Welcome to the launch of my clean beauty blog series! I am SO excited to kick-start chatting through the good, the bad and the ugly of our beauty industry we know and love so dearly, and talk through some of the main questions you all have shared with me.
Over the past year, I have taken initiative to live a cleaner, less toxic lifestyle. From the food we eat to the makeup we put on our skin, there are so many ways each and every one of us can make healthier changes to surround ourselves with less harmful ingredients.
As the very first post to kick off my clean beauty series, I wanted to dive into what the term “clean” even means, and how a clean beauty routine can impact your life. Let’s get started!
What is Clean Beauty?
By definition, “clean” beauty really doesn’t mean anything. Whoops. There is no requirements for a company to deem themselves “clean” and there are no regulations for throwing around the term. Any company can slap the label “clean” on their products and make that decision for themselves. So, determining what you deem clean is entirely up to YOU.
This “clean beauty” vagueness comes from the lack of regulation in our beauty industry. The last time our US government passed a law regulating beauty products was in 1938, when they restricted just 11 ingredients. Think about all we have learned since 1938… Yikes.
Meanwhile, other parts of the world are taking a far more substantial stance against toxic substances, such as Europe which bans 1,500 ingredients from personal care products.
Knowing we don’t necessarily have anyone looking out for us and the products we decide to put on our skin, it is up to us to value clean ingredients and keep a close eye on what we purchase and use.
At first thought, beauty products might not seem like the most necessary part of your lifestyle to turn clean, as the products just sit on your skin, but that’s actually far from true. Our skin can absorb 60% of the product we put on our skin. That makes things feel a little different, right?
Okay, so now we know “clean beauty” really doesn’t assure you anything, but there are lots of toxins to still worry about. Now what?
Tips for Deciding What Your Deem “Clean”
Educate yourself and pay attention to ingredient list.
It is completely up to you to take initiative to determine what goes into and onto your body. The very best thing you can do is research the impact certain toxics might have on your health and eliminate toxins based on the threshold you determine. I will be sharing an entire blog post on this next – stay tuned!
Find brands you believe in and stick with them.
It’s a lot (I mean, A LOT) of work to read through every single ingredient of every product you use. It’s certainly the most effective way to create a clean routine, but is this the most realistic way for everyone? Especially if you don’t have as much of an interest in beauty products as say, my beauty junkie self, this might sound near impossible to you.
I completely get that. So, do your initial research, and then find brands you trust. For me, one of these brands is P/Y/T. You’ve heard me talk about them before over here, and you’ve probably seen them throughout all my beauty posts, and that’s because they are a clean beauty brand I know and love. This makes finding new products so much easier. When I saw they launched a new line of glosses, I already trusted their commitment to eliminating these toxins, so of course I was all in!
Look for brands that meet Canadian or European clean beauty standards.
Like I shared above, other parts of the world have taken a much stricter stance against on eliminating toxins in beauty products. A good rule of thumb is to look for products that are compliant with Canadian regulations, which bans 500 toxic ingredients, or European regulations, which bans 1,500 ingredients. Another reason I love P/Y/T is their products are compliant with both of those standards!
Benefits of Clean Beauty
Now that we’ve chatted through what clean beauty is and how to determine your threshold for cleanliness, its time to talk about why this even matters. Below are some of the top benefits of clean beauty.
Avoid toxins that can harm your health.
From hormone disruption to links to cancer to skin irritation, toxins can make a major impact on your health and should be taken seriously. There is still a lot of research being done on which toxins can confidently be linked to which negative health effects, but one thing we know for sure is toxic chemicals are not the safest choice. To me, that in itself is worth the switch to cleaner, most trustworthy products.
Increase amount of beneficial ingredients in your routine.
All of those toxins have to be replaced by something, and oftentimes, the replacement not only eliminates negative side effects, but increases positive results. With less parabens and phthalates, you’ll see more vitamins, natural oils, and plant extracts.
Decrease testing on animals.
Most of the time, clean beauty products are also cruelty-free and not tested on animals, which is something that is so important to me. You’ll also see a lot of clean products that are vegan. P/Y/T is completely cruelty-free and transitioning so many of their products to vegan, as well.
Stay tuned for my next clean beauty post which will dive into toxic ingredients to avoid in your routine. What other clean beauty questions do you have? Drop them below!
Thank you to P/Y/T Beauty for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.
So excited for this series! Clean beauty is so important. You’re starting this series at the perfect time as I’ve decided any new beauty products I buy are going to be clean.