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For many of us mornings are a time to float through our routines on autopilot. We brush our teeth, get dressed, slap on some concealer – most of which we do while dreaming glassy-eyed of comfy bed sheets. A wellness ritual, our mornings are not. Yet, Melodie Reynolds, founder of Elate Cosmetics, wants to challenge our tendencies to move through mornings as robots. For her, mornings are more than simply putting on concealer because we feel compelled to. This mother of two sees mornings as valuable moments that she spends on herself. And, the art of putting on makeup is part of her morning wellness ritual for both herself and the world around her.
This epiphany – of transforming her everyday routine into a wellness ritual – was the beginning of Elate Cosmetics. Melodie wanted to create products and a lifestyle that could help others rediscover their power and unique beauty in the small moments it takes to apply a blush. Or mascara. Or a bold lipstick. For Melodie, it’s Elate’s Glowing Loose Powder, Universal Creme, Brow Balm, Mascara and a vibrant Lipstick color (she’s really into their Lively Sheer Lipstick right now). For her, creating and wearing makeup is a time to consciously pamper herself and to take conscious actions to make the world well again. And, she began sharing this lifestyle from her very own kitchen. It was there a few years ago that the sustainable beauty brand began with a ethos centered around helping women celebrate their own beauty while minimizing their impact on the environment.
Part of her emphasis on her brand’s environmental impact dates back to when Melodie became aware of the standardization of chemical dumping from companies in the 1980s. “As a kid I remember it affecting me in terms of, ‘hang on, before now there was no one telling you how much toxic waste you can dump into a river. That seems crazy,” Melodie explains.
For the first few years Melodie ran her business from her basement and created her products from her kitchen. Now, Elate runs out of multiple labs with a head office in Vancouver Island. Although they run on a larger scale than her days as a home-based business, Elate Cosmetics remains as transparent as possible throughout the supply chain and ensures that they are working to their sustainability capacity- from where they source their certified clean ingredients to how products are transported to their customers.
To date, more than 75% of their ingredients are organic. Mica, often used in their eye shadows, is only sourced from suppliers who are members of the Responsible Mica Initiative. Bamboo, a star ingredient in Elate’s packaging, is sourced from green-certified and fair-trade manufacture that does not use chemicals during the treatment process. All Elate products are certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny and Beauty Without Bunnies by PETA.
Externally, the company measures the transport of their ingredients to the labs, the energy used to create both the products and packaging and transport of products to customers. Internally, office challenges like initiatives to reduce water usage, biking to work or bringing homemade lunch are all ways that Elate employees focus on sustainability.
When it comes to waste the brand is 75% waste free and aims to reach its goal to become 100% plastic and waste free in the near future.
In 2020 the brand obtained the B-corp certification which highlights the success they have achieved in creating a balance between profit and purpose to build a more sustainable economy. To obtain the certification a brand’s impact is accessed across several areas – community, environment, supply chain, etc.- through a rating system that ranges from 0 to 100. The median score for ordinary brands is 50.9. To obtain a B Corp certification brands can only qualify with a score of 80. It should be noted that Elate’s Overall B Impact Score is 93.1.
Up next is the regulation of waste in the beauty industry. And Elate, led by the passionate Melodie, is a leader in the values of both the environment and self worth.