How to Shop for Clean Beauty (without a chemistry degree)
How to find clean and Non-Toxic beauty products without becoming a chemist
So you already know that there are hidden chemicals in skincare and beauty products that are not good for your health. You want to do better, but you don’t know where to start! Sometimes it feels overwhelming and impossible to find products that we love and work well that aren’t messing with our health in big ways. The average woman applies 168 different chemicals to their skin daily. This adds up! Products that have become household names that we have been using for years contain thousands of harmful ingredients that are known carcinogens, hormone disruptors, endocrine disruptors, allergens and more. But because of the lack of regulation in the beauty industry, these products still flood the shelves of stores and make their way into our homes. So how do we find products that are ACTUALLY safe and clean?
Knowing what is healthy and safe can feel daunting at best. Simply reading ingredient labels is simply not practical when there are 10,500 unique chemical ingredients used in the personal care industry alone. So how do we find product we can trust as safe? Here are my top 5 tips!
Beware of greenwashing. Knowing what it is and how to dig further is the first step. Greenwashing is when a company promotes their brand or a certain product as healthy for you or the environment, when in reality is, it’s anything but. (For today, I am going to focus on finding safe products for YOU- we will chat more about the environment another day!) Just because a product says “natural”, “safe”, “plant-based”, or “non-toxic absolutely does NOT mean that it is. These phrases are completely unregulated in the Beauty industry- something that really needs to change. This means companies can use whatever marketing words or photos on a product to make us believe it is healthy, without backing it up in any way. Now that you know greenwashing exists, let’s dive a bit more into HOW to find companies that really ARE producing clean and safe products.
Look for certifications. If a company is doing something well, they will be talking about it! Start in the “About Us” section of a website and briefly read up about what they are doing. This will help you gauge the level of authenticity. They will likely include a list of all the ingredients they are NOT using, which can be helpful! Hint: it should be LONG. The EU Bans over 1,700 harmful ingredients and the US bans only 11. You read that right… ELEVEN. If a company is holding themselves to a high standard, look for a number that at LEAST matches the EU’s 1,700 ingredients or higher. Also, quite often, companies that are truly clean are also going over and beyond in other areas. Looking for certifications like B Corp, Leaping Bunny, EcoCert, USDA-certified organic, and EWG Verified are ways to hint that a company is willing to put in the extra time, effort and funds to operate at a higher standard.
Use search engines and databases like the EWG Skin Deep, Yuka, ThinkDirty etc. Ultimately this is the bread and butter of how I find trustworthy products. If you look into the criteria and work these companies go through to deduce which products are safe and which are not you will see it takes incredible scrutiny, ingredient knowledge, pooling of resources, well developed formulas and more. None of us as consumers can possibly re-create this level of screening on our own. Leaning into a resource you trust to filter for you can be a great guide. My favorite is the EWG. Companies can NOT “pay to play”, its highly reputable, been around for years, rank over 65,000 products, it’s completely free to use and they are extremely transparent on HOW and WHY they rank each product. Finding a search engine you can trust will open the door to finding products quickly and easily that are safe and clean without the greenwashing.
Avoid certain ingredients. Considering the above recommendations, I do think it’s important to have an eye out for toxic ingredients and know the main ones to avoid. Not all products are found in a search engine like the EWG so sometimes we must put on our scientist hat and do what we can ourselves. It is also worth noting that the term “perfume” or “fragrance” is completely unregulated meaning thousands of harmful ingredients can be hidden behind that one word, making it extremely difficult to know whether a product with “fragrance” or “perfume” listed as an ingredient is truly clean. Fragrance is not inherently harmful; the lack of transparency is. If a company goes through the trouble to disclose all the ingredients used to give their products a certain smell or fragrance, that is a great sign! This usually means they are not trying to hide behind the label and are willing to have all their ingredients out in the open for scrutiny. Here is a starting list of ingredients to avoid, but it is by no means all inclusive:
Benzalkonium Chloride
Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
Coal tar hair dyes and other coal tar ingredients
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)
Ethanolamines (MEA/DEA/TEA)
Formaldehyde
Hydroquinone
Methylisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone
Oxybenzone
Parabens (methyl-, isobutyl-, propyl- and others)
Phthalates (DBP, DEHP, DEP and others)
Polyethylene glycol (PEG compounds)
Retinyl palmitate (Vitamin A Palmitate)
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS and SLES)
Synthetic flavor or fragrance
Toluene
Triclosan and Triclocarban
5. Shop clean with me! By following steps 1-4 you are already becoming a more savvy and empowered consumer. But finding a brand you can trust and turn to for skincare, color and body care that is not only safe, but highly effective, is a total win, taking the guesswork, time and effort out of each individual purchase. I have been using Beautycounter products for almost a decade and have been working with them for over a year. We are the CREATORS of clean. Did you know that when Beautycounter started in 2013 the term “clean beauty” had never really been used? We set out to not just create some cleaner products, but set the standard in what it means to be clean and to fight in Washington DC to change the laws governing the beauty industry so ALL companies have to do the same. Wouldn’t it be incredible if every woman across the world could walk into her neighborhood store or hop online and select ANY skincare, color or body product and be certain it was good for her health and the health of her family? That’s the dream Beautycounter is fighting for.
Shopping with me means three things:
You are investing in products that are some of the safest in the market, and not just safe, but incredibly effective too. Our never list covers 2,800 harmful ingredients we never use in any of our products. We are full transparent and list every SINGLE ingredient in each of our products so there is never anything hiding. We test each of the ingredients we use against 23 human end points to ensure unparalleled safety. And we 3rd party test all the way through production (from raw ingredients to final product) to ensure ingredients stay safe from start to finish.
You are investing in a B Corp company that is doing MORE: advocating for industry-wide change, responsibly sourcing their ingredients, sustainably packaging their products, looking out for health of consumer AND the earth. That’s something worth putting your dollar towards.
You are investing in my personal business and as such, get some fun benefits! Color matching, free samples, cart creation, return help if ever needed, check ins, order of application instructions, freebies and so much more. I love working directly with women to help them find products perfect for THEM that are 100% safe for their health- yay! If you like to shop directly through my link and don’t need anything more, that is available to you too. Whatever you need, I am here to help with.
Shopping for clean beauty shouldn’t require an advanced degree or take more time than a full time job. I hope these few tips help prepare you to find products with ingredients you are happy with and that are safe and clean for you and your family. If I can help with that in any way, please reach out!
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