Why I hate the \\\"Clean Beauty\\\" stamp on Sephora products

[Anonymous]

This has been bugging me for a while and I'm hoping this is the right place to vent. While I've been a Sephora customer for over a decade, I'm new to these forums so I don't exactly know what I'm doing. Anyway, I'm here to vent about "Clean Beauty" products. But skincare specifically. Because I think it's important to make people aware of how deceptive it is and that it's nothing more than a marketing gimmick toentice you into buying certain products. A clear pattern I've noticed is that "clean" does not always equal "good for your skin". I'm turning40 thisyear and have started developing certain ingredient sensitivities that I had never experienced before. So I've had to really educate myself on skincare ingredients and what they mean. And I don't want to give the wrong impression, because I'm all about good, clean products and brands that care about sustainability and social activism. But at the end of the day if I'm going to purchase skincare, I also want the ingredients to be good for me. And what I've learned is that some of these "CleanBeauty" brands may not actually have your skin's best interest at heart. For example, there are a TON of products labeled "clean" that containfragrance ingredients. Namely in the form of essential oils. And some of these products have multiple essential oils in them. Essential oils are not used in skincare because they provide skincare benefits, they exist in a product only to give the product an aromatic experience. In fact, using essential oils on your face in high concentrations can actually cause sensitivity over time. Keep in mind that essential oils are usedfor aromatherapy purposes. Key word being "aroma" aka "fragrance". To be clear, I don't mean cold-pressed oils. Just fragrant oils. Common essential fragrance oils used in skincare include lavender, sandalwood, lemon, grapefruit, and others. And they are in a TON of products with the "Clean" stamp. Many times in concentrations waaaay above what is deemed "safe for skin". There are some "Clean" brands that I've found to actually contain good ingredients in most, if not all their products. Youth to the People, Drunk Elephant, Biossance, The Ordinary, and First Aid Beauty. There's more but these 4 stand out to me as being "good" just in terms of their ingredients. Then there are "Clean" brands that contain high concentrations of fragrances in a lot of their products. Tata Harper products being one of the biggest culprits. Farmacy has fragrance in most of their products too, as does Primera. Glow Recipe also uses fragrance but I think the concentrations are a bit lower. The "Clean" movement is something I COULD get on board with, but I think the qualification standards should improve. Because it could save a lot of time for people like me with sensitive skin having to read the full ingredient list of every single product just to be sure it's free from perfumes and fragrant oils. I understand it's possible for someone to have allergies to just about everything, but I think it's irresponsible to call something "Clean" when it contains an ingredient KNOWN to cause skin sensitivity like synthetic fragrance and essential oils. These are just unnecessary in skincare regardless if you become sensitive to them or not. If a product contains a non-active ingredientthat isn't necessary for the efficacy or preservation of the product, it shouldn't be in there. Sorry this rant is so long, but it's something I really care about. Because I don't want customers like you and me being duped into buying products we think are good for us and could potentially cause harm. I really hope Sephora and skincare brands will reconsider their standards of "Clean Beauty". Right now it just seems like a marketing trick to sell more products and undermine other brands with the "Clean" seal that actually ARE creating products with safe ingredients. Please do better.

[30elle]

Wow, I thought that the “clean” stuff was kind of like...organic products, now I see how gullible I am. Thanks for bringing this up! There should definitely be a definition posted and more international regulation on what is considered “clean”, good for sensitive skin & all the other terms they throw around.

[Brutalitops]

@Anonymous  I have so many problems with the "clean" label in beauty products, it's just like the issues I have with food products containing the word "natural" in their labeling. It's totally unregulated, anybody can define it basically however they want, and it ultimately is super sketchy.

I won't get into a lot of detail here as @WinglessOne  really already covered a lot of good ground there but I will sort of re-state what I feel is the key point.  Clicking on/picking up "Natural" "Clean" and "Vegan" label products should be the start of your buying journey and there shoould be actions that follow. The next steps should be looking at the ingredients and knowing what they are and what they do and maybe a final step to double check what you feel is the important part of a claim (like my comment below that a Vegan product isn't necessarily cruelty-free). And from there, make an informed buying choice based on your needs and preferences.

It's a lot of work, but there is little more important than what we put onto and into our bodies and the time is always well spent IMO

[sparkles0913]

So I have a question that may be rather ignorant, are all kinds of alcohol in skin care bad? A little backstory, I usually buy fresh rose deep hydration cream and use it at night in the winter, but long story short my skin recently decided it hated the fresh products I was using. I ended up buying Volition dual cream base to use at night because of great reviews online and I ended up getting a REALLY good deal (another long story). I was looking at the ingredients in the dual cream base a couple nights ago and noticed that there are a couple different kinds of alcohol in it, one kind is one of the first ingredients listed! I got paranoid so I started doing some online research and basically everything I found said that these particular kinds of alcohols are fine in skin care and are not the harmful kinds of alcohols. They are used to stabilize the product and will not harm your skin. I am not really sure what to think and I saw this thread so thought I would ask opinions here. Here are the ingredients for the Volition Dual cream base, (I bolded the alcohols) :Water, Dicaprylyl Ether, Glycerin, Behenyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Palmitate, Octyldodecanol, Octyldodecyl Olivate, Beeswax, Cetyl Alcohol, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Palmitic Acid, Propanediol, Panthenol, Commiphora Myrrha Extract, Zinc Gluconate, Potassium Gluconate, Magnesium Aspartate, Sodium Polyacrylate, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Hexylene Glycol, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Xanthan Gum, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide.

[tastelikewater]

@sparkles0913 Not all alcohol is created equal! Fatty alcohols - cetyl, stearyl, cetearyl - can be beneficial for skin because of their emollient properties. SD alcohol, alcohol denat, and isopropyl alcohol are the ones to avoid.  

