Stop us if you’ve heard this before: In an effort to make your hair-care routine a little greener, you switch up your shampoo and conditioner only to find that the new stuff just ain’t cutting it. What’s an earth- (and beauty)-loving person to do? Thankfully, sustainable brands are stepping things up in a major way with products that are both effective and kind to the environment, the most recent example being Seed Phytonutrients, the farm-to-bottle beauty company that launched in April 2018 under the L’Oréal umbrella. In addition to officially hitting Sephora online and in stores, the green beauty brand is ringing in 2019 with a major expansion of their hair-care offerings, as Allure exclusively reports.
“We have a very clear understanding of what our community cares about, and how we bring value to their lives,” founder Shane Wolf tells Allure. “One of the things that we heard very early on was this need — specifically within the hair category — for targeted solutions.” Enter the brand’s newest collections in the hair space, which address moisture, frizz, color, and volume, respectively. Previously, the brand shook things up (and left us just plain shook) with its original range of hair products, which includes a daily shampoo and conditioner encased in waterproof paper packaging. “Consumers were saying that they were so excited to have a new solution from a brand that is natural and sustainable,” Wolf says. “They loved the idea, but they weren’t ready to — nor should they — compromise the needs of their hair.”
Courtesy of Seed Phytonutrients
Each of the four collections contains a shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in treatment (the last comes in a variety of formulations ranging from a texture mist to a smoothing cream). “When it came to the products, what our consumers were saying was that they were struggling to find something that was high performance but also clean and natural,” adds Brad Farrell, Seed Phytonutrients’ lead brand farmhand (for those wondering — yes, that’s his official title). “For us, it was about figuring what we already did really strongly — our Daily Hair Cleanser was our number one product — but making it specified for different customer needs.”
And in keeping with the brand’s MO, the philosophy behind the launches was that no matter the hair concern, there’s an organic seed oil that can help address it: The hero ingredient of the Moisture range is organic meadowfoam seed oil (“one of the most hydrating seed oils,” according to Farrell), whereas organic raspberry seed (a natural antioxidant) and grapefruit oil make their way into the Color and Volume ranges, respectively. Organic jojoba and coconut oil from the Anti-Frizz range act as a natural alternative to silicones. The products have been formulated to suit a wide variety of hair types, with Farrell name-checking the Moisture range as the most versatile for textures ranging from kinky to straight.
Back to the packaging for a sec: Made in collaboration with Ecologic, the brand is taking its innovative, shower-safe paper bottles to a greener level using an impressive 70 percent less plastic than conventional designs. “By moving into this packaging, it was a disruption — and something that many people were experiencing for the first time,” Wolf says of the I-can’t-believe-it-doesn’t-disintegrate material. “We were passionate about further improvement, and we will never stop pushing ourselves until we can ultimately eradicate plastics from the industry altogether.” The brand has also been working closely with TerraCycle, a company specializing in hard-to-recycle materials, to ensure that elements like bottle pumps are also recyclable.
Courtesy of Seed Phytonutrients
However exciting the newness is — and trust us, it is — that’s not the only thing that’s got Seed Phytonutrients hyped for the New Year. As previously mentioned, the brand launched at Sephora on January 1, with an in-store launch of select products following on January 11. As for how the partnership came about? Well, to say it was a natural fit is almost too on the nose, but the truth is that a lot of it had to do with the May 2018 launch of Clean at Sephora, the beauty behemoth’s new category and standard of products free of ingredients like sulfates, phthalates, and more. “We have a very strong point of view when it comes to sustainability in beauty, and when we saw a retail partner [like Sephora] take an important, consumer-facing step forward [in supporting sustainability], my heart leapt,” Wolf says of the announcement. “We really doubled down on our efforts then to make a connection with the team, and from the beginning, it was magic.”