What is "Clean" Beauty?

Sometimes you will see beauty products advertised as “Clean”.  These are part of the “Clean” beauty movement.  These products are formulated without any ingredients that are or suspected to be dangerous to humans.  Honestly, most of us don’t think about what is in the products we use. We are more concerned with what it does and is it the right color rather than any potentially harmful ingredients such as parabens, phthalates, sulfates, oxybenzone, triclosan, artificial fragrances, etc.  Clean beauty products should be safe for humans and for the environment. 

Unfortunately, companies in the United States can still include certain ingredients which have been found to be potentially harmful because the FDA has only banned 11 cosmetic ingredients while Europe has banned over 1,300.  In addition, companies in Europe face more stringent regulations than those in the United States because most of the regulations in this country are over 80 years old. This means that any company can claim their products are “clean” or “natural” since much of this area is unregulated.

Furthermore, companies can label certain ingredients under umbrella terms such as fragrance without listing the actual ingredients.  Or they can use terms such as “Natural” or “Eco” to describe their product since neither term is regulated and it really means nothing.  These terms make it seem ecologically friendly and much “greener” than they really are.

In addition, not all products advertised as natural or green are 100 percent clean as some actually contain toxic or questionable ingredients. There are many synthetic ingredients that are perfectly safe and acceptable in “clean” products. Although the term “clean” beauty indicates it should  be preservative free, products such as face creams etc should include a safe method of preservation as a way of stabilizing the formula. 

The best way to make sure your products do not contain potentially harmful or harmful ingredients is to read the ingredients list.  Look for ingredients such as Parabens including Propylparaben and Isobutylparaben, fragrance, chemical UV filters such as Octinoxate or Oxybenzone, Diethanolamine (DEA), Triclosan, Phthalates (often listested as fragrances) such as Dibutyl Phthalte, Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS), Polyethylene (PEG) such as PEG-10 Laurate, Formaldehyde, or Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA).

It is nice to think that everything we buy is safe but it isn’t like that so if we want clean products, we need to read the ingredients list on all our beauty products to make sure they have no hidden surprises.  Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear.  Have a great day.