NATURAL HABITAT
GREEN BEAUTY MECCA CREDO IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF A MOVEMENT—AND IT’S COMING TO BROOKLYN. BY CHRISTINA CLEMENTE
Green beauty mecca Credo is at the forefront of a movement—and it’s coming to Brooklyn.
Shashi Batra, founder of the one-stop green beauty hub Credo, was not always focused on clean living, but when he moved to San Francisco in the late 1990s as one of the founding members of Sephora USA, something changed. “The move out West made me appreciate the profound connection we all have to the environment, and how beauty and healthy living can be completely interdependent,” he says. At the time, the world of cosmetics was not ready for such a shift, explains Batra: “We could not find the brands that could give us a significant clean beauty platform, and the age of information was not prevalent enough to justify pursuing it.”
Not so anymore. In 2015 Batra launched Credo’s e-commerce site with over 100 natural beauty brands. Clearly onto something, he quickly followed suit with brick-and-mortar shops in San Francisco and New York’s Nolita, with a location opening in Williamsburg in March. With an inventory that includes Tata Harper and the maritime-inspired line Osea, Batra says nature-conscious companies differ from those of the past because they focus on both clean ingredients and beautiful packaging. “We call this the ‘naturals 2.0 movement,’ and our goal is to give them a national platform that is as authentic and transparent as they are.” 99 N. Sixth St., Williamsburg; credobeauty.com