Clean beauty is a SCAM, and here's why.... (info from cosmetic professional)

We are gonna talk today about why I believe that clean beauty is a scam. Now, before you all start sending me some hate emails and being like, what does this girl know about clean beauty? I have experience in the industry. Am I a chemist? I am not. However, I have worked in product development in the beauty space for over 14 years. So I have worked directly with chemists in multiple manufacturers all over the world. In the US, Canada, overseas, Italy, you name it, I've worked with chemists. And the overall consensus of all the chemists that I have worked with is that in general, clean beauty is a scam. So I'm gonna do a video today telling you why and what to look for out in your clean beauty products. So let's start first with the history of clean beauty. Where did clean beauty start from? It actually started in the 90s. It was kind of a turn thrown around a little bit and it started with Aveda and Origins. They were the first beauty brands that started talking about natural products. There was also Whole Foods has started selling like aluminum free deodorant and all of that. So this kind of movement started a little bit in the 90s, but it really picked up in the 2000s when the environmental working group EWG was formed in 2004. If you guys don't know about that, it's an environmental group that focuses on many different areas. And one of those areas is in the beauty industry. And they started this database called Skin Deep and that rates thousands of cosmetic ingredients as being clean or dirty, good or bad. It gives all these ratings and it goes over these ingredients. So that happened in 2004. And then in 2009, the EU, the European Union started banning more ingredients in cosmetics and they started regulating and banning about 1300 ingredients. And that took off as a marketing ploy for a lot of different brands to say, Europe has banned all of these ingredients. They're allowed in the US. So we need to focus on clean beauty. I'll talk about that in a second. So that happened 2009. And then 2018 is when Sephora added to its lineup this clean beauty program where you could sort on their site, you could type in and say, I want clean beauty products. You hit that filter and a list all of the products that they deem as clean beauty. And we'll talk about what ingredients they have banned on that list in order to qualify for being part of the clean beauty program. And then right after that in 2019, Allure had its clean beauty award. So that's kind of where the clean beauty had happened. It started in the nineties, really started picking up after the EWG was formed. And then all these other brands started marketing themselves as being clean beauty brands. So let's talk now about what ingredients are considered not clean or considered dirty. Now, this is where it gets really tricky, you guys, because this can vary from person to person. Some brands consider certain ingredients dirty or not clean and some don't. Even me as a brand owner and a cosmetic product developer, whenever I work with a new manufacturer, they always ask me for their do not use list. And what that says is each brand has its own personal preference on, I don't want you to use this ingredient or that ingredient. And you give them a list before they start showing you formulas to say, this follows the list of what my personal brand is not going to have. Like for me, for Makeup Geek specifically, I was leaning towards not having talc in my products because I felt there was a lot of issues around that. So that was just a personal preference for me as a brand owner. Each brand is going to be different. So this whole idea of specifically these ingredients are not clean, it can vary from person to person. So with that in mind, I have a couple of articles to show you guys. So Bertie had an article called 18 Ingredients a Clean Cosmetic Chemist Would Avoid. I'm not going to go over the whole list, but I'll link to it below, but let me show you just some of them. So one of them is formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen, synthetic fragrances, flayolates. I probably am not saying that right. I'm going to put it up here on the screen so you guys can see. These have never been used in personal care. They're only in industrial products according to Paula's Choice Beautypedia, which we'll talk about in a second. Siloxanes, octanoxate, and oxybenzoin. Those are ingredients in sunscreen. You'll see it a lot in foundations that say SPF. You'll see octanoxate in there. It's very common actually. Talc is one of them. Carbon black, parabens. That's a big one we will talk about in a second. There is a whole uproar and a lot of misinformation going on around parabens. So that's some of the things in that list. EWG also has a list of 12 toxic chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics. So there are some articles out there saying like, we wouldn't use these, this, and that. The Sephora list now, I went through, you guys, I did my research on this one. I went through and there's an entire list. Again, I'm not gonna name all these because this will be a two hour long video. I don't wanna bore you guys, but I'm gonna say some of them do overlap with Sephora's list. So there's a list. If you click on there, Clean Beauty Brands, you click on a product, you scroll down under ingredients, it says on Sephora's site, these are all the ingredients that our clean brands do not have. Now, when I did my research on a bunch of these ingredients, a lot of these were