How “Clean" Is Your Clean Beauty routine?

When I look at anything from skincare to hair to makeup - "clean" is the beauty buzzword of the moment. At a beauty summit last month, a takeaway was that all beauty should be clean beauty when looking forward at trends in 2020, but from experience in formulating a line, going to labs and getting a product made that is still considered to be "clean," can be frustrating when there are still no clear rules of how to define this and the word itself is unregulated. This means that I would have to work backward thinking about what retailer I'd want to position it for using that specific retailer's standard of "clean" to create my own definition of clean beauty in order to maintain the strictest standards of clean and sustainability practices I would want to uphold as a brand.

You may have noticed this variance in clean standards yourself when trying to shop for cleaner products because the definition of clean beauty changes depending on the retailer you purchase from. . . or what brand is putting its marketing spin on the message. For example, purchasing a product that is marked as "Clean at Sephora" doesn't exactly mean that it meets "The Credo Clean Standard" because they each have come up with their own guidelines since there aren't regulations about what makes a brand be able to label itself as clean. In fact, U.S. laws for cosmetics safety are virtually unchanged since they were created back in 1938 so if you want to really be more stringent with your brand, you search for labs that have experience in formulating products that are sold in the EU because the EU seems to be more ahead of the game since they ban thousands of more ingredients in products than we do in the US.

After having experience developing a skincare line, I've been keeping a close eye on the beauty industry, testing various clean products, learning more about natural brands, and expanding my knowledge on the topic as a whole. By 2024, the global “natural beauty” industry is predicted to reach $22 billion, with indie companies representing a sizable piece of the pie. Clean beauty, in particular, is becoming crowded, but if there is anything I know from being in the room with dozens of industry vets is that not many look like me which could be why products I think are the most obvious still haven't been made.

Being a newer category, education around clean beauty is still lacking. However, I see it as an incredible opportunity to be able to help you all understand why clean beauty and all it’s nuances down to ingredient transparency including the ingredient comes from and how it’s sourced. Bringing in a new decade is as good excuse as any to detoxing my beauty routine as I run out of products so I’m looking forward to exploring new clean beauty items in 2020.

Have you started to switch to clean beauty brands? I’d love to hear which ones as I’m testing new items. DM me on Instagram @jasminepennamma and let me know!

The Future of Diversity in Beauty Is Funding

A discussion at The Wing on Diversity in Beauty had me reflect with a guest on how major companies throw around the terms “diversity and inclusion” to drive sales and attention to their brands. In beauty, Fenty set off a foundation war with companies trying to outdo themselves and come out with the most shades who had more limited ranges prior to Fenty’s launch. Beyond that, @_foundla pointed out venture capitalist statistics yesterday that show we could have taken this conversation a step further because diversity and inclusion in venture capital might even matter most of all because the VCs that control where the money flows determines the diversity of entrepreneurs and ideas that get funded. Changing the dynamic of who sits at the investment table can have a long-term impact on the brands that have the privilege of entering our homes in the future.

As a woman of color, the statistics can sound defeating. An article I just read stated that in 2018, out of $85 Billion in VC funding, only 2.2% went to female founders with WOC getting less than 1% of total funding. 🤯 I believe a key to help close the gap is to have women not only “supporting” other women but FUNDING other women, but would love to hear your thoughts or experiences. #foodforthought

Girl Talk At The Four Seasons Silicon Valley

I’ve been doing hotel sleepover getaways since I was pregnant with my second child. It started at The Four Seasons in Westlake Village who has a “Let It Snow” package they do in December that includes a night in after their annual winter event that includes s’mores, ice skating, and a visit to see Santa.

Usually our sleepovers are all about a day of swimming, ordering dessert for room service, and falling asleep coloring in bed. This is the first time we traveled alone together so it was fun to pick a place I’ve never been and see a place for the first time though her eyes.

I’ve been in Los Angeles ten years now, but whenever my husband and I think about going to San Fran, it’s usually cold and after moving from the east coast.....that usually makes it a hard pass. Usually we go to San Diego after her birthday for “Kids Free October,” but this was the perfect time of year to head up here and explore by foot. We took the day slow with time to stop for good food (no we didn’t try the ice cream with chocolate covered crickets in my stories!) and playground breaks.

