Pharrell and GP Talk Clean Skin Care

STEP 3:

You finish off with the Humidifying Cream, an intensely moisturizing blend of plant-based squalane, hyaluronic acid, and calming tiger leaf that’s rich and featherlight at once. The name hints at the gleamy radiance the cream deposits—similar to the sexy warmth skin might radiate after a tropical vacation.

1. 
   Humanrace Lotus Enzyme
   Exfoliator Refill goop, $42

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2. 
   Humanrace Rice Powder
   Cleanser Refill goop, $30

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3. 
   Humanrace Humidifying
   Cream Refill goop, $44

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All three formulas are unscented, gentle yet powerfully skin-balancing, and gender-neutral—a touchpoint for Williams, whose famously epic style (hot-pink cardigans, piles of pearl necklaces from Chanel, retro cat-eye sunglasses, giant fedoras) eschews binary gendered rules. It’s also inclusive: “Our packaging has braille on it,” he says. “How can you be ‘Humanrace’ without braille?”

Humanrace is as clean as possible—in formulation, as well as in its imprint on the planet. “We wanted to do everything more than right,” says Williams. “Let’s use far more PCR [postconsumer recycled plastic] than we do virgin plastic. Let’s make sure we’re refillable. Let’s make sure we go beyond what Europe allows.” Humanrace follows the European Union’s guidelines in excluding ingredients deemed unsafe (1,300 ingredients are banned from beauty and personal-care products in the EU, whereas a total of eleven are banned in the US), and it’s also fragrance-free and vegan, and it contains no essential or mineral oils, nuts, seeds, or plastic particles.

The outer packaging—a gorgeous “heart-chakra green,” notes GP—holds refill containers made with over 50 percent postconsumer recycled plastic. And the containers are sealed with heat, instead of a plastic cap, a process that saves roughly 1,200 single-use plastic caps per hour during manufacturing.

“If we’re going to be in this space, we have to make it better than we found it,” says Williams. “And we have to be friendly to the other brands, the ones that are doing well that we can learn from. We’re going to be competitive—like we’re running a race, a human race—but we’re not looking to our left and right to beat anyone. We’re running our asses off forward. And we’re pushing things forward.”