Cary Lin and Angela Ubias of Common Heir: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle Climate Change & Become More Sustainable
An Interview with Penny Bauder
Engage in basic recycling habits at home. While local facilities vary greatly in their rules, I personally think that creating the habit at home (assuming your local municipality supports recycling collection!) provides early awareness of sustainability.
As part of my series about how companies are becoming more sustainable, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cary Lin and Angela Ubias of Common Heir.
Common Heir stands for high impact clean beauty that’s low impact on the environment. We push for positive change by creating the world’s best plastic-free skincare, without compromising on performance or values. We deeply care about impact throughout the supply chain, from our raw material sourcing to the post-consumer experience. If you seek sustainable and effective skincare, we’re here for you.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Cary: My love of all things beauty and skincare really took off after my skin started to rebel during my first job out of college as a consultant and I was basically living out a suitcase. I took to doing research through beauty bloggers online to navigate which products would work best for me. I ended up befriending one of them, and she introduced me to a now prominent and well-known beauty founder, and I left my corporate job for a beauty internship with her. It can be hard to break into the beauty industry, and I didn’t know anyone who worked in it. Plus, she was the first female founder I had ever met, and I was inspired by the products she was creating, and the intimate relationships one builds with their customers. Talking to folks about something as intimate as their skin makes you feel like Oprah — because it’s their skin! That’s when I knew I wanted to devote my life to making gorgeous experiences that help folks feel confident and beautiful in their own skin and went back to graduate school to pivot my career, eventually going on to work for some of the biggest household brands in the beauty and consumer goods industry before starting Common Heir.
Angela: I’m originally from Austin, and I really fell in love with skincare and beauty at a young age from watching my grandmother do her skincare and beauty rituals on Sunday mornings. I remember always hoping for a spritz of perfume, or a bit of lip balm for myself because it all felt so glamorous. After working in fashion and entertainment earlier in my career, I came across a job at one of the original clean beauty manufacturers, Texas Beauty Labs. They were hiring for an entry-level sales position, and so I applied and went in for an interview. I was so underqualified for the position but somehow managed to win over the founder and CEO. She called me later and offered me the job. Over the eight years I spent at Texas Beauty Labs, I helped build over 50–60 iconic, clean, and indie beauty brands that are likely on your top shelf, and developed deep beauty manufacturing, product development, and formulation experience along the way.
Fun fact: we had never met prior to starting this company together. By the time things really started going full-force with creating the business, the pandemic forced us to build our founding relationship, the company, and a global supply chain completely remotely. Even though our backgrounds are so different, we really felt that “love match” and meeting of the minds — we had both separately become very disillusioned with the lack of innovation around sustainability in the beauty industry (120 billion units of packaging are generated every year, and growing.) We had the unique advantage of knowing what was coming next, and there wasn’t anything in the market that spoke to us personally as consumers. It’s either very luxe and overly packaged or had a “granola” type feel. Typical “sustainable” brands that you would find at your grocery aisle just didn’t resonate with us — and as we found out later while building Common Heir, many others felt the same way!
What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve?
Angela: Our mission with Common Heir is to create luxurious, high-performance beauty rituals that deliver clinically proven results without using plastic packaging. We really want to prove that it’s possible to deliver incredible skincare benefits while pushing the envelope on sustainability in a way that no one else is doing. We started with a concentrated Vitamin C formula, a clinically proven ingredient that has universal benefits people want: brighter skin, lighten dark spots, and smooth skin texture, but without the irritation or stability issues faced by other Vitamin C products. We’ve been floored by the response to our Vitamin C serum, which has won multiple industry awards for its efficacy and innovation since our launch in April 2021 and has been featured in Vogue, Allure, Good Morning America, and Byrdie.
Cary: We saw a huge need in the industry to make efficacy synonymous with sustainability. We set out to prove to everyone — ourselves included — that it is possible to reimagine proven beauty classics with a beautiful, sustainable and clean twist. What makes us different from other brands is that we use vegan capsule technology to deliver clinically proven formulas using ingredients like Vitamin C that are usually highly effective but finicky to work with. And we do it all in 100% plastic-free packaging. Our innovation extends shelf life and boosts formula potency — and plus, our packaging still looks great on your vanity. The idea of Common Heir is that you don’t have to compromise between what you’re putting on your skin, and how it will impact the environment. We’re responding to folks like us who would love to live a more conscious lifestyle, without sacrificing the joy of their routines, demand for efficacy, or their values. So much of the conversation around sustainability, especially recycling, has put the burden on consumers to do the homework. We want to make it super easy — we’ve done all the legwork for you.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
Angela: We want Common Heir to have a positive impact on the conversation around sustainability in beauty, by making these ideas approachable without feeling preachy. We especially feel strongly about bringing awareness to the myth of “recyclable” plastic — experts estimate only 9% of plastic ever created has been recycled! The average consumer may run through over 1,000 plastic packaged beauty and personal care bottles in a lifetime, and we want to help reduce that by offering a no-brainer choice: performance you’ll love without plastic. It’s also important to us to have a tangible impact through our non-profit partnerships. We’re proud to be 1% for the Planet partners and have helped remove over 2,000 pounds of ocean microplastics through our partnership with Ocean Blue Project. We’re also committed to pursuing the Climate Neutral certification next year.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
Cary: I think we are all better off when we support and pursue businesses that are trying to advance innovation and change consumer expectations for the better. The beauty industry has come a long way in terms of transparency and accountability. Consumers read beauty labels like they’re reading food nutrition labels, and that is a great push for all brands to be more accountable and to ask more questions of their suppliers. We’ve made progress in improving the industry over the past decade — for example, bringing down the cost of plant-based alternatives to petroleum-derived ingredients. Consumers are asking questions about ingredients, how they’re sourced, and demand efficacy instead of vague claims. Brands that can confidently speak to the specific areas of consumer concern will have more support.
