What is Clean Beauty?
What even is clean beauty? Clean beauty is a phrase used to describe beauty products made without harmful and unsafe ingredients that can negatively affect consumers.
It's important when buying and using products to know where they come from. After all, who wants to put unhealthy, chemical-filled products on their skin? Trust me when I tell you this, you definitely don’t. It is not worth it.
Our skin is delicate and porous. We need to be extremely cautious of the products we put on it. Some of these popular, commercialized products contain toxins, parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances,chloride, mineral oils, propylene, and many more dangerous ingredients. This is only a mere list of the chemicals and toxic ingredients that go into so many of our products. All of which can cause severe burns, breakouts, rashes. The harmful ingredients seep in our skin and go into our bodies. The worst part is that people don’t even notice, they don’t even realize until they stop using these bad products. Student, Kelsi Smith, explained “My makeup and face scrubs had so many bpas and chemicals unbeknownst to me. I went over two years before I educated myself and made the shift to cleaner, healthier products, and I have never felt better. I really see a big difference. People need to realize that just because makeup is placed on the surface of your skin, it still penetrates through and goes into your body.”
Most of the products- makeup, creams, oils, cleansers, toners, etc- we use are filled with chemicals, dyes, and overall extremely unsafe ingredients. No matter how good the product looks, how good the packaging looks, how fantastic it smells, you still have to check the label. Even the most popular products fall under this category- whether it is from a trusted place like Sephora or Ulta you still need to read the label and do your research.
It’s unfortunate that us as consumers are the ones having to make sure the products are safe to use. You would like to think that anything out of the market is safe for use- but that's just not the case. I wish it was. But it is just not the case.
As consumers, unfortunately it is up to us. We are responsible for checking labels because most of the time, companies try to conceal the ingredients they use, normalize them, and put it on the market for profit. No company wants to admit that the products they use can harm their customers, so of course, they try to hide it. If it makes them money, most of the time, they don’t care.
In the beauty industry, there just seems to be a lot of secrets and a lot of hidden information from consumers and it does not sit right, so, collectively, we all have to learn and start to be more wary of what we buy. Look at labels- if the names are simple, it's probably safe. But if the ingredients list is full of complex, unpronounceable words, you are in trouble. Of course, this does not always prove to be true, but it is a good rule of thumb.
On a more positive note, the beauty industry has been making strides, and even some laws have been passed banning certain chemicals and harmful ingredients to be in beauty products.