Clean beauty retailer Follain has teamed up with data-driven sourcing platform Novi Connect as the retailer looks to ramp up sustainability efforts.
“Our ingredient policy has been at the core of Follain’s mission and business since Day One,” said Tara Foley, founder of Follain. “This new partnership with Novi will make it easier than ever for us to communicate, stay ahead of and even the playing field with the increasingly rapid pace of beauty ingredient innovation.”
Novi connects businesses with sustainable formulators, manufactures, suppliers and retailers with the goal of allowing them to purchase more sustainable product formulas or packaging.
“We started before clean was a term, but now that it is one, nobody is regulating what that means,” said Foley, who started Follain in 2013. “In the absence of that, us retailers, brands and certifying bodies have all come up with our own standards. Thank goodness Novi exists, because as a brand founder, it’s really impossible to navigate all of them.”
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Follain carries products that are EWG Verified, cruelty free and non-GMO.
Many products in Follain’s selection are vegan, and the Follain Restricted List contains over 5,639 chemicals to date. Not only will Novi Connect aid Follain in vetting ingredients using its Ingredient Screening Tool, but it will also support the company in expanding its restricted list in the years to come.
“Novi has a unique vantage point since we’re trying to help brands accomplish everything across the ecosystem,” said Kimberly Shenk, cofounder and chief executive officer of Novi Connect. “From that perspective, we can point brands to a North Star to say, ‘well, if you’re really looking for what clean should be like, this is the opportunity for that.’”
Due to limited access and funds, implementing sustainable practices is not always realistic for certain brands, even those that would like to participate in the effort toward greener manufacturing, said Shenk.
This partnership is a step forward for Novi Connect in its goal of not only making clean beauty products more accessible to consumers, but also making it easier for brands themselves to adopt more environmentally conscious practices. “It’s not only about how we get more progressive with what we define as clean, but how do we bring the supply chain along so that brands can actually do it,” said Shenk.
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