[sparkles0913]

@tastelikewater Thank you so much! Which category does the Behenyl Alcohol fall into? That surprised me since it is like the 4th ingredient in the moisturizer!

[tastelikewater]

@sparkles0913 Behenyl is a-ok 🙂

[GG84]

@Anonymous 

Not completely related but I know a lot about ingredients in a different category Sephora sells. There are several lines and products they have given the “clean” stamp to that clearly contain the very ingredients Sephora says their definition of “Clean” should not. Am genuinely wondering if “Clean” is a title to be bought? 

[Brutalitops]

Agreed @GG84, it really feels like they just thought we'd be too dumb to notice

[tg1973]

It also involves a lot of fear mongering that has little to do with proven science. It would be helpful if instead of or in addition to the Clean label, they had a label for products appropriate for sensitive skin, that lack the ingredients like essential oils and alcohols that are most likely to cause reactions. It's really hard to recommend any products for sensitive skin when they're obsessed with the Clean label and don't understand that many Clean label lines are the worst offenders for skin sensitivities. Honestly, I just want to tell them to go buy some CeraVe. And Nivea cream and Aquaphor are basically the Anti-Clean products but have saved countless sensitive faces. If you're going to be a snob about petroleum byproducts and tar, at least acknowledge that decomposed dinosaurs is the most "organic" an ingredient can get.

[RGbrown]

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@tg1973 wrote:
 If you're going to be a snob about petroleum byproducts and tar, at least acknowledge that decomposed dinosaurs is the most "organic" an ingredient can get.

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🤣🤣🤣 That's the best way I've ever heard it, and I will totally use that in the future! 👍

[WinglessOne]

@Anonymous  You’ve taken the best skincare step: researching ingredients and learning what they can (and can’t) do for your skin. I wish more people would do this. I know it can be a hassle and/or overwhelming, but it’s so worthwhile for healthier calmer skin! 

As for “clean” beauty, well... some folks know how anti-“clean” I am. 😄 But I’ll try to summarize my main gripes: 

• There’s no industry standard definition of “clean.” 
• It is absolutely a marketing gimmick that preys on consumers’ fears. 
• Some folks think “clean” and “natural” mean “no chemicals”; um, EVERYTHING is chemicals. Honey is made of chemicals. 🙄 
• Truly beneficial ingredients are deemed “dirty” and bad and terrible by “clean” beauty. My favorite example is petrolatum, which is fantastic for barrier-damaged (windburned, sunburned, over-exfoliated, or otherwise super flaky/scaly irritated) skin. Another good example is parabens, which are good preservatives deemed “harmful” because of some problematic studies. 
• Essential oils are generally terrible, yet they appear in many “clean” products. People assume these oils are fine because their skin doesn’t immediately react. I can say from firsthand experience that some of those oils take years to gradually wreck skin when consistently used. (Glaring at you, Origins skincare products.) 

Folks need to examine/research ALL skincare products, regardless of the marketing label applied to them, to make sure they’re safe for their skin. My skin doesn’t get along with honey unless I use topical honey products very infrequently. I can’t use something like Farmacy Clean Bee on my face daily (actually I can’t use that one at all: it’s much too drying for my skin). Just because a product is “clean” doesn’t mean it’s good for your particular skin. 

Also: I keep focusing on skincare here, but I’m kinda sad to see how hard Bite Beauty is pushing their new “clean” brand marketing. It’s now their main talking/selling point. Ugh. 

[GG84]

*ahem* Haircare is a sore point for me. You cannot make “Clean” hair care without literally making the hair dirty. Sigh. 

[treestar86]

@GG84  not true.  baking soda and vinegar are the best (and cheapest) things for hair.  I've mentioned them here several times. works for me.

[GG84]

@treestar86 Those aren’t the ingredients I’m talking about. 

[treestar86]

@GG84  I meant them not as "ingredients", but as actual products themselves (baking soda = shampoo, vinegar = conditioner) to replace "hair care" products.  along w/other natural "ingredients" like oils.

[greeneyedgirl107]

@WinglessOne Well said!

[mmmiu]

I had a bad experience with the old formula of Bite lip products (the mask and lipsticks) so i never really understood why they seem to market their products as good for you. 

I gave Bite another chance by getting the primer for oily skin (got really sucked in by their marketing!), but it has added fragrance in it! I don't understand why it's labelled as clean...in my mind, "clean" products should not have added fragrance (along with the essential oils, denat. alcohol, petroleum, etc..)

I read the ingredient listings on products thoroughly before making a purchase, it's hard to trust what the company says without doing a bit of research.

[treestar86]

@mmmiu  could be the lanolin?  which is probably why they went vegan, although they could have just had different versions...I don't see why they need to go all vegan just so thy can claim that, since most ppl aren't.  I like lanolips, and they're cheaper.

[treestar86]

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@WinglessOne wrote:

Also: I keep focusing on skincare here, but I’m kinda sad to see how hard Bite Beauty is pushing their new “clean” brand marketing. It’s now their main talking/selling point. Ugh. 

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vegan is another one.  I thought it was weird that they got rid of or changed a lot of products, just so they can say they're all vegan now, since most ppl aren't vegan (though I liked the clearance prices, but of course they were mostly gone in a day or two once they went to 75% off, so I wasn't able to get much).

[tg1973]

I got a lipstick during the clearance and was really disappointed. It wasn't supposed to be matte, but sat on my lips looking chalky and dry. I honestly don't get why this brand got so popular, and I'm very relieved I never paid full price. I noticed that the new "vegan" lip mask is getting trashed in reviews. Some bad choices there.