In its quest to reduce packaging and product waste, the beauty industry has made significant strides in recent years. For Shannon Goldberg, chief zero waste officer at Izzy Zero Waste Beauty, more could be done. So she deconstructed the traditional supply chain model and re-built it with a zero-waste mindset. The result is a product structure centered on refills for mascara and lip butter — with more products to come.
In this episode, WWD Voices host Arthur Zaczkiewicz welcomes guest host Shelly Socol, chief executive officer and co-founder of One Rockwell, who will be in conversation with Goldberg — discussing the impetus behind launching the company and what it takes to be truly zero waste.
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Here’s a transcript from a portion of the conversation:
Shelly Socol: You’ve been working in the beauty industry for over a decade, and for some of the greatest brands. Can you tell me some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen recently, especially around sustainability, luxury, and beauty?
Shannon Goldberg: When you think about beauty, two things really make up a beauty product. It’s the packaging and the formula, the goop. And two of the most exciting shifts that I’ve seen recently is the shift into cleaner, non-toxic ingredients. People are really starting to pay attention to what they’re putting into their bodies because let’s face it, our skin is porous, and we do absorb the ingredients we put on our skin. And then the second big thing that really excites me is the shift into sustainability and zero waste within packaging solutions.
Socol: How do you feel Izzy is providing not only sustainable products and zero waste but luxury as well?
Goldberg: That’s a great question. So a few things. One, when launching Izzy, the goal was to really keep the idea of zero waste at the heart of the brand, at the center of the brand. And that really meant walking away from all of the traditional things that make up a luxury product. So you hit the nail on the head when you talk about packaging, and the use of over packaging, and that overproduction, and ooh, la, la surprise, that dreaminess that we know when it comes to luxury, and also the weightiness of a product, how it smells, how it feels, how heavy it is.
That’s usually how we associate luxury in the beauty world. For Izzy, it was a little bit of a different process where we had to reimagine what luxury would look like. We walked away from most outer packaging solutions, cardboard boxes, all the things that make up the packaging and make something stand out.
What we decided to do is package our formulas in very heavy medical-grade stainless steel. I always say it’s like the difference of holding a Rolex watch versus a Timex watch. You feel the luxury and the weight of a Rolex, and you very much fill that with Izzy products. It’s heavy. It feels luxurious. It’s sturdy. Our packaging is really meant to stand the test of time. But then luxury also comes in the performance of a product. So we wanted to make sure not only are we clean, zero waste, and sustainable but the actual performance of the products speaks for itself. Our applicators, our brushes, our ingredients are all the most high-end that you can find while still being sustainable and clean.