ABOUT
Sage and Ylang is a green beauty brand, committed to being environmentally friendly while following its 3 pillars of sustainability: accountability, transparency and education. They use greener ingredient alternatives to create safe, effective, and ethical personal care products which target sensitive skin.
IMPACT
People
We choose our ingredients based on their green chemistry attributes. This further allows us to reduce our carbon footprint. In manufacturing our products, we use the cold process method which does not involve any use of heat. The production also uses conventional methods of manufacturing that use the hot process method where temperatures are as high as 80 Celsius to heat up raw ingredients. By using cutting-edge plant-derived emulsifiers, we are able to use the cold process method of manufacturing and this help reduces our carbon footprint tremendously. All Sage & Ylang products are made in their GMP manufacturing lab in Singapore. The brand sources the best ingredients from all over the world. They ensure that their suppliers hold membership to credible organizations for supply chain transparency around environmental and ethical efforts.
Product
With the ability to create products from scratch, Sage and Ylang aim to use greener sustainable ingredient alternatives to create safe, effective, ethical and environmentally friendly personal care products which target sensitive skin. They ensure that they thoroughly research and test every ingredient. More so, the team avoids the use of questionable and potentially toxic ingredients. Sage & Ylang adheres to the standards established by Beauty Heroes and Credo Clean Standard, and avoid ingredients listed under ‘the Dirty Dozen’. They even provide an extensive list of ingredients they avoid in their products on their website, such as petrochemical-derived ingredients. The brand mainly uses sustainable ingredient alternatives produced using green chemistry method and avoid controversial skincare ingredients such as PEGs due to the ethoxylation process that releases a chemical called 1,4-dioxane. They don’t use synthetic fragrances, EDTA, GMO or animal-based ingredients, sulphates, formaldehyde releasers, phenoxyethanol, parabens or silicone 4.
Packaging
Sage and Ylang uses mostly glass for its packaging. Instead of the usual glass, they choose a special type called the Miron Violet Glass. The glass material has the ability to preserve the freshness of the products, and they are recyclable. The brand has done away with outer packaging but offers biodegradable and reusable jute/canvas bags for bundle purchases. They pack the orders in recyclable postage boxes and also cushion them with wood or recycled paper shavings to protect the bottles from potential damage. They do not advocate excessive outer packaging in order to reduce waste.
Planet
As an environmentally-conscious brand, Sage and Ylang is committed to making their brand as sustainable as possible. They are consciously mindful of their carbon footprint, and constantly strive to make the label more environment-friendly. By sourcing natural and certified organic raw ingredients, avoiding petroleum-derived products, silicones or aluminium, they are able to be more conscious of their waste output. Most importantly, the brand formulates its products with safety, sustainability, and efficacy in mind, and source the best ingredients globally. All their ingredients are certified skin microbiome friendly. This includes almost 100% plant-origin, cold-pressed plant oils (organic whenever possible), and organic and wild-crafted essential oils. The preservatives used in water-based products are COSMOS approved to use in certified organic skincare products. To target specific skin-related issues, the brand does use a small percentage of synthetic actives/peptides. Additionally, the team carefully chose skincare actives based on their proven effectiveness and safety.
Principles
Sage and Ylang’s founder, Irene, is a former registered nurse and currently a Professional Organic Skincare Formulator. Her passion for creating a sustainable clean beauty product line started from a quest to find safer skincare alternatives for her teenage daughters. The brand’s ethos focuses on 3 pillars – accountability, transparency and education. Sage and Ylang also provides full disclosure of ingredients used and percentages of natural and certified organic raw ingredients on our product labels. The team wants to encourage their customers to be conscious of what they apply to their skin and hair. Additionally, the team wants to inform their customers on how certain ingredients might affect the environment. They also believe in responsible stewardship, meaning one should take care of the resources placed under his or her care.
