A guide to all things clean beauty - from the ingredients to avoid to the best brands to know.
The clean beauty movement, once a niche trend championed by the likes of Goop, has gone mainstream. A report released last month by the British Soil Association Certification revealed how conscious consumerism has pushed the UK organic beauty and wellbeing market to an all-time high, with millennials and Gen Zs leading the way. The number of beauty products in Europe certified with Soil Association COSMOS doubled last year to reach more than 10,000 products across 794 brands, pushing the sector into its eighth consecutive year of growth.
As Clarins debuts a vegan skincare line (also paraben-free, sulphate-free and phthalate-free, with packaging made from recycled material sourced from sustainably-managed forests), and Wella Professionals introduces plant-based hair colour, it’s clear that the movement has gathered serious momentum. Here, we break down everything you need to know about clean beauty.
How do you define clean beauty?
Pic: Elizabeth Donelson
Clean beauty is still open to interpretation. “Claims such as ‘natural’, ‘clean’, ‘green’ and ‘hypoallergenic’ have no set definition as yet and without a standard, can be misleading and open to misuse,” says Année de Mamiel, founder of de Mamiel skincare and a pioneer of plant-based beauty. “Terms like chemical-free are silly because all ingredients are chemicals, whether they are from nature or synthetic.”
Rose-Marie Swift, founder of the organic make-up line, RMS Beauty, agrees. “Initially, the terms ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ were used to describe products made with ingredients that came from nature. As soon as marketers learned that consumers enjoyed the idea of non-synthetic products, the words began to appear on all sorts of products, whether they were truthful or not.” “‘Natural’ will no longer be enough of a credential for beauty brands in 2019,” Victoria Buchanan, senior futures analyst at The Future Laboratory adds. “As consumers continue to scrutinise what is in the products they put on their skin, zero-irritants will become the new standard of natural beauty.”
Where did the clean beauty movement come from?
Consumers are clearly making considered choices. The global wellness industry, according to the 2018 Global Wellness Economy Monitor report, grew in value from $3.7 trillion in 2015 to $4.2 trillion in 2017 – an increase of 12.8 per cent. “The wellness economy has grown at nearly twice the rate of global economic growth [3.6 per cent],” the report confirms. Personal care and beauty accounted for more than $1 billion in 2017.
Buchanan says two things have driven the change: “An obsession with wellness and detoxification, both in terms of diet and products, is fuelling a demand for stripped-back, ‘clean’ ingredients. Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about possible irritations caused by synthetic ingredients in fragrances and preservatives and are reading labels more carefully, a habit picked up from the grocery aisle.”
The second factor is the rise in sensitive skin. “Dermatologists are reporting a growing phenomenon of sensitised skin caused by increased exposure to pollution, stress and digital aggressors,” says Buchanan. The Environmental Working Group in the US reported that women are now exposed to a daily average of 126 chemicals from cosmetics, food, cleaning supplies and pollution. “For consumers, skin sensitivity is the new [buzz topic], ahead of anti-ageing, and this is driving a shift towards caring for skin with natural, honest ingredients,” Buchanan continues. She confirms Mintel reports that 21 per cent of US consumers now look for skincare products with as few ingredients as possible.
What qualifies as a toxic ingredient?
How toxic an ingredient is depends on where in the world you are. While the EU bans more than 1,300 ingredients from cosmetics, beauty is one of the least regulated industries in the US, where around 30 are banned. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic act is the only US government monitor of ingredients in cosmetics, and not much has changed since it was first passed in 1938 – meanwhile, the clean beauty industry has made its own rules.
Most clean beauty advocates are concerned with aggressive ingredients and synthetic chemicals. A survey in 2016 by US beauty brand Kari Gran, entitled the Green Beauty Barometer, found that 55 per cent of women and 62 per cent of millennials in the US read beauty product ingredient labels in order to avoid specific ingredients. Artificial colours are avoided as they make the skin more sensitive; while mineral oils (petroleum, petrolatum, paraffinum liquidum) can clog pores, and are a cheap by-product of the crude oil industry; and silicones (such as dimethicone) can also congest the skin. Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) strips moisture; while phthalates (DBP, DEHP, DEP, BPA) – emulsifiers found in synthetic fragrances, hairsprays and nail polish – can be absorbed through the skin. Parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, butyl-, propyl-) are a controversial preservative as they’ve been linked to breast cancer and reproductive problems.
Cult US skincare brand Drunk Elephant cut out the “suspicious six”: essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical screens, fragrance/dyes and SLS. Other brands, however – such as Balance Me, which offers products that are free from parabens, mineral oils, sulphates, pegs, petroleum, silicones, propylene glycol, microbeads, artificial fragrances and colours – opt in to the use of essential oils. “Many have been tried and tested over centuries such as benzoin, yarrow and spikenard, so we can trust in their efficacy,” says co-founder of Balance Me, Clare Hopkins.
According to Swift, “the bottom line is that you should educate yourself on what sorts of ingredients you want to avoid and make informed purchasing decisions.” Hopkins says: “In terms of concentration, it’s not always important to have every active [ingredient] in at a high concentration, but more the clinically tested level. Some actives may even aggravate if the levels are too high, or add unnecessary cost.” Anything over 1 per cent has to appear on the label – starting with the highest percentage ingredient, and following in order of amount. “Under 1 per cent can be any order and brands may change the order to protect their formulations from being copied,” Hopkins explains. Look out for the following certifications: Soil Association, Cosmos, Ecocert, USDA, NaTrue, EWG and Demeter.
