Our Commitment for People & Planet

We passionately believe that a sustainable planet can be achieved if the lowest ranking people in the supply chain are treated with humanity and dignity. Skin Diligent believes ethical sourcing and sustainability are one concept.

This concept is in Skin Diligent’s DNA. It starts with the sourcing of our raw materials, to our formulation & manufacturing process, to our choice of packaging, and finally to our product end-of-life considerations when they reach our clients (easiness to recycle).

 

People

We are proud to source our botanical ingredients responsibly. They are sourced directly from the cooperatives of pickers and growers, without middlemen. In Cameroon, our Caesalpinia sappan is picked by a group of hunter-gatherers who use a sustainable method proven through the millennia that doesn’t involve any destructive modern methods. At the mouth of the Amazon River, an ethnobotanist works in partnership with the local population in sourcing ethically our Protium heptaphillum.

The cooperatives of growers in Africa where our Lannea microcarpa comes from practice Pierre Rabhi's agro-ecological philosophy. No chemicals are used and symbiotic plant species are planted together to increase biodiversity of plants, insects, and crop yields. The method is truly 'organic' (but without the labelling) and champions harmony with nature.

 

Process of manufacturing

For emulsion, we use a cutting edge innovative cold emulsifiers (ingredients that bind the oil-based ingredients with the water-based ingredients).  Traditionally, emulsion leads to high energy consumption as the mixing phases require a heating process for the oil and water to mix. Then the mixture is cooled down. Our cold emulsion technology skips this process of heating phase and cuts energy consumption during formulation by 100 from 40kW/h to 0.4kW/h. 

 

Packaging

We spend an inordinately amount of time analysing the carbon footprint, the cost and the safety of various packaging solutions with skincare products.

We calculated that there is the equivalent of more than 8,000 Empire State Buildings of used plastic that were produced (until 2020), little of which is recycled. We believe that by increasing the demand for recycled plastic, we could encourage more investments into recycling. Currently, the practice of recycling is lagging far behind the publicity it gets. 

This is one of the reasons for our fully recyclable plastic with a minimum content of 50% - 80% of already recycled plastic. Our intention is to switch to 100% recycled plastic when such plastic becomes safe and compatible with skincare products. Free of endocrine disrupting chemicals is one of the safety promises of Skin Diligent. So our plastic is also free of endocrine disruptors.

For our food supplement, we have opted for a 100% compostable biodegradable bioplastic made of excess sugar capacity. Our pill jars are approved for food contact in the EU. Over 90% of the mass decomposes within 6 months under compostability conditions (high temperature, humidity and bacteria). Absence of one of these conditions slows decomposition but doesn't stop it as long as temperature is above 0ºC.

As we develop new products, we are monitoring the advances in packaging sustainability. We are committed to continuously improving our sustainable and ethical sourcing.