A lot has happened in 2021, and while we won’t spend a ton of time recapping all of it — shout-out to the Bennifer reunion we deserve — we can’t let the year go by without highlighting our Glow for Good initiative. We’ve made a lot of progress in our efforts to impact both the beauty industry and the world on a larger scale, whether through donations to nonprofits close to our hearts or by promoting gentler, more realistic interpretations of what skin-care really means.
You’ll find us doing even more in 2022, keeping up with our two-year, $1 million pledge of monetary and product donations by the end of the year through our Glow for Good social impact program, which focuses on giving to causes such as diversity, inclusion, & equity, the environment, and female empowerment. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at the progress we’ve made so far.
We supported life-changing nonprofits
For every Plum Plump Hyaluronic Serum Jumbo sold, we’ve donated $5 worth of product to Project Beauty Share, a nonprofit we’ve longed believed in and supported. Project Beauty Share provides personal hygiene, cosmetics and beauty products to non-profit organizations who serve women and families overcoming abuse, addiction, homelessness, and poverty. This season, we’ve also asked our community to donate their unused beauty and personal hygiene products to women, children, and families in need through the organization — including putting donation bins across New York City for easy drop-off. (You can find locations here.) For every product donated, Glow Recipe donated an additional $5 worth of product to Project Beauty Share.
Beyond that, we’ve also donated to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (which support and defends the rights of Black trans people), Act to Change (which addresses bullying in the AAPI community), Doctors without Borders (for Haitian earthquake relief), GiveIndia (for India’s COVID relief efforts), Girls Inc (which helps girls overcome economic, social, and other barriers to success), The Loveland Foundation (which offers therapy for Black women and girls), and GrowNYC (a sustainability resource in NYC).
Want to suggest an organization for us to support next? Click here and fill out the form to let us know!
We prioritized sustainability
We’re committed to respecting your skin and the environment. Sustainability is part of our mission and we’re constantly working to reduce our environmental footprint & challenge ourselves to become more eco-conscious. Sustainability is a journey, and it’s one we couldn’t be more excited to take.
100% of our packaging is recyclable through TerraCycle. We also signed on with Climate Neutral to undergo their rigorous carbon neutral certification process. As 2021 wraps, we’re working hard to gather all the data to measure our carbon footprint so we can offset our emissions and implement a reduction action plan. Our rigorous four-month certification process with Climate Neutral will officially kick off in January.
We’ve been applying these sustainability efforts to our formulas, too, using sustainably sourced ingredients and lab-derived actives whenever possible or necessary. One example is the guava extract in our Guava Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum, which is uniquely processed to help conserve water and minimize food waste — so leftover pulp, seeds, and peel are reused as fertilizer. This guava seed oil is extracted from upcycled guava seeds through a cold-pressed method to prevent them from going to a landfill and saving energy.
As for our Plum Plump Hyaluronic Cream, we use a Cosmos-certified blend of plum extracts that uses all parts of the plum and is hand harvested by a family-owned organic farm in Australia. And the watermelon in our Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops is extracted from the pulp, seeds, and rind via a method that helps conserve energy and reduces carbon emissions. Plus, any waste created in the process is upcycled in future products.
Last but definitely not least, we’re constantly seeking ways to reduce packaging and use more sustainable materials. For instance, all of our glass jars are now made with 20% recycled glass — glass being the most easily recycled material out there — and accepted for recycling through TerraCycle. Also, the Plum Plump Hyaluronic Cream now comes in refillable pods made of 50% post-consumer recycled material, which can help further reduce CO2 emissions and carton waste and are recycled by TerraCycle. This year, we’ve also made steps to reduce the size of our boxes to eliminate excess packaging materials and remove spatulas from our packaging. We teamed up with other brands for #CodeRed4Climate, which brought awareness to waste in the beauty industry
We prioritized diversity, equity & inclusion
This year, following a spate of hate crimes against the Asian Americans, we partnered with Act to Change, which works to address bullying in the AAPI community, with 100% of proceeds from our AAPI Beauty & Fashion Fest supporting the organization. At this virtual event, where we brought together iconic leaders in the industry for a day of conversation and celebration of AAPI cultures.
We also continued to work with our Diversity Advisory Board to ensure that all skin concerns, types, and tones are top of mind in everything we do, from formulation to marketing, and were so proud to sponsor New York City’s Pride celebration this year. We worked with social justice advocate and educator Marie Beecham, who took over our Instagram on Juneteenth to share the history and gravity behind the date, which commemorates the end of slavery.
Finally, we were also thrilled to announce both our second and third Community Mentorship Initiatives, through which we partner with Black-owned beauty and wellness brands and offer comprehensive mentoring. We’re so proud of the brands we worked with this year—luxury nail company Pear Nova, wellness-ingestibles purveyor Wylde One, Musée Beauty makeup, and body-butter creators Lulu and Guy—and can’t wait to see the great things in their future.
We spoke up about skin acceptance and positivity
At Glow Recipe, we want you to love the skin you’re in, and that means setting realistic expectations around beauty. That’s why this year, we pledged to never use the words poreless, perfect, ageless, flawless, anti-wrinkle, anti-aging, and “perfect skin”— because those aren’t realistic skin goals. The reality is that skin that looks *exactly* like a pane of glass or porcelain wouldn’t be skin; your pores are essential (as are your breakouts and hyperpigmentation) for helping your skin remain healthy and balanced, and aging is a beautiful representation of growth.
We’ve promised to celebrate and showcase real, unretouched skin — in fact, all of our imagery has been retouch-free for nearly three years (and will continue to be). Plus, none of our models ever wear complexion makeup in our ads. After all, the best skin is healthy skin, whatever that might look like for you.
Clearly, it’s been an exciting and busy year for us, and we’re so proud of the work we’ve done. But there’s more to do still, so we’ll see you rested and refreshed in 2022 to keep it going.
Read more about our initiatives from the past year:
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