Circular Face Scrub

Naïf has the mission to make the best skincare products that are kind for every body and nature. They believe in the concept; ‘clean skin, clean ocean’. The brand stands for quality, transparency and natural ingredients. For their ‘Bodyscrub’ they use rice grains instead of microbeads. The Circular Face Scrub, which the brand developed with commodities from Waternet and Aquaminerals, Naïf took the sustainability aspect a little bit further. The scrub contains calcite beads, a residue that remains during the process of purifying water. After processing at the Calcite Factory, these beads can be used as a mild scrub for the face. By using these beads, Naïf managed to develop world’s first circular beauty product with calcite, with a positive impact on the environment.

Clean Surface Water

Dutch tapwater in Amsterdam comes from surface water or water from the ground. In order to make it suitable as drinking water, Waternet purifies the water in different steps. And, to preserve our appliances, calcite is extracted from the water. This process is called ‘softening’. During this process, small beads of calcite are shaped which finds it way via Aquaminerals to several companies for a sustainable application.

To keep our waters clean, it’s important to reduce the amount of pollutans that we flush down the drain. Every year, between 4,7 and 12,7 milion tons of plastic, disappears in the sea. An important part of this plastic are microplastics or microbeads. These are small plastic beads that are used is many cosmetics. For example, one scrub can contain over more than 100.000 micro particles of plastic. Via the water cycle these will disappear in the surface water, such as the sea. (source: Beat the Microbead by Plastic Soup Foundation) Roelof Kruize, CEO Waternet: “We’re happy with this new application for this residue from drinking water. This step contributes to ways for preventing the contamination of the surface water by microplastics.”

After using the Face Scrub, the calcite beads will go down the drain. Calcite is a natural ingredient, which is found in nature in great amounts and won’t do any harm to the environment. All the other ingredients in the scrub are biodegradable and even the packaging is well thought about. The tube is made from bioplastic, with sugarcane as main ingredient. “It brings us great joy to make steps in sustainability for our business”, Jochem Hes, co-founder of Naïf explains.

About Waternet

Waternet is the common organisation of Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht en de gemeente Amsterdam. Waternet is an organisation that is concerned about the water cycle. All their activities are focused on the supply of clean drinkwater, abduct waste water, keeping the surface water at safe levels and maintain the dikes. Waternet strives to be climate neutral in 2020. Together with other parties, the company extracts more from water, such as energy and other materials like fosfate and calcite.

About AquaMinirals

AquaMinerals is the partner of the water sector collaboration (drinkwater and water authorities) that gives secondary raw materials originating in the watercycle a second life. Due to the fact that controlling residues are not part of the water sector’s core business, a specialised organisation was established in 1995: Aquaminerals. The mission of AquaMinerals is to provide services to its participants for the purpose of creating economic and sustainability value from the current and expected future resources from the watercycle.

About Naïf

Less is more, but only with the right, active ingredients. Exactly what Jochem Hes and Sjoerd Trompetter thought in 2013, when they became fathers. A new world openend up to them, where they found out that even babycare products contain harsh chemicals and nasty ingredients. Not OK. So Naïf was born: a reliable skincare brand for baby’s & kids. But little brands grow up… a logical step was a line for grown ups. The name ‘Naïf’ was chosen, because the Dutch entrepreneurs hope that women soon can walk into the stores naively again, without being mislead by false claims and fake promises.