Cathy Tolpigin, founder of The Green Edit delivered two successful industry events: The Beauty Summit + Brand Showcase on Thursday March 16 2023 at 12-Micron in Sydney.
Cathy's mission with The Green Edit is to support the evolution of the beauty industry towards one that is better for us and our planet. She champion's high performing, ethical beauty and wellness brands and connects them with top tier media, influencers, spas, clinics, international and Australian retailers and conscious consumers to provide promotional and distribution opportunities.
From left: Trudi Jaye - founder Retreatment Botanics, Cindy Luken - founder Luk Beautifood, Cathy Tolpigin - founder The Green Edit, Nina Hargrave, founder Serene Body Health, Janel Hayward - founder Ipsum Skin, Anna Mitsios - founder Edible Beauty and Elle Halliwell founder Auricle Ear Seeds.
The two industry events were created as a direct response to the needs heard from brand founders as well as feedback received from media, influencers, retailers, spas and clinics. The new format provided brand founders and those working in the beauty industry with more opportunities for connection, inspiration and the opportunity to gain knowledge from three curated industry panels featuring 14 key media, retailer and industry experts on the trends and insights that are influencing the clean beauty industry in 2023.
Founder + Curator of The Green Edit - Cathy Tolpigin
Event 1:
The Beauty Breakfast Summit Event 8am - 12:30pm
Attending guests included beauty and wellness brand founders, those working for beauty brands, formulators, cosmetic chemists, beauty editors, retailers, media, marketing experts, business coaches, packaging experts, brand and design strategists, PR, legal support and so many more industry professionals who enjoyed a beautiful breakfast together for a morning of connection, inspiration and insight.
This event provided a really unique opportunity for the beauty industry to come together and talk about their businesses, soundboard ideas and feel part of a supportive community.
MC Alison Rice presented set the tone for our morning together, offering some powerful words of wisdom and encouragement around the topic of what it means to build something that means something, and how to navigate feelings of fear, hopelessness and defeat.
Cathy Tolpigin and event MC and speaker Alison Rice founder of Offline and guests connecting over breakfast canapés and delicious coffee from the Qantas Marketplace coffee cart.
Industry Expert Panel
Industry Experts Panel, from left: Cathy Tolpigin - The Green Edit, Francine Kinkade - Maddocks, Mikko Helle - Active Pharma Group and Thomas Moult - Buttr Marketing.
Cathy Tolpigin moderated the Industry experts panel featuring speakers Francine Kinkade - Maddocks, Mikko Helle - Active Pharma Group and Thomas Moult - Buttr Marketing. Topics covered included the importance of safeguarding what makes a brand unique, key knowledge when working with formulation and packaging suppliers to create the highest quality products and most sustainable packaging solutions and how to navigate the ever changing landscape of social media whilst creating on brand content which achieves profitable growth as well as the latest trends on TikTok and user generated content.
Brand Design + Strategy
Linda Jukic, founder of Accompany Group, the award winning Brand and Design studio based in Sydney, shared key knowledge on brand definition, expression and cultivation with the skincare and beauty brand founders in the room.
She was surprised by the stickiness of her provocation that "We’re clean, green and I developed the product because I was pregnant and started noticing nasties in skincare and beauty products" was not enough of a brand story in 2023. (she has been a clean, green skincare and beauty user for nearly a decade, tbh she got into it via motherhood herself. Over that time she has seen phenomenal growth and evolution of the category and in the context of today’s market and projected growth the story needs to be more).
Linda and her team at Accompany Group designed the much loved branding for The Green Edit and she left the audience wanting to hear and learn more.
Media Expert Panel
Moderator Elle Halliwell - The Australian, Danielle Gay - Gritty Pretty, Sally Hunwick - Marie Claire, Elise Wilson - Are Media.
We know that visibility and a voice is key to media cut-through, guests heard from four influential beauty editors from both print and digital media who shared insights on how to gain that elusive media cut-through. Specifically what gets them curious and excited when seeking beauty products to feature and how best to make media connections.
