If you’ve thought about these questions, you might be vegan-curious. Well, at least vegan-curious about your skin and hair. We’ve included products we love 💕 and where to buy them.
Your next question might be “if there’s clean beauty, what is dirty beauty?”
Harpers Bazaar recently published ‘The Ultimate Guide to Clean Beauty.’ This is a great go-to article if you’re curious about clean beauty. We’ve included a few excerpts below.
Here are a few dirty beauty words to start parabens, phthalates, and sulfates to oxybenzone, triclosan, hydroquinone, and artificial fragrances. In the Harpers Bazaar article it explains why you should avoid beauty products with these ingredients. You can read the full article here: Harpers Bazaar
Clean skin care means using nutrient-dense ingredients (while avoiding damaging chemicals). Vegan 🌱 or not, it’s time to overhaul your beauty products if your skin isn’t glowing!
Shop Vegan Beauty on AyannaBeauty.com
Mademoiselle Ayanna’s products are 100% vegan 🌱 paraben-free, talc-free, cruelty-free, sulfate-free, and silicone-free. Get the all the FAQs here: Mademoiselle Ayanna FAQs
The Buzz on Buzzwords from Harpers Bazaar
Clean, organic, cruelty-free—when it comes to beauty products, the FDA has yet to regulate how brands can use these words. Definitions are subjective and often change from company to company, package to package, making it nearly impossible to navigate—or decipher—the truth from greenwashing. Here, we break down the most common buzzwords for some much-needed clarity.
WHAT DOES CLEAN MEAN?
Safe for people and the planet, clean means that a beauty product should have considered human and environmental health, using a nontoxic element as a baseline and plant-based ingredients for active results. Much like eating clean rejects the idea of processed foods and focuses on nourishing, plant-based produce that delivers all the vitamins and antioxidants needed for a healthy immune and digestive system, the same is true for clean skin care.
WHAT DOES VEGAN MEAN?
A beauty product is vegan if it doesn’t contain any animal by-products or ingredients sourced from animals. Common non-vegan ingredients found in clean beauty products include beeswax, honey, lanolin, and tallow. Many people associate vegan with clean, but this is not the case. A product can be vegan and still contain chemical ingredients of concern.
WHAT DOES CRUELTY-FREE MEAN?
A beauty product is cruelty-free if it has not been tested on animals anywhere along the manufacturing line or before being sold. It can also mean that any animal-derived ingredients were not extracted at the expense of an animal’s welfare (like natural-fiber makeup brushes). A beauty product can be cruelty-free but not vegan, and vice versa.
WHAT DOES ORGANIC MEAN?
Personal care products that are certified to be at least 95 percent organic will bear an official USDA Organic Seal. Products bearing the USDA Organic Seal must also comply with handling and manufacturing specifications, and the use of genetically modified organisms is prohibited. In an effort to avoid pesticides, the clean beauty industry has begun to use organic, plant-based ingredients in products wherever possible. However, the certification is expensive, so many smaller brands will independently label ingredients that are organic on packaging, despite not carrying an official seal.
WHAT DOES GREEN MEAN?
The word green should mean that the product does no harm to the environment. For instance, a reef-safe sunscreen with biodegradable packaging would be labeled green. However, this is a wishy-washy term with no true definition and is usually used as an umbrella for any product that claims to protect the planet’s resources.
Ingredients to Avoid
Clean beauty is a spectrum, but a case can be made that some ingredients should be avoided altogether. Below, the most common beauty ingredients of concern and the reasons why they’re so notorious. You can read the full article here: Harpers Bazaar
PARABENS
Parabens are a group of preservatives and antimicrobial chemicals that prevent the growth of nasty things like bad bacteria and mold in your beauty products.
FRAGRANCES AND PHTHALATES
The word fragrance is a catchall term that can disguise up to 3,000 synthetic or natural chemicals used to make a beauty product smell delicious. Fragrances are considered a trade secret and, therefore, do not have to be disclosed. On a related note, phthalates, which help fragrances last longer, are a group of chemicals used to keep materials and products (nail polishes, hair sprays, plastics) pliable. You’ll find them on an ingredient list abbreviated as DEP, BBzP, DBP, and DEHP.
TALC
A common ingredient in face powders and eye shadows, talc is a mineral made from magnesium, silicon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
You can read the full article here: Harpers Bazaar
