At artisanal lifestyle brand Kindred Black, elegant products don’t have to be wasteful.

The plastic-free brand known for its exquisite colorful handblown glass vessels is introducing refills for 75% of its products. Housed in aluminum bottles, the refills retail for 30% to 40% less than the original products, which range in price from a $15 face soap to a $425 perfume oil. Referring to the handblown glass containers, co-founder Jennifer Black Francis says, “The bottles are too nice to get rid of. You can use them for other things, of course, but we really want it to be something that you didn’t have to get rid of when you were done.”

In a beauty industry in which luxury is often associated with excess, Kindred Black, a champion of slow beauty, is pursuing the opposite approach. Wells says, “There are a lot of lines out there who are very luxury image-based and a lot of lines out there that are really based on ingredients and quality, but very few that marry the two things together. I think we do that really well and for a lot of customers they’ve been looking for something like that, and they find it with our line.”

For Kindred Black’s discerning customers, the aluminum refills provide another avenue to experience the brand and enhance its portability. Co-founder Alice Wells adds, “A bit of a drawback being plastic free is that everything comes cork and wax sealed, which makes it pretty difficult to travel with, but the refill bottles are travel-friendly, and customers will be able to order them and refill them at home and use the bottles over and over and over.”

In tandem with the refill rollout, Kindred Black is unveiling a new logo and secondary packaging to improve presentation. The brand’s products are now housed in bright yellow boxes with cursive print inspired by a handwritten signature designed by New York based creative studio Ania et Lucie. Francis says, “It looks fresh and modern, but, at the same time, it harkens back to an old-world apothecary.”

Wells, former creative director for MZ Wallace, and Francis, former COO of MZ Wallace, met working in fashion. They started Kindred Black in 2015 with $90,000 from their personal savings to merge their passion for beautiful objects with their desire for eco-minded merchandise. Kindred Black’s website began carrying a wide array products, everything from handmade moccasins to small-batched herbal salves. While it still carries third-party products, Kindred Black launched its own products after Francis discovered a workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico that collects glass from the community and turns them into home goods.

“We are one of the most eco-focused, eco-responsible lines on the market, and so it’s the right time to get out there.”

Kindred Black’s beauty offering kicked off with single ingredient-centered products that could be applied to hair, face and body. For example, it had Iranian rosewater toner and jojoba oil sourced from a family-run farm in the Sonoran Desert. In 2018, the brand ventured into sexual wellness. Scents arrived in 2019. A year later, color cosmetics were inserted into the mix. Today, the bestsellers include $98 Savannah Viper Lip Oil, A Woman Is Fire Perfume Oil, which is priced at $165 for a 15-ml. size and $65 for a 2.5-ml. size, $85 Night Venom Lip and Cheek Color, $85 Devil’s Playground Lip and Cheek Color, and $95 Aker Fassi Lip and Cheek Flush.

Night Venom Lip and Cheek Color

Wells and Francis view Kindred Black’s entrance into sexual wellness as an extension of its sustainability mission. “There’s just as much waste and plastic in the [sexual wellness] category as with traditional beauty and skincare, so there is a lot of room for sustainable innovation,” says Wells. “We think a handblown glass vessel for lubricant or a sculptural glass sex toy is a much nicer addition to the nightstand than a plastic tube or a battery-operated gadget.”

All of Kindred Black’s products are produced in small batches and many are limited editions. The brand works with individual artists and family-owned farms rather than large operations—and the small suppliers can only make so much. Wells explains, “We have one woman we work with who blows the glass who she can only make 20 to 30 bottles a year, and they’re exquisite, but that’s all she can produce, and then we have other artists who can produce a lot more. They’re never in the thousands. We’re lucky if we can get hundreds.”

The brand’s core collection contains lip and cheek colors, lip oils, face and body oils, and a handful of of perfumes in stock throughout most of the year. There’s a seasonal selection released once a year that features plants or flowers speaking to the season. The tradeoff of being small batch, Wells and Francis point out, is that it’s hard to scale. Wells says, “We wouldn’t even be able to handle it if, all of a sudden tomorrow, we had a million people want something or 10,000 people want something in one day.”

However, Kindred Black is increasing its scale. It launched at Moda Operandi in August and is considering creating a tight capsule collection that would allow it to expand wholesale. Moda Operandi carries three shades of Kindred Black’s Lip and Cheek Color, Delta Dawn Perfume Oil, Sleeping Beauty Oil and Unicorn Multiuse Oil. It’s not selling the brand’s refills. “We want to begin to target more of a luxury consumer which they have,” says Wells. Francis adds, “Once we have refills, we do feel like we are one of the most eco-focused, eco-responsible lines on the market, and so it’s the right time to get out there.”