Navigating the Future of Clean Beauty: What’s Next After Beautycounter’s Hiatus

I have heard from several of you in the last week inquiring about the WTH is going on with Beautycounter. For some of you reading this newsletter, this is the first you’ve heard of the major changes that have transpired. What’s Next After Beautycounter’s Hiatus?

I would have loved to have written this newsletter to you immediately upon learning that Beautycounter would be temporarily closing, but to be honest – the enormity of what’s going on has taken me several days to comprehend.

If you visited the Beautycounter website recently the verbiage is limited at best and provides no explanation as to what has transpired over the last month.

If you are interested to hear how Beautycounter ended up being bankrupted by a private equity group, please watch my video HERE.

In this video you will learn that Beautycounter will reopen. Current guesstimates are that it will be back in Quarter four. I’m betting on the new year.

A GAP exec, my big mouth & what Beautycounter means to me

I’ve never been an ambassador for a company. As a matter of fact, sales has always made me incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe because of that, I’ve always strangely been exceptionally good at it.

In high school I had four jobs. At one point I realized I needed to trim things down a bit and dedicated myself completely to the GAP.

Gosh darn I loved that job. If you’d like to skip this story, please scroll down to the “What’s Next” because genuinely, this story applies to this email but if you’re short on time I understand that you may not want to hear about my sixteen-year-old self telling off a corporate executive.

Okay, so here’s the story in brief:

I was helping a Mom try on jeans. She was probably in her late forties and had a daughter in high school. She was out shopping for herself (which all of my Mom’s in the room know is no small thing), and she wanted a cute sweater and a nice pair of jeans.

She had a boatload of clothes in her dressing room. She tried on each one, and I meticulously gave her my honest feedback. The orange sweater was a hard no. The dark blue sweater fit her perfectly. The jeans were touch and go, but we finally landed on the right pair.

She was ecstatic, and so was I. There’s no better feeling in the world than knowing you’ve helped another human.

After she left, this gorgeous woman emerged from the dressing room. She was tall, thin, glowing and had long, swishing blonde hair. I hadn’t seen her come in and had no idea who she was. She informed me that she worked at the corporate GAP, and that I had no business telling a customer that an outfit wasn’t a good fit. She didn’t outright say this but I got the message – my marching orders were to lie…for profits.

For those of you who know me true and well, this won’t surprise you but for those of you who only know the soft-voiced Ishbel this may seem somewhat out of character, but I’ll tell you – I just can not stand injustice. Never have been able to stomach it. I become possessed and truly just don’t even know what’s coming out of my mouth until it’s out there, never to be reclaimed again.

I told her that under no circumstances would I ever lie to a customer, and hello?! Haven’t you seen the movie “Big” for god’s sakes! Sheesh.

I’ve never been an advocate for a company. Per my story above I seem to be somehow incapable of BS. Trust me when I tell you it would have significantly benefited me many times in my life to have this skill, but alas it is not one of my giftings!

I got behind Beautycounter for these reasons:

I love skincare and makeup, but I don’t love the health risks associated with traditional brands.

I am deeply concerned about the amount of plastic in our oceans and the way we are treating our planet. And, the waste from personal care products is a primary contributing factor for ocean waste because it’s historically hard to recycle amongst other reasons.

I don’t want to be the only one thriving and striving. I want the farmers who produce the products I use to also be enjoying life and confidently caring for their families.

I want the US government to catch up with science and enact laws similar to the European Union. In the US we are killing ourselves with our lax restrictions on chemicals, a lot of which we are applying to our skin in the name of beauty.

I want my skincare products to blow my mind. And unfortunately, a lot of “clean” products just aren’t that impressive.

What’s Next

All right, so where in the world are we going to get our clean products for the next 8 months?

Well, I’ll tell ya. That question has stumped me. I do have a lot of Beautycounter samples left so if you’re in immediate need of something, I may have some samples I can send to you. Please reach out if that’s you!

Beautycounter has been available at Ulta (one of many decisions made by the private equity group that backfired), however, word on the street is that they’ve almost run out of their supply.

The Ish List

I have a brilliant office manager – Jan. Last year she came to me and asked me what I thought of developing a list of products I’ve vetted and love. She called it the “Ish List”. This could be everything from food to beauty products to sheets.

Up to this point I have kicked that ball down the road because the truth is – I’m really busy. I have a lot going on with the multiple arms of my business, and when I do something I really want to do it right.

But this whole Beautycounter debacle has pushed me to make a move.

So, in the near future I’ll be in touch again with a list of products that I’ve vetted and can give my stamp of approval on. I’m in the process of experimenting with other companies, but if those jeans don’t fit right, I’ll be the first to tell you. Until I’m 100% certain I won’t be recommending them to you.

I’d love to hear from you. How can I help?

Thank you

Thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to this next chapter.