COSMETICS BUSINESS LIVE
BRITISH BEAUTY COUNCIL
The importance of beauty activism
Speaker Millie Kendall, OBE T
he British Beauty Council’s aim has always been to raise the reputation of the industry, safeguard its future, nurture its talent and harness its power to push for change. Activism is intrinsically linked to identity. We use products and treatments to project the strongest version of ourselves into the world. And this can give us confidence and a voice, which we need to become an activist. What’s more, to me, beauty is intrinsically linked with identity politics. And this really allows for personal expression.
Five years ago, I turned 50, and it was around the time that the country voted for Brexit, Donald Trump was elected, David Bowie died – and I thought the whole world was crashing down on me. I felt that I couldn’t sit around and watch life just go on without doing something to control it. So I found a
BRITISH CANNABIS
CANNABINOIDS CATCH UP: CBD, CBG & THEIR USES Speaker Matt Birt
The cannabis plant has been used for thousands of years – as early as 8,000BC – as a medicine. The word ‘cannabis’ comes from the Latin name. The other name you will often hear is hemp, or industrial hemp, which is usually used to describe cannabis that has a THC content of less than 0.2%, or, in the US, 0.3%, because they have recently raised it. The headline grabber for cannabis is the cannabinoids: CBD and CBG. But it is important when talking about cannabis, especially with relevance to cosmetics, that there are many other parts of the plant that are also beneficial as well. The seed oil has been shown to have a very similar breakdown of fatty acids to human skin. Along with that, the other molecules that cannabis is famous for are terpenes. These are fragrance molecules that are found in
22 December 2022
many different species of plants, which are notable in cannabis for giving the strains the silly names that they end up getting, like Super Lemon Haze, for example. But, talking about the cannabinoids
themselves, the key cannabinoid that you may have heard of is THC, the one that is responsible for the sensation of feeling high. It is not the only controlled drug in cannabis. The other controlled molecule is CBN, which gives that drowsy effect. But there are many other cannabinoids
in the plant that are not controlled. The two most famous in that instance are CBD and CBG.
THE ENDOCANNABINOID SYSTEM The reason that these work in humans is because every single person has what is called an endocannabinoid system. This is
a sequence of receptors that runs throughout the body and they are essentially little proteins at the edge of your cells, normally in nerve cells, but they are present in almost every single cell of the body. And you actually internally produce your own cannabinoids. What we commonly term
phytocannabinoids are the ones that are present in cannabis and which interact with these receptors in similar (and sometimes different) ways to cause effects. There are two types of receptors: CB1 and CB2, and they pretty much work in the same way.
KEY CANNABINOIDS CBD is probably fast becoming the most commonly known cannabinoid. It is non- psychoactive, non-intoxicating and is used
cosmeticsbusiness.com
Millie Kendall (right) spoke on behalf of the British Beauty Council
group of like-minded people and we clubbed together to create something called the British Beauty Council. And through that work at the British Beauty Council, I now promote cross-industry collaboration to ignite both top down and grassroots activism. Primarily, what we do is ensure that the government and consumers recognise the value of the beauty industry to the British economy and its social impact.
WHAT IS BEAUTY ACTIVISM? The definition of activism is the action
of vigorous campaigning to bring about political and social change. So how does beauty relate to this? I believe that everyone becomes an activist as soon as they use a beauty product. Beauty is a medium through which we can all manipulate ourselves to promote a message. And that message is about what we truly believe in.
Examples of activism include our The Courage to Change report, published in 2020, which said one in seven people changed to a more sustainable beauty product in the prior three months, and 88% of consumers want brands to do
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