How Going #CleanBeauty Changed Me - Entepreuner Side

I started adapting the clean beauty lifestyle a year ago, and since then, it hasn't just changed my beauty product standards and the acne problem on my skin, but also other aspects beyond complexion.

Clean beauty is basically both a lifestyle and a movement against the conventional, or other words, 'dirty' beauty that most cosmetic industries have been indirectly promoting; the false philosophy of beauty itself that leaves out the important notion of beauty without damaging, how beauty is beyond the physical, how beauty means both looking good and feeling good. Under all those vibrantly pigmented lipsticks, sleek-giving hair products, alluring rosy fragrances, soft shimmery powders, sparkling facial mists, silky-hydrating serums lies tons of allergenic, cancer-giving, cell-damaging, toxic cheap synthetic chemicals forming what they are. Our skin, which is pretty much alive and behaves like a sponge, absorbs all of these in just approximately 28 seconds after application, which in total was calculated that we 'ingest' 168 harmful chemicals every single day, all going straight to the bloodstream, circulating the entire body. So, pretty on the outside, but lethal on the inside. I don't see the beauty in this at all?

One of my goals in life is to start my own business. As my passion towards green beauty and living grows, I've been eager to to combine both into a single goal. It was when I began to face challenges on maintaining this lifestyle did it open up a golden opportunity for me to create the first natural beauty e-store in Indonesia: Nature's Haul.

Since I was 12, my dad had been giving me books about smart money-spending, money-making, money-saving (for teens) and signed me up to business schools. Once during 7th grade he also made me sell snacks at school to gain experience on earning my own money. In the beginning, I've always love the idea of crafting, offering it to people, gaining money in return, and most of all, being my own boss. 

I have a business notebook where I used to take notes at during my classes on 2010 (where the two pics below are taken from) and I still use it until this day to write down business ideas; from selling souvenirs, homemade cupcakes, homemade sushi, fashionable modest clothing, self-designed accessories and self-made illustrations. Some of them didn't last long, some failed midway and some didn't even came to life. The failed ones were because of poor preparation, poor funds, and having no help. Reselling clothes lasted longer than the others, but I gradually found it mundane then felt completely unmoved to continue. Then I realized my passion was not in tune with the business action I'm doing, which was only limited to selling someone's stuff and getting some money in return, with little space to be creative and innovative. 

Now referring to my lifestyle problem, I can no longer buy from mainstream beauty stores and supermarkets, because none of them supply the products containing the ingredients that match let alone surpass my 'clean' standards. Reading their ingredients list always end up disappointing, no matter what their labeling claims them as. 99% of my shopping is now done online. It took a lot of effort to browse through the web for the products I need, and a great deal of it on finding affordable options. Then there's that possibility of the product not working as well as I need it to be. Most people probably have experienced that 'culture shock', knowing the usual beauty needs they need daily now costs triple or five times their usual ones, though yes I agree it's worth the value of our health. It look a while for me to adapt with the prices, I went from "30rb for a bar of soap!!????" to know "omg my favorite soap is on sale, only 105rb for this week only!"

I did eventually encounter on many affordable yet high quality products which I found out were actually belonged to small local business. I didn't know there were actually so many local-branded natural skincare lines, and some being as high quality as imported products. I can't help thinking how many Indonesians out there are just like me with their own skin problems and beauty beliefs trying to make the same switch but couldn't even start properly because they don't know where to get everything? I've been jealous of Australia for having tons of e-stores like this, I could only follow their Instagram pages and constantly hope from behind my phone screen for such e-store for fellow Indonesians like me.

One day I felt like all these things were an offering to me: My desire to create and innovate, my dream to start a business, my knowledge of green and clean health & beauty, my passion for clean beauty and living, infos of natural local-branded stores I've gathered, my habits on keeping a close eye to the online shop world - it all adds up. It was me I've been hoping for. 

Figuring out the name didn't take as long as I thought it would be, 'Nature's Haul' suddenly popped out on my head. It defines a gathered collection by mother nature. I found it short, simple, straight forward and easily defined and remembered. The main concept is about offering clean, conscious and compassionate beauty whilst still being contemporary, chic and unisex, which leads to me to sell natural, organic, eco-friendly and cruelty-free beauty products. I use the simplest selling system which is connecting with suppliers and producers and resell their brand that follows Nature's Haul's philosophy. Over the past year, it's been an enlightening experience on understanding the world of clean beauty and green living better, connecting and working together with people that share the same passion, a different kind of way to get creative and innovative, and knowing I could be involved in this movement in an impactful way (and earning money in return).

I've grown to understand how business is such a powerful 'medium' to convey my passion and beliefs towards clean beauty and green living. There is a richness I could fill between its seemingly-rigid system of producing and selling, and so much value I could gain in return than just money. It is converting the world of green living into the economic system, becoming the needs of society, which potentially creates green-conscious customers. This allows me to provide products that serves to become the needs to achieve that lifestyle, and the entire system that takes for that product to be sold (product curating, strategy of marketing, atmosphere of workspace, service, collaborations, signature design) to embody the spirit, hence becoming an inspiration for both the customers and workers behind it.

This is the kind of future I've painted vividly on my head for Nature's Haul. Even though I currently still have more ideas than the funds to fulfill them, and no team, plus the challenge of not just promoting my products, but promoting the reason why people should even consider the products I'm selling, especially when you live in a country with still very little awareness of clean beauty, I enjoy growing it everyday. It might be small, but it is a seed. What keeps me going is not by seeing the smallness of its form, but knowing and believing the grandness of its potential.


With Love, S


P.S. If you're an owner of a natural skincare brand or also someone with similar passion towards clean beauty, please don't hesitate to connect with me. You have no idea how much I appreciate coming across people like you.