DUBAI: Ulta Beauty — one of the largest beauty retailers in the US — has awarded Bella Hadid’s fragrance brand, Orebella, its prestigious “conscious brand of the year” title, recognizing the label’s commitment to clean ingredients, ethical practices and sustainable packaging.

Hadid took to Instagram to announce the news with her followers. “Thank you to our Ulta Beauty family for recognizing our commitment to creating a healthy daily ritual for all,” she wrote.

Hadid went on to share the criteria that helped Orebella to earn the title, noting that the brand meets Ulta’s guidelines across several categories. These include clean ingredients — excluding parabens, phthalates and more than 20 other substances on Ulta’s “Made Without” list.

Orebella goes further, she said, banning more than 1,300 ingredients in line with EU standards.

She also emphasized that the brand is certified cruelty-free by PETA and Leaping Bunny, and is entirely vegan, formulated without any animal products or byproducts. In addition, all Orebella packaging is recyclable, refillable or made from recycled or bio-sourced materials, including its line of perfumes.

Hadid also highlighted Orebella’s philanthropic efforts, explaining that the brand’s Alchemy Foundation donates at least 1 percent of domestic net sales to causes “close to our hearts.”

The alcohol-free scents of Orebella, which launched in 2024, were Hadid’s answer to traditional perfumes.

Hadid wrote on her website: “For me, fragrance has always been at the center of my life — helping me feel in charge of who I am and my surroundings,” she said. “From my home to nostalgic memories, to my own energy and connection with others, scent has been an outlet for me. It made me feel safe in my own world.

“Through my healing journey, I found that I was extremely sensitive to the alcohol in traditional perfumes — both physically and mentally — it became something that was more overwhelming than calming to me,” she added. “That is the main reason I wanted to find an alternative, so essential oils became an artistic and experimental process for me.”

She started growing lavender on her farm, walking through the garden every morning and learning about her family’s tradition of making homemade scents. “I realized I might have a calling in this. I found healing, joy and love within nature’s scents,” she said.

JEDDAH: “Ocean with David Attenborough” was released regionally on Disney+ on June 8 — World Ocean Day. It hit cinemas in May, on the 99th birthday of its venerable and venerated presenter, the famed biologist and broadcaster.

Like all Attenborough-fronted nature docs, “Ocean” is gorgeously shot and an immersive viewing experience. But while the vast majority of his output leaves you speechless at the on-screen beauty, “Ocean” also strikes you dumb at the horrifying devastation wrought on the open seas by the 40,000+ super-sized fishing trawlers operating around our planet constantly.

Sweeping the seabed with their giant nets, these ships commit slaughter on an unimaginable scale, leaving little alive in their rapacious search for a few specific species that humans actually eat. In their wake they leave something akin to the dystopian portrayals of a nuclear winter in post-apocalyptic dramas. These grim, heart-breaking shots are interspersed with glorious, vibrant scenes of what a healthy seabed should look like — towering forests of kelp, sea meadows, abundant diverse communities of extraordinary marine life… A reminder of what we are destroying every minute of every day.

Attenborough lays out for us with all of his trademark passion and authority just what is at risk here. The seas, he stresses, are vital for the survival of humankind. And humankind is putting the seas in terrible jeopardy. Marine ecosystems are delicately balanced and linked in complex, subtle ways that we are only now beginning to understand. And industrial fishing is far from subtle. As Attenborough notes, if rainforests were being razed at this rate, the protests would be global and furious. But because this destruction takes place miles below the surface of the water, it goes mainly unnoticed. Incredibly, this mindless, untargeted carnage is not illegal; it is positively encouraged — and heavily subsidized — by many governments. 

Thankfully, there is hope. Attenborough reveals that scientists have discovered that — if left alone through the imposition of “no-take zones” — the oceans can recover at an incredible rate, and the most barren of sea floors can once again flourish in just a few years. There is now an international pact to turn one-third of Earth’s seas into no-take zones by 2030. And if this does happen — note the if — then there’s a good chance that man-made damage can be reversed not just in the water, but on land, as sea life is, it turns out, extremely adept at reducing carbon. The sea could save the world.

As nature documentaries go, it’s hard to imagine “Ocean” being bettered (except perhaps for the distracting clichéd mishmash that serves as its soundtrack, which deserves to be classified as a man-made disaster itself). This is a compelling, vital and urgent narrative delivered by an expert scientist and broadcaster accompanied by awe-inspiring, mind-boggling cinematography showing us wonders that most of us will never come close to seeing first-hand. And it lays out a path for survival. Whether we actually take that path...