SOURCING: OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

THE MOST POWERFUL WAY TO HEAL THE EARTH? START WITH SOURCING

There are so many routes that businesses can take to show their support for the planet. Tree planting and carbon offsetting are both incredibly common. They’re obvious options that consumers easily recognize—but in reality, they’re often more complex than they seem and can sometimes even be problematic.

At Laurel Skin, we choose to impact the health of our Earth in two key ways: our extensive use of 100% post-consumer materials and our sourcing. Today, let’s talk about sourcing.

In the world of green beauty, where conversations around climate change and carbon footprints are common, it’s astonishing that sourcing isn’t a mainstream, ongoing discussion. Why not? Because sourcing with integrity and planetary health in mind is expensive, difficult, time-consuming, and not fully embraced by the FDA’s most recent regulations.

 

HOW DOES LAUREL SKIN SOURCE DIFFERENTLY?
There are many, many things we do but these are just a few of the our core pillars:

• Direct Sourcing
  We work directly with our partnering farms, herbalists, and artisans—not middlemen.
• Local First
  If an ingredient is grown in the U.S., we source it from the U.S. No exceptions. Most of our ingredients come from within 100 miles of our lab, dramatically reducing our carbon footprint.
• Regenerative Farming
  Every ingredient we use is grown organically, biodynamically, or regeneratively. This goes far beyond avoiding pesticides—these farms actively heal the planet by restoring soil health, ecosystems, and water tables.
• Commercial Wild Harvesting
  We do not participate in commercial wild harvesting, ensuring that plants and ecosystems remain protected.

 

WHAT IMPACT DOES THIS REALLY HAVE? 

The best way I can describe it? Take a drive down Interstate 5 in California.

Have you ever driven on California’s Interstate 5? Have you done so while being fully present? Without tearing up? Because I can’t say that I have driven that route without crying or becoming enraged by the callous treatment of Mother Earth.

As you take this drive, you’ll see huge mining operations, power plants, solar farms, factory farms, and miles of conventional agriculture—complete with crop duster planes and irrigation drips fed with a multitude of chemical cocktails. The air along the freeway is often a visible brown haze hovering above the land.

Seeing all these things clustered together can make me feel helpless. What have we done? How could we possibly dig ourselves out of this? That type of thinking. I go through bouts of anger, mixed with sadness and despair. And this happens every single time I’m faced with so many monumental environmental atrocities that are so deeply removed from nature.

 

A DIFFERENT WAY: OUR ALMOND FARM

Cut to a more light-filled image: our almond farm. I found our almond farm nearly a decade ago. They practice biodynamic and regenerative farming methods, meaning their farm actually heals the land through soil rehabilitation and ecosystem restoration. Regenerative farms restore animal populations in their natural habitats, clean water systems, and give back more than they take from our planet of limited resources.

The owners of this farm descend from Italian immigrants and don’t know any other way of existing—their farming methods go back generations. Their farm is in Central California, right near where all of those other huge environmental black clouds converge. It is a beacon of light among so much darkness—amongst manipulation and greed. They are doing everything they can to make their tiny corner of Earth healthier. It is far more expensive for them to operate the way that they do, and the challenges they face are often monumental in today’s modern agricultural landscape.

 

 

GUESS WHAT THOUGH?

This isn’t just the case for our almond farm—this is true for all of our Laurel Skin farm partners. Every single one of them is their own beacon of light in their particular area. Every single one of our ingredients is five to ten times more expensive than it would be if we sourced conventionally or from a bulk distributor that cuts costs by sourcing internationally. That is our contribution.

 

A CALL TO ACTION

I have called for this before, and I’ll say it again: if you care about green beauty or shop at a local farmers market, but haven’t yet inquired about where your skincare ingredients come from—please do. A brand saying the words “sustainable” or “natural” is simply not enough anymore.

Is it truly sustainable to import 100% of a green beauty product’s ingredient deck? While importing ingredients is sometimes necessary for a few items, it does not support the health of our own communities and soils. And that deserves way more attention.

Certifications like carbon neutral, plastic neutral, or tree-planting aren’t always the answer. While sometimes helpful, they can be unclear or even problematic (which you can read more about here and here). These certifications can make a brand appear more environmentally friendly than they actually are.

Sourcing with integrity, with people and planet at the forefront, is a massive effort—one that must be done from the ground up. It takes dozens of relationships with farms for even one farmer to stick it through with us and provide plants on a yearly basis. It takes nourishing them in multiple ways. We often provide our farmers with extra funds for labor, water, or equipment. That doesn’t just support our sources—it supports the very land and communities that thrive through that land. It supports the health of that tiny corner of the Earth.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

While this can be a heavy topic, I hope you leave this blog with a picture in your head of all of Laurel Skin’s farm partners—creating a patchwork of vibrant, living micro-ecosystems interwoven between us all. That is where your skincare comes from, and I hope you feel so good about that.

You are supporting the health of the planet when you choose Laurel Skin. You are supporting the livelihood of dozens of small farmers with a single cleanser purchase. You are supporting the bee population, a diverse array of at-risk plants and animal habitats. You are supporting communities that deserve better than polluted water and airborne pesticides.

Thank you for keeping this circle going. I am grateful.

Love, Laurel