My latest for the New York Times

I wrote a piece for the New York Times about the rise of African skin care ingredients and how that dovetails with another major trend in the industry--compassionate consumerism. Many companies are trying to do good in Africa, offering fair wages and other benefits--the building of schools and infrastructure and provision of childcare, for example-- to the mostly female collectives that collect the natural ingredients that end up in our favorite products.

The next steps are clear: We need more companies that are owned or co-owned by African nationals and we need the ingredients to be refined and packaged in Africa so that there is more value added "on the ground."

From the article:

The beauty world is following in the footsteps of programs like Toms Shoes and Lauren Bush’s FEED bags, the purchase of which include donations to needy children in Africa. According to a Nielsen study, the number of American consumers willing to pay more for products from socially responsible companies jumped from 36 percent in 2011 to 44 percent in 2013.

“This is not just a fad, this is a global trend,” said James Russo, a senior vice president for global consumer insights at the Nielsen Company.

Read the whole story here.