At a glance – Scent with intent
Scent with intent is the mantra of the ethical fragrance house Sana Jardin.
What if I told you the next smart swap would be the unthinkable; ditch the Diptyqye or DS & Durga, by line the Byredo, leave the Le Labo for these sustainable scents!
As with a multitude of categories across the luxury market, fragrance is now experiencing a customer affinity to sustainability that places ethics and environment as a priority. The £30 billion global perfume industry has traditionally relied on the cult iconic fragrances to bolster sales think Chanel No5, YSL, Calvin Klein et al. However, in recent years, the attraction to niche scents has boomed as customers search for something unique with provenance.
Sana Jardin redefines flower power. This is a fragrance brand with integrity, where no compromises are made on social impact. They are driven to ‘harness the power of commerce for social good’ through a business model that embraces circularity and a ‘Beyond Sustainability’ strategy. This has rightfully gained the organisation global recognition as well as the Positive Luxury butterfly badge and Leaping Bunny certification.
Ethical luxury and fragrances should not be mutually exclusive. Sana Jardin encapsulates aesthetics with ethics and having spent time as a luxury beauty buyer, I’m not sure how any retailer truly dedicated to sustainability would turn down the opportunity to stock Sana Jardin on their shelves…
In focus
Sana Jardin was founded in 2017 by Amy Christensen as the culmination of her life’s work having dedicated years to amplifying the power of commerce for innovative social change. In roles for various foundations dedicated to solving challenges of economic inequality, Amy has experience working with the NYC based Robin Hood Foundation, The Clinton Foundation and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women to name but a few! With these credentials she gravitated towards luxury fragrances and the healing power of essential oils following fond visits to Morocco. Thus, Sana Jardin was born!
“The soul and beauty of our fragrances owe their legacy to the natural, floral materials and the women who harvest them. They deserve to share in the value of the supply chain and truly flourish.” Amy Christiansen – founder of Sana Jardin
If you have followed S & S, you will be well acquainted with my advocacy of business models that incorporate the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Through their perfume production and social projects, Sana Jardin contribute specifically to these:
- Empowering women (Goal 5)
- Promoting sustainable economic growth with full, productive employment (Goal 8)
- Ensuring sustainable production practices (Goal 12).
Sana Jardin’s Beyond Sustainability’ Approach
Sustainability practices that pay fair wages and create a net neutral organisation are fine, but were not sufficient for Amy and her team. Sana Jardin have surpassed this trajectory to leverage the business to facilitate the flourishing of local communities.
How have they done this? Essential ingredients within the iconic bottles with benefits include orange blossom, jasmine and rose – which are all hand-picked by indigenous women in Morocco. Traditionally, these flowers are harvested seasonally, rendering flower pickers with no work for the remainder of the year.
Sana Jardin has upturned this completely by optimising waste products and upcycling them to enable this group of women to become their own microentrepreneurs.
Within the production cycle, the flowers are distilled and separated into essential oils, floral water and wax. Typically, within the region a seismic 900 tonnes of natural and organic orange blossom waste by-product was being created!
However, for the community of Sana Jardin women who pick the flowers, they transform the orange blossom water and output of scented candle wax to create long term business opportunities. You can read more about Orange Blossom via the Sana Jardin journal.
Sana Jardin in collaboration with NEST, a New York based not-for-profit, and Les Aromes du Maroc, have established a women’s cooperative in Morocco, where the women can produce and sell their very own products. They are taught and trained how to make candles using the surplus wax and are guided how to price them accordingly. It goes without saying that these women receive 100% of the proceeds.
By creating entrepreneurship opportunities, Sana Jardin give long term economic prosperity to the women and are helping to build a framework around KPIs that the women can adhere to in order to elevate their companies.
A side note for the spiritual readers – Sana Jardin also talk of how the women of the Amazigh community who are part of the cooperative perform rituals and chant whilst they harvest the flowers!
Below is a summary of this model:
A truly sustainable organisation is transparent. In a recent webinar – Amy discussed the challenges that have faced Sana Jardin in recent times. This related particularly to packaging, and making this authentically sustainable, as a small brand you have to comply with minimum order quantities for bottling which can be prove problematic.
As an innovative beauty organisation, priorities for them are minimising waste and focusing on recyclable materials and packaging.
Communicating the luxury brand equity so it sits within the right segment whilst simultaneously promoting the provenance of the perfumes can be challenging but I believe Sana Jardin has done this well.
Partnership with Provenance
Evidence of their dedication to supply chain transparency is their partnership with Provenance, a leader in the blockchain arena. As you navigate through the website, you can find various sustainability attributes underneath each product. This gives the customer a detailed insight into how they support the local community, how much of the packaging is recycled and gives evidence with the supporting statement of assurance.
Cult Beauty fans reading this will recognise these attributes as they have collaborated with Provenance to champion sustainable beauty across categories. For those interested in the power of blockchain to build transparency along supply chains, read the S & S decoded piece here.
Sana Jardin fragrances
There’s a spritz for everyone in the range, whether you’re drawn to exotic spicy aromas or something a little more earthy. Their intelligent use of scent families and notes of bergamot, jasmine, neroli, vetiver and patchouli demonstrate they are strong players in the fragrance game.
With a collection that bolsters 8 signature eaux de parfums, Sana Jardin has produced all its fragrances in line with the International Flavours and Fragrance Standards. In their words, they give the wearer a role in the cycle of change empowering all those within the supply chain!
Whilst Jaipur Chant won the Tatler 2019 beauty awards, my favourite is Savage Jasmine as seen below.
A 50ml fragrance can be purchased for £95 and a higher dosage of 100ml is £180.
How to make your fragrance wardrobe even more sustainable? SCENT LAYERING! For those not accustomed to mixing and matching your perfumes, I suggest you try it. Not only can you create a unique personal signature scent, it’s more conservative in the sense that it’s three perfumes for the price of two! Sana Jardin recommend mixing Savage Jasmine with Sandlewood so that is next on my list. For more on scent layering, read here.
Candles. Lord knows self-care during lock down requires an investment candle or twenty to burn so make sure they are Sana Jardin. Currently in Tiger By Her Side, the award winning Jaipur Chant and Revolution De La Fleur, they retail at £48.
Whilst Liberty London fragrance hall is off the cards for a little while *whimper*, you can purchase a discovery set here and the team offer personalised fragrance discovery consultations via their website.
Final Thoughts – The future for Sana Jardin
What does the future hold for Sana Jardin? Amy spoke of expansion and replicating their current model in other regions of the world such as India. By building co-operatives and networks that drive positive social impact, their ‘Beyond Sustainability’ model proves that flowers can facilitate the flourishing of economic opportunities for women. Look beyond the bottle, inhale luxury aromas, exhale sustainable development.
You can purchase Sana Jardin via their website or via Liberty, Net-a-Porter, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Cult Beauty.
Beauty for Good, the S & S channel & home to truly conscious cosmetics, sustainable skincare, friendly fragrances, honest haircare & so much more! This hub has the mission to educate, elevate industry innovations, decode the ethical make up misnomers & spotlight brands that benchmark best practice in protecting our people & planet. Through our lotion & potion decision making we can drive this multi-trillion dollar beauty machine as a force for good.
If you found this article interesting be sure to read the Spotlight features on Orange Fibre and Organic Savanna.
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