DIEUX SKIN
An open dialogue
To describe Charlotte Palermino, who co-founded Dieux Skin along with cosmetics chemist Joyce de Lemos and creative director Marta Freedman, as “passionate” would be an understatement. Whether she’s talking about Montreal (where she lived for six years before moving to New York) or Dieux Skin’s mission, her enthusiasm is contagious. “We want to make the beauty industry a positive place,” she says. “Instead of listing all the ingredients we’ve excluded from our products, we highlight those that are included and their skin benefits. We use our platforms to educate consumers, whether it’s about cosmetics-industry regulations, research certifying the effectiveness of our ingredients, ways of optimizing products at home or options available for reducing our environmental footprint. We want to help them make better choices by giving them a better understanding of their skincare from A to Z.”
The first product they launched is a perfect example of this drive to do better: reusable eye patches to replace the disposable ones that end up in landfills. “The idea was to rethink a popular practice in a more sustainable way,” explains Palermino. “Sheet masks work by forming a tight barrier that traps the serums they’ve been soaked in against the skin. Our reusable medical-grade-silicone patches harness this process to transform any skincare product in your beauty kit into an eye mask—except instead of being thrown out after use, they can be washed in warm water and soap and returned to their tin for future use. We say they can last up to one year because that’s how long we’ve tested them, but in all honesty, I’ve been using the same pair for two years.” While silicone isn’t biodegradable, buying just one pair of patches significantly reduces the waste generated by this type of product and adds further uses to skincare products you already have at home.
This is what Palermino describes as “creating the best kind of waste possible.”
“I don’t want to say that our brand is sustainable, because by selling something, we are supporting consumption,” she says. “Our philosophy is to stay humble and constantly try to improve our practices. We do this by limiting unnecessary packaging, using recycled and recyclable materials and, above all, striving to change mindsets in order to have a real impact on sustainability in the industry.”