Evolve Beauty
Evolve Beauty
Having helped to set up the Nude Skincare brand a few years ago British ethical entrepreneur Laura Rudoe has now developed her own range of organic personal care products called evolve beauty. Rudoe noticed that, while Nude was providing healthy organic competition for the high end mainstream cosmetic brands, there was a gap in the market for, as she puts it, "a more affordable alternative to conventional beauty & toiletry products."
Believing that natural and ethical skincare should be accessible to everyone Rudoe has developed a wide ranging brand, featuring skincare, bodycare and haircare products, at prices that won't crease your brow. What's more evolve beauty products are certified organic, certified not tested on animals and all produced in the UK. Laura Rudoe talks to Planet Green about how her family life has influenced and inspired her entrepreneurial career in ethical beauty.
Planet Green: How did you get into this line of work?
Laura Rudoe: I decided I wanted to work for a "good" business and so I joined an ethical start up as the first employee. I helped Bryan Meehan of Fresh & Wild set up the natural skincare range Nude Skincare. Then I founded Good Ventures, an ethical product development company and created evolve beauty which are certified organic eco beauty products, packaged in recycled bottles made from milk bottle plastic.
PG: When did the green bug strike?
LR: My influences growing up were an interest in science and green issues which I got from my father. It wasn't his job but just a deep personal interest which I inherited. He is also a person of great personal integrity and this probably influenced my view that some things are "just the right thing to do".
PG: Who is your green hero?
LR: John Grant — an innovative and super creative thinker — I love his writing and I am lucky enough to be working with him on a project at the moment.
PG: What is your ultimate green goal?
LR: To make green products that lots of people actually want to buy and to involve people so they buy more mindfully.
PG: What is your motivation?
LR: My mother is a big influence as she is a successful entrepreneur and runs her own business. This gave me a great female role model and a "can do" attitude. My mother and grandmother are from Romania. My grandmother, who lived with us when I grew up, got me interested in natural beauty and alternative medicine (which is very popular over there to this day) and we used to make a lot of our own beauty products at home.
PG: What is most important to you, ecologically speaking?
LR: At my ethical design company Good Ventures we think about consumer products and how to make them a little greener. Because evolve is in the fast moving consumer goods category the best way to make it green is to make the products as light touch as possible: recycled, fully recyclable and manufactured in the UK for a low carbon footprint.
PG: What is the most challenging part of your job?
Finding the time to fit everything in, running a start up business single handedly, and having a 11 month old (he was 4 months when I launched evolve).
PG: What is the most rewarding?
LR: When people tell me that they really like what I have created.
PG: Of the people you have worked with, who impresses you most?
LR: Violaine Bargues who has helped me with both ranges I have created. She has a great eye and an instinctive understanding of what makes a good product.
PG: What green thing do you do everyday?
LR: Recycle. I've just moved house and we can recycle lots more here, which makes me happy.
PG: What do you wish you could do?
LR: I wish we could generate our own electricity, but we live in a rented house so that plan is on hold for now.
PG: What is your biggest eco-sin?
LR: We sometimes use non biodegradable nappies on my baby because the bio / reusable ones give him a nappy rash.
PG: If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
LR: To make people more mindful of their impact on each other and on the planet
PG: What is your best green advice?
LR: When it comes to green start ups —keep it lean, get it out there and then refine.
Change Makers is series of interviews with people famous and obscure who are creating a more sustainable world through their work. Meet more Change Makers here.
