After debuting its Earth-First packaging last year, MOB Beauty is set to roll out its NewPurpose fully compostable beauty collection in 2024. A pilot program to gauge consumer acceptance launched this July.
At LUXE PACK New York last month, MOB Beauty Co-founder and CEO Victor Casale announced that after launching in 2021 with refillable packaging made with at least 50% PCR PET or PP, his clean make-up brand will introduce compostable beauty packaging in 2024.
“We thought, let’s see if we can push the envelope and create something with a prestige aesthetic that is fully compostable,” Casale tells Luxe Packaging Insight.
Dubbed NewPurpose, the new collection consists of a refillable lipstick and a refillable compact. Like the compact, the lipstick case (Golden Arrow) is in molded fiber - a combination of natural bamboo and bagasse and 100% PCR cardboard, the latter used to provide increased strength. The lipstick refill mechanism is made of Flaxstic, a biopolymer made from flax shive and corn and wheat starches. Supplied by Canadian company Pela, Flaxstic is injection molded by Albéa, who also worked on the lipstick design. Featuring a glossy deboss logo, the molded fiber lipstick case and compact are coated in Mantrose-Haeuser’s Verdecoat, a protective spray used in the food industry.
Product refills come in molded fiber packaging, with labels made from recycled paper printed with soy-based inks. At end-of-life, all NewPurpose packaging can be composted, including in Lomi, Pela’s countertop home composting device - MOB Beauty's NewPurpose products have the Lomi Approved certification.
Starting this month, MOB Beauty will include samples of its new packaging with online orders to gauge consumer reactions as part of a pilot program. “A QR code will incite consumers to provide feedback, that way we can make improvements and by 2024 we can have a fully compostable solution for our products,” explains Casale. MOB Beauty aims to share feedback from the pilot with its packaging suppliers and the beauty industry.
Casale says that the new products are intended to complement, rather than replace, its existing packaging, for which it aims to increase the PCR content to at least 60-70% on its next production run. “There is a need and purpose for different solutions,” says Casale. “We sell a lot of our products to make-up artists, for whom our PCR packaging is a better solution as it’s more durable. For the average consumer, NewPurpose could be a great fit.”
Casale highlights that NewPurpose goes against the grain of durable packaging. “As an industry, we’ve learnt to create packaging that lasts forever, while the products themselves are used within months. One of the biggest issues we have in beauty is that consumers often judge the quality of a product by how it is packaged, with heavy, intricate, and shiny equating to luxurious. But this isn’t sustainable. If we are really going to make a change, we have to convince consumers that the luxury of the future is something that creates the least amount of negative impact for the environment.”
