Sustainable, natural, and zero-waste cosmetics from product development to marketing

: a start-up’s perspective

Abstract

In our digital age, it’s becoming harder to gauge the honesty and transparency of brands we see on social media. Specifically in the beauty industry, a great deal of greenwashing takes place, and the only victim is the consumer. Sustainability has become the goal of many corporation but only a few reached a satisfactory ethical and natural resourcing with a favorable benefit to price ratio. But, whatever they try, their main two problems are that they still have to use a single-use plastic dispensers or refill bottles and that 80% of what’s in the bottle - is water. Which is unnecessarily transported around the world and negatively impacts the climate crisis.
UNDO CARE, a small start-up based in Antwerp, Belgium. Sets off to create small pouches of powder that replace the need to repurchase plastic bottles of soap, shampoo, and body wash . Better yet, they contain enough product to last you 6 months. The only catch is that you need to add water at home, easy! The powders are 100% natural and vegan, so they’re ethical and cruelty-free. They are produced in Amsterdam, and they come in a variety of gender-neutral scents.
During my internship at UNDO, I explored the world of cosmetics from the perspective of a start-up. In this thesis, I will detail the different tasks I was assigned and how I navigated my way through them with the help of my team. Together we went from an idea to a prototype and finally a finished product. My pharmaceutical background and the knowledge I gained from the EMOTION master’s degree equipped with enough tools to excel and bring the company’s vision to life. The aim of the company was to contribute to the market with a guilt-free selfcare range of products but what we ended up learning from the process far exceeded our expectations.

Date of Award	16 Sept 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Supervisor	Yves Geysels (Supervisor)