Back to Earth was founded on the desire to create honest, natural skincare solutions. Could you share more about what sparked this passion and how you turned it into a full-fledged brand?
In the skincare market, consumers have always been faced with some key challenges in choosing their ideal products: 1. Choosing between highly efficacious products that often use aggressive active chemical ingredients or choosing natural clean formulas 2. Understanding what natural really means in a space where greenwashing (naturally derived, naturally inspired, plant-based, etc.) has become all too common.
Back To Earth Skin was created with one simple ethos in mind, we all are deserving of clean natural skincare that can be trusted to not only deliver healthy, beautiful skin but to do so safely and without compromise. We believe in setting the new standard of natural skincare by using the finest natural ingredients, essential oils and powered by our proprietary Mineral Microbiome Clay Complex®. All our products are 100% natural, PETA Vegan certified, cruelty free certified by Leaping Bunny, Toxin-Free, Gluten Free, Nut-Free, and sustainably packaged utilizing biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials.
We are transparent in all our natural ingredients used, explain their purpose and contribution to provide high efficacy results in simplified terms, and walk the talk as true stewards of the environment by utilizing the most sustainable packaging and practices available.
Your brand emphasizes using pure, plant-based ingredients with minimal processing. Could you walk us through the sourcing and selection process for these raw ingredients, and why they’re central to your product formulations?
Our formulation philosophy is to provide highly efficacious 100% natural formulas without compromise. We are able to achieve this through the use of our proprietary ingredient, Mineral Microbiome Clay® which is rich in 40+ minerals essential to skin health that include potassium, iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium and zinc which are all known to help in the nourishment, replenishment and care of skin. Our proprietary ingredient is sustainably sourced in Northern British Columbia and processed with minimal environmental impact, staying true to our commitment as stewards of the environmental.
Alongside, our products are complemented with the best ingredients, essential oils and herbs. We only use ingredients that are of the highest quality in order to provide the best results for the skin, ie. not all rose water is the same and we choose the one with the highest quality that is sustainably sourced. Furthermore, the ingredients used in our products are EcoCert Certified.
It is the combination of our proprietary ingredient, rigorous selection, and sourcing standards that we can achieve high efficacy while maintaining natural formulations.
Sustainability is at the forefront of your mission, including recyclable and minimal packaging. What guided your decision to prioritize eco-friendly packaging, and how do you balance aesthetics with low-waste principles?
In order to be a natural skincare brand, we have to walk the talk every step of the way. Natural and efficacious formulas is just the first step. The second is the packaging and as stewards of the environment we wanted to ensure that we conscious of our environmental footprint and also set the new standard for packaging in the skincare market:
- Shape of our products: we deliberately used a custom rectangular shape in our packaging to help reduce wasted space and minimize our environmental footprint. The rectangular shape allows us to: 1. Communicate on all four sides of packaging, which permitted us to not use secondary packaging (boxes). 2. Reduce the amount of space we use for shipping and storage. All in all, we are able to reduce our environmental footprint by 25-30% for transportation, wasted materials, and storage.
- Secondary packaging: we do not use boxes as that is the first thing that is thrown out after a product is purchased, all our communication is directly on the product and additional information can be obtained by scanning our QR codes on the packaging for additional information on benefits, how to use, and transparent information on all our ingredients used.
- Materials used: we use the most sustainable materials available for our packaging. All our bottles are made from biodegradable plastics that break down 40x faster than virgin plastic. All our tubes are made from 100% biodegradable sugarcane that breaks down 100X faster than virgin plastic. All our jars are made from glass which is a circular material.
Many people want to make more sustainable choices but aren’t sure where to start. How does Back to Earth help educate or empower consumers to adopt a greener skincare routine?
In a world where there is a lot of information to sort through, we make it very easy for our consumers to learn more about our products. We are transparent in all our ingredients, with a simple scan of our QR code consumers are directed to each products full ingredient list providing its use, how it helps their skin, and why it is in our formulas vs. having to deep dive to just find the ingredient list and then search for every ingredient used. We also clearly share our commitment to the environment in our sustainably practices and choices made in our packaging. We hope that this transparent and honest approach makes it easy for consumers to make their decision on what to use on their skin.
There’s a clear emphasis on giving back and being mindful of our impact on the planet. Could you elaborate on any partnerships, charitable initiatives, or future projects aimed at supporting environmental or community causes?
As stewards of the environment and a brand founded in British Columbia, where in recent years have endured devasting forest fires wiping out enormous masses of forests, Back To Earth Skin has committed ourselves to contributing to the reforestation in both Canada and US. Partnered with One Tree Planted we have committed to planting Back To Earth forests in both British Columbia and Los Angeles.
As you continue to grow, what can we expect from Back to Earth in terms of new product lines, expansions, or additional sustainability measures?
As our brand continues to grow, we also will continue to push the standards for natural skincare in both formulations and packaging. We are always searching for the best ingredients to use to provide the best skincare results and constantly testing new technologies in packaging and manufacturing that are at the forefront of sustainability. In terms of products, there will be incremental launches this fall answering some highly demanded products from our consumers and incremental lines in the future dedicated to sensitive skin, oily skin and anti-aging.
