Is wiping out a local economy in order to lighten one’s carbon footprint really all that sustainable?
Kypris’s [founder Chase] Polan had to weigh this question recently when creating the brand’s first products with a shimmery finish.
“I was really tempted to go the route of sourcing synthetic mica, because you can, for the most part, sidestep a lot of the human rights abuses that come along with mining mica,” Polan says. “But when I started researching that particular ingredient, it was really clear that the people who are mining the mica, especially in eastern India, rely on the income of that material and I don’t want to vote for destabilization and poverty for people.” In the end, Polan chose to skip the synthetic mineral and use mica from the US or a UN Global Compact signatory with a Human Rights Charter to eliminate child labor, offer fair pay, and ensure safe working conditions.
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Therein lies the nuance often missing in beauty’s sustainability conversation. The best choice for ecologically and socially sustainable ingredients must be made on a case-by-case basis. While using lab-based ingredients can rule out the kinds of human rights issues that come with harvesting some raw materials, “it’s a little too reductive to just think, ‘because it’s biotech it’s going to be more sustainable,’” says Polan.
