This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at McGill chapter.

If you were to stop and think about some of the products we come into most contact with as women, our skincare and makeup would rank pretty high on that list. On a daily basis, a large majority of us are blending, highlighting, contouring and enhancing our features with these products, but do we really know what’s in them? How many of us have actually stopped to read the ingredients list? Even if you have, you must admit it seems impossible to discern what’s good from bad with all the elaborate chemical names.

As a consumer it’s easy to trust that what’s sold on shelves must be safe, especially those that are to be applied to our face. After all that’s why we have Health Canada and the FDA right? Oddly, there is in fact very little government oversight regarding these items. Approval is not required before these products hit the shelves and very few requirements exist for what goes on their labels, making it basically a marketing free for all for companies. Buzz words like “green”, “all natural”, and “free of” statements can grace the box of any cosmetic, providing us reassurance for our purchases. But in reality there is no one checking up to make sure what’s inside matches that description, as there really are no enforceable definitions for these claims. Chemicals which have been studied to show carcinogenicity, endocrine disruption and skin irritation, can be found both in the products we use everyday and in their packaging. What’s more these products, take a significant toll on our environment, accounting for 2.7 billion plastic bottles per year in our landfills.

Luckily we are in an age where these problems are being tackled. People are demanding cleaner, healthier and more sustainably packaged beauty products, and that’s where Clean Beauty comes in. The Clean Beauty movement places a particular focus on the safety of consumers, using only proven non-toxic ingredients that are beneficial for our skin and the product formulation, without being harmful or pointless. These products and their packaging are typically free of parabens, phthalates, PEGs, synthetic fragrances, BHT and BHA, while still delivering the results you’d expect of a conventional product. Importantly, Clean Beauty is not an attack on the use synthetic materials and makes no claims in being all natural. It recognizes that not all natural materials are good for us (like poison ivy) while not all synthetic are bad, placing emphasis on safety over source.

Sourcing out clean beauty products is easier than it all sounds with the help of dedicated companies such as the The Detox Market, The Truth Beauty Company, Goop and even Sephora. If this has struck a chord with you, then definitely check out these noteworthy clean beauty brands:

Herbivore Botanicals

Started as an Etsy page by husband and wife Alex Kummerow and Julia Wills in 2011, all Herbivore products are packaged in recyclable glass and boxes and made from biodegradable ingredients sourced locally to reduce their carbon footprint. They are leading an industry-wide shift towards a more circular production cycle, while producing products of cult status such as their Bamboo Charcoal Soap.

rms Beauty

The brain child of makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift, who found the beauty products she was using were making her sick with their toxic levels of metals, pesticides and other chemicals. She committed to making a change in how beauty products were made by developing her own brand of non-toxic, environmentally-friendly cosmetics.

Drunk Elephant

Founded by Tiffany Masterson, who wanted a clean break from toxins and what she deems the ‘Suspicious 6’ (essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical screens, fragrance/dyes and SLS). This company’s philosophy relies on replacing “question mark” ingredients with proven safe alternatives, whether these questionable materials are harmful or not to put the minds of their customers at ease. They only use ingredients that support skin health or the effectiveness of their formulations, and choose based solely on incompatibility rather than natural or synthetic status.

Information Sources:

https://www.today.com/style/what-clean-beauty-understanding-what-s-your-…

https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/clean-beauty-brands

Image sources:

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/288371182386113133/

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/492862752967224756/

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/377598750000353073/

https://fashionista.com/2017/03/drunk-elephant-skin-care-investment-man-…