Curated Collection: Clean Beauty 2023

As the 'conscious beauty' movement continues to gain ground, the Clean Beauty trade show made its much-anticipated return following the success of its inaugural edition in 2022. The B2B event offers a high-calibre networking opportunity for the beauty community, connecting brands, suppliers, and experts, to "co-create the clean beauty trends of tomorrow."

Held at The Brewery, a historic London venue, the two-day event hosted 25 exhibitors, showcasing a range of forward-thinking innovations across skincare, body care, haircare, toiletries, and makeup – from ingredients and formulations, to private labelling and packaging. The newly launched InnoZone showcase area previewed 20 of the best innovations, putting the spotlight on 'Green Chemistry', 'Eco Conception', and 'Natural and Renewable Materials'.

The show’s conference programme featured an impressive lineup of 26 industry leaders, demystifying key concepts within the 'clean' movement, and exploring trends and solutions. A jam-packed session, entitled 'Creating a Regenerative Beauty Future', featured the managing directors of Haeckels, Charlie Vickery, and Dr. Bronner’s UK, Cliff Moss. Emphasising the value of "collaboration over competition", the lively conversation explored the approaches that both brands have taken to build a regenerative and ethical supply chain, from Haeckels' hyper-local harvests and lab-grown ingredients, to Dr. Bronner’s international network of smallholder farmers and co-ops. Moss aptly summed up the essence of the movement, declaring that "regenerative farming is about healing the earth".

It must be noted, however, that the concept of 'clean' beauty remains ambiguous, with no regulation to ensure brands are excluding key ingredients or meeting a minimum threshold of others, leaving the term, and its cousins - organic, natural and green - open to interpretation and misuse. Key events such as Clean Beauty are attempting to streamline the sector, but considering the large number of plastic-packaged products on offer, we think there's some way to go until this growing beauty cohort is free from greenwashing. 

Despite this, trends like waterless formulations, single-dose systems, and rechargeable products shone a light on what the future of beauty could look like. While it might be business-as-usual for some, find out how five forward-thinking creations are disrupting the world of beauty.