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What is \u201cclean beauty\u201d? And for that matter, green beauty, eco-friendly beauty, and natural beauty? In this monthly column, clean beauty expert Jessica Yarbrough explores the ins and out of these buzzy claims, reports on the products and ingredients to look out for, and answers all the most pressing questions surrounding these topics.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Time for a round of Sad But True: Beauty Edition. Even if you use the best makeup setting spray money can buy, thousands of dead skin cells still flake off your face per day\u2026along with the foundation they\u2019re covered in. All the topical skincare in the world won\u2019t cure hormonal acne, since the root issue\u2014hormone imbalance\u2014is internal. And \u201cclean beauty,\u201d sadly, means absolutely nothing.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n That last one may sound strange, considering this is a \u201cclean beauty\u201d column and I am a \u201cclean beauty\u201d advocate. But as much as I love the idea of truly clean beauty, I have to admit: The phrase is\u00a0basically<\/i>\u00a0a bunch of B.S.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Food & Drug Administration provides no legal guidelines for terms like \u201cclean,\u201d \u201csafe,\u201d and \u201cnon-toxic.\u201d (And although a bill was recently\u00a0introduced to Congress\u00a0to secure legal definitions for \u201cnatural\u201d and \u201cnaturally derived,\u201d it hasn\u2019t passed yet.) As a result, brands can slap those words on any old product label they like, whether or not the ingredients inside are actually safe.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n On that note: Who decides what \u201csafe\u201d means, anyway? Some scientists say that\u00a0parabens, a class of preservatives\u00a0used in cosmetics, pose no threat to the human body. Other scientists say parabens may\u00a0contribute to breast cancer.\u00a0And if scientists can\u2019t even agree, how the heck is the average consumer supposed to know?! These are the questions that used to make my beauty-obsessed brain explode into bits on a regular basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Precautionary Principle is a philosophy that allows decision-makers to justify prohibition of the release of potentially harmful new products, procedures, and policies when extensive scientific knowledge on the subject is unavailable,\u201d Benjamin Knight Fuchs, R.Ph., a cosmetic chemist and founder of\u00a0Truth Treatments, tells HelloGiggles.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The risk-assessment tool is primarily used in politics, economics, and environmental science\u2014it\u2019s not\u00a0really<\/i>\u00a0a beautiful thing. But I find that by applying the Precautionary Principle to my product purchases, I\u2019m able to develop my own working definition of \u201cclean.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Here\u2019s how to use it to create your own clean beauty guidelines:<\/strong><\/p>\n The first thing to know about adopting the Precautionary Principle is that it\u2019s not as complicated or philosophical as it sounds. It essentially involves researching the ingredients in your products, weighing the risks and rewards of each, and deciding if the reward justifies the risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n Example: There\u2019s a chance that talc, a common eyeshadow ingredient, may be\u00a0contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos. (Talc and asbestos are found next to each other in nature, so it\u2019s easy for contamination to occur. Brands are\u00a0supposed<\/em>\u00a0to screen their talc for asbestos before formulating with it, but that step is expensive and sometimes gets skipped. Just this year,\u00a0Claire\u2019s makeup kit\u00a0was recalled for containing asbestos.) The chance is small, but it\u2019s there, so you ask:\u00a0Am I comfortable taking that chance?<\/em>\u00a0Fuchs puts it perfectly:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s \u2018better safe than sorry\u2019 or \u2018an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Personally, I would\u00a0always<\/i>\u00a0rather be safe than sorry when it comes to what I\u2019m slathering on my skin, so the first thing I do is look up the available safety data for a particular product or ingredient.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Environmental Working Group\u2019s\u00a0Skin Deep Database\u00a0is an excellent resource. It rates both beauty products and individual ingredients on a \u201ctoxicity scale\u201d of 1-10, based on scientific studies pulled from nearly 60 research databases across the world. It cites all of its sources, too, so you can read through the studies yourself. I also like the\u00a0Think Dirty app, which makes it easy to assess ingredients on the go (say, if I\u2019m about to buy 27 face masks I don\u2019t need on a Target run).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n For instance, my skin is super sensitive, so if a particular ingredient has a history of irritation or disrupts the skin barrier (like sulfates and\u00a0exfoliating acids), it\u2019s a no from me. I also deal with a lot of hormonal issues, so I don\u2019t touch possible \u201cendocrine disruptors\u201d (a category of substances that act like hormones and interfere with the body\u2019s endocrine system, like parabens and phthalates). I\u2019d like to avoid cancer if possible, so anything that\u2019s a potential carcinogen or is even\u00a0loosely<\/i>\u00a0linked to tumor formation (mineral oil, formaldehyde releasers, talc) is a pass. I\u2019m not super comfortable with synthetic chemicals floating around in my bloodstream, either, so I avoid ingredients proven to infiltrate the blood barrier (like\u00a0chemical sunscreens); and I don\u2019t like the idea of products that aren\u2019t pregnancy-safe, which eliminates benzoyl peroxide and retinol.<\/strong><\/p>\n What does that leave me with? Basically, 100%\u00a0natural products, most of which I DIY.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, I understand mine is a\u00a0very<\/i>\u00a0cautious approach, and it might not be your approach. Maybe your biggest concern is getting rid of a pulsing pimple as quickly as possible, and that reward is worth the risk of benzoyl peroxide. Perhaps you don\u2019t like the white cast left by some zinc-based mineral sunscreen, so you reach for chemical versions. If you\u2019ve read all the studies on parabens and have decided for yourself that they\u2019re probably not harmful\u2014that\u2019s great! You can feel good about using parabens, then.<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s precisely why the Precautionary Principle is such an amazing tool for clean beauty: So many ingredients have limited safety data, or no safety data, or conflicting safety data. Exercising precaution allows you to say,\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know for sure if this ingredient is \u2018bad\u2019 or \u2018dirty,\u2019 but just in case it is, I\u2019m not going to use it.\u201d\u00a0It\u2019s not about making definitive statements that might not be true or sweeping generalizations about synthetic chemicals.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s about making the right decision for\u00a0you<\/i>\u00a0and your body; and that\u2019s something no beauty brand\u2014\u201cclean\u201d or otherwise\u2014can do for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is \u201cclean beauty\u201d? And for that matter, green beauty, eco-friendly beauty, and natural beauty? In this monthly column, clean beauty expert Jessica Yarbrough explores … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tipsforahealthylife.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\nThen I discovered The Precautionary Principle.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe next step is determining what data matters most to you and your individual body.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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