#LifeLokal: How For Keeps Clean Beauty evokes a strong attachment to the environment and your skincare journey
Finding “the one” is a process that takes time. But once you find the perfect partner or essential, you end up in a euphoric state, believing they’re meant to last a lifetime. This is the emotion that For Keeps Clean Beauty hopes to evoke in its customers.
With the goal of being #KindToBody and #KindToPlanet, the skincare brand has been gaining waves among beauty aficionados for its “radically honest” line of products. The concept of “clean beauty” that aims to be kind to all skin types and the environment is a tall order, but the up-and-coming brand aims to redefine the popular term with an intentional approach to beauty.
For Keeps Clean Beauty is made with people and the planet in mind, according to President and Founder Pia Sy and Ana Niguidula, Partner and Formulator. Both empowered females with a passion for beauty, they hope that customers would see the brand as a brainchild crafted by strong Filipinos.
With purposeful goals in mind, For Keeps Clean Beauty aims to practice kindness through its thoughtfully-made products. The skincare brand is composed of thoughtfully-made hand sanitizers, hand and body wash, bar soaps, and massage oils in three variants: Arise, Unwind, and Cleanse.
What’s the story behind the brand’s name?
“For keeps” is described as an emotional response or reaction to connote a strong attachment to someone or something. In other words, it means forever. We want our skincare brand to evoke that kind of strong feeling. Similar to when a person finds the right partner in life, we want our products to [be considered] as someone’s “for keeps” or forever. For us, this is what For Keeps Clean Beauty is all about.
How does your Filipino heritage/culture influence your brand values and identity?
As Filipinos, we’re known to be hospitable and caring. One of the core values of For Keeps Clean Beauty is kindness, and it is something we exercise not just in the formulation of the products but also in the way we run the business. [At the same time], we want to show kindness to our staff and the way we interact with our customers. We aim to apply this core value since [it is a trait] that Filipinos are [consistently] known for. To add, this includes the choices made in regard to the environment, the things that we put in our products, and the way we deal with the people who work with us.
What do you think is the biggest challenge in skincare and how do you make sure your brand stands out from the rest?
The biggest challenge in skincare is that marketing can claim anything. Marketing can go as far as being honest or completely the opposite. And to be honest, it’s very challenging for a brand that tends to stick to a “radically honest” branding to swim against all this. We tend to claim the same things that everyone is claiming, but for us, we are intent and so heartfelt when we say that the brand is good for the environment and for the people.
We also considered coming up with something that is safe, considerate, and gentle for all skin types. Of course, each person would have their own specific needs and responses but at the end of the day, we are all humans. [We also considered] the point of [creating products] that all skin types can respond to. So, this is why we had clean beauty in mind. We had to make sure that every formulation would be considerate of the environment, and that the products can be used by children and senior citizens.
From your own experience, how has social media helped your brand?
Social media is everybody’s marketing tool these days. It is everyone’s magazine these days—just like ours. Right now, we’re just making sure that our social media platforms maintain the brand’s honesty. In other words, we want them to just speak our story and our desires. I think this is how a brand goes beyond social media, and that’s how we’re using it as a tool.
How do you want your customers to feel when they’re using your products?
We want the customers to feel that they’re taken care of. We want them to feel like they’re being soothed. We also want them to feel that the brand is thinking of their well-being. It’s really difficult to claim that you’re environment-friendly unless you’re the type of customer who’s informed and willing to read the product’s ingredients. But even so, we intend to look at how the customer feels and how the environment is reflected through our products.
Although we have every customer in mind, we want For Keeps Clean Beauty to be a global thing that takes pride in Filipino workmanship, ethics, and values. We also hope that the brand provides livelihood to suppliers by creating products that use Filipino ingredients that can hopefully help other communities.
