil plants plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia that have just been completely destroyed because they have to.
Granger: Tear the forest down It’s horrible. Which has a negative impact on the environment, which is exactly what we’re talking about. Right. How do we do a positive impact with sustainable products, so big issue here in Palm oil and deforestation.
Rayssa: Correct. It releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the combined cars and trucks in the world.
Granger: What does?
Rayssa: Deforestation. Which is wild.
Granger: Wow. Is that like in Brazil, that happens a lot?
Rayssa: Yes, the Brazil issue with the rain forest, which is the world’s biggest rain forest, is really sad, you know, that provides so much to the environment. It cleans the air. There’s so many benefits.
Granger: It’s a habitat and the animals.
Rayssa: Exactly.
Granger: And you’re Brazilian.
Rayssa: Yes.
Granger: Your family ancestry is Brazilian and you’re American, but you’re first generation American, but you really are Brazilian. You were up by a Brazilian family. You’ll be back in Brazil in a couple of months visiting your favorite person.
Rayssa: Yes, for sure. That will be fun.
Granger: So what else is going on with the cosmetic industry?
Rayssa: So the other thing that we were talking about earlier is the packaging, right So, there have been a few companies that came out and announced that they were going to move towards 100% recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025.
Granger: Compostable? That’s great.
Rayssa: Yes. So that’s awesome.
Granger: So compostable for those of you who don’t know, that means that you can take something that could go back into the earth. Right. So compost is something that you. Well gee my grandmother used to have the compost piles at the house. Right. And we would go put the trash in there. We would bury it and we would wait for a month for the, for the worms that come up. And it would create, you know, the compost for us. And, and then when we’d go spread that on the flower bed and when she planted, yeah.
Rayssa: To regrow new plants, vegetables, etcetera. I used to have friends that did that and really into that when I was growing up.
Granger: It’s fun.
Rayssa: And I always found it wild cause I’m not a huge dirt kind of person.
Granger: But again, we’re talking about saving this planet, right. And these are the things we can really do. I remember doing that as a young boy and composting, and I don’t hear a lot about it now. So that’s great. Now what companies are doing that?
Rayssa: So, L’Oreal committed to that. By 2025, a Unilever who is a parent company.
Granger: Dove and St. Ives.
Rayssa: And Ponds, is a huge , product that especially here. They love Ponds. They are in all the cosmetic stores.
Granger: Ponds? In Vietnam.
Rayssa: Yes, in Vietnam and, Procter & Gamble. So Pantene, Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences , you know.
Granger: So there is a lot of people making this effort now. That’s fantastic.
Rayssa: Yes. Which is nice. It would’ve been nice I think to have been done this before, years ago, but you know, better late than never.
Granger: Absolutely. Well, you know, it’s Monday and we talk about ideas and things that you can do as a business owner, you can apply or think about to your business, to help improve your business. And certainly sustainability is something that we should all be thinking about. As you can see from this conversation, there are a lot of major corporations in the cosmetic and skincare worlds that have started to do this. It’s phenomenal. And Geox which is a sponsor of The Green Trail, is providing shoes that are used with recycled materials. And that’s a shoe company, right. And obviously there’s furniture companies that make a natural furniture and you know, maybe are looking at different ways to expand their sustainability and their impact on the carbon footprint. So Friday I’m going to talk about a company that is doing that. They really are using products that are sustainable, that are natural. And the more natural products we can use, the better for our environment. And for all of us. Cause we know the pollution here in Southeast Asia.
Rayssa: It’s tough.
Granger: It’s tough right? I know you are not happy about it
Rayssa: No.
Granger: And it’s bad for your skin.
Rayssa: Yes.
Granger: Well it’s good for your business because you’re a skin care professional.
Rayssa: No, actually it’s not. If people have better skin, it makes my job much easier actually with the makeup I’m covering the skin.
Granger: You’re covering it.
Rayssa: So if you don’t have anything for me to cover, that facilitates my job by a lot. But there are other, huge brands here that in fashion. So in fashion that’s been a major topic this year. They had that Green carpet event, during fashion week. And a lot of major brands, you know, have been asked what are you doing for sustainability in the fashion industry? Some major ones that we all I’m sure know, Adidas, they, so I didn’t know this, but I was doing some research. So I have a pair of Adidas sneakers that, the blue ones with the mesh that are really cute.
Granger: Oh right.
Rayssa: Okay. I wear them, they’re super comfortable and I wear them all the time. But they are part of the Parley For The Oceans Adidas line.
Granger: Oh cool.
Rayssa: So Parley For The Oceans is an environmental organization that creates shoes made entirely of reclaimed and recycled yarns and filaments from ocean waste and deep sea gillnets.
Granger: Wow, that’s awesome.
Rayssa: That is super cool. And you know, I love the ocean. Anyone who knows me, I grew up near the ocean so it breaks my heart to see, you know, when we’re traveling things and see plastic and trash and things in the ocean. You know, we were in Malaysia and on one side there were a bunch of plastic bottles and then literally on the other side of the boat there was a pod of dolphins swimming , we were really upset about that. H&M also, they have a conscious line in store you can go and see on the tag and it’s made by sustainable materials with recycled cotton, polyester, national rubber and wood fibers. And they’re trying to use 100% organic cotton across the board by 2020.
Granger: Wow, that’s great.
Rayssa: Yeah. Which is huge, H&M is a major company. Another popular one, Zara. They announced this year that by 2025, they will only use cotton, linen and polyester that’s organic, sustainable or recycled.
Granger: Wow. Fantastic.
Rayssa: Which I love Zara. We all love Zara.
Granger: Yeah Zara is cool. You love Zara. The girls love Zara.
Rayssa: The girls love Zara.
Granger: Vincom mall has a Zara. I’ve been there many times. It’s painful.
Rayssa: And then another company that I saw was, it’s an Australian company called The Great Beyond and they use bamboo to create soft, durable basics.
Granger: Oh that’s cool.
Rayssa: Yeah.
Granger: Like this bamboo shirts I get made. I love the bamboo shirts.
Rayssa: Yeah. Those are great for here.
Granger: So cosmetics industry, healthcare industry, I’m sorry, the skincare industry. I keep saying healthcare, the skincare industry and the fashion industry with clothing, Geox, Adidas, these other brands are out there trying to use recycled products for their materials. And now the bamboo for the shirts, which it’s hard process bamboo. I’ve heard sometimes that’s a difficult thing from a chemical standpoint, but I think it’s sustainable.
Rayssa: Yeah. Because bamboo can grow quickly and it doesn’t harm the other.
Granger: And they have leaves and helps create oxygen. And yeah. Well be talking more about bamboo on Friday because that is actually the company. I’m going to profile on Friday, bamboo master my buddy James. So well thank you. I am so glad that you are here today.
Rayssa: You’re welcome.
Granger: You are like a fountain of knowledge. A fountain of beauty and knowledge, but no, seriously, thanks so much. It’s great to see what’s happening in your industry and we all need to think about this. I know one of my friends who listen to this podcast regularly manufactures shoes and he’s thinking about how could he, you know, incorporate this into his manufacturing facilities and to their products. Actually a couple of my friends watching this because in Vietnam shoes are a big business, right. And if we can impact, the environment by helping use more recycle products, those little changes can make big results for all of us.
Rayssa: I think so. Everyone makes a little difference, overall together it’ll make a huge impact for sure.
Granger: Well, everybody, thank you, Rayssa, for coming in today. I hope you have a great Monday. Mine is certainly starting off wonderfully with my guest this morning, I’m going to have a little more coffee and head out for my week, I wish you all the best.
