Announcing Our First Initiative of 2021

Effective immediately and while supplies last, Marie Veronique is eliminating single-use packaging, which in our case means ending sample sizes of our products. Below is the letter we sent to our wholesale and esthetician partners earlier this month to inform them of this change to our operations. 

We share this with you, our customers, because we want you to understand our rationale. Action on the individual level remains critical to reducing our environmental impact, but the radical changes we need must happen at the systemic level.

Ultimately this message is about more than just business: it’s about creating a world that more closely resembles the one we want to live in. One in which all of us – consumers and companies alike – are being thoughtful about the downstream effects of our actions and asking ourselves hard questions about what is convenient or purely profit-driven vs. what is ethically responsible. After all, packaging is just one aspect of a much bigger picture – in order to truly make change, we have to be thoughtful about everything we do. This is just the first of a series of initiatives we’ll be announcing this year as part of our ongoing efforts to be a new kind of skincare company: one that is driven by values over profits and truly helping people achieve skin health by delivering the most strategic and effective products available anywhere.

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February 15, 2021

Dear Wholesale Partners,

You are no doubt aware that we are passionately devoted to the evolving science of skin health, but what we are writing to you about today is our devotion to the health of the planet. As a values-driven company, every single day we make decisions as a business that force us to be thoughtful about our impact – from sourcing ingredients to choosing packaging to creating operational efficiencies. 

A year like 2020 inevitably prompts radical change, and it’s this kind of kicker that has us making an important commitment to the greater good: putting an end to single use packaging, which in our case means samples. While samples have never been an area of focus for our brand, effective immediately and while supplies last, we are eliminating them directly to our customers as well as to our wholesale and esthetician partners.

There are two reasons for this:

1. Our products are formulated to deliver what the skin needs to function optimally and repair itself, and that process requires multiple weeks of consistent use. Considering our chief concern is product efficacy, samples don’t actually help us achieve that goal. Formulating the most effective topicals combined with strategic skin advice from our estheticians is our company’s most effective way to use our resources.  
2. One of the underreported catastrophes of the pandemic is that it’s led to an alarming resurgence of single use packaging across multiple industries, including food, health, and beauty. The plastics industry has recognized an opportunity to roll back the progress we’ve made on reducing single use plastics and cast doubt on the safety of reusables in favor of “safer” disposable options. This is, quite simply, an environmental nightmare – and it is unacceptable. We have always made conscious choices to reduce or eliminate packaging instead of depending on customers to recycle it; years ago we opted to forego outer packaging by putting our ingredients on the bottles products come in, which wasn’t popular at the time. We also decided to use glass bottles instead of plastic, and recycled materials for our shipping packaging. This is our next opportunity to make better choices to begin with so recycling or reusing isn’t necessary down the line.

As far as truths go, this one is inconvenient, but inevitable. The beauty industry loves samples and mini-sized products because they drive sales and brand exposure, but the reality is that this practice is incredibly harmful to the environment. While samples might help brands reap profits, there is a price, and it’s one we all pay when we don’t consider the full lifecycle of our products. Ending this wasteful practice is simply the right thing to do. 

We hope that by taking this stand, we can inspire others in our industry to more carefully examine their own practices and adopt ways to minimize their impact as well. We also hope to convey that this goes far beyond aesthetics. It’s not just the job of consumers to hold companies accountable – companies must hold themselves accountable as well. 

Because of this change, our partnership will be even more important. The need to educate customers and advise them on the best products for their individual needs is a shared path toward reducing waste. Years of experience working with our customers have taught us that when they are considering a purchase, what they really want is to transform/heal their skin. Helping them determine what is actually appropriate for them is the best way to conserve their time and money as well as our precious earth’s resources.

You may have read the recent blog post by our founder Marie Veronique Nadeau comparing the health of the planet with the health of the microbiome (if not, please do!). Here we’ll channel Marie and say that at this historical moment in time, it’s critical that we stop acting like pathogens on this planet and do the hard work required to modify our behavior so that it benefits everyone. It’s up to all of us to be thoughtful about the impact our choices have on the people, communities, and environment that we interact with and operate within.

We appreciate your ongoing partnership – together we can accomplish marvels.

The Marie Veronique team