on the EU list of regulated bans. But with that in mind, here is where the biggest issue lies. When articles and companies start fear-mongering and saying these ingredients are dirty, look, they're banned by the EU, you can't use them, this and that, it is such a straight up lie because there is a difference between an ingredient being banned or being regulated. When I check a lot of these ingredients, even on Sephora's list, and I'm not saying Sephora's bad by saying this, but I'm saying these ingredients, when they are regulated by the EU, it means that you can still use them, but only up to certain percentages. So for example, let's take one of these guys. So let's say Carbon Black. So Carbon Black, hold on, I got my mascara to show you all. You all know my favorite mascara, one of my drugstore ones is L'Oreal Luminous. What does it say on there? Carbon Black. So Carbon Black, it's an ingredient used in like eyeliners, mascaras, it's what makes it super, super, super, super black. On Sephora's list, if you were part of the clean beauty brand, technically, if this has Carbon Black in it, this wouldn't be allowed on Sephora's clean list, but why is this still on the market if it's so dangerous, this and that? It's not because Carbon Black is completely banned, even according to Europe, which has very strict regulations, it's because you can use a certain percentage. Carbon Black is allowed in European manufacturing and cosmetics up to 10%. So if you go above 10%, that's where it becomes risky or dangerous things and that, but you can use it up to a certain percentage. So here's my analogy, you guys, okay, we're baking a cake, we're at home, it's someone's birthday, we're baking a cake, and if someone asks you, is this cake going to kill you or risk your health? You're just like, no, it's a cake, right? If you follow the recipe correctly, it's fine, you can eat that cake, everyone is good. But let's say instead of having one cup of sugar in there, I decide to put 10 pounds of sugar in this recipe instead of one cup. If someone were to eat a slice of that cake, they may go into insulin shock or some sort of, you know, coma or something like that. There could be something really bad that happens by having so much massive amount of sugar, because obviously that's not good for you in extreme amounts. So that's kind of the analogy I have is, you know, you could say cake is bad for you or sugar is bad for you. Of course, if you're eating a ton of it, you're eating it all the time, you have mass amounts of it, it's going to be bad for you, but that's why we have regulations. So it really makes me so irritated, you guys, when I see all of these articles out there and saying the EU has banned these ingredients. They are not banned, they are regulated, meaning that they went through these ingredients and said, okay, you can use this up to a certain percentage. If you use more than say 10%, we are not going to allow that. So there's a difference between something being banned versus regulated. So here's some of the ingredients on all of these lists where it says do not use. The only one that I have consistently seen out of all of these lists, Sephora, this Byrdie article, EWG, that consistently says it is banned is formaldehyde. Now, obviously, I don't know about you all, but me and my 14 years of experience of formulating cosmetics, I've never seen a product with formaldehyde in the beauty space. Has there been at some point? I don't know, but I've never in my 14 years have seen that. So this irritates me too, because it's like, well, why don't we just throw a poison on here too? Like poison is dangerous for you. Well, no ----. You can't put it in cosmetics. It's dangerous for you. Same thing with formaldehyde, but it's on this list. The other one that's on here that says it's dangerous is octanoxate and oxybenzoin. So I looked that up. It is allowed in the EU and I did research and Harvard put out an article said that it is safe. It may cause some irritation with people with sensitive skin. Like for me personally, I don't use foundations, SPF, or anything that has octanoxine in it, because for me, it makes me break out. Does it cause any ailments or is it a risk to my health? Absolutely not, but it does irritate my sensitive skin. So I just avoid it, but it doesn't mean that it's dangerous. It means that it can be harsh on the skin for some people that have sensitive skin. Talc, I have some very strong opinions on this one. It is in pretty much everything. If you guys look at any powder that you have, guaranteed it's probably gonna have talc as the number one ingredient in there. There's a lot of debate going on about what is safe, what isn't. My personal stance, this is personal, just from all the knowledge and research that I've done for many, many, many years, is that talc can be mined from many different places. The top countries are China, US is up there, I believe Italy is up there. How and where the talc is mined can dictate the quality of that and how strict they are in the mining process. If it is a pure talc, it's gonna be more white in color. If it is a contaminated talc that has more asbestos in it, it's gonna be more gray in color. For me personally, I will not use talc products that come from China. I know that's a huge debate and people think that I'm bashing that country. Absolutely not. It has nothing to do with the country, but for me personally, I know that the regulations in China are so incredibly loose compared to something, say, in Europe. When it comes to regulations, you all, Japan has