4 Sustainable Skincare Ingredients We Love, and Why
If you have ever wondered why skincare feels louder than it needs to be, it usually comes down to one thing. The ingredients are no longer being chosen first.
I am an ingredient-obsessed formulator. That means I do not start with a product idea and then go shopping for a personality to slap on it. I’m not trying sit around asking what sounds “aspirational to our clients” this quarter. Unlike some brands, I start with raw materials that pull their effing weight. The kind that comes with history, paperwork, and a farmer who can tell you precisely what happened on their land in 1997, including the crop failure and what they still blame for it.
We source from land that is tended by people who know its seasons. They also know when to stop tinkering before something detrimental happens to the soil. We listen to that part because that is where resonance comes from, not the copy deck. Despite what celebrity skincare brands tell you.
I have spent so many hours in the USDA integrity database that they will eventually send me a W-9 out of concern. This is a wonderful site to help you research organic ingredients and certified companies. You can use it to cross-reference certifications against reality, track who grew something, where it was harvested, and what changed in their certification. It unfortunately also means watching how quickly sustainability gets compromised the moment wholesale pricing enters the room. Suddenly, everyone forgets what they said they cared about. My transparency is my promise to you, built on honesty and accountability.
Many brands begin with good intentions. They want organic. They want ethical. They want sustainable. Then they sell into Walmart, or Neiman Marcus, or Sephora, and the margins stop agreeing with the land. Something has to give. And most of the time, it is the ingredient, not the promise they made to Sam's Club.
At the•alambique, I choose the raw material first. Always. Everything else follows, formulation y todo.
Here are a few of my favorite partners, whom I call…. The “soil savants.”
Ethical Bee Venom - Argentina’s Iberá Provincial Reserve
Let’s start with the most misunderstood one.
You have probably heard that bee venom is unethical because bees die after stinging. That assumption is rooted in confusion, not fact. When a bee stings a mammal, yes, it dies. Ethical venom extraction does not involve stinging or harming the bees.
The bee venom we work with is collected through a patented pheromone-based system in a protected reserve. The bees are gently encouraged to release venom onto a collection surface by a mild microcurrent. Once they realize the current isn't a threat, they move on and fly away…. With their stinger intact.
What breaks my heart is how often this ingredient is dismissed without anyone bothering to learn how it is ethically sourced. Bee venom has become a symbol of cruelty when, in reality, it can represent one of the most beautiful relationships in innovative skincare.
Over time, bee venom encourages circulation, repair, and responsiveness on the skin. You notice it weeks in, when your skin feels more awake, brighter, and with less acne.
Organic Rosehip, Rosa rubiginosa - Chilean Patagonia
Sure, I could use a cheaper rosehip like Rosa canina and still legally label it as rosehip. Many brands do. It is easier to harvest. It is more abundant. It fits better into large-scale pricing models. Ie, wholesale models love it.
However, Rosa rubiginosa differs from other rosehips because it contains higher levels of trans-retinoic acid and vitamin A. This makes it the most skin-friendly type of rosehip. Its fatty acid profile promotes skin regeneration without overwhelming acne-prone or inflamed skin. The health of the soil where it grows directly influences its quality, reminding us that healthy soil leads to healthier skin.
To make this raw material even more meaningful, the rosehip I use is wild-harvested by a women's co-op in Patagonia. Not only does it support livelihoods, honor land stewardship, and carry lineage. Choosing it costs more, yet the cost to me is non-negotiable because this oil GIVES BACK.
Organic Royal Hawaiian Sandalwood, Santalum paniculatum - Kona, Hawaii
This ingredient taught me the hardest lesson when formulating.
I have been obsessed with the scent of Royal Hawaiian Sandalwood for over a decade. It is softer than Indian sandalwood, less spicy than the Australian variant. And because of that, It blends beautifully into a diverse selection of formulas. It also comes with a price that makes people want to shat their pants.
I have sat through Zoom calls where everyone loved it until they saw the final cost. Their eyes typically popped out of their head similar to Wylie the coyote from Luney Tunes. Then came the suggestion that felt like a kick in the crotch. “Could we use conventional sandalwood instead?”
