Community-First Beauty Initiatives
Published 08 March 2023
As we highlight in Gen Z Big on Beauty: Conscious Commerciality, consumers are increasingly driven by community-minded values, from sustainability to inclusivity. We highlight the latest initiatives positioning community-first principles and honest engagement at the forefront.
- Sustainable Futures: British fashion designer Stella McCartney’s skincare brand Stella recently announced a collaboration with five global pioneers known for their advocacy and innovation in the fields of environmental and social activism and philanthropy. Among them are Mexican youth activist Xiye Bastida, co-founder of the Re-Earth Initiative; British “ecological home-grower” Poppy Okatcha, who focuses on reconnecting with the land through foraging and farming; and Jane Goodall, who runs a community-led conservation programme in 25 countries.
The move aims to foster a collective of like-minded changemakers, leveraging Stella’s global platform to amplify their voices and inspire conversation and action around environmental issues. “It’s about informing people that don’t know about the work that we’re all individually doing, and bringing to the forefront this idea that caring about beauty and beautiful things means you can also care about the planet,” McCartney told Vogue.
- Inclusivity Outlook: Elsewhere, community is at the core of new French-American label Convié, a co-creation start-up giving the power to its group of beauty connoisseurs to help define future product launches in skincare and make-up. Members will receive samples to test and provide feedback, as well as join trade events to encourage relationships offline.
By rethinking the traditional business model, Convié is ensuring that only the most-needed beauty products are brought to market, and creating more authentic and mutually beneficial relationships in the sector. “We want to work with talented and like-minded micro-influencers who wouldn’t have the opportunities or volumes to pursue this kind of endeavour themselves,” Convié told Stylus.
Likewise, new UK brand Calling is built upon conversations with real women to inform the development of inclusive, clean skincare. It strives to create responsive products that add meaningfulness to beauty routines, actively shaping the industry to make it more equitable, inclusive and clean. Its first product is due to launch in early 2023, with campaign imagery inspired by the resilience, vulnerability and power of its community.
- Digital Worlds: Meanwhile, Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido has announced the launch of its non-fungible-token-based (NFT) community program #AliveWithBeauty. It has been co-created with five female tech pioneers to capture the essence of Shiseido via 150 NFTs using artificial intelligence (AI). Five tokens will be owned by the contributing industry entrepreneurs, with the remaining 145 available via a sweepstake. Once claimed, the NFTs will initially unlock a series of exclusive rewards, including up to £1,000 ($1,200) worth of skincare samples across the year, online and offline event tickets, and exclusive content access.
“Blockchain and AI creative solutions are opening up new ways to enrich and expand the dialogue with our community, and we intend to keep exploring communication and services in that area, faithful to our group’s mission of bringing beauty innovations for a better world,” said Romain Carrega, Shiseido EMEA’s prestige director.
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