Sustainability

The Power of B Corp: Why Beauty Kitchen Is Leading the Sustainable Beauty Revolution  B Corp-certified companies are shaping a fairer, more sustainable economy. Since 2017, Beauty Kitchen has proudly been part of this movement. In 2024, we achieved a record-breaking B Corp™ score of 174.7—the highest in Europe’s beauty industry—reflecting our dedication to people, the planet, and a circular economy.   What is a B Corp?   A B Corp (short for Benefit Corporation) is a company certified to meet rigorous standards for social and environmental impact. B Corps are committed to balancing profit with purpose, placing value on the well-being of workers, customers, suppliers, the community, and the environment. Becoming a B Corp means every part of Beauty Kitchen undergoes thorough assessments to ensure we’re leading the way in ethical and sustainable business practices.  Why B Corps matter?  Our B Corp status means you can trust that every Beauty Kitchen purchase supports fair environmental and social practices. Whether that means prioritising our employee’s financial security and wellness to making a positive impact on the communities in which we operate. B Corps are also assessed in terms of their environmental impact and sustainability.  Our B Corp Score  Since our initial certification in 2017 with a score of 89.3, we’ve been raising the bar for ourselves and the beauty industry. Our score jumped to 139.8 in 2020, and now, in 2024, we’re proud to be certified at 174.7! This isn’t just a number – it’s a measure of the positive impact we’ve made and the dedication we bring to building a sustainable beauty brand you can trust.  Here are just a few things we’ve done to achieve our score:  Ensuring we use the most sustainably sourced, efficacious ingredients  We’re proud to have pioneered the use of returnable packaging in our products, through our partnership with Reposit we’re on a mission to eliminate single use packaging waste  At Beauty Kitchen we are 100% cruelty free and Leaping Bunny Certified  We have achieved the ‘Zero Plastics Inside’ certification for all our products, meaning they are microplastic free  Beauty Kitchen is a female-led business and we are committed to following diversity & inclusion principles in the workplace  We commit 2% of sales (not profits) to charitable organisations  Our products are all made locally in the UK, reducing their carbon footprint and contributing to the local economy  Our products are Cradle-to-Cradle certified, meaning they are designed with circularity in mind, to be reused or recycled indefinitely  The B Corp Beauty Coalition  We’re also proud members of the B Corp Beauty Coalition, a global partnership of B Corp beauty brands working together to set new standards for the entire industry. Our founder Jo is a passionate advocate and speaker at numerous business and beauty forums, serving as Co-Chair of the Global B Corp Beauty Coalition as well as the Sustainable Beauty Coalition. By collaborating with other beauty brands worldwide we’re encouraging the whole industry to raise the bar and make sustainable beauty the norm.  With Beauty Kitchen, choosing beauty doesn’t have to compromise the planet. Join us in redefining the beauty industry—because every purchase and return brings us closer to a world where sustainable beauty is the new standard.  Written by the Beauty Kitchen Team  

We have been paving the way for circular product development since 2014 and have 32 of our products now been recognised with the prestigious Cradle to Cradle Certified® certification. Cradle to Cradle Certified® is the world's most advanced, science-based measure that recognises safer, more sustainable products made for the circular economy. To receive the certification, products are assessed for environmental and social performance across five critical sustainability categories: Material Health Logo: Ensuring that products are made using raw materials that are as safe as possible for humans and the environment. Material Reutilisation Logo: Ensuring that products remain in cycles of use and reuse to eliminate the concept of waste. Renewable Energy Logo: Ensuring that products are manufactured using renewable energy to reduce or eliminate the impact of climate changing greenhouse gases due to the manufacturing of our products. Water Stewardship Logo: Ensuring that water is recognised as a valuable resource, watersheds are protected, and clean water is available to people and all other organisms. Social Fairness Logo: Designing business operations that honour all people and natural systems affected by the manufacturing of our products. A product receives an achievement level in each category - Basic, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum - with the lowest achievement level representing the product’s overall mark. Our Certification We understand that how we design and formulate our products today, shapes the world we will inhabit tomorrow. 32 of our products are recognised with the Cradle to Cradle Certified® certification across the silver, gold and platinum categories. We are currently the only beauty brand to have all products recognised with a Platinum certification in Social Fairness. Five In Ten Interview "We have always designed our products in a safe and circular way...when it comes to sustainability, we look at all aspects of our business and product design including packaging, formulation and supply chain" - Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen  

When you say “natural beauty” everyone has a different definition of what it means to them. For some, natural beauty means wearing no make-up, for others, it just means celebrating how they really look. It can mean a lot of different things, but for us, in our day to day, natural beauty is all about beauty products.

