Giving Compass' Take:

• Abhati Suisse is a beauty brand founded by  Anju Rupal, a social worker, and entrepreneur who made philanthropy a fundamental focus of the brand. 

• How is this model sustainable? How can Rupal stay accountable for ethical sourcing? 

• Learn how to tell if a beauty brand's philanthropic initiatives are real. 

Ever heard of an “aesthetic activist”? It’s a term often used to describe Anju Rupal, the social worker and environmentalist-turned-entrepreneur behind ethically minded, charitably driven beauty brand Abhati Suisse.

Before launching the line, Rupal helped run a shelter for victims of domestic violence, founded Zurich children’s clinic SwissMediKids, and created reforestation nonprofit WeForest. It was while working with communities in rural India for WeForest that the British-born, Switzerland-based Rupal unearthed a way to produce organic, ethically minded beauty items that helped address gender inequalities in remote communities.

During a trip to the Western Ghats and Himalayan Valley regions of India to plant trees, Rupal met farmers who crafted soothing, skin-nourishing balms from their local vegetation.

The ingredients (particularly the Himalayan wild cherries) and their efficacy caught Rupal’s attention—as did the fact that many of the women and girls in that region were not getting an education.

So, Rupal began arranging agreements with the local farmers to buy their wild-harvested ingredients, which she then crafted into potent products with the help of some of the beauty industry’s top chemists back in Switzerland.

The brand’s philanthropic focus is fundamental—they have partnered with the foundation Educate Girls and today, every bottle sold helps send a girl in India to school. Since Abhati Suisse’s initial crowd-funded launch in 2013, Rupal has developed 12 products for hair, face, and body. Each is a unique fusion of sustainably sourced Himalayan ingredients and efficacious Swiss botanicals.

Read the full article about philanthropy beauty line by Carolyn Meers at Robb Report