I’m back with a new interview to add to the Sustainability Advocates interview series! This time, I’ve spoken with Yasmine Amr, the Founder of Boop Beauty, touted as ‘The Outnet’ for luxury beauty and wellness products. I’ll admit, I fell in love with the concept of Boop from the moment I heard about it. Boop works directly with beauty brands to help them sell products they couldn’t sell themselves – and this happens a lot more than you might think.
In my review of Boop, I shared the shocking statistic that an estimated 90 million beauty products being sent to landfill in the UK each year, and many of these are still in saleable condition. The reasons for this varies, but it’s often to do with poor stock management, limited editions, and product reformulations. Yasmine Amr has set out to tackle this – and so, I wanted to learn more about the beauty industry’s big waste problem, and how Boop is tackling this!
I hope you enjoy my interview with Yasmine, and go find yourself a bargain on Boop the next time you’re doing your beauty shopping!
In Conversation With: Yasmine Amr, Founder of Boop Beauty
1. What inspired you to start Boop?
I sort of stumbled into Boop! I spent years working in beauty as a lawyer and product waste was always part of the industry. No one really focused on finding a real solution to product destruction at the time. Brands usually donate a portion of excess stock to charities, but there’s a lot which gets destroyed.
I started looking into the facts and was shocked to realise that the equivalent of $4.8 billion worth of beauty products get destroyed annually! That’s 10% of all beauty products produced.
“Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this waste?”
I started to think, why isn’t anyone doing anything about this waste? For me, it just made no sense that resources like water would be used to create products – and you also have the emissions associated with manufacturing those products – only for a huge portion get destroyed.
That’s when I started to pay attention to all the factors which lead to products being destroyed. From overproduction and poor inventory management (which means stock doesn’t sell through quickly enough) to reformulations and imperfect products. When creating Boop, I focused on premium and luxury brands because I saw they didn’t currently have an outlet. There are options for mass market brands, but higher-end brands need to preserve their hard-earned brand value – which is tricky to do in an outlet environment.
I don’t view myself as an “eco-warrior”. I actually find being perfectly sustainable very overwhelming and I think that high bar really puts people off making sustainable choices. I’m more about the little changes people can make which, together, add up to something impactful. Basic things like turning off the tap while washing your face. I feel Boop helps people make those sustainable choices without robbing them of their little luxuries.
2. Why haven’t we heard about big beauty’s waste problem sooner than 2024?!
I’m as surprised as you! Personally, I feel it’s because waste has always been part of the beauty industry, in exactly the same way it’s been for food and fashion. You don’t notice it as much when it’s normalised. But people are starting to wake up to it – consumers as well as brands. We’ve got a better understanding of sustainable sourcing, the impact of landfill and how long it takes materials to decompose.
3. What can we do as beauty consumers to support a more sustainable beauty industry?
The most sustainable thing you can do is to use up what you’ve got. A lot of us are guilty of owning multiples of the same products – whether that’s moisturisers, tens of mascaras or a few eye creams all open at the same time. That’s usually because marketing has gotten the better of us and we think we need a product and it’ll fix all our problems.
“Ask brands what they’re doing and give them your feedback”
Alongside that, consumers have a powerful voice and should use it. Ask brands what they’re doing and give them your feedback (whether it’s as small as telling them you never use the tiny spatula that comes with your cream). You’d be surprised to see how they’ll adapt to what their customers want!
I also think shoppers need to be more open to sustainable alternatives. I’ve spoken to a lot of brands who have trialled refill products but found their customers weren’t interested, so they gave up.
4. What’s the overall vision for Boop? There must be so many big beauty brands who need help cleaning up their act!
I’d love for Boop to be a platform bringing consumers and brands together to build a more sustainable beauty industry. As we grow, I want to involve our sustainably-minded customer base in helping brands make decisions about their products, packaging and practices. Whether that’s something like testing the user experience of a new biodegradable packaging for a product or simply telling brands what their top concerns are when it comes to sustainability.
5. And finally, a fun one – which three skincare or beauty products could you not live without?
I never go a day without SPF – even in winter! I use a SkinCeuticals Mineral SPF which has a tint that works perfectly with my skin tone and gives me a bit of a glow. I’ve got quite oily skin so I love a good translucent powder. I’m currently using one from MAC. And a weird one… Lansinoh Nipple Cream makes an excellent lip balm for winter! It’s meant for breastfeeding but I swear whatever’s in it is magic.
Many thanks to Yasmine Amr for the interview! Discover all things Boop on their website and Instagram.
