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Home » Good Guide » CarboNZero organisations & products » carboNZero organisations & products » Snowberry BeautySnowberry Beauty: carbon-friendly skincare
There is a misconception, according to Snowberry founder Soraya Hendesi, that safe, eco-friendly skincare has to be made entirely from organic ingredients.
“I wanted anti-ageing skin care for me and my family that was completely safe and as natural as possible, but which also worked” — Soraya Hendesi of Snowberry
The impact on skin of harsh UV rays in New Zealand is particularly severe, so choosing really effective, environmentally sound skincare products can be a challenge. Many products rely heavily on petrochemical ingredients that have raised concerns of skin irritation and accelerated ageing through prolonged usage. Others are so ‘natural’ they are little more than topical moisturisers.
This is where Auckland’s Snowberry comes in.
“I saw so many products with potentially harmful substances, or those with bizarre ‘miracle’ ingredients, or genuinely natural products which failed to take advantage of advances in skincare science,” says Soraya. “I wanted anti-ageing skin care for me and my family that was completely safe and as natural as possible, but which also worked.”
There were no compromises. Snowberry is made almost exclusively from the world’s finest natural herbal oils, including Indian neem and lingonberry, and herbal extracts such as white peat. These are combined with potent ‘bio actives’ that mimic the cellular renewal compounds found naturally in the skin and the most powerful antioxidants to counter the free radical damage caused by UV light.
More than 130 carefully selected and balanced ingredients are blended into a core range of eight products comprising serums, creams and cleansers. They are not tested on animals, and other than ingredients like honey, cultured pearl and coral, do not contain animal products.
Caring for the environment is vital to the Snowberry philosophy.
“We are privileged to live in one of the world’s most beautiful environments,” says Soraya. “However, we see our responsibility as individuals and as a company extending far beyond New Zealand’s shores.”
Snowberry is the first New Zealand beauty company to achieve carboNZeroCert TM certification for its range of skincare products worldwide. And according to Soraya, it may be the first in the world to do so.
The firm also uses recyclable polypropylene airless pumps instead of glass to minimise greenhouse gas emissions in manufacture, recycling and freight; and has limited international air travel by establishing its own distribution centre in Europe.
The result? A 22 percent reduction in carbon emissions for fuel, electricity and air freight use, year on year to June 2009.
Snowberry uses only sustainably harvested ingredients. For example, instead of the indestructible polyethylene beads used in most exfoliators, which researchers suspect may be harming marine life, Snowberry’s Nourishing Exfoliator uses only grains of cultured pearl and coral.
On its bio-discovery plantation near Wellsford in Northland, Snowberry cultivates a variety of indigenous plants as its source of unique ‘bio active’ ingredients. This is creating new ways of getting value from sustaining New Zealand’s native forests and reducing Snowberry’s need for offshore ingredients. And in the future, whether or not it provides carbon credits for the company, the new forest will help to capture carbon from the atmosphere.