Conventional sandalwood is cheaper, over 170% cheaper to be exact. It is also frequently overharvested, adulterated with carrier oils, and stripped of transparency. Organic Hawaiian Sandalwood illuminates everything. The tree. The age. The harvest method. Using Deadwood only requires decades of patience.
This is where sustainability gets tested. Not when supply is abundant, but when it becomes scarce and spendy. It takes seventy years for those drops of oil, but only seconds to cut it out of your formula because it's “too pricey.”
Organic Sun Dried Mint - Taos, New Mexico
This one is personal, because its grown in my backyard.
This mint is grown in biodiverse soil that has been nurtured by my worm farm. Once harvested, it is sun-dried on wooden frames built by my grandmother. Dehydrated slowly by desert air. No machines rushing the process. No anonymous supply chain adding 25% to the cost at every corner.
In New Mexico, mint grows abundantly and without a freaking permission slip. Many even say it's a weed because of how veraciously it grows. I love it for its medicinal purposes, sure, but we love it in the desert because it takes very little water, tolerates dry air, and keeps spreading as if scarcity were a suggestion. If plants earned reviews, Mint would already be pinned to the top of Yelp.
If I were to paint a portrait of what sustainability looks like, this is it. Spoiler alert…. This is how my grandmother used to live. I wake up early and harvest vegetables I grew from seed. The leftover vegetable scraps are nurturing my worm farm, which in turn feeds the soil, and that very same soil nurtures the plants I grow. Sustainable skincare looks like a community of people who reuse what they have and tend the same soil year after year. This is not a campaign, it s way of life.
When Crop Failure Enters the Room
Here is the part most brands do not like to talk about.
Crop failure happens. Drought. Fire. Flood. Disease. Climate EFFING reality. When a crop fails, ingredient costs go up. I don't think we need to call Einstein from the grave to tell us this, but there is a fine moment in development when you see what the brand's values are. Spoiler alert. They care more about price than the formula.
I have been asked, year after year, to cheapen formulas. Lavender failed, Rosehip tripled in price, time to recalibrate the price. But by that point, the retailer had already locked the pricing. Once a brand sells into retail, there is almost no room to move the pricing. The expectation becomes simple. Like Tim Gunn says on Project Runway, “Make it Work.”
Sooo, the formula is quietly adjusted. The scent remains familiar. The texture behaves the same. Inside the vessel, something else exists: dishonesty. As a formulator, you get good at tinkering just enough to pass sensory details, knowing just enough to keep the unit cartons and labels the same.
This is the part most people never see. When you sell to a retailer, you agree to a fixed sales price. If a manufacturer does not have raw-material pricing contracts in place, any increase becomes an internal issue. “Negotiating a price” usually means reducing fill weight or pulling back the expensive oils to make their spreadsheet look better. Its such a shame to know that the customer is never told that the formula they loved is no longer the same one.
I can’t do that anymore.
When the land cannot produce the same way, we must adapt to the land. Smaller batches. Different timelines. A pause, perhaps. Sustainable skincare is not proven when everything is easy. It is proven when you make better choices for your people.
Why You Might Be Here……
I'm writing this for those tired of fluorescent-lit aisles and ingredient theatrics. If you're curious about who grew the ingredients in your skincare, or if you appreciate genuine craftsmanship. This brand is for those who understand that real nourishment takes. fucking. time.
When farmers care for the soil, your skin gets the payoff. It is the same reason a tomato grown at home ruins you for grocery store produce. You taste the attention. You feel the patience. Something alive made it all the way through intact.
MY GIRL SCOUT PROMISE - I will not reduce the percentage of precious oils in my formulas; instead, I plan to increase them. I’m not going to compromise integrity to protect margins. You're not just buying a word on a label; you're buying the formula itself. So I find it unfair when companies try to be sneaky behind your back. Your trust in my commitment to quality is what drives me to be a better business owner.
Anddddd that is why I work with small farmers growing biodiverse and regenerative crops, folks. Their care does not stop at the field. It carries forward, quietly, until it reaches you.
With roots and reverence,
monique