Searching for Clean Beauty Products, Made Easy
Swallowtail Butterflies on Lake Michigan
The FDA regulations for cosmetics haven’t been updated fully in about 80 years. But in the last 80 years, new chemicals have been introduced into cosmetics but were not fully researched on how safe they are in our environment and on our bodies. Companies don’t even have to disclose certain ingredients on their beauty products because of the lack of updated regulations, which means we don’t really know the full extent of what is in our beauty products. We know these certain ingredients can cause or flare up health issues such as cancer or autoimmune responses (check out these articles from Harvard & Notre Dame as a few examples).
So how can we keep ourselves and our clients safe behind the chair?
We can change out the products we use and carry for retail to low tox & safer options.
How can we do that if we don’t even know what we’re looking for?
Thankfully there are organizations that are working on this problem that we can utilize from our phone and online.
Redify - Avoid Toxic Products
Redify helps the consumer and the hairdresser look for CHC’s (Chemicals of Health Concern) in products. They tell you how many are in the products and offer to help you find alternatives and nearby local stores to buy these products. You can scan these products, type in their barcode, or search by name! They also give you an “Advocate” button to send a notification to these brands to ask for ingredient transparency.
You can download the app from the Apple Store or Googleplay:
Beat the Microbead
Beat The Microbead focuses on the other chemicals that are in beauty products: PFAs and other microplastics. PFAs and microplastics are dubbed as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down and build up in the body. You can find what products have microplastics by taking a picture of the ingredients on the app and have them scan it. You can also help build their database by adding products that are not in their system yet. They also have a petition going around to help keep microplastics out of our cosmetics that you can sign and share.
You can check out their website, download the app from the Apple Store or Googleplay, and sign the petition:
Think Dirty.
The Think Dirty. App will tell you what ingredients are in each product, how “clean” a product is (they always explain what that means in each product’s notes), and can even help you track certain ingredients! Plus where to order each product online, user reviews, and can add products that are not on the app yet (helping build it up) by scanning the barcode or by typing in the name. They offer Monthly Beauty Boxes filled with clean beauty products as a way to help others ease into new brands.
You can download the app from the Apple Store or Googleplay:
Cruelty-Free Kitty
Cruelty-Free Kitty has 1,144 brands (plus their parent companies) verified vegan, cruelty free, sustainably sourced ingredients, and conscious packaging for haircare, skincare, and bath/body care. They help you find products you align with as well as offer a Cruelty-Free Kitty Subscription Box to help others try out new products.
You can check out their website here:
Ethical Elephant
Ethical Elephant is all about vegan products in all beauty products! From makeup products to nail polish to hair care products. They offer all brands that are verified cruelty free and vegan. They also have other sections on their site talking about sustainability, fashion, and eco-conscious home ideas and other resources to make shopping for these topics way easier.
You can check out their website here:
We deserve to have cleaner beauty products as our baseline. Period. While new policies take time to enact, it’s exciting that there are bills being passed currently that do focus on this issue like The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulations Act of 2022 and PFAS “forever chemicals” banned from cosmetics in California. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in order for cosmetics to be fully transparent and as safe as they can be, especially all around the world. This is not just a United States problem, this is a global problem - speaking up in your community about how we need reform in our cosmetics will make the difference.
You can also check out the infoguide for this in our Enriching Your Space (& other practices) genre as well: