EP121. Biotech beauty, the controversial new frontier

The natural and organic cosmetics world loves sourcing the purest, sustainable plant-based ingredients that are ethically picked, plucked, farmed and harvested, and processed with as little artifice as possible. On this podcast, we have covered a raft of natural ingredient sourcing and formulation concepts from wild-harvesting and biodynamic farming to blue, waterless and upcycled beauty. All of these topics, we have assessed through the lens of sustainability. It is worth reiterating and remembering this as we tackle the topic of this episode of Green Beauty Conversations - biotech beauty. The next most potent, active botanical is possibly being engineered from plant stem cells using biotech right now, as a breakthrough natural cosmetic ingredient. But does the sound of lab-grown plant actives in your cosmetics excite you or worry you? Is it too futuristic or something you'd adopt willingly right now? How receptive would you be to using biotech-based ingredients if your ideal of natural organic cosmetic ingredients is their farming or wild harvesting from forests and fields? The truth is that biotech beauty is happening now, and is gaining momentum - in part, as an answer to some of the key sustainability issues surrounding the farming of crops as cosmetic ingredients.  To give us insights into the world of biotech beauty, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier, herself a biologist and chartered environmentalist, talks to Dr Barbara Paldus of Codex Beauty, a firm pioneering biotech cosmetic formulation. Listen in to this eye-opener on biotech which, given current climate change predictions, could be the new normal for sourcing natural, and even organic, cosmetic ingredients sooner than you think.