From Ouai’s Former Product Development Director, Goop-Approved Brand Contemplation Tackles Sustainability From Multiple Angles

At the beginning of the pandemic, Ariane Noji, then director of product development at Ouai, desperately needed a reset. Glued to her computer churning out product releases, she was practically caged in her Los Angeles home and completely overwhelmed.

Noji determined a literal and figurative move would do her good. She decamped to Lake Arrowhead, a mountain community 80 miles from and 5,000 feet above LA, with her two kids and husband. The move gave her space away from the bustle of the city and a deeper relationship with the nature around her, but it didn’t remove the existential and personal anxieties caused by her job.

“I started realizing there was a disconnect between what I was doing in the beauty industry, creating and pushing products, when I was trying to be minimal and eco-conscious in my lifestyle,” she says. “That is what made me decide I wanted to create a brand that puts sustainability at the forefront and build a product to help tell that story.”

Noji stepped down from Ouai and created sustainability-driven brand Contemplation with a single head-to-toe product, My Only Oil. Priced at $48 for a 3.4-oz. size, it’s designed to cleanse, moisturize, tame hair, facilitate massage and enhance a bath soak, among its many applications. Housed in a recyclable glass bottle, it contains a concise blend of seven ingredients, 60% of which are upcycled. For example, avocado oil in the waterless formula is extracted from avocado pits that are typically trashed.

“Waste is uncool, and it comes from so many different areas of the beauty industry,” says Noji, adding, “In terms of sustainability, a lot of beauty brands are talking about recycling or PCR, but there is so much more that goes into it. It starts with sourcing the ingredients. How much water is used? Are those ingredients ethically and responsibly sourced? Do you have a plastic bottle that’s going to end up in a landfill or the ocean? How much water is in the formula?”

“Contemplation represents an exciting new value proposition to consumers in providing one product with zero waste that can be utilized for skincare, body care and haircare.”

Raw material suppliers alerted Noji to the sustainability benefits of upcycled ingredients. Along with avocado oil, passion fruit, prickly pear and maracuja oils in My Only Oil’s formula are the result of upcyling. “Not only is it helping reduce waste, it’s also helping reduce water and land usage,” says Noji. “A lot of brands have tons of ingredients in the formulas, but there is not really any transparency about where those ingredients come from and where they are sourced. I wanted to be very transparent about where I’m getting these ingredients and the stories behind them.”

Noji acknowledges Contemplation’s My Only Oil enters a market where oils are a dime a dozen, but she believes its accessibility—luxury face oils are generally at least double or triple its price— and versatility, not to mention its multifaceted sustainability, gives it unique points of difference. “It’s for multiple skin types and hair types. It’s in genderless packaging so anyone can feel like they can use it,” she says. “It’s really about reducing the amount of products that you have in your routine. Somebody can buy a face oil, hair oil and body oil, and have three products, but you only need this one product, and you can minimize your footprint.”

Noji dreamed of being in the beauty industry from the time she was 10 years old and spotted a Sephora magazine on her aunt’s table. She went on to attend FIDM to learn about the industry and hold roles at Mineral Essence and Pixi prior to Ouai. “Before I left Ouai, I did talk to [founder] Jen [Atkin] and told her I wanted to start my own brand. She’s an extremely supportive person and was supportive of the idea,” recounts Noji. “She gave me the advice that, ‘Look, this is a very hard thing to step into. It takes a lot of resources and energy.’ That conversation with her was super helpful for me to be aware of and ready for challenges.”

One of the biggest challenges is that, while Contemplation puts sustainability at the forefront of its business, consumers often don’t put it at the forefront of their shopping behavior. However, there are indications that they’re increasingly factoring in sustainability. According to a 2020 survey by McKinsey & Co., 60% of consumers report they will pay a premium for sustainable packaging. A NielsenIQ survey finds that 78% of consumers say a sustainable lifestyle is important to them and 30% are likelier to purchase products with sustainable credentials than those without them.

“Sustainability is why I started the brand, it’s not an afterthought.”

With Contemplation, Noji’s objective is to educate consumers on what constitutes sustainable beauty choices to enable them to make those choices in a crowded, frequently confusing beauty world. “In coming up with the Contemplation name, I started thinking about contemplative self-care,” she says. “This is about people practicing conscious consumerism and really truly thinking about where their products come from. How are they made? How do they effect the environment and them?”

Noji estimates she poured roughly $30,000 into bringing Contemplation to life. She soft-launched it in June of last year to friends and family, and doesn’t have a concrete sales target for the brand for now. She’s focused on brand recognition rather than specific financial benchmarks. Currently, Contemplation’s direct-to-consumer platform is its primary distribution vehicle, but Noji views small, independent retailers as fits for it. Already, Contemplation has scored a major distribution win by having Goop pick it up.

Jaimee Holmes, VP of beauty and wellness at Goop, says, “Contemplation represents an exciting new value proposition to consumers in providing one product with zero waste that can be utilized for skincare, body care and haircare. The experience of the brand and product is elegant and refined, while still being accessible in price for a broad range of consumers. The integrity and commitment to sustainability is full stop with using only upcycled ingredients a waterless base and recyclable packaging, and we’re proud to educate and support the future of beauty with products like this in our portfolio.”

Multifunctionality and product routine minimization will remain center stage at Contemplation as Noji expands its assortment. “Sustainability is why I started the brand, it’s not an afterthought. I don’t want to launch a ton of products,” she says. “I have a few other multipurpose products in mind for future products, but it’s with the goal of launching no more than two a year. You can’t have a sustainable brand when you are launching multiple products a year.”