In an industry as hard to penetrate as the beauty market, Conserving Beauty stands out from the competition with its unique approach to formulation and heartfelt passion for sustainability. Having spent a decade working in product development, supply chain and ethical sourcing within the beauty and wellness industry, Conserving Beauty founder and CEO Natassia Grace made it her mission to unite the best of science, technology and impact to launch skincare product solutions anchored in world
rld-first innovation.
We spoke with the Australian founder about how the brand used proprietary technologies to develop the world’s first dissolvable cleansing wipes, sheet masks and zit treatments.
Inside Retail: How did the concept for Conserving Beauty come about?
Natassia Grace: My background is in science, and I’ve worked in the beauty industry for 10 years in product development, ethical sourcing and supply chain.
I didn’t necessarily set out to create a brand, I wanted to create solutions. Products that would give people real skin results and do it in an innovative way not only for the consumers but also for the planet. That’s why we formulate with evidence-based ingredient concentrations in waterless formats and the products are efficacious.
IR: How does Conserving Beauty fill a white space in the beauty industry?
NG: For me, it wasn’t necessarily about finding a ‘gap in the market’ or white space.
Since inception, our mission has been to unite the best of science, innovation and sustainability to create skincare solutions that help conserve our beauty and the planet. Which is where the name Conserving Beauty stemmed from.
Part of this mission is developing unique delivery formats that help reduce our water footprint, our carbon footprint and prevent waste.
By creating different dissolvable formats with our InstaMelt fabric and NanoDote technologies, we are able to do this and also ensure that the product efficacy is not compromised.
I specifically wanted to develop products that would support skin concerns like acne, eczema and dermatitis in a unique delivery format that helps save water, reduce carbon and prevent waste in the process.
Our business model has been built on these pillars and our investment into our supply chain and manufacturing equipment has afforded us the ability to create different dissolvable applications.
IR: What are the major misconceptions the retail industry has regarding the realities of creating and running a sustainably centered and eco-friendly beauty brand?
NG: One misconception is that even though we invest in research and development, and impact projects to minimize the planetary footprint of the products we consume, there is no such thing as a perfect product.
That’s because the beauty industry is based on consumerism, so there will never be a perfect product solution. The best thing we can all do is create less products and don’t promote overconsumption.
What we can do as brand founders is make sure that the products that we create are tested and measured so that we can identify ways to reduce our overall water footprint, carbon footprint and waste footprint and keep them as minimal as they can possibly be.
As more brands invest in innovation and plastic-free alternatives, we will see an important shift within our industry for better solutions overall. With increased demand it will help reduce the costs for these materials which will help brands make their products’ prices competitive for our customers.
As one of the most challenging things with dissolvable formats and plastic alternatives is that the actual raw materials and packaging materials are on average 10 times more expensive than the plastic-based solution, which is why we can’t price our products as competitively. I would encourage brands and founders to work on innovative solutions as it can only help the industry as a whole.
IR: What have been the biggest challenges you have encountered while building the brand so far? How have you overcome these challenges?
NG: It’s been both a challenging and rewarding journey creating these products.
We have spent several years, several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and created 15 iterations of the product to get it where it is today and ensure it is the best it can be.
We ended up creating our own manufacturing machinery to be able to produce the products at commercial speed for scale, which we make in Australia.
We also changed packaging materials several times to find the best compatible home compostable films, and we changed the formulations of both products to soften the fabric to improve our customer’s experience.
We recently did third-party testing with dermatologists to also ensure they are suitable for customers with sensitive skin and have that trust factor which has become increasingly important to us.
If I look back on what was the hardest, it was working out a way to soften the fabric and also reduce the oiliness of the sheet mask formulation.
I spent every fortnight at the lab for six months to work out ingredients that we could infuse to do this and I’m so relieved we finally got there in the end!
IR: What have been the highlights in building the brand thus far?
NG: There have been countless highlights over the past few years.
The best part of my job is the product development process because I will forever love formulating and innovating new formats. I never take that for granted and feel extremely privileged that I get to do what I love.
Things that come to mind are how I’ve built an incredibly smart and forward-thinking team, launched into several global beauty retailers including Mecca, Space NK, Priceline and Cult Beauty, and we have won some of the best awards in the industry, including the Business Of Fashion Global Beauty Award, Marie Claire UK Sustainable Innovation Beauty Award (twice), Forbes 30 Under 30, Woman Of The Future Award and the Telstra Business Award for Accelerating Women.
IR: Since launching in 2021, what has the brand’s growth trajectory been like?
NG: We have been so fortunate to gain incredible momentum early on with both our direct-to-consumer customers and global retailers and are proud to share that in 2024 we will have 10 times the revenue compared to the year prior, which is remarkable growth.
IR: In the year ahead, what areas of opportunity are you planning to tap into?
NG: We will continue to innovate and create unique products and solutions.
We have asked our customers and they are looking for solutions for their acne, eczema, dermatitis and some other skin concerns which we are in the process of developing now.
Stay tuned!