We Are Desperate For Moral Beauty

It's what the clean beauty movement was striving for.

Over the last several months, I poured my creativity into crafting my Go To Market Playbook series, which is available for paid subscribers. There have been many other topics that I have wanted write about, but I was committed to completing the series. So, I scribbled notes. Left myself voice memos. Tried to formalize a content calendar for Q1 2025 so that all ideas lived in one place. Left myself more voice memos.

Now that my GTM series is complete, it feels like an early spring. New ideas are blooming around beauty, culture, consumerism, and staying soulful in uncertain times. In today’s post, I touch on all of them. Enjoy.

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Last year, I spend a lot of time reflecting on the massification of clean beauty, the relentlessness of hyperconsumerism, and what feels like a capitalist imperative for Lead, Speed and Greed.

If you missed those essays, here’s the gist: what started over 15 years ago as a subculture revolution - one that championed safer beauty products, greater transparency, and a lighter footprint on the planet - eventually broke into the mainstream. But without clear regulations or industry-wide definitions, clean beauty got sloppy. Greenwashing ran rampant, marketing trumped truth-telling, and cancel culture took aim at brands making promises they couldn’t keep. While the movement undeniably raised the bar for the industry, selling the idea of “clean” became a marketable commodity, often at the expense of truth, transparency and integrity.

The same fate has befallen the fashion industry—along with agriculture, the food sector, and, to some extent, mainstream medicine.

In response, consumers have gone in one of two directions:

1. They’ve completely lost trust and accepted that if they can’t change things, they may as well buy things. Fuck it. Or,

2. They’ve taken a step back, assessed our current situation, and have come to believe that while things appear dim, this isn’t the whole story of humanity.

I’m in the latter camp, and if you are too, the rest of this post is for you.

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The Beauty Imperative

Yes, late stage capitalism drives us forward into an uncertain future. Social media continues to serve us more of what serves them. The impacts of AI and environmental and human protection rollbacks loom heavy. Taken together, the picture of our collective future looks disconnected, uninspiring and flat.

But there’s another imperative at play. It’s a need so great, so fundamental to our human experience, yet it’s missing in nearly everything we consume in mainstream culture: beauty. 

I’m not speaking about superficial beauty, the kind that we measure ourselves against or use to compare and compete. No, not the kind of beauty that’s leveraged to wield power, nor the kind of beauty that, if lost or never achieved, makes us feel powerless. We’re not hungry for idealized beauty. That’s the kind of beauty that actually leaves us starved, no matter how much we consume. 

We’re desperate for moral beauty.  

Moral beauty is an ancient concept. Philosophers and stoics defined moral beauty as goodness and virtue, or humanity’s “better nature”. The qualities of generosity, humility, kindness, pure intention, and courageous action come to mind.

Modern day philosophers describe moral beauty slightly differently. It is not just the virtues themselves, but the way those virtues are viewed in the eye of the beholder. It’s not just the moral act, but the way observing the act affects the viewer. Witnessing acts of moral beauty alters your interiority and puts you into a state of humility, empathy and oneness.

Last month, as I watched brave firefighters risk their lives to save homes and the helpless during the LA wildfires, I felt deep gratitude and hope in humanity. Witnessing this act led me to want to act myself, in some small way, to bring help and healing to those in need. Seeing moral beauty in action was aspirational. I wanted to be more like them.

Moral beauty, if experienced regularly, can lead to an innate desire to become a better person for the sake of others, and to experience a state of elevation in daily life¹.

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Pure Intention

Moral beauty is at the heart of what the clean beauty movement originally stood for—a call to our highest ethical standards. Beyond improving appearances, clean beauty promised to support the health of people and our planet. Clean beauty brands took bold stands for their values, advocating for communities that couldn’t always advocate for themselves. They embraced generosity and honesty, paying fair wages and maintaining transparency in pricing. With humility, they shared their sustainability journeys, openly acknowledging where they still had work to do. I know from decades of experience working alongside clean beauty founders that their intentions were pure. They wanted to do the good, right and just thing for humanity.

Recently I had a conversation with one such founder who questioned the consumer demand and ROI of maintaining such high standards. In the face of rollbacks and tariffs, was the effort worth it?

The question is a logical one, and I’m certain that this question weighs heavy on many business owners’ minds. As I sat with it, and considered the best way to advise my client, I kept returning to the concept of moral beauty.

Moral beauty suggests that each of us is guided by an inner compass, and when the opportunity arises to act morally in the face of adversity, we do so, not because of what we will get in return, but because we believe it is the right thing to do. In these moments, there is a deeper truth than logic. It’s the truth of the soul.

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness. To reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.”

~Wangari Maathai, Nobel lecture, 2014

Our Collective Moral Compass

Culturally and corporately, I believe our collective moral compass is broken. The cost of engaging on social media and building and scaling a culturally relevant business often comes at the expense of our integrity. We witness - or participate in - behaviors that conflict with our values. In ways both subtle and significant, we compromise to fit within societal and corporate norms. Like death by a thousand cuts, these micro-breaches of morality lead to a slow, imperceptible spiritual erosion. At first, we may not notice. But as we consume an endless stream of content and absorb countless worldviews, we get “muddled about even basic morality.²”

Wired for Moral Beauty

Our saving grace is that we’re wired for moral beauty. We’re made to experience awe, amazement and wonder in the presence of greatness.

Acts of courage and generosity move us; they create a shared sense of victory, inspiring us to be braver and more giving in our own lives.

We’re also wired to see and feel the vast beauty of nature. While this isn’t the same as witnessing a human act of morality, its effects are similar. Unlike anywhere manmade, nature humbles us. It reminds us of our place in the biosphere. We sense our size and significance relative to the cosmos, and this awareness shifts not just our behavior, but our very beliefs. Only when we accept that we are not gods can we truly sit in awe of Creation.

This is real beauty. And I believe—because I have seen—that when moral beauty guides our path, the journey looks different.

What if, instead of “sustainability” or “transparency,” the beauty industry spoke of moral beauty? What if, rather than framing our business decisions as “responsible,” we share how we’re moved to make choices from a place of connection and awe? What if influencers and content creators pursued moral beauty alongside aesthetic beauty? How might marketing evolve if integrity, kindness, and courage were as aspirational as glass skin? If we made moral beauty something worth striving for?

When we look at our life and our work through the eyes of moral beauty,

“We are given back a transformed vision. We move from the wastescape of a world defined by competition and anxiety, to one illuminated by amazement.”

~ Sarah Clarkson, Reclaiming Quiet

1. Moral Beauty, on Trait Appreciation of Beauty Lab

2. We All Need Moral Direction, by Freya India on GIRLS