How to Tell if a Beauty Product is Actually Clean

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People ask me all the time how do I tell if a beauty product really falls into the clean beauty category. Decoding it all today for you!

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With so much information being thrown our way during what seems like a daily basis in regards to clean beauty, it can be difficult to navigate it all. Some products that claim to be clean, really aren’t. A lot of it really comes down to learning how to read beauty product labels, knowing which ingredients are harmful, but also deciding what you are willing to put up with. Some products might be “kinda clean” by some people’s standards, while others wouldn’t ever touch that same product. I’m not here to tell you what is right and wrong for you, but as a Beautycounter consultant, I was to educate you so that you can make the best decisions for YOU.

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First of all, what exactly is “clean beauty”?

There are so many different terms to take into consideration here: green beauty, eco-friendly beauty, natural beauty, and many more. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t provide any type of regulation for the terms “clean,” “safe,” and “non-toxic.” Our founder and CEO and Beautycounter, Gregg Renfrew has spearheaded the bill that recently was introduced to Congress to secure legal definitions for “natural” and “naturally derived,” because those terms are thrown around much too freely without actually meaning anything. The bill has not been passed yet, but fingers crossed this will happen ASAP.

Furthermore, there hasn’t been a change to the laws about beauty product labeling since 1938 – meaning brands can pretty much slap whatever they want onto a label to make you think it’s safe. This is called greenwashing and I will explain more about that down below. This is why you have to read the labels. “Clean beauty” is a term that is applied to beauty products (makeup, skincare, etc) that are free on ingredients that are considered toxic. But those standards are different to ever single brand out there.

In the United States, we only have 30 different chemicals that are banned from beauty products. In the EU, they ban 1400, just so you have something to compare it to. Another reason you shouldn’t accept anything less than only real, true, clean beauty products for your entire family. At Beautycounter, we ban 1500 toxic chemicals, which you can find here on The Never List.

What is “greenwashing”?

Greenwashing is the term that is applied when brands throw around words like “natural” or “organic” on their beauty product labels, but the products aren’t actually natural or organic. False advertising at it’s finest. It sounds awful, and it is. It basically tricks you into spending money on products that aren’t nearly as safe for you as they sound.

And guess what else? This is 100% legal to do here in the United States. Gross, right?

Check out my video that describes so much more information about greenwashing:

How to Tell if a Beauty Product is Actually Clean

There are two really amazing resources to turn to whenever you are trying to tell if a product is actually clean. I always first start by turning to The Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Skin Deep Database.

Whenever you see the EWG VERIFIED™ marked on a product, you will know that the product meets EWG’s strictest criteria for transparency and health. Their website features an amazing search guide where you can search by either product, brand, or chemical to find where it falls in these “toxicity scale,” which is rated on a of 1-10 scale. (The higher the number, the worse the product for you.) The information that the pull to rate these products comes from a combination of scientific studies from over 60 different research databases around the world. And all of their resources are cites, too, so it’s incredibly transparent.

The second resource is my favorite for whenever you are on the go. It’s called the Think Dirty app, and allows you to scan the barcode on products say, if you were in Target, and see how they fall in terms of toxicity. These two resources will give you all the buying power that you could want or need whenever making the decision to purchase clean beauty products.

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Looking for more information about clean beauty products? I’ve got you covered!

I try to live with the philosophy that if it isn’t clean by EWG standards then it’s not touching the skin of me or my family. I refuse to take risks whenever I know better and I truly hope that you don’t either. If you are ready to make the switch, I would love it if you shopped clean beauty with my at Beautycounter by clicking here. We have products for baby, kids, men, skincare and makeup!

XOXO,

Allison