Planet Friendly Paint

Firstly....who are you and what do you do?!

Hello I'm Ameenah and I'm an innovator, change maker, entrepreneur and don't tell anyone, but I'm an artist too!

"Planet Friendly Paint is giving artists the ability to spread an eco message louder than any words can reach through the power of art by upcycling waste makeup into unique, zero-waste watercolour paints. This innovative approach to waste reduction aims to help cosmetic retailers to achieve their sustainability goals whilst allowing everyday people to be involved in a larger, yet practical change by encouraging the local community to donate expired and unwanted make-up to be upcycled in our unique artists paint palettes and closing the loop by recycling hard to recycle packaging."

How do you plan to achieve one or more of the Sustainable Future Fund’s aims?

"1) By having more stock produced each month, I can finally aim to have a more consistent income each month and confidently approach sales for bulk orders, organically growing this business to be more sustainable.

2) I will be able to have more time dedicated towards sales and raw material acquisition from cosmetics manufacturers and retailers as opposed to just donations from the general public with less time spent producing the products by hand myself. This will also allow me to think about what other art materials I can turn this waste makeup into. For instance, there is already conversation started with a Japanese business making crayons!

3) The concept for the business itself is achieving this. We repurpose waste cosmetics destined for landfill and incinerators to be upcycled into alternative art materials to keep these pigments and mica in use for longer."
 

How has this grant set you up for the future?

"In order to reach the number of sales I need to turn this into a financially stable business, I need more stock and the ability to fulfil bulk orders within an appropriate time frame. Currently, I'm not in a position to be able to put my products on wholesale markets and in the past have had to turn down requests for my products to be sold to interested distributors. I want to be able to fulfil these requests without the worry. This grant will allow me to increase production whilst giving me time to focus on the sales and supply pipeline so that I can work on the business rather than in the business. This means I can handle all the waste waste makeup I currently have sitting in my studio and make room for more waste makeup coming through our doors from potential cosmetics manufacturers, tackling the problem at its root."

Thank you Ameenah, this is great and we think your business model is truly inspiring and you are an inspiration to many young people ttying to create a business for good.