As a team, we are constantly inspired by the kindness we see from our customers and communities to give back for people and planet. Our Charitable Values We support sustainably minded partners and our local communities by giving and campaigning alongside them as much as we possibly can. All year, we donate 2% of sales (not profits) to charitable organisations and places of work that have needed our support, these are just a few of the ways we have helped: Founded in 1996 by HRH the Prince of Wales, In Kind Direct are a UK charity focused on distributing and providing access to donated consumer products to their network of charitable organisations. Since 2019, we have donated over £200K worth of product through In Kind Direct to help 869 charitable organisations that support a variety of projects including, education, youth care, emergency relief, schools and family welfare.   The Plastic Soup Foundation was founded in 2011, with a dedicated mission to share knowledge on and campaign against plastic pollution and microplastics. We are proud to be a Gold Business Angel for Plastic Soup Foundation meaning that we pursue an active policy to reduce the use of single use plastic and try to prevent leakage to the environment. We have partnered with Eco-Soap Bank, a non-profit organisation working to provide sufficient hygiene to remote regions of developing nations. So far, Eco Soap Bank have donated 9 million soaps to schools, health clinics and village communities as well as supplying handwashing training to over 3.5 million individuals. We have donated the equivalent of 3.5K soap bars so far! Earthly are another B Corp certified business, and we are working with them as part of their reforestation project located in Madagascar. The project focuses on combatting the impact that deforestation has had on Madagascar’s mangroves whilst lifting local communities out of permanent poverty by creating work. Over 75% of the world’s species is found in Madagascar, which is why it is so important to us to replace the mangroves and protect what is left. We have helped to plant 5K+ mangrove trees so far.     Social Impact Being a responsible business is part of our brand DNA and has been since we began. We only ever want to instil practices and policies that can have a positive influence on the world. Ethical Trading & Modern Slavery Slavery, whether in the form of servitude, forced labour or human trafficking, is not accepted in any part of our business. When reviewing and auditing the ethics of who we buy from and sell, we are measuring the social impact of our business right down to our supply chain, where we have introduced a supplier code of conduct duty to trade responsibly. A zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking is integral to us. To ensure all those in our supply chain and contractors comply with our values, we operate in line with principles of responsible sourcing, including paying employees at the prevailing minimum wage applicable within their relevant county of operations. Learn More Diversity & Inclusion We believe in Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion both in the workplace and supporting external causes who believe in the same principles. When looking internally at our own business and culture, we have and will further commit to following B Corp Diversity & Inclusion principles in the workplace - even more so as we continue to grow our small team. Externally, we are dedicated to reviewing and auditing the ethics of the people and businesses we work with to ensure that they share the same values that we implement ourselves. We must all be advocates for a regenerative and inclusive future.   Real Living Wage Beauty Kitchen are proud promote fairness, equality, opportunity and innovation in the workplace. This means we pledge to meet the core elements of paying the real Living Wage to our employees, not using Zero Hour Contracts in any way, and taking action to address the gap in pay between genders (known as the Gender Pay Gap).    

You already know that we are committed to ending single use plastic waste with our reusable zero waste skincare packaging. So how else can we help you find ways to reduce plastic use in the bathroom? This is where we can shine a light on the importance of natural and sustainable formulations - what’s on the inside counts just as much! Many beauty product formulations are made up of ingredients that contain microplastics, often as cheap fillers. Whilst we are enjoying our self-care routines or evening soaks in the bath, we are ultimately washing these plastic ingredients down our drains and into our water supplies, eventually harming marine life habitats with microplastic pollution. Aren’t Microplastics Banned in Cosmetics? Previously, brands would purposely add tiny plastic particles (microbeads) to products such as body scrubs and cleansers for an exfoliating effect. In 2018, these microbeads were banned in the UK (yay!) - however, over 500 microplastic filled ingredients can still legally be used in formulations.Looks can be deceiving as these ingredients can be synthetic liquids that feel smooth and silky in texture, and you would have no idea that there is plastic inside, but it’s estimated that the cosmetics industry uses 8,700 tonnes of microplastics each year. As of 2022, almost nine-in-ten (87%) products from major cosmetics brands contain microplastic ingredients. We are in the minority that use 100% microplastic free ingredients, and we want this to become the majority when it comes to beauty and beyond! Effective, Natural, SustainableThese are three words we stand by with all our products and their formulations. We believe in sustainably sourced and naturally derived ingredients that are scientifically proven to work. That’s why we never have and never will use plastic ingredients in any of our products. Whether it’s your favourite collagen boosting facial oil, your natural cream cleanser or even a hydrating moisturiser, you can be sure that ours are sustainable from the inside out - packaging included!  There’s an App for ThatWe are dedicated to sharing knowledge to prevent plastic pollution and microplastics use in the beauty industry and beyond.The informative app ‘Beat the Microbead’ has been launched by our friends at the Plastic Soup Foundation which allows you to self-scan products and identify more than 500 types of microplastics. We challenge you as part of Plastic Free July to try it out as one of your simple steps to a microplastic free skincare routine!You can download the app for free here or see below for the red flag list of microplastic ingredients! The Plastic Soup Foundation RED FLAG microplastic ingredients As we mentioned there are more than 500 known microplastic ingredients used in cosmetics, but here is a quick list of the ones that are most heavily used, so you can keep an eye out on your products’ ingredient list: Acrylates Copolymer Acrylates Crosspolymer Butylene Carbomer Dimethicone Ethylene Methacrylate Copolymer Methacrylate Crosspolymer Methyl Methacrylate Copolymer Methyl Methacrylate Crosspolymer Nylon Polyacrylamide Polyacrylate Polypropylene Polyurethane Polyvinyl Propylene Copolymer or Polypropylene PVP Styrene Copolymer Tetrafluoroethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymer VP/VA Copolymer

We never have and never will test our products on animals, and we will do everything to support campaigns against animal testing within the beauty industry to help end this. The Leaping Bunny Programme The Leaping Bunny Programme by Cruelty Free International is regarded as the global gold standard for cruelty free. It was originally established in the 1990s by their international coalition of animal protection organisations, and the certification is the best indicator to showcase that a company has made a genuine commitment to never test on animals. A company must continually meet rigorous criteria which apply globally and extend over and above laws governing animal testing to maintain this certification. Beauty Kitchen is a 100% certified cruelty free business, and we can honestly say that we have never tested our products or ingredients on animals, have never commissioned animal testing for our products and we always ensure that our manufacturers and suppliers follow these same principles. All new ingredients are researched and reviewed deeply by our New Product Development Team before launch, and we strive to campaign against animal testing within the beauty industry to help end this. “Animals shouldn’t have to suffer for our beauty. We have always lived by cruelty free standards since the start of Beauty Kitchen, but I’m so proud to have this officially supported by The Leaping Bunny Programme’s gold standard so our customers have that reassurance too.” - Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen.