Retail Expert Panel
Moderated by Erin Hawken - Nourished Netherlands and featuring Erin Norden - Clean Beauty Market, Elysha Sullivan - Sephora Australia and Elizabeth Roberts - RIISE.
Gaining the attention of buyers is a key challenge for any brand looking to grow their distribution and our guests heard valuable insights from decision making beauty buyers about what they look for when curating products for their store, the latest consumer trends and how a beauty brand can stand out from the pack.
Look Good Feel Better Partnership
As a makeup artist, Cathy loves supporting LGFB over the years by running skincare and makeup workshops for women undergoing cancer treatment.
And in the lead up to this event she donated a portion of ticket sales to this incredible organisation and facilitated a fundraising gifting collaboration with the help of some incredible summit guests (beauty brands). And together they raised enough money to fund two face to face workshops for 20 participants - so that is $2200. A big thank to the brands who joined in, donated and supported LGFB.
Carol Kavurma, General Manager of LGFB Australia shared with beauty industry guests how they could best support LGFB in 2023.
A Networking Event Like No Other
Following the beauty summit panel discussions, guests were treated to Altina Drinks - zero alcohol drinks created with Australian botanical ingredients and no added sugar and had the opportunity to connect with panel speakers and like-minded professionals from across the industry. The energy in the room was incredible as fellow brand founders connected and many became new friends.
Cathy was so proud to have Qantas Marketplace as an event partner at the Beauty Summit to celebrate their new launch. The Qantas Marketplace team are growing their online clean and sustainable beauty offering in 2023 and the beauty category team attended the event to meet and connect with aligned beauty brands. A big thank you to the Qantas team for treating beauty summit guests to coffee.
A big thank you to Retail Beauty for joining The Green Edit as the official media partner of the Beauty Summit and for the amazing Aussie Made feature article on page 40 in the Autumn issue of Retail Beauty magazine which Michelle Ruzzene and Nicci Herrera kindly gifted to all beauty summit guests.
Thank You To Our Beauty Summit Event Partners
Event 2:
Brand Showcase Event
2pm - 5pm
A highly edited, curated, limited by-invitation-only event featuring 20 beauty and wellness brands who showcased their products and connected with a curated guest list of key media, decision making beauty retailers, influencers spas and clinics, looking for the best in green beauty. All brands meet our “Loved By” The Green Edit stamp criteria. Guests have the opportunity to experience the latest clean beauty and wellness launches, discover each brand's hero product and meet the founders behind the brands.
The showcase featured organic and natural products across all categories including makeup, skincare, hair products, fragrance, nail-care, sunscreen, lifestyle and inner beauty supplements. Exhibiting brands can be found on The Green Edit Beauty Directory.
International supermodel, activist and long-time Inika Organic customer Robyn Lawley shared her passion for the Inika Organic brand which is the first makeup brand in the world to be certified plastic neutral.
Founder of The Jojoba Co Vicki Engsall and her team showcased their products to a curated list of key media and retailers.
Winners of The Best Of The Green Edit Awards Announced for 2023
Bridget Carmady, founder of Clemence Organics won the Best Sunscreen award for her Protect + Clarity Daily Face Lotion.
Winners of the Best of The Green Edit Awards were announced at the Brand Showcase event in front of media, influencers and retailers. The awards were created by Cathy in 2020 as a way to highlight and promote the best in clean, sustainable, cruelty-free beauty and lifestyle products.
“Our judging panel of influential Australian and international beauty experts and retailers tested and tried almost 130 natural, ethical, sustainable and cruelty-free beauty and lifestyle products to determine the winners of the awards,” she said.
The independent judging panel of international buyers and beauty editors including incredible and highly acclaimed judging panel of influential Australian and international beauty experts and retailers such as Elena Severin - The Detox Market USA, Robyn Doyle - Beautyologie US, Erin Hawken - Nourished Netherlands, Yvette Wyeth - Active Skin, Alex Wilson - Heartwood WA, Clare McGrowdie - Bond Clean Beauty and Elise Wilson - Are Media.
Cathy was proud to offer the 5 finalist brands/products in each category, the unique distribution opportunity to introduce their brand and product range to international retailers so they too may experience the very best of green beauty.
