10 minutes
AT a time when everyone is blindly chasing beauty fads, local au-natural skincare and beauty label The Mineraw is on a quest to battle excessive consumption by stripping beauty routines back to their absolute bare basics.
Inspired by a love for nature and the human body, Jidienne Ibanez created The Mineraw to bring us raw ingredients from the earth through consciously handcrafted products, blending powerful and natural healing agents to promote skin revitalisation and regeneration.
Many consumers tend to fall for big brands’ extensive list of patented formulas and proprietary ingredients that promise remarkable beauty miracles – with familiar phrases like “pore-tightening, spot-free, skin-whitening, anti-ageing, 24-hour hydration that will also make you look younger” – all in the span of a few weeks.
Promises like these are too good to be true. One on hand, it’s important to maintain a consistent beauty routine, on the other, the practicality of a 10-step beauty regime seems incredibly unnecessary and extra.
Not to mention, most off-the-shelf beauty products contain a certain amount of chemically-laced synthetics, so you should ask yourself: do you really want that on your skin?
On that note, Jidienne herself explains that there are “too many ingredients, too many promises, too many steps to using the products, too much knowledge needed of your own skin in order to know what suits you, too many ads with lines like ‘side effects may include’, too much money required.”
She adds: “Companies are creating products with ingredient labels that read like a science lesson, but that’s not what I’m looking to be a part of.
“I’m mostly concerned with The Mineraw itself rather than anyone else or the beauty industry as a whole, simply turning my passion into something I can be proud of. “
“I wanted to create something that cuts out the nonsense, creating skincare for all skin types which is easy to use and understand, packaged in recyclable containers. Hence our tagline – fewer ingredients, superior results.”
To get a dynamite skin glow, Jidienne’s answer is ‘simplicity’. Over the years, she honed her craft through intensive research and by studying her skin, as well as testing numerous ingredients to finally create a series of all-natural, no-b.s. products consisting of no more than five ingredients each.
The Mineraw prides itself as natural, vegan, cruelty-free, eco-friendly and free of nasties. But given the constant shift in the beauty landscape, there is so much false information about natural skincare that can be quite overwhelming.
It’s also important to note that what works for one person may not work for all.
Jidienne explains: “For anyone unsure about natural skincare, I’d suggest you block out the noise and simply try it for yourself. Make your own decision on what does and doesn’t work for you, rather than follow what someone else wants you to believe.
“Natural skincare, in my opinion, should be a part of everyone’s routine. There’s no golden rule about whether it’s more effective or not, while of course, taking great care of your skincare routine is desirable.”
In the midst of the climate crisis, the talk of sustainability has become all the rage. Can beauty truly be eco-friendly?
For Jidienne, any effort made by brands to reduce their carbon footprint is better than nothing, and should be celebrated.
She says: “[For] small businesses like us, yes I think so. We use recyclable, reusable packaging in the form of unbleached recycled kraft board paper boxes, and if possible, we will even reuse packaging that we’ve received too.
“We source as ethically and sustainably as we possibly can. We are a plastic-free brand, however we do reuse any bubble wrap that is ever accidentally sent to us by our suppliers.
“We even have a ‘drop off your empties’ policy, where we will give a rebate on your next purchase for bringing back your empty containers so they can be reused if possible.
“In scale, this would be difficult for bigger brands, though it’s great to see brands working towards a more sustainable future. It certainly affects my purchasing decisions, and not just within beauty.”