There’s no denying the impact that waste has on the environment, especially when 95% of packaging in the beauty industry is simply thrown away. So far we have saved over 4 million single use plastic bottles from going to landfill with our circular packaging programme in partnership with Reposit! How We’re Minimising Packaging Waste Since the very start of Beauty Kitchen, we’ve always created our products and packaging with cradle to cradle principles in mind. Put simply, this means we create our processes in a circular way where everything can either be reused or recycled and most importantly, not wasted or taken to landfill. Current Packaging That We Use: Every aspect of our products, including formulation and packaging, are tested against human health so they are 100% safe to use. Aluminium Bottles- 75% of aluminium that has been produced over the years is still in use today. It’s widely recycled but also a great material for reusing as part of our Reposit packaging programme. Bottle Pumps- Unlike most pumps, ours are fully recyclable. They can be broken down to be recycled but we created our "pump for life" to be reused time and time again. Rock Paper Labels- Our water-resistant labels are made from 80% limestone, as a natural waste product, with no bleach used to treat them. Label Ink -We only use vegetable derived inks to print our product information on our labels and cartons. Konjac sponge- This entire product is compostable. The sponge, the string handle and even the packaging, just pop it in your food waste or compost bin. Glass Bottles/Jars- These are all made using recycled glass which are suitable for home recycling, however we intend to reuse these as part of our Reposit packaging programme when you send them back to us. Pipettes- Our pipettes consist of three parts; the glass tube, a 100% recycled plastic collar and a rubber bulb. All three parts can easily be broken down and recycled or made into something new. Jar Lids- our lids are made from 100% recycled plastic and are widely recycled with home recycling. FSC Certified -Our paper packaging for our solid products and Vitamin Kitchen range are fully certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, meaning we comply with the highest social and environmental standards on the market for our paper packaging.       Canopy Pack4Good Campaign We are to be partnering with Canopy and supporting their Pack4Good campaign. Canopy is a not-for-profit forest conservation organisation that works with leading brands around the globe across a range of industries. Their Pack4Good initiative focuses on eliminating the use of Ancient and Endangered forest fibres in paper and paper packaging, whilst instead making use of lower impact materials such as pulp.   What we are Committing:   To help reduce pressure on forests and freshwater systems, as well as to reduce the carbon footprint of the paper and packaging we use, we will continue to lead the market by:  The use of innovative design, recycled fibre and by implementing zero waste processes throughout all areas of our business  Choosing paper packaging with high-recycled content, specifically reusing waste content  Encouraging our suppliers to continuously improve and expand the availability of recycled content  Maximising the overall recycled fibre content of our packaging  Sourcing packaging from alternative sustainable fibres when possible  Supporting research and development of commercial scale production of pulp, paper and packaging  You can read our full Canopy Pack4Good policy here.

Update your Skincare for Spring in 5 Easy Steps The days are getting lighter, the weather is getting warmer, and just like your wardrobe, it’s time to switch up your skincare for spring. We’ve put together 5 simple steps and must-have products that will help you to achieve your best-ever glow-up. Step 1 – Opt for a Gentle Cleanser Cleansing is one of the most important first steps for any skincare routine no matter what the season. During winter we tend to use richer cleansers like a lotion or balm to hydrate the skin but for spring, we highly recommend using a gel formula like our Seahorse + Plankton Revitalising Gel Cleanser. This organic-blend lifts away makeup and impurities while delivering all the essential plant-powered nutrients your skin needs to restore balance. Plus, gel cleansers are better for reducing excess oil as temperatures start to rise. Step 2 – Exfoliate & Treat Cold winter weather can make your skin look dry and dull. Perk up your complexion with our Naked Konjac Sponge. This super-soft, plastic-free, natural sponge is infused with pollen to support skin brightness. For best results, use it with your cleanser to get rid of dead skin and to help decongest problem areas. Once your skin is feeling polished, go in with our award-winning Seahorse Plankton + 5 Minute Miracle Mask made with Kaolin Clay that is renowned for its detoxifying properties to help soothe and treat the skin while the blend of Microalgae stimulates collagen so skin looks renewed, hydrated and firmer. Step 3 – Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise In spring we want our moisturisers to make our skin look healthy, balanced, and incredibly glowy. One of the ingredients that help us to achieve this is Rose Oil. Loaded with vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals, rose is a highly beneficial ingredient that helps to brighten and even the skin tone while strengthening skin’s barrier and boosting moisture levels. That’s why we’ve added it to our Abyssinian Oil Hydra Boost Day Cream so you can enjoy a beautifully balanced complexion. Plus, it’s also infused with Abyssinian Oil and Magnolia so skin looks all the more luminous. Step 4 – Add a multi-tasking marvel to the mix As the days get lighter, we like to spend more time outdoors and if you’re going straight from desk to drinks, give yourself a pick-me-up with our all-purpose Abyssinian Oil Handbag Beauty Balm. This little pot works as a cleanser, eyebrow shaper, lip balm, and moisturiser so you can enjoy a fresh-faced look any time of the day and night. Step 5 – Prime & Protect As the days heat-up we like to wear less makeup and want to create a lit-from-within glow. That’s where our Raw Inventions Mineral Shield SPF30 Daily Primer comes into play. This all-natural primer creates a soft-focus finish under makeup and can be worn alone as an SPF over moisturisers giving you the protection it needs against pollution and impurities. The best bit… It's made from minerals that are kinder on skin and to the environment.

In 2017, we became the first high street sustainable beauty business in the UK to become a certified Beauty B Corp™, using our business as a force for good and cementing our efforts to put people and the planet before profit. We are now the highest scoring B Corp in the European beauty industry! What is B Corp? A B Corp is a business that believes in acting in a sustainable, transparent and responsible way. To become a B Corp, every part of Beauty Kitchen has been looked at through a microscope to make sure that we are meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance. We’ve always had these principles at our heart since the very start of Beauty Kitchen, we just have a globally recognised certification now to show that. Once a business becomes a B Corp, they are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. We are accelerating a shift in our industry to redefine success in business and build an inclusive and sustainable economy. Our B Corp Score Being a B Corp is about much more than ticking boxes and hitting scores. We want to prove to the world that business can be done differently - it’s the right thing to do. We became first B Corp certified in 2017, with an overall score of 89.3. A lot has changed since then and since recertifying in 2020 to a whopping 139.8! To maintain our B Corp certification and score, we will continue to document our positive impact and undergo re-certification every three years. These are just a few of the initiatives that helped us meet our current B Corp score: Reusable packaging Sustainably sourced ingredients Zero microplastics No animal testing Donating 2% of sales to charity Female led business Living wage employer Manufactured in the UK Creating jobs locally Best for the World Every year, B Lab (who carries out the certifications) recognises the B Corps that have achieved the highest verified scores in certain areas. We are proud to say that we achieved Best for the World Status for Community in 2021 and 2022. B Corp Beauty Coalition In 2022, we joined forces with 25 other leading B Corps across the globe to form the B Corp Beauty Coalition. Together, we aim to improve the sustainability standards of the whole beauty industry by - enabling collaboration and sharing better practices, educating customers, and influencing the beauty industry to inspire broader changes to improve the social and environmental footprint of the beauty industry.