I remember when my husband and I did our first weekend away as parents at Bacara in Santa Barbara, I met a couple with two kids in high school. At this point, Alaia was just a few months old and I was getting ready to “retire in the room for the night” before fussy time hit while they were getting ready to start their night and go grab a table downstairs for dinner. It felt like I was a world away before I could see the world at nighttime again, but in our brief meeting, I loved seeing how close their kids seemed to their mom even though they were teenagers. I remember the dad saying their one tip was to take the kids off on their own sometimes to make time together alone with each parent. I never would have thought of that before (probably because of the massive mom guilt I feel when I do things with one child and not the other).

He said the special bonding that happens (when there’s no competition from the other sibling) created great memories for both of us. And after some of our time together away as she’s gotten older, I am glad I listened to that bit of advice. Even just the small ice cream dates or movie nights with her or her brother seem to strengthen our bonds. While we were cuddling in bed yesterday, Alaia said “I miss my brother today, but think I know why you wanted to go on a trip with just me. I’m important to you, aren’t I?”

Talk about melting my heart.

Moving forward I think what I want to do is make a travel scrap book for the two of them. I still have one of mine from high school. I’ll take something from the day like a ticket stub to tape to the page and at the end of the night, write out three things that stood out from that day that we did together. As a child, traveling with my family is some of my best memories growing up and probably part of the reason that the first thing I did when I graduated and moved to NY was start looking to see where I could book a tip overseas to. As a parent, I’m hoping these trips will not only make great memories for us, but make my kids feel special as individuals and let them know the world is a place full of adventure and experiences waiting to happen.

3 Tips To Get The Most Out of Your Next Conference or Tradeshow

I've always loved conferences and tradeshows so I was dumbfounded to see how many people hated them at a woman in biz meet up the other week. I've always asked to be sent to conferences as part of the corporate companies I've been a part of in the past, but as an entrepreneur, I still go even though the only one footing that bill is me. I love attending workshops to stay on top of trends of my industry as much as I love speaking at them. Getting away to conferences is harder now between having to coordinate care and pickups for the kids and having work still need to be done even though I'm away since I’m not in sales anymore when it was easy to be ‘out of territory’ for a few days. On top of all of that, entry can be expensive and since I don’t have a corporation to sponsor my pass. I paid almost $2,500 just to get IN to one of these conferences last year alone, I need to be sure I am making the most of these meetings!

1. Have a plan of action. I look at two things when looking at what conference to spend my time at; what could I possibly learn and who could I possibly meet? The sessions may be something where I'm trying to master a new skill or it could be that there is a speaker presenting that I want to get connected with. In both cases, I'm researching the panels ahead of time before committing to taking time out of my day for any conference. With more digital tickets being available, sometimes I can also save on the price of the ticket plus travel by purchasing a digital ticket instead and watching sessions on my own time in the evening. Especially for industry meetings where it is great for me to get caught up on the information, but everyone in attendance is mainly another marketer like myself, I may not feel the need to network with people to collaborate with in person.

2. Give a compliment and start conversations. I hate talking to people out of the blue in 97% of life situations, but if I am attending something in person, I try and make an effort to meet some of the other people who view their business as important enough to be there too. I am not always the best at this because sometimes I get anxious about the emails I'm missing and spend the break typing up my notes from the last session or checking emails and social channels, but never once has anyone attempted to start a conversation with me with my head down over my laptop or phone. Unless I'm running late because I'm trying to chat with a presenter from the last session, I usually try and sit down early and strike up a presentation with someone sitting near me. I'm the worst at accepting compliments because I usually shrug them off and downplay my 'positive' with a negative. I'm trying to get better at that, but I'm great at finding something to give someone a compliment on and then ask what they do. After that being my ice breaker, I usually ask them if they've been to this conference before or what other conferences they recommend in relationship to what they do. At the end of the day, I'll try and do the same thing 'virtually' on social media by seeing who posted stories or photos with the event hashtags and geotags to see if there is anyone I may want to try and meet up with over one of the breaks.

Pro Tip: I don't post personally on Twitter much, but it can be a great platform to jump into these conversations in real time even more than Instagram.

3. Write it down and share the knowledge! I am an avid note taker, but notes don't do you any good if they are stuck in your 200th gold notebook that gets placed who knows where. I try and add each session on my phone in Google Docs. You are now more organized to be able to actually revisit those notes and take action from the meeting, use part of those notes as content later if you want to summarize what you are learning on social media or your blog, and if you work with multiple people it is great to be able to have a short summary prepared of your key takeaways to everyone can benefit from you being away while also showing the advantage of your company paying for you to go back again the next year.

What about you? Do you have any conference tips to share? I’d love to hear them or what industry you are in and your favorite conferences or tradeshows to attend. DM me on Instagram @JasminePennamma. The next one I’ll be at is VidCon, will you be there?