Product sourcing a challenge for Canadian skincare maker

“Clean beauty,” the idea of promoting healthy and environmentally friendly beauty products, is all the rage online and in big-box stores. But knowing exactly what’s in most of the soaps, creams and perfumes on shelves today can be nearly impossible, supply chain experts say, because even products that tout natural, sustainable ingredients are so far removed from the fields where they’re grown. While the origins of many raw ingredients are obscured, some small beauty brand owners go the extra mile—but even they can be frustrated by the sacrifices they have to make and the lack of transparency in the industry overall.

Julia Thurgood-Burnett had a brand, Hereward Farms, which she wanted to be “authentically sustainable.” To her, that meant avoiding plastic packaging, even though it would have been cheaper. It also meant sourcing as many raw ingredients from Canada as possible, which turned out to be much harder than she expected. She was able to get Canadian-made beeswax and sunflower oil, and work with a Canadian supplier, but that supplier gets things from beyond the country’s borders. Most of Hereward’s essential oils and all of its dried flowers come from the United States.

It’s a challenge for small brands with environmentally friendly values because the beauty industry, worth billions of dollars and dominated by a few major brands, has an uglier underbelly. It can be nearly impossible to trace some ingredients to their source, according to supply chain experts. And planet-warming carbon emissions, deforestation, pollution and waste can all come from the process of growing natural ingredients, producing synthetic ones, manufacturing, packaging, delivering and eventually disposing of formulas and their containers. But despite the uphill battle, many business owners who care about being eco-friendly are trying their best to tackle these problems.

Consumers have begun demanding sustainability and transparency from their beloved multi-step skincare routines, seeking out what’s popularly known as “clean beauty.” But dubious claims about “green” and “pure” products abound. There’s also little regulation governing the human health impacts and sustainability of beauty products in many countries.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.