New sites are introducing retailers to sustainable indie beauty brands

Launched in December (as Vendia), the company is, to put it simply, a “match making tool for retailers and sustainable indie beauty,” ​Rachel Murray, co-founder of Kind Eye for Business, tells Cosmetics Design.

Retailers like Cambridge Naturals in Massachusetts and Pharmaca (a company with shops in several Western states) use the site to connect with so-called natural personal care and clean beauty brands that are right for their customers.

Digital tool kit​

Sites and services like Kind Eye for Business can be a chance for retailers to get a bit of breathing room rather than be “bombarded by brands trying to push product out to consumers,”​ says Murray. It’s also saves time, she says, especially for those who’ve, until now, spent hours scrolling through Instagram posts to gauge a brand’s popularity and suitability.

The site that Murray and Clare Parkinson founded is easily browsable and has numerous helpful filters too, which let retailers search for brands that meet the right criteria. Filters include product category (such as skin care, hair care, teens, moms, men’s grooming), product value (like USDA organic, vegan, gluten free, and formulations with fewer than 10 ingredients), brand value (charitable contributions and the like), as well as region and country. For now, the site caters to retailers in the US, Canada, and New Zealand. And Murray and Parkinson have plans to work with buyers in even more countries and regions in the future. 

Sustainable business model ​

Murray appreciates the disruptive nature of independent personal care and cosmetics brands. Many have social and environmental causes, wellness initiatives, or alternative financial objectives as part and parcel of their business model.

“My idea of a sustainable beauty company is one that focuses on building a company and a product that goes beyond the bottom line,”​ Murray tells Cosmetics Design. Kind Eye for Business welcomes brands that have a “triple bottom line: people, product, and planet,”​ she says.

Something else many indie brands have in common: “smaller business tends to be women owned in the beauty space,” ​observes Murray. In fact, close to 90% of the brands on the Kind Eye for Business site are owned by women.