This month is no ordinary month…it’s Plastic Free July! We’ll be dedicating an entire month to challenging you and our own team to wave goodbye to single use plastic and say hello to some simple sustainable swaps. Stay tuned! The first thing we want you to remember is that we’re not expecting everyone to be perfect at this! There’s a saying that goes a little like “we want millions of people to do something imperfectly, rather than just one single person doing it perfectly.” It’s incredibly difficult to avoid plastic completely because it’s so ingrained in the way we live and shop, but with small steps we can make a big impact. Why Should We Go Plastic-free? It can’t be that bad right? But it is - plastic has revolutionised every industry from beauty, electric, food and so on by providing a cheap material that would last infinitely. This element of plastic however is now its own downfall and has now spurred on a sense of convenience with single use plastic products. To put it into context, every piece of plastic ever made still exists in one way or another, and by 2025 more than 600 million tons of plastic will have been produced on the globe. What about recycling? Well, the mechanics of recycling isn’t quite right yet, as in reality only 9% of plastic in the world is recycled, the rest of it is dumped in a controlled manner (40%), burnt in a controlled manner (14%) or ends up in our environment somehow (32%). If we continue to use and produce plastic at the same rate that we do now, there will be more plastic in the ocean tonne for tonne than fish by 2050. Microbeads vs Microplastics In Cosmetics Remember that we mentioned 32% of plastic ends up in our environment? Well, it takes plastic around 450 years to degrade, and in that time, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles we call microplastics. In the beauty industry, some brands would purposely add tiny plastic particles to products intentionally for example, scrubs for an exfoliating effect. In 2018, several countries, including the UK, banned the use of these microbeads. However, almost all major beauty brands still add synthetic liquid microplastic ingredients into the formulas (often as cheap filler ingredients). Through our sinks, showers and baths these microplastics flow through our water systems and, yep you guessed it, part of our rivers and oceans. Queue the term - The Plastic Soup. Our Solution to Reducing Plastic Waste in the Beauty Industry We’ve covered the topic of microplastics already, and we are proud to say that all our product formulations are (and always will be!) microplastic free. What’s on the inside counts of course, but we took sustainability that extra step further by using packaging that we can reuse. Once you’ve finished with your favourite cleanser or face mask for example, just pop that in the post to us free of charge and we will wash the packaging and reuse it time and time again. We’ve now saved over 4 million single use bottles from going to landfill now! “I wanted to make choosing a truly sustainable product, whether it’s your face cream, your body wash, or your shampoo, as simple of a choice as possible. The beauty industry is renowned for being wasteful and I want Beauty Kitchen to be able to change this and lead by example. Plastic Free July for me is about making small changes that collectively make a huge difference to plastic waste, and that definitely includes your beauty routine.” - Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen. Small Changes Make Big Impact We’re working on making sustainable beauty products accessible to you, which is a great starting point. Our first tip is to take note of what you already have before buying anything new, so you’re not wasting anything that’s unused from the very beginning. Ran out of your super nourishing moisturiser, or need to replace your accessories? Then fair enough, take a look at our plastic-free skincare collection! There are also so many other small changes that you can make to go plastic free in and out of the home, these are some of our favourites from the Beauty Kitchen team: Join us on our social platforms for a whole month dedicated to our Plastic Free July Challenge where we’ll be discussing simple swaps, sharing yours and including some great giveaways to kick start your Effective, Natural & Sustainable routines!

We are proud to announce our official sponsorship with our friends at City to Sea for World Refill Day! The 16th of June marks a day to globally campaign to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste. As we always say, small changes make big impact and that includes your beauty routine.

Every March, B Lab and the global B Corp Community join together to celebrate what it means to be a B Corp and build awareness about the movement of people using business as a force for good. There are now over 600 B Corp certified business in the UK, all using their business as a force for good. We are SO excited to announce that we are not only the highest rated B Corp in the UK industry, but also the 5th highest scoring B Corp in the UK altogether! After becoming the first high street beauty business in the UK to become a certified B Corporation in 2017, we have now grown our score from 89.3 to 139.8 thanks to how we prioritise balancing purpose with profit. This includes our efforts in creating a sustainable future, and the progress we have made with our Return•Refill•Repeat programme and refill stations. By becoming B Corp certified, we are legally required to consider the impact of our decisions on our workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. The initiatives that have made a difference to our score include: No synthetic ingredients No microplastics (as certified by Plastic Soup Foundation) No animal testing (Leaping Bunny approved) Only using sustainably sourced natural ingredients ‘Beauty that Gives Back’ – for every sale, Beauty Kitchen donates 2% of sales revenue (instead of profit) to sustainable charity partners (e.g. Plastic Soup Foundation, The Seahorse Trust, In Kind Direct) Home-grown focus: products are manufactured in the UK, travel less and have a reduced carbon footprint, and help build a sustainable ecosystem by creating jobs in local communities A pioneering ‘Return, Refill, Repeat’ programme that enables customers to return any packaging that has the ‘Return•Refill•Repeat logo  “This is a big moment for us and the result of our team’s dedication to purposeful and sustainable business throughout the past four years, particularly during 2020. The important thing is that we keep focusing on how we can improve and continue to grow a sustainable community.” - Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen So, if you’ve been following us as a Beauty Kitchen customer you’ll know exactly what this recertification means to us and we hope we’ve been able to brighten up you week with our positive news! To find out more, head to the rankings methodology for B Corp here. What else is happening for B Corp month? We are so excited to be featured in Good News! Opening today, Good News is a pop up in the heart of central London, showcasing what is #BehindtheB and driving awareness on how to buy better. We’re delighted to be featured amongst other brands that, like us, have positive impact and continuous improvement at their core. If you’re in London, head down to 10A Rathbone Place, W1T 1HP to check it out for yourself. Good News is open until 31st March, Monday to Saturday between 10am and 6pm.