Listen to The Green Edit podcast to find out more about the winning brands and hear the commentary from international and Australian beauty experts and retailers.
Guests Enjoyed Meeting The People Behind The Brands
Guests were treated to delicious canapés such as mushroom toasties, arancini balls and antipasto skewers, as well as Organic wine from Angove Family Winemakers, Altina Drinks, zero alcohol wine and collagen-infused beverages from Edible Beauty and OPTY.NC as they met brand founders and immersed in the best of clean beauty and wellness products.
Inika Organic Eye Makeup Masterclass
Guests were invited to join makeup Artist Elena Afanasew at a hands on Inika Organic Eye Makeup Masterclass using a selection of high performance beauty products from their range including the Quad Eye Shadow Palette which won Best Beauty Product in The Best Of The Green Edit Awards 2023.
Mammae Gifted Complimentary Exhibitor Space At Brand Showcase Event
At each brand showcase event Cathy reserves an exhibitor space to support a start up brand who create consciously and mindfully and it was wonderful to see Erin Deger, founder of Mammae shine and connect with media and retailer guests, she shared...
"The energy in the room was so supportive, relaxed, and everything felt so harmonious and free flowing. Testament to you Cathy!!! I am so over the moon with the calibre of connections made on the day. I am honoured to have the likes of Sephora, Marie Clare and Qantas Marketplace, show such a sincere interest in who I am and the potential of Mammae within their categories. Wow, humbled to say the least! I would never have forged these connections without this opportunity that you GIFTED ME!"
Conscious Gifting
Cathy understands that her role is to listen and identify how she can best support beauty and wellness brands and shape The Green Edit event to meet that need. So when a few brand founders flagged that perhaps they shouldn’t join this event because they hadn’t launched a new product recently or they weren’t in a position to supply the required quantity of products for gift bags, she listened.
So this year she implemented conscious gifting, which meant there weren't any pre-packed gift bags at this event. Which also meant no gift bag overwhelm for guests. Instead guests were invited to speak with founders, learn more about their products. Many of the brand founders personally gifted their products to guests and as a result deeper connections were made. Guests were gifted products that they really wanted to try, which were tailored to their personal preferences or products they were specifically looking to feature on media platforms or as potential products buyers were looking to stock in their stores.
Guests celebrated new product launches and enjoyed trying the hero products in each of the brands range. There were so many iconic beauty products to experience. Each brand displayed either a new product or hero product sign for easy identification.
Thank You To Our Beauty Brand Showcase Event Partners
Work with me...
Over the last four years it has been my passion to champion high performing, ethical beauty and wellness brands and connect them with key media, influencers, conscious consumers, international and Australian beauty retailers.
I am so proud of the network and community I have created for us and of the valuable connections that have been made The Green Edit events.
As always I see that my role is to listen and identify the need of the time and the shape of my role within it. I am excited to say that moving forward I will be continuing to support beauty and wellness brands, retailers and media publications who also share my commitment to evolving this industry for the better and I am evolving the shape of my service to make myself available to work with you on a 1:1 basis.
I am looking forward to helping businesses with their individual challenges and I can provide support in various areas including connecting brands with aligned retailers, retailers of aligned brands, marketing, PR, brand partnerships, distribution, content and brand management. I look forward to hearing from you and supporting you more deeply - I am so excited for what lies ahead for us.
Warmest
Cathy
The Green Beauty Directory
All exhibiting brands from the Brand Showcase event can be found on The Green Edit Beauty Directory, with a click through tp contact each of the brands directly and many are listed with exclusive discount codes for you to enjoy.
The Green Edit Podcast
As an Organic Makeup Artist and founder of The Green Edit — Cathy passionate about inspiring the evolution of the beauty industry towards one that is better for us and our planet and shining a light on clean, sustainable, cruelty-free beauty and lifestyle brands. On this podcast, you’ll hear interviews with brand founders, formulators, beauty innovators, industry and wellness experts.
Together we unpack the various definitions of clean, share inspiring brand stories, and cover the latest innovations in the green beauty industry — with a few product recommendations thrown in, of course.
