UpCircle

Think cof­fee gro­un­ds col­lec­ted by bike from Lon­don cafes, fru­it seeds and blu­eber­ri­es from the juice indus­try and cha­mo­mi­le stal­ks from the tea indus­try.

Upcir­cle upcy­cles the­se was­te stre­ams into sur­pri­sin­gly nur­tu­ring skin­ca­re essen­ti­als for your bat­hro­om and on-the-go, pac­ka­ging them in easily recy­cla­ble and refil­la­ble pac­ka­ging. Curi­ous abo­ut the story of the pione­ering Upcir­cle brand? Read on quickly.

Ingredients

Upcir­cle star­ted out making cosme­tics from upcy­cled cof­fee gro­un­ds. But now the brand featu­res many more upcy­cled ingre­di­ents, such as chai her­bs, date seeds and flower petals. Each of the­se ingre­di­ents offers unique bene­fits to the skin or con­tri­bu­tes to the pro­duc­t’s fragrance.

More­over, the other ingre­di­ents in the cosme­tics are COSMOS-Appro­ved and con­ta­in no SLS, SLEs, para­bens, mine­ral oil, per­fu­me and sul­fa­tes. The upcy­cled ingre­di­ents them­sel­ves can­not be cer­ti­fi­ed beca­use they are resi­du­al pro­duc­ts from other industries.

For the­se indus­tri­es, such as the juice indus­try, wood indus­try, tea indus­try and shea but­ter indus­try, part­ne­ring with Upcir­cle is also bene­fi­ci­al beca­use it means they still earn somet­hing from the­ir resi­du­al pro­duc­ts, which are put to good use.

Beca­use the rema­ining ingre­di­ents are appro­ved by the COSMOS stan­dard, we can be sure that no har­m­ful che­mi­cals are pre­sent in the cosme­tics. Good news for both you and the pla­net! Some of the ingre­di­ents are also of orga­nic ori­gin; the­se are indi­ca­ted with an asterisk.

Howe­ver, pre­ser­va­ti­ves are requ­ired to ensu­re that your Upcir­cle pro­duct rema­ins good for 6 to 9 mon­t­hs after ope­ning. The pac­ka­ge sizes are tailo­red to this time peri­od so that you are not left with excess pro­duct. Upcir­cle con­si­ders what the best agent to add to a pro­duct is and cho­oses the most natu­ral and safe option.

People

All of Upcir­cle’s pro­duc­ts are ethi­cal­ly made in England. Upcir­cle has been wor­king with the same manu­fac­tu­rer sin­ce its incep­ti­on. The name and sta­te­ment regar­ding quality and good manu­fac­tu­ring prac­ti­ces of this fac­tory have been pro­vi­ded con­fi­den­ti­al­ly to COSH!

The brand also sup­ports seve­ral cha­ri­ti­es. For exam­ple, they make dona­ti­ons to cha­ri­ti­es to save fores­ts; One Tree Plan­ted, Ama­zon Fron­tli­nes and Rain­fo­rest Alli­an­ce. Huma­ni­ta­ri­an cha­ri­ti­es; Refu­ge (a cha­rity rela­ted to domes­tic violen­ce) and The Step­hen Lawren­ce Cha­ri­ta­ble Trust aga­inst inequ­ality. As well as the Save The Elep­hant Foun­da­ti­on to sup­port cap­ti­ve elephants.

In addi­ti­on to money, they have dona­ted pam­pe­ring pac­ka­ges to fron­tli­ne wor­kers and chil­dren’s books featu­ring pro­ta­go­nis­ts from eth­nic mino­ri­ti­es to more than 135 schools.

Thro­ugh Pro­ject Saaf Samu­dra in India, Upcir­cle gives com­mer­ci­al value to plas­tic that would otherwi­se end up in the sea. Was­te wor­kers rece­ive good wages, heal­th insu­ran­ce and access to a dig­ni­fi­ed wor­k­pla­ce. This pro­ject allows Upcir­cle to do the­ir work ​“plas­tic-nega­ti­ve” beca­use they col­lect more plas­tic than they use.

Having a diver­se team is also valu­ed at Upcir­cle’s headqu­ar­ters. Women, people of color, people with disa­bi­li­ti­es and mem­bers of the LGB­TQ+ com­mu­nity are stron­gly enco­ura­ged to apply for jobs at Upcircle.

Circular packaging

Upcir­cle’s pac­ka­ging is made of reusa­ble and recy­cla­ble mate­ri­als. The jars are glass and the lids are alu­mi­num. The pro­duc­ts that come in tubes have a tube made of alu­mi­num. The ​“soap bars” are in car­d­bo­ard boxes. Some glass jars like the serum have a pipet­te made of plas­tic or a plas­tic pump, but to redu­ce was­te, you can order refil­ls for the­se. At some zero-was­te sto­res you can even have your emp­ty con­ta­iners refil­led so the­re is no new pac­ka­ging involved.

Supply chain

The len­g­th of Upcir­cle’s sup­ply cha­in, vari­es by pro­duct. Beca­use the ingre­di­ents each have the­ir own ori­gin and some­ti­mes come from dif­fe­rent loca­ti­ons depen­ding on the season, it is dif­fi­cult to esta­blish an ave­ra­ge len­g­th of the cha­in. What we do know is that all ingre­di­ents are pro­ce­ssed local­ly into pro­duc­ts in the Uni­ted Kingdom.

Animal wellbeing

The brand uses only plant-based ingre­di­ents, so it is total­ly suita­ble for vegans! They also do not test on ani­mals; to guaran­tee that to you they have Leaping Bun­ny cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on and have an ​‘ani­mal tes­ting policy’.

Transparency

Upcir­cle is very tran­s­pa­rent abo­ut its sus­ta­ina­bi­lity story and ingre­di­ents. Only the­ir exact ori­gin is not known. The name of the fac­tory whe­re Upcir­cle pro­du­ces all its pro­duc­ts has been dis­clo­sed to COSH! Upcir­cle also answe­red all our ques­ti­ons in an inter­vi­ew. The­re­fo­re, Upcir­cle sco­res high on transparency.

Vision

Upcir­cle wants to go aga­inst the nega­ti­vity of the beauty indus­try and ins­te­ad wants to ins­pi­re self-con­fi­den­ce and aut­hen­ti­city. The­re­fo­re, the brand is body posi­ti­ve, gen­der neutral, for all ages and enco­ura­ges diver­sity. Upcir­cle’s models are cli­ents, family and fri­en­ds. Real beauti­es!

To make sure you get the most out of your Upcir­cle skin­ca­re routi­ne, the­re is a how-to video for each pro­duct with tips on how to use it.
 

Would you like to start a cir­cu­lar skin­ca­re routi­ne? At Upcir­cle, you’ll find all the pro­duc­ts you need to take care of your skin and make it glow, from day cre­am to scrub! Check the map below for local outlets.