the absolute strictest regulations. So if I see a cosmetic is sold in Japan, I'm good. I'm like, I know this is safe to use because Japan is very strict. Europe is second in line and then third is the US and then at the bottom is China. As far as regulations around safety. So that's where I stand on that, you all. The European Union says that talc is safe to use as long as it has less than 1% of an asbestos detection. Now, who is monitoring this? I have no idea. So that's why personally, when I formulate stuff, I try not to put talc in there if there's any way around it to use other ingredients just because naturally talc in the earth, when it is mined, it is always a risk of having some asbestos in there. So that's why I stay away from it personally, but it's hard because it's literally in everything. So I'll try to do a separate video on that. That's the only ingredient where people are like, you're fear mongering, Marlena. I'm like, I'm really not. I'm coming this from a lot of research that I've done for many, many years on that. So that was a little side note on that one. Sorry, you guys. Okay, so the other one, carbon black, we talked about melparabens. Guys, can we talk about parabens for a second? This is the one that really, really irritates me. And every chemist I've talked to you guys, when I mentioned, can it be paraben free? I swear, they roll their eyes in the back of their head. They're like, sure, this is such a marketing ploy. Okay, parabens are used to preserve your cosmetics, to keep them from growing mold, getting bacteria taking off. They preserve your makeup to help them be safe for your skin. Now, the reason why there's this big debate about parabens is because there are some that are banned, but they're not all equal. So there's different types of parabens. There's methylparaben, propylparaben, ethylparaben. I'll put a list here, you guys. There's several different types of paraben. There are five that are banned. There are four that are not. And the four that are not, even Europe allows these completely safe for putting in cosmetics. Not all parabens are banned, just certain ones. So all this fear-mongering around parabens are dangerous for you, they're banned. It's a bunch of bullshit. It is specific kinds. So when you see a makeup product that has say methylparaben in it, which is a common one, ethylparaben, all of that, you don't have to worry or be fearful. Those are not dangerous for you. Even the EU has said those are fine to use. So that's my opinion on that. The chemists that I personally have worked with, this is their mindset. They have told me straight up, multiple chemists you all have said, we would rather put parabens in here and know that this product is going to last long-term and be safe versus not having them in here and us use a more natural, quote unquote, natural version of a preservative in here. And then the thing in three months later gets moldy and people are putting this on their face and it has mold in there. And we've been seeing that across Reddit, across online, all these articles that came up. Do you guys remember in February, there was all this uproar for that. I think it was Kosas Concealer or something people were saying there was mold in it. That is the result of not having actually scientific backed preservatives in your makeup is you are going to have a higher risk of having mold in there. So for me personally, I'm going to say I would rather have makeup that has the good parabens in there to keep my makeup from growing mold in it versus having a natural one that puts it at a higher risk for having mold. And that for me is going to make me more sick than say a certain paraben. So now let's talk about that big debate, the clean preservatives versus mold. So I'll put some links below that you guys can check out. So Refinery29 did an article back in February. It was called, does clean beauty have a mold problem? So in there, there was a chemist. Her name's Esther Olu. Hi Esther. I actually follow her on Twitter. She's incredibly genius. She has a lot of great posts that she's talked about. So she's a cosmetic chemist and she had said that science is a lot more complex than brands marketing and all the sensationalism making it to be. So she pretty much said that all of this fear mongering around preservatives is that brands are using this as a way to buy my brand because it's clean. Don't buy that other brand. They're dirty. Yuck. Buy my brand and it's clean. And it's a marketing ploy most of the time to get you to think that you were buying a more superior product because it's clean and it's not dangerous to your health. When a lot of this fear mongering is not based on scientific data and it's not based on the percentages that are allowed in these cosmetics. There is so much regulations going on now across the board, you all, especially if it's coming from Europe. If you see anything that's made in Italy, Europe, even the USA, they always try to follow the EU certification because a lot of the products are now shipped worldwide. They're sold everywhere. So if you see something, a big name brand and their products are being sold or made out of anywhere in Europe, guaranteed that that product is probably safe to use because Europe, in my opinion, is very on top of safety. And they always are putting out articles and things of like what is safe and what isn't. That brings us to our next step. Number four, know where your makeup is made. So like I said, Japan is the strictest, then it's Europe, then it's the US. Korea and Taiwan are kind of on the