7 minute read
SEEDS OF CHANGE
By Louise May
Lynn Tan is the Founder & CEO of The Powder Shampoo. A veteran in the Hair Care industry and over the past 20 years, she has established a successful hair and beauty distribution business in Asia while also being a mother to her 3 children.
Now, she’s taking on the hair industry with her own eco-conscious brand, which is lovingly formulated & made in Singapore – The Powder Shampoo!
The Powder Shampoo is a unique, convenient, and sustainable alternative to traditional liquid shampoos. Named after the powder form of shampoo, which comes from the removal of water in the formula and production, The Powder Shampoo reduces your environmental footprint in three ways:
1. Saving clean water, which is a scarce resource that we don’t actually need in a shampoo
2. Decreasing your CO2 emissions per wash by transporting only the good stuff when shipping
3. Reducing plastic wastage, as the packaging can be made from sustainable, recyclable materials
“Using The Powder Shampoo is a simple yet effective way to clean your scalp and hair,” says Lynn, “and it’s perfect for travellers or anyone who wants to save the planet while they shower. With its eco-friendly ethos, vegan and cruelty-free formula, and easy-to-use format, The Powder Shampoo is an excellent alternative to traditional liquid shampoos.”
Hair Biz Editor Louise May spoke with Lynn Tan about her mission to create change, with one of the most innovative products we have seen in a very long time.
What pivotal moment led you from being a successful businesswoman in the distribution industry to venturing into creating your own eco-conscious brand, The Powder Shampoo?
For the last two decades, my sole mission was to entice consumers to purchase high quantities of personal care and beauty products and frequently sell a wide variety of these products to them. This was the belief I had for my business to grow its revenue and profits.
Then I realised the personal care industry (that I belong to) has produced over 8 billion metric tons of plastic since 1950. Only 9% of plastic bottles are recycled, 12% are incinerated & 79% have accumulated in landfills. Greenhouse gas emissions will increase to 49m metric tons by 2030 & 91m metric tons by 2050. And a great sense of guilt that I have indirectly contributed to this problem.
Your concern for the environment and the future of your grandchildren will inherit is evident. Can you describe how The Powder Shampoo addresses the challenge of reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and contributes to a more sustainable personal care industry?
Firstly, the products I have and will create save precious, clean water. It might not be front of mind in some areas of the world but, according to the CDC, 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water at home.
Then, why are we wasting this in our personal care products when it’s completely unnecessary? On top of that, we use 100% recyclable aluminium bottles or paper refill pouches, so we’re a 0% plastic brand and don’t contribute to the single-use plastic pandemic that is ruining our oceans.
Because our products are lighter and more concentrated without water, we also produce less carbon emissions per wash because we don’t ship unnecessary, heavy water around the world. And because no business is ever really carbon neutral, we offset out minimal carbon footprint by planting a tree for every product sold, in partnership with Tree Nation.
Creating a product that’s both effective and environmentally friendly can be quite a challenge. Could you walk us through some of the innovative techniques or ingredients that set The Powder Shampoo apart in achieving these dual objectives?
There is definitely some innovative thinking in how to combine ingredients that are both good for you and good for Earth, and that give real results but are still effective to use. However, none of these ingredients are a secret, so it’s really a bit mindboggling to me why big beauty companies haven’t already put our planet first and done this too. My best guess is the cost of quality materials, which I will never compromise on, and the adoption of consumer behaviour – which we’re hopefully helping to change one bottle at a time!
The concept of eliminating plastic packaging is a commendable goal. Can you share the process you underwent to develop packaging alternatives for The Powder Shampoo that maintain convenience while minimizing environmental impact? From the start, I really had to think about what I myself would want as an eco-consumer, and then how to achieve that as a small business. Glass could work, but is too heavy and no one wants broken glass in their shower. Recycled plastic can only be recycled up to twice, and not all types of plastic, so it’s just not a viable option to me to be truly sustainable.
I settled on aluminium as the material, which is infinitely recyclable and can last your entire lifetime, and then it was working on my first-generation bottle. Since then, we’ve taken customer feedback into account and changed our caps to be more user-friendly. We also recently upgraded our travel minis so they’re easier to refill and less likely to clog. What our customers think about the product and packing really matters to me, so we’ll always be upgrading based on their helpful feedback.
Your commitment to planting one tree with every product sold is a noteworthy initiative. Could you share the inspiration behind incorporating reforestation into your brand’s mission and how you envision this action contributing to the larger goal of combating climate change?
Starting a new eco-conscious brand is great in theory, but that only addresses the problem from here forward. I also wanted to look at the damage that’s been done to the climate up until now and think how my brand values could address this. Planting a tree for every product we sell not only offsets today’s carbon emissions but as that tree grows, it sequesters more and more carbon to hopefully help reverse some of the damage. Our goal to plant 1,000,000 trees by 2030 may be ambitious, but the alternative isn’t worth thinking about from a global perspective. We all have to do our part!
Can you tell us a little about the ingredients?
All our formulas contain 100% nature-derived ingredients and are completely vegan and cruelty-free. Across our shampoo and body wash ranges, we use 28 botanically derived ingredients and 8 micro-encapsulated essential oils. We also don’t use sulfates, silicones, parabens, phthalates, or synthetic fragrances.
How do you use The Powder Shampoo?
It’s 4 very simple steps: Wet, Pour, Lather, Rinse. You wet through hands and hair thoroughly in the shower, then pour a sufficient amount of product (based on your hair length etc) onto your hands or directly onto your scalp and hair. Then lather to activate the foam and rinse as usual. It couldn’t be more simple, and we also have powder-to-foam body washes that work in the same way but for the body too!
@thepowdershampoo
