A newcomer’s perspective on the biology of beauty and going clean without compromise

An interview with Caroline Hadfield, president of Biossance

by Lauren Strickland

We recently connected with Caroline Hadfield, president of Biossance, at a pop-upevent at Heyday skincare salon in SoHo, NYC. We asked her about being a newcomer inthe ever-changing beauty market and how her company Biossance is making the mostof beauty trends.

M: Congrats on the promotion to president! How has your new role been over the past couple of months?

CH: It’s changed a bit because [Biossance] is in a rapid growth mode. We are bringing more people into the executive team, really allowingme to concentrate on where we are going with clean. Clean isn’t a trend anymore, it’s actually the new normal.

M: What initially drew you to join the Biossance team?

CH: 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.

M: That’s right, Biossance has a long black list… much longer than anyone else’s.

CH: Yes... and brands who we like to work with — like Beautycounter and Drunk Elephant — have all recognized the issues [with] the1,500 ingredients banned in Europe, but in the US, it’s only 11.

M: 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?

CH: Interestingly, in Brazil in 2016 they had just shifted their focus to banning 1,100 ingredients — so by us going to Brazil we were reallyfulfilling, not a trend, but a want from consumers of clean, efficacious and clinically proven skincare.

M: And with the consumers, any differences there?

CH: 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 oneproducts 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.

M: 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?

CH: 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 HQof JCPenney, because we really felt we needed to immerse them in clean beauty, and give them an understanding of the blacklist, andthe transparency of our formulations.

M: We don’t see much traditional advertising coming from Biossance like you see from traditional beauty brands. Why do you think businesses like yours are making such a successful impact in the market?

CH:In the beginning as a brand we were quite scrappy because we were an experiment and we didn’t have a marketing budget. So, wespent time working organically with influencers, and people like Katie Deno [the celebrity makeup artist who only works in cleancolor] on education.

But there has been a real shift in the last 18 months of the big brands realizing it’s not about paying millions to do a page in a magazinefor a product launch — it’s about transparency and education. It’s not about airbrushing and making it look so amazing, everyone isindividual. In fact, it’s the transparency aspect of skincare and beauty that has become very strong.

M: Because of education initiatives that you are focusing on, and as more of the population is focusing on what actually goes into beauty products; how do you see the beauty industry changing in the US over the next 5-10 years?

CH: I think there is the want and the need for beauty and skincare that is good for the body and also good for the environment. It’s going to be the new norm. You’re already seeing certain brands who have held their own… Drunk Elephant has done a great job, and they have been going since 2012, and also Gregg Renfrew [CEO of] Beautycounter. They are all making real traction. Companies can’t just change what they say, they have to change the ingredients, because people are reading, and they are now educated.

M: Biossance recently released a sunscreen — not necessarily always considered a beauty product — what was the inspiration for this?

CH: I think it’s personal care. I actually think that the whole category of personal care is where the growth is going to happen. At the end of2019, you’ve got an ingredient called isohexadecane, D5 and D4, that is used in most cleansing products — and it washes off.

The market has all these flash ingredients, cleansers for your face or for shower gel, which are not sticking on your skin and justflashing off into the water. There is a lot of work going into stopping these ingredients for environmental reasons as well asskincare reasons.

M: As more products come out that blur the lines between health and beauty, like the Lumify eye drops, what challenges, if any, does this bring for traditional beauty brands?

CH: To me it’s about how factually right people are being. I can buy an ingredient from an ingredient company — and unless you test it —they might say it’s “X” but it could have other things in it. Like when they banned shark squalene in 2009 there was so much of it thatthey were blending it with olive squalene.

I think it’s all about people really walking the walk and not saying they’re doing it and actually finding ingredients in there that theyshouldn’t have included. And I really don’t like claims, unless they have got clinical support. If you notice on our copy, we try not tosay anything that is so far-reaching that it loses authenticity.

M: One last question. Any new Biossance products coming out that we should keep an eye out for?

CH: We’ve just done a soft launch and released the clean deodorant, and we’re not using baking soda or coconut oil. It was launched inSephora at the end of July 2018.