There’s nothing that irritates a cosmetic scientist more than the words ‘clean’ when it appears on beauty packaging. Clean is meaningless – there’s no standard and no authority to declare a product clean.
Clean means different things to different people, but in a marketing context, it hopes to imply a special purity about a product that may or may not genuinely exist. The problem with slapping the word clean on beauty products are many, but not least the fact that brands who genuinely are trying to create a different beauty footprint get lost in the mire of clean claims.
There is little regulation around what beauty brands can claim when it comes to ‘natural’ and ‘clean’. I remember when organic ingredients first surged into popularity and being highly impressed by a product that claimed to contain organic lavender as a minor ingredient. I definitely heard organic before I heard anything else despite the fact that the other, plentiful, non-organic ingredients far outweighed any possible benefits. Clean is claimed for all sorts of different things from mindful sourcing, ingredient purity, less ingredients, more ingredients, plastic free, recyclable, recycled, natural, sustainable, low carbon footprint, less air miles, locally sourced, unpolluted, organic, harmless, respectful and your clean product could be all of those things, one of things, some of those things or none of those things.
There’s a correlation between green-washing and anti-ageing claims. They both work on fear. Whether it’s instilling the consumer with a sense of terror about ‘chemicals’ (everything, more or less, is a chemical so nothing, by the way, is chemical free) or making them feel rubbish about their face so they buy more moisturiser – they’re both mind bending practises designed to make the consumer change their buying patterns.
There ARE brands trying to do better and be better in terms of purer ingredients, less ingredients or being mindful of their beauty footprint on the planet but in amongst those there are many throwing their clean hat into the ring when rightfully, they don’t deserve to be there. At this end, I see ‘clean’ claims every day – they often arrive packaged in bubble wrap and sellotape which is an instant red flag that this ‘clean’ message isn’t nose to tail and needs closer inspection.
There is plenty of information to ensure that you are a savvy shopper in the beauty area when in comes to ‘clean’. Do your research as a consumer, ask questions about what you buy, arm yourself with product knowledge and look precisely at what the brands you love are actually doing claim ‘clean’ rather than accepting the label at face value. If ingredient purity is important to you, there’s plenty of information out there (I like this feature in the Guardian HERE).
It’s important, I feel, not to be a colluder in promoting a message that even those writing about beauty professionally aren’t sure of and find hard to substantiate. If I’m not sure, I don’t focus on or promote the clean claims in the same way that I don’t focus on or promote anti-ageing claims because I’m damn sure I’m not passing on the fear. I think what I’m saying is don’t be fooled: clean isn’t necessarily better – it doesn’t render those without the claims ‘dirty’ so when you’re considering a beauty purchase, keep it mind that the label that’s persuading you doesn’t always mean what you think it might.
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7 comments
Terrific post, thanks. I made myself an ingredient semi-expert owing to the need to get rid of persistent eczema many years ago, so my principal requirement is full disclosure on that score. Any brand not fully upfront on their website can forget about winning my custom. But specifically, my notion of ‘ clean’ is a product free of any petrochemical derivative. Not easy, as even some green-vibe brands include the odd item not readily associated with crude oil! (I prefer simple potions closer to food-grade, with a bit of essential oil thrown in. Suits my ageing skin much better, I must say) xx
It’s great that you’ve educated yourself and understand your skin so well now – petrochemicals don’t upset my skin thankfully and I’m lucky that I haven’t had to go down the route of relentlessly checking everything and although I do understand ingredients quite well they find new terms and new ingredients that just make it seem impossible to drill down to absolute bones of things.
I miss the days of Anita Roddick and The Body Shop where she spoke truth over hype. Today, there is so much subtle and not so subtle hypnotic hype or just plain manipulated of beauty advertising that the consumer really has to think before spending.
I just take everything with a grain of salt when it comes to beauty products.
I should have said it’s as important to understand marketing language as it is to understand ingredient lists!
My pet peeve is flipping parabens, or the industry’s avoidance of them! I’ve no issue with these at all, from a reaction point of view, but woe betide my skin when certain replacement preservatives are now used instead (hi there M&S or Laura Mercier skincare! Ouch/itch) The ‘green/clean’ flag waving about their exclusion in skincare so often obscures an ingredients list that’d probably make very good chemical weapons! But I just wanted to add, to my mention above re petrochemicals: I avoid them if I can only because I dislike the heavy chrmical processing they undergo, not to mention eco concerns about the oil industry in general. I can’t claim to have ever had a reaction to them; just no discernible benefits. xx
It’s actually so hard to educate oneself – there are so many variables in skin care so my general advice at the moment is to stick with what you know works for you.
Thank you for this post. Says what I’ve been trying to articulate myself.