Apart from the conversation we’ve been able to spark as a newcomer brand, in terms of specifics, we do small-batch production, and that way we are able to minimize waste and preserve quality. With our capsule innovation, we’re able to extend the shelf life and potency of notoriously unstable ingredients that deliver results consumers love, like Vitamin C or Vitamin A (retinoids). That reduces post-purchase waste. Plastic packaging feels like the last frontier for the industry to crack, and that’s the innovation we’re trying to accelerate.
Give 5 {edit: I did 3) things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or example for each.
Cary:
- Encourage a love of the great outdoors and nature. The original idea for Common Heir was triggered by the sight of plastic lotion bottles on my local beach, and just realizing that what we throw away always ends up somewhere else. Much of what we do is motivated by the quest to preserve beauty in this world, for future generations to enjoy and cultivate on their own.
- Get your kids involved in local community clean-ups and projects! Growing up in the Berkeley and East Bay public school systems, I took the community’s civic engagement on environmental issues for granted. But it had a huge impact on me to learn about garbage, storm drains and sorting in elementary school, and it was me bringing those ideas and habits home to my parents that really created that early consciousness.
- Engage in basic recycling habits at home. While local facilities vary greatly in their rules, I personally think that creating the habit at home (assuming your local municipality supports recycling collection!) provides early awareness of sustainability.
What are your 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started and why?
Cary: Such a good question! Here are some of our lessons building this sustainability beauty company in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and wild moment in human history.
- Not taking a risk is scarier than taking it. As first-time female founders, we absolutely experienced building this company as the biggest challenge of our careers — pandemic notwithstanding! But in the moment of reflection that many of us had during this pandemic, we realized a valuable lesson — that working on something that really made us feel that we were driving impact and purpose was more important AND less risky than actually not taking the plunge and regretting it. And so, here we are!
- Communication is everything in a partnership. Because we had never worked together before, we definitely had to be very upfront about communication while we learned each other’s styles. You can’t take anything for granted when you’re trying to build rapport and trust over Zoom. We didn’t have the ability to tip-toe around difficult conversations, and we had to face things head-on to make sure we were on the same page.
- Imposter syndrome is real, but learn to embrace it as a healthy sign that you’re growing. As we’ve gotten to know other founders in the space, we’ve begun to realize that most of the time, folks are just trying their absolute best, and often they don’t perfectly know what they’re doing. In an environment amplified by the COVID-19, you just start to embrace the discomfort that comes with feeling like an imposter. Move with the confidence that you’re leaning into the path of highest growth when you’re challenging yourself, and that EVERYONE feels the same way, no matter how elevated their position may seem or how much experience they have!
- Your path is uniquely your own. When faced with an unfamiliar situation, I have this habit of wanting to ask people who have faced similar problems or challenges what they did. I think it’s because as a first-time founder, I was terrified of making mistakes that were avoidable. But I wished someone would have told me that at some point, what worked for others just isn’t that relevant. The truth is, everyone’s context and playbook for success are so individual. While there are definitely some common themes, modeling your go-to-market strategy just because it worked for someone else doesn’t mean you can expect the same results. You have to dig deep to identify what is unique to you and what your customer wants, and be confident in that.
- “Not a love match — move on.” We’ll never forget that first phone call between us when we first met. We talk about how much we saw the common ground between what we valued as perfect strangers, and that kismet or love match as Angela likes to say is something that has served us when we have talks with potential partners or even investors. Being able to be resilient with that mindset, to not take rejection personally, is so much easier said than done, but it really does help you identify your core supporters and values. Life’s too short to become what someone else wants you to be, or to fit a mold that isn’t who you are. Just move on and find the right match who does appreciate what you’re bringing to the table.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped you get to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Cary and Angela: Rather than a particular person, I think we want to acknowledge a particular partner who made all the difference for us back in the early days. We’re really grateful to the Credo Beauty team for accepting us into their accelerator program for BIPOC female founders in the summer of 2020. Back then, we just had a pitch deck, a prototype formula, and a huge idea that felt bigger than us. We hadn’t launched yet, and in fact, had just come off a beta where we knew we had to significantly rework our product formula. Angela had just left her job, and we had only managed to secure funding for a pilot — until we got the news that we had been one of the handfuls of brands accepted out of 135 brands into the program. We were able to capitalize on this momentum and validation to raise just enough capital to get us off the ground for packaging design and that first inventory order, and they eventually became our first retail partner in May 2021. Without the support of their team and leadership, we’re not sure where we would be!
Do you have a favorite life lessons quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own?
We’re all the heroes of our own story! Not only does that really help us feel strong empathy towards our consumers, but we also wanted Common Heir to make you feel pampered and powerful, to give you that “main character” energy when you use our Vitamin C serum or any other innovation that we’ll be launching in the future. Historically, women of color have not helmed luxury brands, and we wanted to build something that would truly be accessible and beautiful for all. We wanted to upend people’s expectations about inclusion AND sustainability in luxury, which makes us feel like we’re the best version of ourselves. I think focusing on shared values and passing down our “hero” narratives helps connect us to each other, and to a common cause.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
Follow Common Heir on Instagram @commonheir, and online at commonheir.com. You can also find us at all Credo Beauty locations.
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Cary Lin and Angela Ubias of Common Heir: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle Climate… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.