“Fair Trade” & “Ethically-sourced” emerge as new cosmetics trend

Insight by Leah

Although many companies outside of cosmetics have been touting "Fair trade" labels for a while (coffee, chocolate etc.), the trend is now catching on in the beauty industry.  Some companies, like Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, have been sourcing fair trade and ethically-sourced products for many years, and indeed Dr. Bronner’s caught the industry’s eye at the Natural Beauty Summit last week by discussing how the company sources oils and more from conflict regions including Sri Lanka and Palestine.  As well, given the apparent appeal to consumers, bigger brands like The Body Shop and Clarins have jumped on this bandwagon.  However, as industry experts point out, there is no official accreditation for fair trade / ethically-sourced products and it remains to be seen if this trend will truly catch on.

Cosmeticsdesign-europe.com Excerpt:

According to Mintel, ‘extreme ethical’ is set to be a major cosmetics trend for 2009, with many cosmetics companies seeking to become advocates for social change.

Fair trade and ‘ethically sourced’ have long been buzz words in the cosmetics industry. The number of product launches with fair trade ingredients doubled in 2008.

While 2009 has seen fewer launches of fair trade products, Mintel insists that this does not reflect a rejection of ethical principles. Rather, it would seem that the inverse is true. Read the complete article.