“Clean beauty” is a buzz phrase that’s been around for a few years, but not everyone knows exactly what it means. What is clean beauty anyway?
Here at CV Skinlabs, we manufacture only clean beauty products and we’re proud of it, so we wanted to let you know what it is and how we adhere to the philosophy.
What is Clean Beauty?
Currently, there is no official definition of clean beauty, but it is generally described as a “movement” that began several years ago as consumers began to demand better from their skincare products. As we learned more about how the skin may absorb what’s applied to it, we realized that slathering unknown chemicals on our bodies every day was not the best idea for our health.
At the same time, the idea of using natural ingredients from plants and foods in our skincare products began to gain traction. These ingredients contained compounds that were good for the skin and helped encourage healing and anti-aging.
In general, a clean beauty product:
- Contains only non-toxic ingredients.
- Is made with the health of the skin and body in mind.
- Avoids ingredients that may cause stressed skin, like irritation or allergic reactions on the skin.
- Avoids ingredients that have been linked to health problems.
- Uses natural and organic ingredients.
It’s Up to You to Make Sure Your Skincare Products are Safe
Government oversight of skincare and cosmetic products remains light. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not test products before they go on the market, and has limited authority when it comes to recalling products that may be unsafe. (They can request that manufacturers do so.)
That means some unsafe products make it onto the market where you may be exposed to them. In March 2019, for instance, the FDA issued a press release warning the public that certain cosmetic products sold were not always safe. FDA Commissioner at the time Scott Gottlieb, M.D., referred to the 2017 reports of asbestos (a cancer-causing agent) contamination in certain cosmetic products sold by Claire’s and Justice retailers.
The FDA announced new steps it would be taking to help increase the safety of cosmetics, but Gottlieb admitted that the agency had limited authority: “We’re also announcing new steps that the FDA is taking, given existing limitations on our cosmetic oversight authority, to better ensure the safety of cosmetic products men, women and children use every day.”
He added that the law governing the FDA’s oversight of cosmetic products had not been updated since it was first enacted in 1938: “The current law does not require cosmetics to be reviewed and approved by the FDA prior to being sold to American consumers.”
Instead, it’s up to the companies to be responsible for the safety and labeling of their products. But not all companies are equally cautious about how they make and produce their products. That means it’s up to you as the consumer to carefully research the products you buy to make sure they are safe to use.
The same is true when it comes to clean beauty. Because there is no official definition, companies can create their own definitions, which means you as the consumer need to be cautious. Just because a company claims to adhere to the clean beauty philosophy doesn’t mean they’re doing everything you might expect a clean beauty brand to do.
How CV Skinlabs Takes Clean Beauty to Heart
Here at CV Skinlabs, we started as a clean beauty brand. Our products were made for medically treated skin—specifically, sensitive skin affected by cancer treatments and other stressed skin conditions like eczema, rosacea, and psoriasis. Because we made these products to be safe enough even for the most fragile skin, we absolutely could not use any ingredients that might be irritating or inflammatory.
Skin overexposed to sun, pollution, medical treatments, radiation, and chemotherapy is by nature damaged skin. Chemotherapy, for example, can damage the outer layer of skin, compromising the barrier and making skin more porous. Anything applied to this type of skin is more likely to be absorbed into the body, which means the formulas need to be completely safe.
Our devotion to creating completely safe products led us to engage an expert team of ingredient and development experts, holistic chemists, leading dermatologists, and a toxicologist to make sure each ingredient we chose to include in our formulas was completely free of any connections to allergies, irritation, skin stress, or health risks.
The result is a line of completely safe and eco-friendly products that are 100 percent free of synthetic fragrances and dyes, parabens, formaldehyde, 1,4-dioxane, hydroquinone, phthalates, mineral oil/petrolatum, silicones, propylene glycol, sulfates, PEG/PPG, triclosan, disodium EDTA, hydroquinone, talc, MEA-DEA-TEA, and chemical sunscreens.
While focused mainly on the health of our customers, we also made sure that our products were “clean” and safe for the planet. All of our ingredients are safe for our soil and waterways, and we made sure our packaging was recyclable and limited to avoid overusing resources. Our bottles are free of bisphenol-A (BPA) and contain no known chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption, or other health issues.
Clean But Effective
Just because a line of products is “clean,” however, doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. On the contrary—many natural and organic ingredients work better than synthetic chemicals on the skin as the body recognizes the plant-based compounds and more easily absorbs and uses them. While we were careful about the ingredients we did not use, we were equally devoted to the ingredients we did use, making sure that each one would promote skin health and strength.
Our Tri-Rescue complex, for example, is a unique combination of turmeric, alpha-bisabolol, and reishi mushroom, which together offer a powerful anti-inflammatory and skin-repairing action that encourages healing and provides antioxidant protection.
We have many other examples of the ingredients we use and how effective they are on the skin, but perhaps the best proof came through our clinical studies, in which we had real people use our products. As you can see on our clinical results page, women and men both said our products helped improve the overall condition of their skin, while helping to create glowing, healthy, and youthful skin.
Shop Carefully to Enjoy Clean Beauty Products
As a consumer, you deserve to have skincare products that add, rather than subtract, from your overall health, while delivering the results you’d expect. We’re happy to provide products that do just that, and suggest when you’re shopping you always read ingredient labels to see how other products are doing.
You can refer to our “ingredients to avoid” list for help on what to look for, and we’d also suggest you check the company’s website to see what they have to say about the ingredients they use. As an informed consumer, you can decide which brands you trust and which products you like best. We hope after you try our products that you’ll add us to your “approved clean beauty” list.
What does clean beauty mean to you?
Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels.
