7 powerful women in the natural beauty industry
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A force to be reckoned with in the cosmetics safety movement, Stacy Malkan is author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry and cofounder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics—a consumer-safety advocacy group uniting hundreds of nonprofits and natural beauty companies for a safer beauty industry. Malkan's research and advocacy efforts have helped prompt mass manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson to reformulate and government to consider updated cosmetics legislation. Today, she continues to support the natural beauty industry as an (extremely) informed consumer. “The natural beauty industry is a great model for a healthier economy; small and independent beauty companies are the ones innovating the safest and best products,” she said. “As a consumer, I can choose to support these companies that I can get to know and trust.” Malkan most recently took her passion for environmental health to the non-GMO movement, serving as director for the California Right to Know Campaign.
Natural beauty pioneer Stacey Egide founded personal care companies Avalon Organics and Alba Botanica in the 1990s. After selling the brands in the early 2000s, she introduced skin and hair care company Andalou Naturals two years ago. With a team of natural products industry women professionals by her side, Egide continues to raise the bar for natural beauty and bring the innovation once only found at cosmetic retailers like Sephora to the natural space. The Andalou product line features everything from hair-growth systems with argan stem cells to antiaging skin care that uses probiotics and unique antioxidant blends. “The natural products and beauty industries embrace and reward innovation and creativity, while offering women a level playing field to succeed,” she said. “For Andalou Naturals, it was my network of talented women professionals whom I first called and who formed the foundation of our start-up team.”
If you haven’t already, meet Farah Ahmed, associate general counsel of the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC). Heading up the sunscreen and environmental and CRS committees at this U.S. cosmetics trade association, Ahmed is critical to making natural beauty mainstream—and chic. “I am most excited to see how some of these once niche concepts have become integrated, core values of many multinational beauty corporations—proof positive that cosmetics can change the world.” Ahmed is helping to bring natural and organic practices to some of the world’s largest cosmetics companies. “The natural beauty category, in particular, has helped an entire industry of people who nurture, steward, manage, cultivate and promote the wise and expansive growth of natural, eco-friendly, fair trade, organic and socially responsible cosmetics.”
As the technical specialist and reviewer supervisor at Quality Assurance International (QAI), Jessica Walden has traveled the world to review and educate about organic certifications. Through her work with QAI and NSF, she is helping to “standardize what it means to be a natural personal care product.” Though anyone in the natural beauty industry will tell you this is no easy task, Walden is ready to face personal care challenges—from market acceptance and proliferation of labels—head on with education and training efforts such as the upcoming Natural Cosmetics Masterclass in San Francisco. “I’m excited to be part of the process and will continue to work with industry and government bodies alike to develop and clarify natural standards so that more personal care products can identify and use quality ingredients and processes that are more environmentally sound and support good agricultural practices.”
Rebecca Hamilton brings together product innovation and safe-cosmetics awareness through her work in the natural products industry. At Badger, Hamilton has led the way for mineral sunscreen formulation. And as chair of the Natural Products Association Natural Seal Steering Committee and founding member of the Natural and Organic Cosmetic Alliance, she brings clarity to the “natural” industry and builds personal care awareness well-beyond Badger’s New England home base. “I am excited by the passionate dedication towards authenticity, transparency and product safety that I see championed by the natural personal care industry.”
An organic advocate at heart and owner and operator of ingredient distributor Oh, Oh Organic, Inc. by trade, Gay Timmons connects personal care manufacturers with pure, USDA Organic agricultural ingredients. “I love the creativity that I see from my customers—nothing will stop them, and they truly want to make the safest most effective and purely food-derived products on the planet.” With a rich history in the organics industry, serving as chair of the California Organic Products Advisory Committee and as secretary on the CCOF Board of Directors, she remains dedicated to making organic relevant to the beauty industry.
Want to know what's next for the nutricosmetics industry? Ask Paula Simpson: The formulation, marketing and communications consultant for the global nutricosmetics and cosmetics industries is bringing the latest beauty-from-within trends and ingredients to the U.S. market. Today, she’s focused on how the beauty-from-within business will become more sustainable as its presence grows domestically and how consumers will continue to make the connection between health and beauty. “As we become more aware of the potential impact that our ecological footprint may have to future generations, consumers are gravitating towards natural health and beauty brands that are sustainably sourced and manufactured and operate under a health-promoting and eco-conscious mindset.”
Want to know what's next for the nutricosmetics industry? Ask Paula Simpson: The formulation, marketing and communications consultant for the global nutricosmetics and cosmetics industries is bringing the latest beauty-from-within trends and ingredients to the U.S. market. Today, she’s focused on how the beauty-from-within business will become more sustainable as its presence grows domestically and how consumers will continue to make the connection between health and beauty. “As we become more aware of the potential impact that our ecological footprint may have to future generations, consumers are gravitating towards natural health and beauty brands that are sustainably sourced and manufactured and operate under a health-promoting and eco-conscious mindset.”
They’re activists and innovators, trend spotters and trendsetters. Whether these powerful women are formulating new product lines or advocating for cosmetics safety, they are uniting and shaping the natural and organic personal care industry. We caught up with each to find out what inspires them about nontoxic beauty.
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