What's the difference between natural and organic products?
“Natural products contain ingredients from plants and nature and are minimally processed,” says Swift. “Organic products take ‘natural’ several steps further: they are made with non-GMO ingredients that have been grown, raised, harvested, manufactured and preserved without chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or antibiotics – giving you products with fewer contaminants. All of these extra steps cost more in organic farming and processing, which is why organic products tend to cost more.”
Swift advises avoiding products with “derived from” on the label. “This indicates that something was done to your natural ingredient in order to turn it into something that is no longer natural. We use ingredients straight from nature, with all of their life-force energy still intact. What that means is we are not using fractionated, adulterated ingredients.” Avoiding heavily processed ingredients allows the plants natural healing properties – enzymes, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants – to remain fully active. Swift also avoids water. “Water can actually cause a lot of trouble in beauty products, but is repeatedly used because it is free. It causes a product to be unstable and it has the tendency to grow bacteria very easily. Because of that you have to use preservatives as well as emulsifiers, to join oil and water, which we all know don’t mix naturally.”
How to spot a vegan product
A truly vegan product doesn’t contain any ingredients derived from animals – including honey, collagen, albumen, carmine, cholesterol and gelatin. According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, vegan product launches rose by 175 per cent between July 2013 and June 2018. Mintel’s global beauty analyst Andrew MacDougall suggests that consumers “will want to align their beauty routine with the rest of their lifestyle”. Among the latest launches, cult US brand Milk Make-up is paraben-free, cruelty-free and 100 per cent vegan; while Swedish haircare brand Maria Nila, is also 100 per cent vegan, cruelty-free and registered with PETA, The Vegan Society and the Leaping Bunny.
Hedda Mirrow, head of marketing export at Maria Nila, says of beauty products across the board: “It is very common to see the use of keratin [a protein derived from skins and bones of animals] for strength and repairing the hair; lanolin [sheep fat] and lanolin silk protein [from silk butterflies] for hair softening; and beeswax for emollient and hold.” At Maria Nila, however, they do things differently. “Instead, we only use vegetable proteins, butters and oils – including wheat protein, algaes to repair, shea butter for hold, moringa oil for nourishment and argan oil for softening.”
Aveda, too, is currently removing beeswax from its products and pledges that by 2020 all formulations will be vegan and silicone-free. “The consumer today prioritises natural ingredients, cares about environmental responsibility and the need for global action to preserve and protect it,” Amanda Le Roux, vice president at Aveda International, tells Vogue. “With a strong foundation of using botanical science to create high-performance products that are not harmful to the earth, we’re beyond excited for the future.”
What’s the latest in plant-based alternatives?
Lan Belinky, co-founder of the plant-powered skincare brand Boscia – credited with spearheading the activated charcoal trend – is currently making waves. “We’re working on some very exciting ingredient innovations, one being a cryosea blend that contains sustainably sourced ingredients, such as red algae, inspired by cryotherapy. Together this blend provides a cold-as-ice experience that lifts, tightens, plumps and increases circulation.”
Elsewhere, retin-alts are the new retinols – suitable for sensitive skin and safe to use during pregnancy. Bakuchiol – a plant-based retinol alternative found in the seeds of the psoralea orylifolia plant – appears in new products from Ole Henriksen and Omorovicza. Part of the vitamin A family, bakuchiol boosts collagen and elastin production. “Bakuchiol is an amazing alternative to retinol, which acts in a similar way, without any of the negative side effects [retinol can irritate the skin and cause pigmentation],” Henriksen tells Vogue. “It is a ground-breaking, age-defying, natural ingredient that helps to target fine lines, wrinkles, pores and dark spots, while brightening the skin.”
The environmental impact of your product choices
In 2018, the annual campaign Zero Waste Week reported that 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry, much of which is not recyclable. Even Tata Harper – the ‘Green Queen’ founder of the eponymous 100 per cent synthetic-free and certified organic skincare brand – admits that eco-packaging can be a challenge. “I find the biggest hurdle for both the industry at large and our brand is packaging. Clean cosmetic packaging has a long way to go in terms of sustainability. Finding options that look luxurious and are also sustainable is very hard – things that are sustainable are not luxurious, yet things that are considered luxury are non-recyclable plastic and acrylics that end up in landfills.”
Of making steps towards sustainability, Harper continues: “The majority of our packaging is made of glass – it’s highly recyclable and can be reused over and over. What little plastic we do use is necessary for the function of the packaging and is as eco-friendly as possible. The plastic resin for our tubes is derived from corn, which means it is made from a renewable resource instead of petroleum, and we use soy-based ink for printing.”
The impact of specific ingredients on the environment is also a concern. “As an emollient I use isoamyl cocoate, derived from sugar beets and coconut oil,” says de Mamiel. “It is produced using 60 per cent less energy and CO2 emissions than siloxane (a silicone), and delivers a non-oily feel and light texture.”
Putting your products under the microscope
To do your own research, download the following barcode scanning apps to see how the ingredients in your products measure up: Skin Deep by the Environmental Working Group; Skin Ninja; Clean Beauty by Officinea; and Think Dirty.
Original story taken from British Vogue. Read story here.
