Raise your hand if you’ve checked out a beauty ingredients label before and felt completely lost. As in, I’ve taken a wrong turn, now I’m heading towards Oman, and my phone is dead type of lost. We’ve been there too. Luckily for us, the clean beauty movement has driven a new awareness to the masses when it comes to what’s inside the products we’re putting on our body. Powder Beauty took the concept of beauty transparency to the next level, with their platform’s new state-of-the-art Ingredients Explainer.Â
We chatted with Ayat Toufeeq, co-founder of Powder Beauty, to get all the deets on this exciting feature.
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Cosmo Me: Can you tell us why Powder Beauty implemented its Ingredients Explainer?Â
Ayat Toufeeq: Powder is more than just a place to shop; we’re championing a revolution for a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable beauty space, one product at a time. As the pioneer of conscious beauty in the region, it’s our mission to arm our community with the knowledge and information to know exactly what they’re putting on their skin, and we aim to do so with the unconditional transparency of the Ingredients Explainer.Â
Our customers are noticeably becoming more educated and doing their homework on issues around sustainability. This makes sense, as there has been a rise in ‘greenwashing’ with brands providing misleading information about how sustainable their products really are – and consumers are wising up to this. So naturally, they’re delving deeper and making an effort to separate fact from fiction.
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C: Why do you think the Ingredients Explainer is important?
A: There are a few different factors at play. There is a global cultural shift towards more conscious consumption. We’re more aware than ever about what we’re putting in and on our bodies and the environmental impact of our choices. The days of blindly trusting mainstream brands are behind us, and we now live in a world where a new breed of independent players is doing it better.
As a result, they’re raising the bar for what we, as consumers, expect when it comes to quality and transparency. However, this also means that we’re now constantly being bombarded with new and confusing product claims, most of which are baseless marketing. This raises the demand for transparency and for brands to substantiate their claims with real, objective information.
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C: What has the reaction been like from your customers?
A: Introducing the Ingredients Explainer has been a positive impact across the board. This commitment to transparency is helping our customers choose products that better fit their needs and provides them with peace of mind. Â Â Â
C: Are there ingredients you personally avoid using or will not carry at Powder?​
A: We’re committed to brands that embody the values of our conscious customers, but will only ever stock what’s truly worthy of a spot on our shelves and, more importantly, theirs. We take a holistic approach to deciding which brands and products that we stock, from cruelty-free, vegan, organic, made with sustainably sourced ingredients, coral-reef safe, and made without, all accessible through easy filtering on Powder.
While we do not condemn any specific ingredients, we do look for products that are made without certain ingredients. First and foremost, we want to be transparent, to empower and equip our customers to make choices that work for them and fit with their values.
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C: Do you think Powder is paving the way for ingredients transparency in consumerism?
A: With our Ingredients Explainer having a database of over 39,000 ingredients, this tool is able to quickly scan and display an explanation for almost every skincare and beauty ingredient used in the market today. While this technology is not unique to us, we are the first beauty retailer in this region to introduce this kind of functionality and empower our audience with clear, scientific information that’s simple and easy to understand.Â
You can shop Powder Beauty here.