Leftovers? We love them. So, the big day is nearly here! You’ve got everything sorted, Christmas dinner is prepped, the gifts are under the tree…now you can really relax. Go on, brew a tea, have a sit down and chill out properly because we’ve pulled together all the last-minute tips you’ll ever need to be more sustainable this Christmas day, so you don’t have to have to worry about it. Christmas Lights The UK throws away around 500 tonnes of Christmas lights each year…try and repair them before disposing, but we love using fairy lights all year round to be honest to create a cosy atmosphere. Hanging them round your living room or bedroom windows, or even pop them in some empty glass bottles for rustic looking DIY home accessories. Festive Leftovers Christmas dinner is arguably THE highlight the day, right? We spend the entirety of December deciding what the main meal will be, what we’re having for dessert, telling somewhat funny but heart-warming cracker jokes round the table to the family…and often piling our plates way too high. It’s easily done, and yeah per household there will be a few veggies here and there to pop in the compost bin but including everyone into that scenario soon adds up. In the UK, each Christmas, we collectively end up throwing 11.3 million potatoes, 7.1million pigs in blankets, 740K Christmas puds, 263K turkey’s and enough gravy to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. So we challenge you to think twice before throwing away those perfect leftovers! We challenged our own team to come up with their top tips on how they spice up their leftovers, and these are the results: Brussel Sprout Bubble & Squeak - packed full of essential vitamins! Chop them up with some onions, mix into some leftover mash potato & fry off in little patty sized cakes for a tasty side dish Roasted Veggies Soup - roasted or boiled, however your leftover veg comes, whizz them up with some vegetable stock and voila…a delicious, rich soup OR fry them off in some spices for warming pasta or curry dish Salted Maple Nutty Breakfast Toppers – sprinkle leftover nuts and dry fruit onto a baking sheet, slather on some maple syrup and a dash of sea salt…and bake in the oven! Add a teeny bit of chilli flakes for a more savoury snack with a kick Double Roasted Tatties - add chopped onions, a pinch of thyme and a drizzle of olive oil and crisp up in the oven. Just like double fried chips, but better Christmas Pudding - the good news is that Christmas pud is great for freezing crumbling it up into some fresh custard/vegan almond custard ready to be frozen into ice cream DIY Wax Wrap So you need to store your leftovers! We pulled together an easy tutorial of how to create your own zero waste wrap which the whole family can get involved in. The best thing, is that you can reuse the wrap time & time again. Find out how to create here.   Excess Wrapping If you’re lucky enough to receive any of our Beauty Kitchen gifts for Christmas, then you may have received our Reusable Cotton Gift Bag or Tin with your treats! We created these with reuse in mind so you could use them again & again. It would be our dream, but obviously not all your gifts will be from Beauty Kitchen (imagine though!). So what do you do with all the leftover wrapping paper? Get creative! Creating some decorative bunting or streamers, either for now or to pack away to decorate with next Christmas, is something everyone can join in with. Here’s our favourite DIY tutorials. https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/ideas/gifting/12-ways-to-use-leftover-wrapping-paper Some other quick ideas include, creating origami figures, wrapping plain notebooks to personalise them, shredding it into confetti or parcel filler! Recycling tip: the ‘Scrunch Test’ will give you a hint to whether your wrapping paper can go in your general recycling bin. If you scrunch the paper into a ball and it stays, odds are it can be recycled if the plastic tape is removed, whereas if it springs back then it can't be. Trees for Life The star of the show! If your preference for Christmas trees is of the artificial variety, great, you can pop it away for next year…and the year after that, and so on. Reuse at its finest. Yes, getting out the ladders and shifting around the loft requires effort to store them away, don’t let us discount that, but with real Christmas trees - it generally requires the effort to leave the house. If you’re tree can’t be replanted, try to visit your local waste centre as most have arranged drop-off points for real trees, where they can be shredded and reused as wood chippings in parks for example. Re-Gifting Received a present that you are completely grateful for, but it’s just not your taste? Re-gift it! Pass the present on to someone you know will get more use out of it than you rather than demote it to the back of your cupboards. Gifting to charity is also a lovely option to consider too, there are plenty of places to donate your gifts - even by the checkouts at your local supermarket.

At Home With Beauty Kitchen…How to Make Your Own Sustainable Food Wrap! We’re getting crafty in our kitchens with all this time spent in the house! All of us in the Beauty Kitchen team were thinking of ways to get involved in a few DIY activities whilst still staying sustainable. Our top suggestion was how to create our own sustainable beeswax wrap, which is a great alternative to using clingfilm to preserve food. Just follow these 4 easy steps!Top tip - simply substitute beeswax for soy wax for a vegan alternative. What You’ll Need 100% sustainable cotton fabric (or some old fabric you can repurpose) 100g pure beeswax 10g jojoba oil (for its antibacterial qualities) 70g pine resin Brush with fine bristles Saucepan & bowl Pinking shears or scissors Baking paper Oven set to lowest temperature Method 1. Melt the beeswax, jojoba oil and pine resin into a bowl over a pan on a low heat, stirring every now and again 2. Place the fabric onto a sheet of baking paper and brush your sheet of cotton with the melted mixture. Place another sheet of baking paper on top and bake in the oven for 1 minute to ensure the beeswax mix melts into the fabric evenly. 3. Take the fabric out of the oven and hang to air dry for 5 minutes. 4. Cut the fabric into whatever shape and size you think best using pinking shears to stop fraying (but scissors are fine if you don’t have any to hand!). We’ve gone for 20cm squares which will generally cover your sandwiches! There you have it…your own sustainable preserving beeswax wrap! You’ll have no need to reach for the plastic cling film once these colourful creations enter your household. Why We Love Beeswax 100% of our Beauty Kitchen products are cruelty free and the majority are Vegan Society registered, but a small number of our products contain sustainably sourced beeswax (a waste byproduct of the honey industry). For example, our Natruline lip balm which we do have a vegan alternative for! Our Founder Jo Chidley has a lifetime passion for botany & nature and has been beekeeping since 2008! “I primarily took up beekeeping to make a difference to the plight of bees, but as a herbal botanist I it also made sense to help the local flora and fauna. It’s amazing to watch the colony on its annual journey, growing from 10,000 bees in the winter to 100,000 at the height of summer!” We always want to be transparent with you on our products which is why we use the Vegan Society Registered logo on our vegan products and list every ingredient on our packagaing & website. We hope you enjoy creating your beeswax wraps!

