Clean beauty is associated with natural beauty, green beauty, and all other types of beauty that deviate from the norm.
But at its core, what does the clean beauty movement stand for?
Since there’s no legal or official definition, many brands have taken it upon themselves to define clean beauty according to their agendas.
It’s time to give you some clarification here.
To us at Urpharma, a clean beauty product must satisfy these two main criteria:
1. Clean ingredients
At its core, clean beauty means that you can use a product without risking your own health. The ingredients list must contain only safe, clean ingredients, which means ingredients free of hormone disruptors and carcinogens.
2. Transparent labels
When a beauty brand makes an effort to list all of its ingredients and label accordingly, it is on the right path to clean beauty. However, not all brands are transparent.
A good example of lack of transparency in the beauty industry is including fragrance in beauty products. Fragrance is not an ingredient, but since the industry is highly unregulated, companies can hide ingredients under the umbrella term “fragrance.”
Another example of non-transparent labels is misleading the consumer based on packaging. Brands can falsely label their products with buzzwords like “natural” and “eco” in order to capture the conscious consumer’s attention.
Clean beauty simply doesn’t contain mystery ingredients, and clean beauty certainly doesn’t claim to be something that it’s not.
Clean Beauty is Simple
Clean beauty isn’t about being 100% perfect. This means that yes, man-made ingredients are clean as long as they’re safe and non-toxic. This also means that clean beauty doesn’t have to be all-natural, preservative-free, etc. Clean beauty is synonymous with non-toxic beauty.
Rather than focus on buzzwords like “natural” and “organic,” switching to clean beauty products focuses on eliminating as many toxins as possible from our daily products.
Clean beauty is also about making ourselves more aware. Since the beauty industry lacks regulation, it’s up to us to become familiar with the most common toxins in our skincare, beauty, body, hygiene products and supplements. And that's where we want to guide you at Ur
Does Clean Beauty Have to be Organic?
Similar to natural beauty, organic beauty is often confused with clean beauty. Like organic food, there are many benefits of organic ingredients in cosmetics, but non-organic ingredients can be just as safe.
The bottom line: No, clean beauty doesn’t HAVE to be organic.
Yes, clean beauty CAN be organic, but it’s not a requirement. What is a requirement, however, is that those ingredients are SAFE, regardless of whether or not they’re organic.
Top 10 Ingredients to Avoid
If you wanted to know the safety or toxicity
profile of every cosmetic ingredient, it would become your full-time job. As we’ve just demonstrated, it’s hard to trust product packaging to know whether a product is what it says it is. So, how do you eliminate toxins from your beauty routine?
Start with these 10 ingredients to avoid:
Parabens like Propylparaben and Iosbutylparaben (*)
Chemical Fragrance
Chemical UV filters Octinoxate and Oxybenzone
Diethanolamine (DEA)
Triclosan
Phthalates like Dibutyl phthalate
Sodium laureth sulfate (SLS)
Formaldehyde
Polyethylene (PEGs) like PEG-10 laurate
Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
* According to EU and FDA regulations, parabens in their current form are officially considered safe to use, since cosmetic products only use a very small concentration of these ingredients in their formulas (up to around 0.4 percent, though measurements do differ for each paraben). It's important to note, however, that parabens may be irritating to some with sensitive skin.
Please contact us, for more information!
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Written by Valerie Loose
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