A newcomer’s perspective on the biology of beauty and going clean without compromise An interview with Caroline Hadfield, president of Biossance We recently connected with Caroline Hadfield, president of Biossance, at a pop-up event at Heyday skincare salon in SoHo, NYC. We asked her about being a newcomer in the ever-changing beauty market and how her company Biossance is making the most of beauty trends.
Congrats on the promotion to president! How has your new role been over the past couple of months? It’s changed a bit because [Biossance] is in a rapid growth mode. We are bringing more people into the executive team, really allowing me to concentrate on where we are going with clean. Clean isn’t a trend anymore, it’s actually the new normal.
What initially drew you to join the Biossance team? When I joined Amyris I was managing the B2B business, we had started an experiment of making squalane and were looking to see if we could cause more disruption [with] their technology and sustainability as a company, by building out a direct to consumer range. So in 2016, we did a lot of experimentation and worked on building the equity of a brand that was clean, with no compromise. And we built up our unique position with the blacklist.
That’s right, Biossance has a long black list… much longer than anyone else’s. Yes... and brands who we like to work with — like Beautycounter and Drunk Elephant — have all recognized the issues [with] the 1,500 ingredients banned in Europe, but in the US, it’s only 11.
You have helped work to expand the business into Brazil and Canada this year. How has that been? Any major differences from launching in the US? Interestingly, in Brazil in 2016 they had just shifted their focus to banning 1,100 ingredients — so by us going to Brazil we were really fulfilling, not a trend, but a want from consumers of clean, efficacious and clinically proven skincare.
And with the consumers, any differences there? Particularly in Brazil their skin need are slightly different. With the humidity and the heat, they shower two or three times a day. So, they were a bit skeptical of how people would respond to facial oils. But our vitamin C facial oil and our eye gel are the number one products there. The other thing they love, because of the humidity, is the squalane mist. So, I think that’s going to be enormous for us.
Right now, you are using your relationship with Sephora to expand into new markets and retailers like JCPenney. You also have a strong e-commerce presence with your website and on Amazon — what next? Back in May we had a Biossance “Clean Beauty Bus” and we brought it to New York and Toronto. Then we took it to Dallas to the HQ of JCPenney, because we really felt we needed to immerse them in clean beauty, and give them an understanding of the blacklist, and the transparency of our formulations.
Lauren Strickland
