Watre

“Scan, check and buy” is the way to go to encourage people to make more conscious decisions when making skincare and cosmetic purchases.

There are 3 main problems that the project covers. Firstly, marine pollution. Since water treatment plant systems are of awful quality in many parts of the world, when we wash our faces or take showers, the products that get drained down our sinks and showers can end up in our oceans and soils. For instance, every time we take a shower, about 100,000 microplastics get drained down, and this is because of the products that we use while taking a shower, such as shampoo, conditioner and soap. All of these products can contain potential toxic chemicals that do not get filtered and end up in our oceans, where they hurt marine life. For example, oxybenzone and octinoxate are both ingredients that appear in most sunscreens. However, when these ingredients interact with oceans and water, they can damage certain parts of marine life, for instance, coral reefs. Because of the fact that water treatment plants are not always efficient, when people apply skincare products on their faces and then wash them down, toxic ingredients can end up in soil or the ocean. This again has an adverse effect on the planet and its eco-system. Secondly, the animal agriculture industry and its practices. The animal agriculture industry is notorious for the abuse of animals, wiping out trees and forests and spewing carbon into the atmosphere. A big chunk of animal-based products are used in the products that we use on a daily basis, even the cosmetics and skincare products that we use on our faces. Thirdly, the cosmetics market and industry. As with the animal agriculture industry, the cosmetics market isn’t any better. Their practices include animal testing and the production of cosmetics have an adverse impact on our environment, because they emit greenhouse gases. All in all, I am trying to reduce the consumption of toxic, non environmentally friendly and non vegan cosmetic products, because if those 3 aspects are overlooked, marine life, as well as the planet as a whole might suffer in the long term. 

I have conducted surveys among people of ages 14-23 about their cosmetic purchases. 81% of the people that were surveyed do not look at the ingredient lists when purchasing a cosmetic product. Furthermore, another 77% of people answered they have not gone eco-friendly with their purchases, because it is not convenient and time consuming. Although these statistics are disappointing, they are not chocking. Nowadays, people do not bother checking whether what they buy will have a long lasting effect on the environment, because they do not realise how big of an impact their everyday purchases make on a global scale. They might not be feeling the effects of it now, but it will not take long for the consequences to start affecting everyone one by one if the right measures to help the planet aren’t taken as quickly as possible.

The way “Watre” can solve this problem is by being able to detect which ingredients are toxic and unsustainable and differ them from the ones that aren’t, so that buyers can become more aware of the environmental impact their cosmetic/skincare purchases have. This will mean that less toxic ingredients are washed down drains on a daily basis, because people will start stepping away from unsustainable products after utilising our app. This feature can be used by simply scanning the barcode of a cosmetic or skincare product and the app will tell you 1) how environmentally the product is, 2) the percentage of vegan ingredients in the products, 3) whether the product was tested on animals, 4) whether the packaging of the product is recyclable. The second feature allows the user to input the names of multiple cosmetic companies into a single search bar after which the user is given information of the environmental impact of each brand that they searched up. This is easier and quicker than sitting for hours trying to find data on the companies through the internet, because the app will be able to tell you right away. Our team likes to call this function a “more efficient Google search bar” due to the fact that multiple brands can be entered, instead of one at a time. This can push people to choose more sustainable brands. The third feature is map, where you can choose your location (as of right now, we have 3-4 cities located in Kazakhstan) and the nearest thrift stores and eco-shops will be shown. 

Through the use of Watre, people will be able to check the environmental level of skincare and cosmetic products quickly, the impact of various companies and shop from nearby thrift stores and eco-shops.

There is no specific age demographic we are trying to target. However, since cosmetic products are mostly bought by people ages of 16-25, that would be the age demographic that is going to be most likely using our app. In addition, our app revolves around cosmetic industries, so people that buy cosmetic products would be our main target group. According to our survey, 77% of those people’s needs include a convenient way of being able to identify the eco-friendliness of skincare products. Their pain points, therefore, include not having the ability to recognize or differ sustainable items from unsustainable ones. So, through using Watre, these people will be able to check the environmental status of their everyday purchases quicker and more efficiently while also being informed about the impact of large cosmetic companies.

