In the past decade, the beauty industry has been transformed by rising global demand for cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable packaged beauty products. The clean beauty movement has gone mainstream. Here, Vase Magazine breaks down everything you need to know about clean beauty.
How to define Clean Beauty?
Clean beauty is still open to interpretation. “Claims such as ‘natural’, ‘clean’, ‘green’ and ‘hypoallergenic’ have no set definition as yet. Without a standard or definition, it can be easily misleading and open to misuse,” says Année de Mamiel, a pioneer of plant-based beauty. “Terms like chemical-free are silly because all ingredients are chemicals, whether they are from nature or synthetic.”
“Initially, the terms ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ were used to describe products made with ingredients that came from nature. But as soon as marketers learned that consumers preferred the idea of non-synthetics. The words began to appear on all sorts of products and green-washing the claims, no matter whether they are truthful or not,” says Wendy Lean, the co-founder of Vase Creation. Soon in 2019, zero-irritants will become the new standard of natural beauty.
What's the difference between natural and organic products?
Natural product contains ingredients from plants-based and nature and is minimally processed.
Hence, organic products need to be approved by FDA/USDA, and it takes ‘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.
However, an ingredient’s source does not determine its safety. For example, many plants, whether or not they are organically grown, contain substances that may be toxic or allergenic.