level with US and then at the bottom is China. And again, this is not me bashing any country. It has nothing to do with the people who live there. This is just that country's regulations. When makeup comes out of China, I'll tell you a story really quick so you guys believe where I'm coming from. So there is this big brand and I cannot say the brand for legalities. I want them coming after me, sharing this information. There is a big, big, big brand. You guys would know this brand. It has been sold in Sephora. It's been sold at Ulta. So it's been around for a really, really long time. They had a lot of their products made in the US and Italy and their products were really, really great. Well, come holiday, they were having these eyeshadow palettes made and they wanted to save costs because everyone's looking for, you know, these big eyeshadow palettes for holiday and no one wants to be spending inexpensive amounts. So in order for them to cut costs, they had these palettes made in China. They were told by this manufacturer in China that it had XYZ ingredients in there. When those palettes got shipped here to the US, they had them independently tested and what the testing facility found that was in this makeup did not match at all what the manufacturer in China told them. They did not match at all. So that's what I say, that the regulations are really, really loose there. It's not that every makeup coming from China is bad. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying in general, the regulations from the country are extremely loose because these incidences are not rare where either the ingredients on the ingredient deck are not accurate or the quality of ingredients they're using are not the best. A lot of things around that, it's not regulated enough like it should be. So that's my thoughts on that. If you guys want to do your own research and look at the full list of regulated and banned ingredients, I'll put a couple of links below. There's two places. There's the European Chemicals Agency. They have an article that gives you the whole database. You guys could do your own research and put in a certain ingredient. It'll tell you if it's banned, if it's regulated, how much percentage. There's also the European Commission. They have a cosmetic ingredient database that you can search for. It's called CoSing. Again, I'll put that on the screen. I'll link to it below. And then the other one that I talked about before is InsideCoder, you guys. If you go to insidecoder.com, you can look up a specific ingredient. It will tell you most of the time the percentage that it'll use. It'll say up to 7%, up to 10%. So once you guys see that there's a percentage regulation around, it'll kind of calm your fears a little bit in not thinking that an ingredient is completely banned and unsafe. It needs to be used up to a certain percentage. The fifth thing to mention is to do your own research. So like I said, definitely check up the links for the EU, but also another great resource you guys can look at is Beautypedia by Paula's Choice. So Paula has her skincare brand, Paula's Choice. I actually met her. I went to her house a few years ago. She was incredibly intelligent, you guys, like very smart. She's been doing this for a really, really long time. She's highly educated as a chemist and she has this Beautypedia put together that talks about all the ingredients. She has ratings, whether they are best, average, poor, fair. She has all of this rating system. She tells you what the ingredients do, if they are safe or not, her whole judgment on them. And she has the best site, in my opinion, for average consumers to look up and see what are the thoughts around this specific ingredient. So you can educate yourself and leave all of these articles and fear-mongering by all these companies saying, you can't use this or that. Do your own research, you guys, so you can feel comfortable on what you know about the ingredients. And it always goes back to you all too, as not every ingredient is gonna be good for everyone. Like I said, me personally, I have my own personal thoughts about talc, but also octanoxate, that it's really common and it's in a ton of foundations and SPF. Most people are fine with it, but for me, whatever reason, I don't tolerate it. I break out every time. Some people are allergic to dimethicone. Everyone's skin is different. So my best advice would be, is if you see yourself breaking out, having a skin reaction, kind of do research on that product itself that's breaking you out and see if there's any common ingredients with any other things that you're wearing to see if you can narrow down exactly what ingredient isn't working for you. Because again, it may work for someone else, may not work for you. Everyone is different. So hopefully this helps you all be more educated in your makeup purchases and not to be too afraid of all the makeup out there. Most of the cosmetics on the shelves, you guys are perfectly fine to use. So there's no reason to feel like everything is clean or dirty. At the end of the day, my advice is wash your face at the end of the night. Don't sleep in your makeup. If you're washing it off at the end of the night, having good hygiene, that is some amazing stuff to having clean, healthy skin. So have a great one, you all. Let me know your thoughts below. Do you agree with what I have to say or not? I'd love to hear your opinions on that in the box below. Have a great one. Come back next week for another makeup video, you guys. Have a good one. And I will talk to you soon. Bye.