Growing up, I was a die heart fan of makeup and would watch youtube beauty gurus on a daily basis. While my lifestyle as an environmental activist developed, it felt like I had to put my interest in makeup in the past because of the influence of large cosmetic companies on our planet, environment, and lives. That was until I got into coding which opened up doors for me and others to create innovative solutions to even the deadliest problems. As an avid coder who has now been coding for 2 years, taken intensive computer science classes and participated in multiple hackathons, as well as computer science competitions, I was able to finally combine my love for coding, makeup and caring for the environment into one single project. In addition, the app’s commitment to providing all of these services in one convenient app makes it easier to use compared to other similar mobile applications.

As I have previously mentioned, I have conducted surveys among people of ages 14 to 23, who purchase makeup and skincare products. I also interviewed some of them to understand their perspectives on the current situation of the cosmetic industry, the actions that they have taken and what problems they have encountered. For instance, a 16 year old female that we interviewed expressed that in order to go eco-friendly, they wanted an app or built-in feature on their phone that is convenient when shopping for cosmetics. In addition, a 23 year old female had a similar view, while also adding that they wanted cheaper alternatives because some eco-friendly brands can be expensive. Also, a male of age 18 said that he wanted to be more informed about the topic and they had issues differentiating eco-friendly products from the ones that are not. 

After having created a prototype of the mobile application, I also got feedback from potential users, as well as experts in the field of technology and environmental studies. For instance, I made a few changes to the scanning function. That part was actually partially suggested by an expert. She was also working on a similar app that involved the reading of texts, also known as OCR, and talked about how they were dealing with some difficulties when it came to reading certain fonts of certain sizes, as well as texts in different languages. That is when I decided that scanning barcodes would be more efficient and easier to read because they only contain numbers. I think if I make similar changes or improve what I already have based on further research and feedback from others, I will be able to finally get a step closer to publishing the app. 

Although there are similar projects on the market, what makes Watre different from its competitors is its efficiency and the large amount of data that the app can provide the user with. While analysing the market, we came across a similar concept and it was a website called “Ecogolik”. The website allows the user to physically write down the ingredient list of a product after which it gives information about how natural every product is. However, there are a few issues that arise with that. Not only is it time consuming to look through every single ingredient, but the website only considers whether the ingredients are natural or not. For example, palm oil is considered natural, however, it is not environmentally sustainable whatsoever because it leads to deforestation. So, we believed that although the website had a large database, it lacked to take into account other factors that play a role in the environmental status of any given product. Another example would be the mobile application “Eco Angel Health”, which is relatively similar to Watre in terms of the function that it has. However, in Eco Angel Health 2 out of the 3 features are only available with a premium subscription. Although Watre is also planning on adding a premium subscription to the project, we will only add it as an additional feature to the main functions that we already have that are going to be completely free. We believe that making a project that is only available using money will make people more reluctant to change their lifestyles, so the premium subscription feature will only make up a small fraction of the whole project. 

If we do publish Watre in the near future, we believe that not only will it encourage people to make changes in their routines, but it will also push companies to produce more environmentally friendly products with less toxic ingredients since there will be less demand for them. 

First of all, we hope to gather a team of professionals and volunteers who will be working on the research part of the project. We have to collect information on hundreds, thousands, if not millions of makeup products that are out there, so we will be needing a big team in order to do so. Data on the eco-friendliness of separate cosmetic ingredients, as well as information on their vegan status need to be collected. In addition, research on various cosmetic companies needs to be done. All of this is highly time consuming and will definitely be requiring a team of people who will be working on this part of the project. 

Second of all, financial funding for the project is also a must. Although our team is currently small, it is planning on growing in the future, so salaries, even if small, will be needed to the people who will be contributing to the improvement of the project.

