UpCircle Q&A

Anna: "Hi! My name is Anna and I am one of the co-founders of UpCircle Beauty. I'm going to be answering questions that Lovethical have sent me about who we are and what we do."

Question: How would you describe UpCircle?

Anna: "Here at UpCircle we make sustainable skincare products from ingredients which would otherwise be discarded. Our products are always natural, vegan, cruelty-free, handmade in the UK in 100% recyclable packaging. We're also palm oil free and ocean friendly as well. We take by-products from other industries and breathe new life into them as high-performing skincare ingredients."

Question: What ingredients do you repurpose into your products?

Anna: "We started out with the coffee grounds that we collect from over a hundred small chain and independent coffee shops across London, then we turn those into our exfoliators and face serum. We also now repurpose a further nine different ingredients into our products. Those include powdered fruit stones like olive stones that are the by-product of making olive oil - we use those in our face mask - argan shells that are a by-product of making argan oil - we use those in our base moisturiser - our body cream is made with repurposed date seed extract, which is a by-product of date farming. We also use residual fruit waters like mandarin fruit water - a by-product making juice concentrates- chamomile stem extract, maple bark extract - a by-product from the wood industry - so a huge variety of different upcycled ingredients that have fantastic skincare benefits."

Question: What values does your company stand for?

Anna: "UpCircle's values are extremely important; being an ethical brand is completely central to everything we do. We go to a huge effort to upcycle the ingredients that we use in our products, and it would be pretty pointless doing that if everything else didn't stack up from an ethical or planet-friendly standpoint as well. So, for example, it's important that our packaging is equally as limited in terms of the impact that it has on our planet as possible, so we try to minimise plastic where possible. We also make all of our products by hand in the UK. I think that handmade products just there's that extra bit of care and love that goes into every single one of them. We are also palm oil free. We're ocean friendly, so we will never include ingredients that could have a damaging impact on marine life or coral, for example. All of these things are incredibly important to us and we take great care to ensure that our ingredients, our manufacturing processes, and everything down the supply chain is fair trade, ethical and something that we can be proud of. Our products are all also vegan and cruelty-free as well; it's important to me that the products that we make and sell have at no point harmed anyone, be it human or animal. It's also completely unnecessary in my opinion to use animal ingredients or animal derived ingredients, nor animal testing, and we won't sell our products in China for that reason either."

Question: How was it appearing on Dragons' Den?

Anna: "About two and a half years ago we had an appearance on Dragons' Den which, yes, was absolutely as nerve-wracking as you might imagine. We must have gone three, four or five times to the back of the room to have these conversations and figure out what earth we were going to do on the spot before going back and and giving counter offer after counter offer, before we eventually shook hands with two of the dragons. Terrifying, extremely rewarding, I feel like all public speaking is now a walk in the park by comparison so that's obviously positive, but yeah a great experience overall."

Question: What is your favourite UpCircle product?

Anna: "My current favourite product from our range is our face toner, although I get asked what my favourite product is very often and my answer changes a lot, it's hard to choose. Our face toner is one of our more recent launches. It's made with the residual water of mandarin fruit, and also chamomile stem extract - a bit of a mouthful! Both of those are repurposed ingredients that we have never worked with before, and it's also exciting to be making a formulation that has multiple repurposed ingredients blended into one. The mandarin water, for example, is a by-product of the juicing industry. So, the mandarin is grown organically in the Mediterranean and it is squeezed and the water is evaporated off it in order to produce juice concentrates, and that evaporated water is what we are using in the toner, one that is also enriched with vitamins, minerals, amino acids and functional actives that have great benefits for your skin. I also love keeping this product in my handbag throughout the day, spritzing it straight onto my face; it's instantly refreshing and it gives added hydration throughout the day."

Question: What about UpCircle makes you most proud?

Anna: "I'm really proud of the team that we have grown; with each new member of staff that we bring in to team UpCircle there is a new wave of energy, excitement, passion and individualism that I absolutely love, I find it very very exciting. Yeah, with every new person that we bring in I find that hugely rewarding and I'm incredibly proud of the work that each and every member of our team puts in, and the effects that that has on growing our brand. I feel very privileged now to be doing something that I'm so passionate about, and something that makes me feel good at the end of the day, as well as makes our customers feel good when using our products."