How clean is your
beauty routine?
Natural! Green! Non-toxic! Organic! If you’re confused about
what “clean beauty” actually means, it’s not just you. Here’s how
to decode labels, understand ingredient lists and find products
that are truly healthier for your body and the planetBy WING SZE TANGWHY CLEAN IS THE NEW GREEN
For years, “natural” and “green” were
the buzzwords of choice to give beauty
products a halo of purity and wellness,
conjuring the wholesome goodness of,
say, organic rosehips freshly plucked for
your face oil. But both are also fuzzy
terms, subject to marketing spin: Neither
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) nor Health Canada defines them
in the context of cosmetic labelling. Thatmeans the claim “natural” on a product
could mean it’s 100 percent free of syn-
thetic ingredients, but it could just as easily
mean that the formula includes a smid-
gen of plant extracts, says Dr. Shannon
Humphrey, clinical assistant profes-
sor in the department of dermatology
and skin science at the University of
British Columbia.
Putting natural ingredients on a ped-
estal also implies that they’re inherently
better and safer than the synthetic stuff,
but that’s not always true, says Humphrey.
“Natural, or being derived from nature, is
not synonymous with safety,” she explains.
“There are tons of natural things that are
harmful to you, from poison ivy to mer-
cury to arsenic.” It’s also possible for ingre-
dients to be natural but contaminated
(such as minerals laced with heavy metals).
“Let’s not focus on natural versus syn-
thetic,” Humphrey says. “Let’s focus on the
science behind safety and the science
behind efficacy.”
The shift toward talking about what’s
safe—and not merely natural or unnatu-
ral—has made “clean beauty” the catch-
phrase of the moment. “Clean” often means
that the products are free of certain ques-
tionable ingredients, such as parabens,
although what’s deemed dodg y and worth
avoiding varies from brand to brand and
country to country.HOW ARE BEAUTY
PRODUCTS REGULATED?
While companies aren’t allowed to pour
dangerous toxins into your beauty prod-
ucts—Health Canada has a Cosmetic
Ingredient Hotlist of what’s prohibited
or restricted—governments vary in their
degree of regulatory toughness. While
the European Union has banned or
restricted about 1,400 ingredients in cos-
metics, Canada has done the same for just
over 600. The equivalent number in the
United States is just 30.
It’s also true that cosmetics are not
controlled as strictly as drugs in North
America. In the U.S., cosmetics manu-
facturers aren’t even required to sub-
mit safety data to the FDA. Surprisingly,
the burden is on the FDA to prove that a
product or ingredient is harmful when
used as intended. That’s why clean-beauty
activists are demanding tighter stan-
dards and more protective laws. One
such advocate is Beautycounter, a six-
year-old direct sales company that wasO
ne of the biggest trends in beauty
today is the rise of conscious
consumption: pushing for more
transparency in products and ques-
tioning all the ingredients inside. Are
they healthy, safe and free of anything
sketchy? We now have an abundance of
beauty options marketed as “clean,” but
navigating the cosmetics counter—and
sometimes conflicting claims—remains
as tricky as ever.28 CHATELAINE • APRIL/MAY 1019 Photography by CARMEN CHEUNG
STYLING, CHRISTINA YAN.style BETTER BEAUTY