Third of all, the advertisement part of things is as important as the mobile application itself. When the project is going to be officially published, we hope to garner as many users as possible, even though it is a difficult task on its own. For that, we will need to improve our business plan and strategies. 

Our project is a software, namely a mobile application. This app was programmed on a platform, called “Thunkable”. Although the platform has its advantages, some parts of it limit us in adding more advanced functions. A barcode scanner plays a huge role in the app, but the project used to have an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to read ingredient lists in the past. Therefore, we would want to reprogram it on a coding language, preferably “Swift”. Also, the project is using Firebase as its main database to store all of the data on ingredients, products, brands, maps, etc. We also use features that track down the location of the user for the “Routes” function of the app. 

Although this might sound ambitious of us, we hope to gain at least 10,000 users after the first year of launching the app. This is not only based on ambitions, but also on the people we surveyed. If given the right app with unique features like Watre, as well as a well thought-out business and advertising strategy, we believe it will have potential in attracting that many users. But even if the project does not end up attracting 10,000 users and gains less, it will not stop or deter our team from continuing to improve the project in all aspects of the app. 

In terms of legal barriers, we will be collecting information about ingredients, and it will be mostly collected from the internet, specifically from research papers that were written by other authors. This means that we might be needing to request permission to use their information from their research papers as a part of our project to overcome any legal difficulties for the use of other people’s work. Regarding financial barriers, as we have previously mentioned, salaries might be needed for those who will be a part of the project. It is not easy to win funding for projects in general, but especially for a mobile application combating climate change made by high schoolers. So, that will also be a part of our journey in overcoming any hardships when developing the project. 

We do not have any official partners, however, we are planing on collaborating with organisations who have professionals in the field of environmental studies, cosmetic chemists, who will help us in conducting the research on the ingredients and packaging of cosmetic, as well as skincare products.

Our business model was built on the demands of the planet and people. We mostly target young women and men who care about their skin and the world. Our beneficiaries and customers are able to check cosmetics for hazardous ingredients, both for the skin and the environment. Our mobile application is the way our future customers will check the ingredients, with a built-in scanner, they can scan a barcode of a product and check if their cosmetics is eco-friendly and safe for use. Using our app will be the most convenient way for them to do this, because it makes the long research very fast as people won't have to google every ingredient, product and brand on their own. The impact of this project on the world is going to be tremendous, as it is going to raise awareness among people about the impact of cosmetics and make the production of it more eco-friendly by simply choosing ecological products over others. In addition, revenue is going to be produced through 2 methods: pop-up advertisement in the application and paid subscriptions.

“Watre” is going to be a FREE app on the App Store. Therefore, the company will not be making money from installations. However, the app will include premium subscriptions, which after buying, will show additional routes to eco-shops and thrift stores, alternatives for certain ingredients/brands and many more. In addition, the app will include a “share” component, where you can share “Watre” with other people. Each time the user uses the share component, bonuses will be added to their account. After a specific amount of bonuses are collected, the user can get one of the premium subscription functions for free for a month. Another way the user can receive bonuses is by going to one of the eco-shops listed in the app. “Watre” will track down their location and add bonuses to their account when they enter the app. These are functions that are not included in the app, but will be developed in the future.

After gaining 10000 users we plan to attract advertising agencies who wish to promote their clients’ products and services through our platform. Advertisement will be in a form of a recurring post on the feed of the users. Cost per Thousand (CPM) impressions will be 5 USD. Assuming, we have 1000 (10%) users with each user seeing only one ad per visit and visiting 2 times a day, we will have a net profit of approximately $10 each day and almost a profit of $300 each month from 1 advertisement. With more users in the future, our net profits are looking to increase.

In addition, I have participated in business incubators to get funding for the project, namely the Social Impact Award, where I became a finalist. By participating in more of these incubators, we hope to get financial funding, at least for the initial publication of the app.