Considering there are no standards or regulations when it comes to the marketing of beauty products, it’s easy to understand why ‘clean beauty’ is a confusing topic. In an effort to make you feel good about your purchase, marketers have been using words like “natural,” “organic,” and “green” – problem is these terms can mean different things to different people. Luckily people still find value in using clean beauty products and brands are listening. Because of that, beauty brands are doing their research and giving clean beauty a squeaky clean new look, making it a trending topic.

What is Clean Beauty?

Clean beauty products are developed and marketed to contain no controversial ingredients, including parabens, sulphates, mineral oil, phthalates, artificial fragrances, triclosan, formaldehyde, and propylene glycol. These ingredients all have one thing in common: there have been studies in the past that have shown these ingredients to be harmful and cause serious reactions such as skin irritations, hives, respiratory problems, and serious illnesses. Unfortunately there’s no way for a beauty product to be 100% clean, green and natural.

Difference Between “Green” and “Clean”

Just because a product claims to be “green” doesn’t make it good for you. The FDA doesn’t regulate the use of the word ‘green.’ That means anyone can slap the word ‘green’ on a product and call it a day. Problem is green products may still contain ingredients that are harmful, like artificial colors or propylene glycol. On the other hand, “clean” products only contain noncontroversial ingredients that are proven safe and effective. Remember, we discussed earlier that it’s not easy for a product to be 100% clean. That’s because there are indeed synthetic ingredients (that have gone through various testing to confirm safety) that are useful for beauty products, namely preservatives.

Preservatives have their place in beauty products and the lifespan of them. If beauty products did not contain preservatives you’d have to use them up rather quickly and store them in the fridge. If you didn’t, they’d go bad pretty fast leaving you with a big waste of money. Try not to let the word ‘preservative’ scare you. They’ve been tested thoroughly and are in fact safe and effective for clean beauty products.

How to Tell What Is/Isn’t Clean Beauty

When reading labels, look out for alarming ingredients including fragrance, parabens, phthalates, SLS, and SLES, formaldehyde, mineral oil, or lead. As long as the products don’t contain any of these controversial ingredients, then they are considered “clean beauty.” There’s much to learn about the topic of clean beauty and what defines clean beauty products is open to anyone’s interpretation. As long as clean beauty products follow the standards of containing no controversial ingredients then the universal understanding of what makes them superior to green products is still relevant. And since we know “green” products may contain some harmful ingredients, like parabens, that may cause uncomfortable or alarming reactions, why take the risk?

Choose a clean beauty brand that you can trust for your teenager! TBH Kids offers haircare, skincare, and bodycare products that are made with clean ingredients and contain no parabens, sulfates, phthalates, and any controversial skincare ingredient. Many teenagers are #stuckonTBH, join the club!

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