We are proud to joining Business Declares, the fast-growing network of businesses who acknowledge the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Our mission is to create the most effective, natural and sustainable beauty products in the world and we are excited to add our voice to Business Declares and their collective and resounding call for change and an urgent acceleration of climate action. Business Declares works to raise awareness across the business sector of the imperative to accelerate action to address climate change, biodiversity loss and social injustice.

So Plastic Free July is in full force and we want to celebrate all the amazing sustainable steps and swaps you are all taking to join our #ReuseRevolution Living a plastic free life isn’t just for July though, so we challenge you to keep this up to save the planet from the estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste that's destined for our environment by 2040! We’ve rounded up our favourite household plastic free swaps. Remember, small changes make a BIG impact. Just ask @ambertheevegan who shouted about her plastic free swaps too last year! Tea bags Tea is the second most consumed drink in the world, after water and while most tea is consumed in leaf form globally, 96% of us in the UK are used to tea bags. However, non-biodegradable plastic can account for roughly 25% of the bags! Composting tea bags is great, but if these single use, plastic filled bags are being collected as organic waste, a large amount of polypropylene could be released into the environment. The solution…there are some great plastic free tea bags out there already from the likes of our B Corp friends at Brew Tea and Pukka Herbs. Or simply use and reuse tea leaves! Facewipes Face wipes are the queen of convenience, right? However, the UK alone goes through 11 billion wipes in just one year, causing 93% of blockages in UK sewers. There has been a 400% increase in the number of wipes found on beaches in the UK too! Biodegradable or not, they are still single use. The solution…a Konjac Sponge paired with your favourite cleanser! This little tool is 100% compostable (from the sponge, to the packaging it arrives in) & lasts a good 2-3 months compared to a single wipe which could take up to 100 years to breakdown… Cleaning Products An average UK household goes through roughly 40-60 single use plastic cleaning bottles in a year. These products often hide up to 300 different chemicals. In fact, indoor air can be up to 4 times more polluted than street air because of these toxic chemicals... The solution…switch to multipurpose natural cleaning products such as bicarbonate of soda mixed with vinegar (great for stubborn grime & to deodorise fabric). Or look to refillable cleaning products (like We Are Spruce) that are free of toxic chemicals & single use plastic. Nappies Babies are cute...nappies, not so much. We go through 3 billion single use nappies in the UK a year, the vast majority of them not being recyclable and containing elements of plastic. That's not going into detail about their huge water footprint and chemical contents too. The solution…reusable nappies! We know what you're thinking...gross, expensive, not convenient right? Reusable nappies are incredibly hygienic, breathable, gentle, and the 'cost per wear' goes down each time you use one. Take it from our Founder Jo who loves using these on her little one!  Look out for fellow B Corp gDiapers who make some colourful options. Plastic Wrap One way to go plastic free in the kitchen is to stop using cling film. 1.2 billion metres of the stuff is used in the UK in a single year...shockingly, that's enough to wrap around the earth 30 times over. We are literally drowning our planet in plastic! The solution…look to reusable options such as containers you already own or keeping food fresh with Beeswax Wrap (or Soy Wax if you’d like a vegan alternative). Check out our DIY blog on how to make your own! Hand Sanitiser It’s estimated that 1 billion hand sanitiser gel bottles will be used in the UK this year alone (understandably of course), but most filled to the brim with microplastics. Each year, 8 million tons of plastics enter our oceans...most of it less than 5 millimeters in size. Over 500 microplastic ingredients are still being used in the cosmetic industry today. The solution…a refillable hand sanitiser! Our refillable Organic Vegan Hand Sanitiser spray is 100% microplastic free and a part of our Return · Refill · Repeat programme - meaning you can choose to stay hygienic AND sustainable at the same time while on-the-go. Your Plastic Free July We’ve had so many of you submit your own sustainable swaps to us this month for our #ReuseRevolution challenge. Here are some of our top picks! @gnome.at.five - Creating and reusing effective face masks from spare fabric @coolcatzz – Swapping cotton pads for hand knitted reusable face cloths! @jojoscoble – Using mouldable glue to fix and reuse items (or mod our hand san into a key chain!) @vegan.lb – Reusable food containers, reusable bag & reusable hand sanitiser @panningwithlou – Switching from face wipes for reusable pads, cloths & konjac sponges @s.e.l.89_2 – Showcasing some on-the-go sustainable essentials @vegan.tally – Turning this smoothie into a sustainable one with a reusable straw @bear.and.dot – Fixing some spare corks with sustainable glue to make biodegradable soap dishes! So many amazing ideas and a huge thank you for getting involved! For more info on Plastic Pollution, we highly recommend reading our ‘The Truth About Plastic’ blog. Feel free to keep tagging us in your sustainable swaps!

