Three pillars of Berlin’s beauty startups: clean beauty, science, and solidarity

Germans seem to be particularly environmentally-conscious, and the country’s capital Berlin is currently seeing a surge in startups that extol the merits of clean beauty. Here, we introduce some of these green startups that are growing rapidly and that include brands involved in a recent online meetup held by FaB Berlin.

FaB Berlin, a community of entrepreneurs and investors in the fields of fashion and beauty, recently held a webinar on June 4th. Based on the theme of “How to Grow a Successful Clean Beauty Brand”, the founders of a number of brands that are currently seeing remarkable growth were invited to share their insights and experiences.

The secret to scaling up — being both sustainable and health-conscious

In FaB Berlin’s roughly 30-minute meeting, Katharina Bürger, co-founder of Binu Beauty, and Swantje van Uehm, founder of Nui Cosmetics, were invited as guest speakers.

Uehm, whose Nui Cosmetics features cosmetics that are 100% natural, gluten-free and vegan, mentioned that “one element necessary for growth is not just to focus on figures and profits, but to think about how to build up a brand to be both sustainable and health-conscious.”

Nui Cosmetics was started when Uehm noticed that the lipstick she loved to use was in fact using nothing but harmful substances and she had an idea to create a well-colored deep crimson lipstick that refrained from using synthetic ingredients. They’re a brand that is constantly searching for what is the best way and trying hard to act flexibly to grow sustainably.

On the other hand, Bürger of Binu Beauty, a brand that sells natural soap made of 100% natural ingredients, mentioned the importance of brand solidarity.

“Clean beauty isn’t a competition — we’re all friends”, says Bürger. With clean beauty being a new concept still in a developing phase and that has been spreading in recent years, “pretty much any brand in this field is facing the same problems. So mutually sharing our experiences and growing together is what will help the development of the industry.”

Solidarity among brands can already be seen. Due to the pandemic, Nui Cosmetics’ Uehm has launched the #strongertogether project to help support smaller brands and create a more sustainable economic system. The project is seeing participation by Binu Beauty and a stream of other indie brands that have sustainable businesses based in Germany and that are in the fields of clean beauty, ethical fashion, and femtech.

When buying products through this project, customers not only receive discounts and other benefits, they’re also able to be a part of actions to help solve various societal problems through the contribution of some of the profits.

Four traits we’re seeing in up-and-coming brands from Berlin

Throughout the past several years in Berlin’s clean beauty and femtech industries, along with Nui Cosmetics and Binu Beauty, there have been many other new brands popping up. These up-and-coming brands tend to share the below four traits representative of contemporary Germany.

(1) The building of sustainable brands that are thoughtful towards the environment;

(2) The transparency of information associated with a brand’s vision, ingredients, and production methods;

(3) Production methods that utilize naturally-sourced ingredients and that have scientifically-sound effectiveness and safety;

(4) Brands built on a community basis.

Such values resonate especially among Germany’s Generation Z and Millennial demographics, who have a high concern for environmental issues. The pandemic has also caused German people to become much more health-conscious, and accordingly, attention towards clean beauty and femtech is expected to grow more and more.

Gitti: A new star in the nail industry

Gitti is a nail polish brand that’s popular for its uniquely-toned colors inspired by various cultures from around the world. Gitti is currently gaining fans internationally through its beautiful, 100% naturally sourced colors and delicate shades. Founder Jennifer Baum-Minkus says she’s eager to “bring about a revolution in the nail industry”.

Being designed to be more considerate for the environment and human health, Gitti’s manicures are 55% made of water and use a largely reduced amount of volatile organic compounds. They’re also odorless, use vegan ingredients, and aren’t tested on animals. The brand has additionally set up a system where partial proceeds from the products are donated to initiatives to supply safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

Since its foundation, Gitti has used a DTC format while making use of social media platforms such as Instagram to actively communicate with consumers. Not limiting themselves just to nails, they also launched their own online magazine “the good good” on the topic of sustainable lifestyles and wellbeing, and where they post information on how to live for the happiness of both yourself and the earth.

Merme: 100% undiluted cosmetics

Skincare brand Merme, started by Claire Ralston, specializes in cosmetics that only use one type of ingredients, such as a serum that is literally 100% vegan collagen, and that don’t use any artificial ingredients or perfumes. This realizes Ralston’s vision of the ultimate in simplified care.

Ralston was inspired by her grandmother, who led a healthy lifestyle by making use of natural oils and other natural ingredients. Her brand, founded in the concepts of veganism, animal welfare, and non-GMO, is continuing to cross natural ingredients with biotechnologies to develop both sustainable and high performing ingredients.

Inne: Advocating radical self-knowledge

Inne, a startup currently gaining attention in the femtech world and which last year announced a series A funding round of 8 million euros, has developed a hormone-tracking kit for women.

A test that uses a disposable chip and that can be performed at home extracts data which is then sent to a custom app. The app allows users to check how their hormones are likely to fluctuate during their menstrual cycle, and this is calculated based on their personal progesterone data. It’s designed to be used both by those trying to conceive and those wanting to prevent pregnancy.

Inne founder Eirini Rapti insists that “this product isn’t a tracker. It’s designed to look at the female user’s hormones and allow them to visually check the fundamental changes that are occurring in their body. It’s designed to do this because it’s so important to consciously identify this movement that is occurring inside one’s own body. Inne is a tool of radical self-knowledge.”

Berlin’s clean beauty industry uses science to find ways to stop damaging the earth and our own health. Through using their products that are deeply imbued in the brands’ philosophies, positive changes can start to appear in the minds and lifestyles of customers — creating a virtuous cycle.

Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Saki Hibino