Welcome to this Green Beauty Opinion on the challenges indie beauty faces in sourcing natural ingredients. Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier shares her views on the main takeouts from the podcast interview with Timo von Bargen of Covalo, a one-stop platform representing 40k beauty industry suppliers.

Lorraine welcomes the arrival of innovative marketplaces like Covalo and praises entities like in-cosmetics Global, which facilitate the matchmaking of suppliers with customers.

But, she reminds us that indie beauty has faced an enormous uphill struggle to be recognised by ingredients' manufacturers as a force in the industry. Even today, some in the industry don't understand that the indie businesses of today can be the giants of tomorrow.

Formula Botanica has seen this attitude change and is itself now approached by suppliers keen to reach indie beauty brands. However, the industry seems to have forgotten that some famous, decades-old beauty brands were in fact started by indie formulators.

Lorraine challenges us to connect and communicate as a collective voice to change the dominant culture in some quarters of beauty industry that downplays the value of indie business.

Listen in for a thought-provoking five minutes that challenges us to be the voice of change and integrity, making the beauty industry better and more sustainable.