The stats surrounding plastics in the beauty industry are not pretty, but we must educate ourselves and change our ways to begin opting for alternatives that we can choose over single use plastics.As our Founder Jo says, we ultimately need to "become a part of the solution to plastic pollution!" What’s So Bad About Plastic? Plastic revolutionised every industry from beauty, electric, food and so on by providing a cheap material that would last infinitely. That radical element of plastic however is now its own downfall! To put it into context, every piece of plastic ever made still exists. Recycling is a great solution, yet the infrastructure isn’t quite right to fully dispose of plastics properly. It’s a system governed by market demand, price determinations and local regulations. More than 600 million tons of plastic will be produced on Earth by 2025 (that’s only 4 years away!) and recycling systems are unable to collect that amount. In reality, only 9% of plastic is recycled globally, 40% is dumped in a controlled manner, 14% is burnt in a controlled manner and 32% ends up in the environment. It’s What’s Inside that Counts TooAlmost all major beauty brands still add microscopic plastic particles or even liquid plastics to their cosmetic products - often used as cheap fillers. It's estimated that the cosmetics industry uses 8,700 tonnes of microplastics in a year through formulations. Through our showers, baths and sinks, microplastics in our everyday products (laundry detergent, skincare and so much more) flow into sewage systems, slip through the filters in water treatment plants and reach our rivers and oceans. Once there, they become a part of the plastic soup. The plastic breaks down further and further. Marine animals mistake these microplastics for food. These particles end up on our plates because we are part of the food chain…it’s a vicious cycle. If we continue to use and produce plastic at the same rate that we do now, there will be more plastic in the ocean tonne for tonne than fish by 2050. On land, the soil on which crops grow is 4 to 23 times more polluted with microplastics than the ocean… So, What's the Answer? It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom; we just need to alter our approach with packaging and ingredients and put more emphasis on the Reduce and Reuse part of the equation! It’s why we created our Return•Refill•Repeat programme, where we wash and reuse our packaging and in turn, create less packaging waste. We also campaign with Plastic Soup Foundation to discourage the use of microplastic ingredients within the industry. Our products are of course 100% microplastic free and Zero Plastic Inside certified! Education is Key! It’s not always easy to work out whether your products contain microplastics. Some products that appear to be ‘clean’ do not contain sustainable ingredients. There’s now a free to download app ‘Beat the Microbead’ by the Plastic Soup Foundation that can do all the hard work for you. See more in our last blog here but essentially, this digital tool uses machine learning software to detect more than 500 different microplastics from a products ingredient list. You can also support sustainable businesses by looking out for the ‘Zero Plastic Inside’ logo to see which products are 100% microplastic free (like ours!). “When it comes to plastic free and sustainable beauty, we need to think about the product in its entirety. This means that the environmental impact of a products ingredients as well as its packaging must be considered. It’s not enough to stick a ‘recyclable’ logo onto a product but not consider the thousands of microplastics inside that are just as damaging to the environment.” - Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen. It's time to start a new plastic free #ReuseRevolution - we would love to hear about the steps you are taking towards a more sustainable lifestyle!

