Innovation

The innovation in Ahal consists in the way cosmetics are formulated, all of them are biodegradable and organic, hence they don't have a negative impact on the environment. Most of the company's suppliers are indigenous communities, which sell their products through fair trade, in that sense Ahal provides decent work and helps to ensure an income for the different families of this communities.

This innovation has helped the business to grow organically, adding more products to their catalog, all of them filled with richness in ingredients that are healthy for the skin and safe fot the environment.

Ahal also strives to create a collective consciousness through knowledge sharing about the different ingredients contained on the commercial cosmetic formulations and how they affect the consumer's environment and health, this helps to empowed the customer in order to have a responsible consumption.

Inspiration

The idea of Ahal started when Iliana was studying Chemical Engineering (around 10 years ago) and she realized that in México there wasn’t any alternative to the commercial cosmetics products that all of the people consume. In this type of cosmetics all the formulations are made with chemical ingredients that are not biodegradable to the environment. She considered that something had to be done regarding the products that people use on their everyday life because basically they are a cocktail made out of chemicals and people never wonder where all this chemicals end up.

These ingredients have a negative impact on the environment and can lead to serious consequences such as coral bleaching (because all of the things that are used daily end up in the ocean when people wash their face of take a bath), diversity loss, etc. When all this information came to her mind she decided to create Ahal, its purpose is to help the planet through an organic alternative of cosmetics, they formulate all of their products in their lab and they don’t use any synthetic ingredients, every item of their catalog is biodegradable and is formulated to have a minimal impact on the environment.

Overall impact

Just like Iliana, the founder of Ahal mentions, “Ahal is a conscience, an awakening, a coming back to what is natural and bringing back respect towards earth.” Considering its impact towards society and the environment, Ahal has contributed to the empowerment of women, specially those who are struggling to have a fair job to be able to feed their families. Ahal uses artisanal oils of Marula, Karité, Baobab and Mongongo extracted in a sustainable manner by 850 women from South Africa, Phalaborwa, Zimbabwe and Zambia specifically. The extraction of these oils in South Africa benefits more than 6,000 households and Ahal is the first Mexican brand to work with these kinds of African oils, together with associations that aim to have a fair price.

Not has Ahal helped only women in South Africa, but also in Mexican communities. Important suppliers come from Oaxaca and Yucatán, where Ahal looks for fair trade on sustainable ingredients. One of the most important communities for Ahal is the community of Popolá in Yucatán, formed by 4,176 habitants, where Ahal has helped indigenous families to have a better living. It is important to note that 99% of Popolá habitants are indigenous. Ahal gets two very important ingredients from these places: the Tepezcohuite which is known as the tree of the skin, and organic beeswax. All of Ahal’s ingredients are organic and come from sustainable plantations, using no chemical ingredients and causing no harm on the environment, avoiding pollutants and contamination of water.

Business benefit

The cosmetic industry is valued in 445 billion dollars worldwide, with an annual growth rate of 7% according to Forbes. México is known to be in third place of cosmetic production in America. The global organic beauty market is forecasted to have a value of 22 billion dollars by 2024 since there has been a global increase for demand on organic skincare, haircare and color cosmetics. Ahal has innovated on all of their products, since all their products are made with 100% organic ingredients that are proved to come from sustainable communities and are obtained through fair trade. Thanks to this, Ahal is part of the Global Organic Beauty Market, and is growing its sales significantly year over year, at the same time gaining new clients who are becoming concerned with what is going on with the environment, and are looking forward to do something that helps both the environment and their skin.

Through its blog and different video segments, Ahal is growing the demand for their products since its gaining more clients because more people are conscious on helping the environment, and this way people gain more knowledge on the benefits of Ahal’s products. Ahal is more than ready to face the global increase for demand, starting with México, and is constantly innovating its formulas to increase its product portfolio. Also, throughout e-commerce, Ahal has the capability of reaching new clients around the country and could also expand through other places worldwide.

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Social and environmental benefit

For the Environment, Ahal formulates all their products in a biodegradable manner, they way, they don’t have a negative impact. On the other hand, their ingredients are obtained in a sustainable way, their suppliers work respecting the environment to have the minimal impact. An example of this is that they obtain honey and beeswax from a community called Popolá in Yucatán, they work with bees in the middle of the jungle in a sustainable way, they don’t use pesticides or any kind of chemicals. On the Social side they use a fair trade system with their suppliers to provide a better life for them.

Interview

Iliana Loza Garza, Founder

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