Green Dream

Katoa Botanicals is setting the bar higher for sustainability in beauty.

For the last three months I’ve been road testing some products from a new sustainable brand called Katoa Botanicals and also doing one or two bits of work for them. I am utterly convinced their meticulous eco credentials are the way forward for new beauty brands - and I am not just saying this because I have worked with them.

I have seen a lot of supposedly ‘environmentally friendly’ beauty products in my time, but objectively speaking, founder Penny Ryan has thought of everything. Firstly, plastic pollution, one of the main bugbears with any beauty product: Katoa Botanicals Vivomer cosmetic tubs are plastic free and 100% biodegradable and compostable. Secondly the carbon footprint of this brand is low as it is all manufactured in the UK. The formulations are bio ferments which means plant extracts are intensified in the lab ( a bit like Joanna Ellener’s REOME brand) rather than harvested from the soil - depleting the earth.

The brand only launched about ten days ago but after years of work they’re already B Corp pending - the gold standard in sustainability accreditation ( I wrote a piece about B Corp for Glamour a few years ago - you can google it). And have also committed to 1% For The Planet - whereby 1% of annual sales are donated to environmental causes. They are signed up to Ecologi - whose mission it is to inspire businesses to accelerate global climate action and a member of Cruelty Free International, obviously no animals harmed.

So, very impressive eco credentials and, cut to the chase , the products really work. They’ve launched with just two heroes - the Cleansing Enzyme Butter and the Luminess Hydra Creme and as a confirmed perimenopausal skinimalist myself, I reckon that’s all you need to care for your skin. These products are gentle and powerful, the silkiest textures, nice natural fragrances and ideal for dry, sensitive, hormonal and ageing skin. My skin was transformed by these plant bio ferments and left glowing. I’m a big believer we should be trying to do in beauty what various people (notably designer Patrick Grant and journalist Tiffanie Darke) are advocating in fashion - limiting what we buy to just a couple of essentials per annum and unless it has an adverse effect , finishing it to the very last drop.

A bit about the founder - Penny Ryan is of Maori descent (hence the Katoa name) and has worked internationally as a make up artist for 28 years. As everyone in the beauty industry knows - make up artists know their skincare! Often having to resurrect and care for models’ and celebrities’ skin after its been ravaged by many other products, late nights, alcohol and other toxins. Make up artists tend to have superior knowledge about what works on skin as well as being talented artists of the cosmetic.

What’s more Penny’s Mum, a qualified naturopath and herbal medicine practitioner, is renowned in New Zealand having set up (in 1998) one of the first organic certified skincare and healthcare brands in the country - ‘Regenerate.’ Penny worked with her Mum on Regenerate for 3 years before starting to formulate Katoa Botanicals - giving her a prodigious knowledge of plants, herbs and all things natural.

I genuinely wish this start up the absolute best of karma to grow and flourish. It has the best of intentions, really works and deserves to be as well known and loved as Estée Lauder or L’Oreal.

Insta @katoabotanicals