Here at Beauty Kitchen we believe in doing all we can for both people and our planet, it's part of what makes us a B Corp certified business. We already give 2% of sales (not profits!) to charities close to our heart such as Plastic Soup Foundation, The Seahorse Trust and In Kind Direct to name a few but we wanted to take this one step further and get you involved too. Planting Trees with Earthly We have partnered with Earthly, another B Corp certified business, on their reforestation project located in Madagascar. This specific project focusses on combatting the impact that deforestation has had on Madagascar’s mangroves whilst lifting local communities out of permanent poverty by creating work.   Madagascar has experienced deforestation on a massive scale and over 75% of the world’s species found there are not found in anywhere else in the world, making it even more important to replace the mangroves and protect what is left. We’re incredibly excited to be a part of this project which has been running since 2007. So far to date, it has already: Planted over 334 million trees Created 3.3 million days of work for local communities From a planet point of view, mangroves are hugely important for the climate crisis because estimates suggest that they are 4 times more powerful at capturing and storing carbon than mature tropical forests. How can you become a part of the project? We’ve made it incredibly easy for you to contribute! For every Beauty Kitchen order over £10, we will plant a mangrove tree in Madagascar on your behalf.   Providing Hygiene Across the Globe with Eco-Soap Bank Another great organisation we have partnered with is Eco-Soap Bank, a non-profit organisation working to provide sufficient hygiene to remote regions of developing nations. Lack of access to soap remains a critical factor in fighting the spread of preventable diseases worldwide. In some areas of the developing world, only 1% of households have soap for handwashing. So Eco-Soap Bank take and recycle waste soap (think of all the partially used soap bars in hotels around the world), sanitise, remould and distribute them where it is needed most in the developing world.   Another strong mission is to provide education on the importance of handwashing. Soap and water has been shown to reduce the presence of harmful bacteria by 92%, a simple technique that is often overlooked. Since 2014, Eco-Soap Bank has achieved the following: Donated over 9 million soaps to schools, health clinics & village communities Supplying soap and handwashing training to over 3.5 million individuals Worked with over 1220 hotel partners Created 16 recycling hubs in 10 developing countries Employing 154 disadvantaged women in the process  How can I become involved? We have committed to donate the equivalent cost of 1 soap bar to Eco-Soap Bank with every order you place over £10! We are excited to see how we can help the team to continue to expand the programme and reach more and more of the developing world. We are on a mission to create the most effective, natural, and sustainable beauty products in the world. This means giving back in any way we can for both People and Planet, and we can’t wait for you to be a part of our new journey with Earthly and Eco-Soap Bank.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. 2020 for me has been a year of realisation, transformation, vulnerability, and acceptance across a multitude of topics. Especially social impact and equity, and even more specifically in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement and the unfortunate passing of George Floyd, and many others. This has been a year to refresh and reflect and change permanently for the better. A year ago, I released an open letter to you all with the main aim of highlighting systematic racism and getting us all to open our eyes to the subject and to start a conversation. At Beauty Kitchen, we have always been active in supporting a diverse culture and a range of causes through our B Corp status, with charitable donations and pro-bono work since 2014, but we rarely talked about them. Until now. “We cannot credibly build an inclusive economic system without addressing the fundamental injustice, inequity, and violence that disproportionately affects Black people and other People of Color. It is our duty as a business community, and B Corps as leaders, to be accountable to tackle racism.” – Anthea Kelsick, B Corp. Reflecting on the previous year has opened my eyes to what more Beauty Kitchen can do with our voice. I understand that we have a continuous commitment to use business as a force for good, protecting the environment and the community for the sake of people and planet. It is important for us to work to a sustainable future to positively impact the environment, people, and our health collectively. Our mission is to eliminate single use plastic from our society before it eliminates us. But none of our efforts matter if we are not inclusive in our journey. The state of the planet is one that affects everyone and everything. In June, we, alongside B Lab UK and the B Corp community, rallied to support the racial justice movement. More than 100 B Corps met virtually for the first of these uncomfortable but much needed conversations. We recognised that most of the B Corp community sit in a structurally privileged position – but as a progressive movement for economic change, we listened (and are still listening) to the range of voices from our community to learn and make progress. We still aren’t experts in the subject, but we want to use our voice to amplify a zero-tolerance approach to racism and encourage positive social impact through every industry. Over the past year, the entire Beauty Kitchen team have been listening, learning, and of course acting. Not just in the workplace as we continue to grow, but also in our personal lives. We have been and will always: Look internally at our own business and culture Donate to charities that need our support the most Review & audit the ethics of who we buy from and sell Review & audit the ethics of the people and businesses we work with Our next steps: When looking internally at our own business and culture, we have and will further commit to following B Corp Diversity & Inclusion principles in the workplace - even more so as we continue to grow our small team. We currently donate 2% of all sales (not profits) to charities that support a broad range of missions including within community groups, childcare, family welfare, disability, health/medical, homelessness, elderly and of course sustainability and environmental. Moving forward, we are committing to dedicating at least 10% of our donations to charities that specifically support justice, equity, diversity & inclusion*. When reviewing and auditing the ethics of who we buy from and sell, we are measuring the social impact of our business right down to our supply chain, where we have introduced a supplier code of conduct duty to trade responsibly. We will continue to review and audit the ethics of the people and businesses we work with to ensure that they share the same values that we implement. In my eyes discrimination and social justice are not compatible. Social fairness and it’s impact is a principle I put above all else on our mission and vision with Beauty Kitchen. Fairness has many different facets, however. To begin this journey of a more inclusive way of thinking, it’s important to establish the difference between Equality and Equity within a society. Equality is when the exact same amount of resource or opportunity is given to someone. Equity on the other hand, is about recognising the circumstance that someone is in and allocating resources and opportunities to ensure that someone can still reach an equal outcome. Social Impact in relation to Beauty Kitchen to me is designing production processes and operations that have a positive impact on all people and natural systems, that are influenced by the creation, use, dismissal, and reuse of our product. It is about making a positive difference in the lives of employees and local communities. I believe that we have a responsibility to create space for conversations that can lead to meaningful collective action – not as experts in anti-racism, but as advocates for a regenerative and inclusive future. At Beauty Kitchen, we are always listening, learning and will continue to act. The earlier we all open our eyes, the earlier we can accept our flaws and the earlier we can transform our way of thinking. We all have a voice, and it is always the right time to use it. We encourage you to listen, learn and act to encourage a positive world for us all and to eliminate racism as a part of this journey. Small changes make a BIG IMPACT. Thank you, Jo x *So Far Beauty Kitchen Donations Have Benefited the following charities to support diversity and inclusion: Uganda – directly supporting 3 community projects Bradford District Community Empowerment Network Muslim Council of Britain Charitable Foundation Black Arts Alliance Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre Trust Pakistani Resource Centre Action For Refugees In Lewisham Agency for Culture and Change Management Inspired Rise Community Action Bengali Workers Association Iraqi Welfare Association Central Africa's Rights & AIDS (CARA) Society

Our Founder, Jo talks about the difference between organic & sustainable beauty and how the beauty industry is changing. Over the last decade, I’ve noticed a huge shift in the beauty industry and I guess, all industries if I really think about it. Most of us will have seen the word ‘organic’ on everything from shampoo bottles to a bag of carrots and it’s something that’s often associated with natural products and high quality. On the other side, the common perception is that anything organic is going to be expensive and out of reach - some people just feel they can’t afford to switch to organic. The Sustainables range. From an ingredient perspective, sustainability is about efficient use of resources, however it's also about being carbon positive or carbon neutral which means that when you are creating or growing an ingredient or product, it will have a positive carbon impact, rather than a negative carbon impact on the planet. For me, sustainability is where the natural and scientific worlds come together. Plant advanced technologies have developed a process to "milk" plants in order to obtain extracts without damaging the plants themselves, which means you can harvest them several times and also in a small amount of space (it happens in a greenhouse where you can have shelves of plants). Technically, this can’t be classed as organic, but it is the most sustainable way. Seahorse Plankton+ range is grown in a photobioreactor (or a big greenhouse to you and me), why? Because we don’t want to take these ingredients from the endangered seahorse population. Instead, we grow our microalgae in big algae baths. This is a carbon positive ingredient as when algae is made, it absorbs sunlight and co2, releasing oxygen. This chemical process releases energy, which we sell back to the electricity grid. Our microalgae can never be classed as an organic ingredient due to the way its grown – however it is the most sustainable way to make these ingredients. Sustainability doesn’t just start and end with ingredients: It means looking at every single element of that product’s journey, from the very first resource to someone’s bathroom cabinet - that’s the difference between between organic and sustainable. Return•Refill•Repeat programme where customers can return their packaging back to us and we wash and reuse for the next batch. Luckily, in the last few years, people are starting to think more about reusing things - my poor coffee cup is battered and bruised I’ve had it for so long, but nowadays, I don’t get the weird looks I used to - it’s becoming the norm now, which I love!