Green beauty, clean beauty, now blue beauty best practices are leading the way for salons and consumers who care about protecting their world.

Building on the values of using clean, eco-friendly ingredients, the blue beauty movement goes even further, with focus. One way to think about it:

• Green beauty works to reduce environmental pollution or harm through practices like recycling and eco-conscious ingredients.

• Clean beauty is driven by a desire to consume or apply on natural and "-free" ingredients.

• Blue beauty is more niche-focused on water pollution and conservation, reducing the amount of synthetics and other chemicals washing down our drains, and sustaining our oceans and marine life.

Earthly Body— the parent company to salon brands MKS eco(formerly Marrakesh), Emera CBD Hair Care, Hemp Seed Body Care, ColorpHlex and CBD Daily — has been a green and clean beauty leader since its inception in 1996. With the latest Earthly Body line, MKS eco WOW, the company is launching into the next level, advancing as a blue beauty leader, amplifying long-term expertise in natural ingredients, leveraging a new, plant-based silicone alternative ingredient, and radically reimagining and reducing product packaging to be sustainable and to keep plastic out of the ocean. What's inside the aluminum and glass bottles is a pretty big WOW, too.  

In September, Earthly Body is introducing the MKS eco WOW collection, a five-product line formulated to be one of the cleanest, most eco-friendly lines of hair care and body care, all with a decidedly blue focus.

Super Clean with "Slip" — The WOW Difference

The advanced formula is 100% vegan, cruelty-free and uses a first-of-its-kind plant-based silicone alternative to keep hair looking healthy and full of life.  The "WOW" stands for "Wonders of the World," and Earthly Body's unique plant-derived solution to the silicone problem for salons is just part of its wonderfully rich history and heritage.

MKS eco WOW is the latest innovation from Earthly Body founders Mare and Kevin Wachs, whose diverse team and brands have deep roots in natural-ingredient beauty. Each product within the five piece-collection is sourced globally for natural ingredients and botanical extracts. The line includes:

• Nurture Sulfate-Free Shampoo and Body Wash

• Replenish Conditioner and Leave-In Treatment

• Revive Multipurpose 10-in-1 Detangler

• Fortify Design Cream

• Oilixir Multi-Use Hair & Skin Oil

Holistic Benefits: Going Further to Be Truly Eco-Friendly

In addition to the plant-based silicone gamechanger, MKS eco WOW covers all the clean-beauty basics and is free of typical, harmful, "unclean" ingredients, meaning it has NO sulfates, parabens, propylene glycol, gluten, mineral oil, petrolatum or artificial dyes.

The collection also utilizes sustainable, reusable packaging, featuring aluminum and glass. According to Kevin Wachs, the packaging is a key part of the WOW story, and reflects the company commitment to save the world, one person at a time.

To learn more of the WOW details behind the super-clean, blue beauty line and how it will help salons and their guests make a difference in the world, MODERN SALON connected with  Earthly Body President Kevin Wachs and Vice President of Sales and Marketing Paula Malloy for this exclusive Q&A:

MODERN: Does MKS eco WOW signal a new era for Earthly Body, a company that has been producing high-quality, natural hair and skin care products since 1996, or is it a natural evolution?

WACHS for WOW: "We wanted Earthly Body to evolve from great to the best as relates to natural ingredient beauty. With WOW, we are able to make that claim. We are an advanced, super-clean beauty leader — the number one brand today as far as natural ingredients are concerned. What's equally great is what's not in our products. There is nothing harmful at all in our formulations."

MODERN: Tell us more about the brand name — the MKS acronym, the "eco" and the WOW.

WACHS for WOW: "MKS stands for Mare, Kevin and Sons — it's a family business that upholds those important family values central to so many salon businesses. Eco is obviously a reference to ecology and our commitment to protecting the world and the environment. WOW is an acronym for "Wonders of the World," which has two meanings. First, our internationally sourced oils and botanicals are truly wonders that come directly from the earth. Second, our products reflect the wonders in the diversity of the world and within our company, which we celebrate."

MODERN: Why is "clean" or conscious beauty — and now blue beauty — such an important trend for salons, stylists and consumers today?

MALLOY for WOW: "People have never been more aware of the benefits of using clean ingredients in and on your body. There's never been more evidence to support a clean-ingredient lifestyle as the best choice a consumer can make. At Earthly Body, we all adhere to that clean-beauty philosophy, personally and professionally."

MODERN: What sets Earthly Body and the new launch apart for stylists or salons who want to grow through clean beauty and blue beauty values?

MALLOY for WOW: "If salons want to get on board and truly make a difference in the world we live in, then Earthly Body brands, especially MKS eco WOW, offer the best choice. I don't know of another professional haircare company that has made as dramatic a commitment to saving the planet as we have. And we've done it without sacrificing our high quality. And don't forget our sustainable packaging!

We see it as our responsibility to share the message that single-use plastic is not good, and we all need to do something about it. PCR or post-consumer resin (recycled plastic) is a positive alternative, and that's what we use when we have to, in minimal amounts for our bottle closures, caps, pumps. Even our foil packettes are PCR. And we keep looking for and finding ways to use even less PCR and more aluminum and glass.

We also advocate and demonstrate the practice of upcycling — and we offer our salons and customers tips and tricks on how to do it. We avoid extra packaging and boxes. Our holiday promotions for salons use recycled cardboard tubes and offer Pinterest-worthy and practical ideas on how to repurpose after gifting.

MODERN: Let's talk about why a plant-based silicone alternative is so important and how it benefits the scalp and hair health?

MALLOY for WOW: "The WOW products were developed to be not only multi-purpose, but very nurturing to the hair and scalp. The primary ingredient in the plant-based silicone alternative is derived from the castor bean, which is a very nourishing oil for hair and scalp. It also has intense moisturizing properties, which will leave hair soft and supple. On its own, castor oil can be difficult to use because it is very thick and hard to wash out of the hair. Our WOW formulation and delivery alleviates all those issues so salons and consumers can reap the benefits."

MODERN: You mention sustainable packaging as being critical and essential to the Earthly Body mission, to the WOW story and to the future of clean beauty in general. Explain why the MKS eco WOW packaging vision and plans are a difference-maker.

WACHS for WOW: "We are not using single-use plastic in any way. Everything is either glass, aluminum or post-consumer resin (PCR). The glut of single-use plastic that is piling up in the ocean and on our shores is appalling. We've heard stats that say by the year 2050, the weight of single-use plastic in the ocean will be greater than the weight of fish in the ocean. We can't single-handedly fix the whole problem. But we can start. One less single-use plastic bottle in the ocean is a start."

To learn more about Earthly Body and the new collection of MKS eco WOW products, visit earthlybody.com/savetheworld..