Having Dutch roots really inspires our team to be sustainable in everything we do. Most people don’t realize that this tiny, tiny country is actually one of the leaders in global sustainability. They believe in circular agriculture, mainly using as few resources as possible (i.e. zero pesticides and very low water) and turning would-be waste streams into important steps of another lifecycle.
While we LOVE all things skincare and beauty – we equally love our environment and try our best to help do our part to take care of it. With this proud heritage, we strive to continually find the newest and most sustainable technologies in order to continually lessen our impact on the environment.
We've been awarded two Dutch government grants on the basis of supporting the agricultural industry to be more circular. Sustainable practices are in our DNA - from our ingredient sourcing and manufacturing practices to our product packaging and our marketing efforts.
How are we sustainable?
Sourcing.
Have you ever wondered exactly what the tulips look like that make up our Proprietary Dutch Tulip Complex? You may be surprised that instead of coming from beautiful blooming tulips, we actually source the tulip extract from deformed tulip bulbs that would otherwise be considered waste (only perfectly shaped bulbs are able to be sold by the farmers).
Manufacturing.
While we were founded in the Netherlands, the US is our top retail market, so we manufacture our products in the US to lower our carbon footprint by shipping domestically instead of internationally.
Packaging.
All of our product cartons are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, made out of 100% recycled materials and are 100% recyclable. We also print using soy ink instead of traditional ink to help lessen the environmental impact. We use PICEA™ wood tubes made from sawdust from German carpenters (crazy, right?!). Over 95% of the materials used in our tubes come from renewable resources, and they have a carbon footprint that is 40% smaller than conventional plastic tubes. We are actually the FIRST beauty brand to use PICEA™ in the U.S. We use glass for our jars because glass can be recycled an infinite number of times without breakdown, while plastic can only be recycled a certain number of times before it ends up in a landfill.
Responsibility.
We work pretty hard to produce sustainable products, but if they aren’t recycled properly our efforts are quite literally thrown out the window. We encourage our customers to uphold their responsibility and always recycle our products. We provide information on how to recycle by state on our website.
A sustainable future
We continuously strive to use recycled and recyclable materials in all branded elements, while also reducing our carbon footprint as much as possible. We are constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve our processes and products to lessen our impact on the environment.
We are also as passionate about our farmers and the fields that we harvest from as we are about bringing the best in clean skincare. We support circular farming and are continuing our research to create the best practices in sourcing our ingredients and further our commitment to sustainable agriculture. We encourage other brands, friends, and family to work towards a sustainable future with us.
We’ve been applauded for our efforts this year, and we’re very proud of that. We’ve won a Refinery29 Beauty Innovator Award for our sustainable efforts; a Glamour Magazine Award for Best Sustainable Cleanser; and our Dutch Dirt Mask PICEA™ tube is nominated for Tube of the Year in the 2019 Tube Council awards. Bloomeffects has also received the Leaping Bunny certification to claim cruelty-free. While this is a great start to our sustainable story, we believe we’ve only just scratched the surface.
Want to know more about our brand philosophy? Head here to read!