Clean Beauty Is NOT A THING!
Hi guys! Welcome back to Skincare Anarchy, this is your host Ekta. And today is a very interesting episode because it is really a commentary, not really an episode.
I wanted to get on here and talk about clean beauty because I know we have been really talking about it and buzzing about it as an industry, and I really love that to be honest. I think clean beauty needs to go away, I am just going to spell it out there. I’m all about being blunt and honest and I genuinely believe clean beauty is all hype and no truth. I mean, I don’t want to say no truth because nothing is absolute, but like at the end of the day you guys, you all know just as much as I do that clean does not mean much. It literally means clean. When I think of clean, I’m thinking of a tabletop and thinking of things like cleaning my house, you know like I get it you don’t want “dirty chemicals” in your formulations. But what are dirty chemicals, you know? Other than the ones that we’ve somehow you know damned for no reason.
For example, preservatives. Preservatives you know are not dirty chemicals, they are the reason that your products don’t get dirty. So those kinds of things, like those kinds of conversation we’ve had ad nauseam at this point. I’m not going to dive into that and reiterate what’s already been said, but what I do want to say is that here’s the deal: if a brand is advertising as of right now, like their main pitch or main marketing hype is being a clean brand, and I know a lot of great ones that are, this is the time to also prove your scientific principles and prove your scientific relevance. This is the time to do that. I really urge all of the bigger brands listening that do have the budget right now that can make big shifts, changes, call it whatever you want. I urge you to do it.
So I wanted to also mention that you know when you talk about clean beauty you are talking about things that are way beyond just what chemicals are used im talking about certain things such as inflammation, making them eczema friendly, make it rosacea friendly, which needs to be a bigger thing by the way, because rosacea is on the upward side of things in terms of charts and how many people have it actually because it was not properly diagnosed before we didn’t know this many people had it. So again, rosacea let’s make that a thing and talk about why products benefit those with rosacea. You know, let’s talk about clinical trials, let’s talk about what makes a clinical trial valid: where was it conducted, how was it conducted, was it double blind, who was involved in the investigation process, who was involved in the analytical process, who were the people that used the statistical softwares that are now being used to analyze data, what were the reference points for the statistic analysis like the p-value. All of that stuff I want to know. I know a lot of people want to know, and not because they want the nitty gritty every detail I just said, they want to know that it is there and a brand can be held accountable for those kinds of things. And I really do believe now is the time to do that and deliver that to our customers, to the consumers, to all of us. I am also a consumer and I want to see that.
To be honest with you guys, I’m not going to lie and I know I interview a lot of brands, but a lot of brands send PR because they are being interviewed; however, that is why my top picks are so narrow. The top picks that we put out are so narrow and so you know concise because we don’t want the new trend, we don’t want products that are the new trend, we don’t want products that are here now and gone tomorrow. No, we want products that are here to stay. Why? Because they check off all the boxes of the things I just told you about, which is pretty much all the science stuff. I love when brands say we’re clean and in other words implying that it’s safe to use. I like the safety aspect that clean beauty stands for, but what I don’t like is it has become, obviously as we’ve talked about so much, a buzzword. It’s become a stamp that says ‘hey look at me, i’m doing something that you should invest in.’ That’s wrong. That’s a misunderstanding, a misrepresentation, I really don’t condone people doing it: brands, individuals, anybody.
Influencers that influence their followings by saying ‘I’m only into clean beauty’ stop that. It’s not true. And if you do really care about your skin’s health, I urge you to think about why you use the products you use. Are they beneficial to the needs you have? Like the things that are really impacting your skin, are they geared towards you? I’m not saying customization of skincare is the way to go, I’m not, I’m saying it’s an option. But there are plenty of brands out there that offer real solutions that offer real hope. And you know, I’m not plugging any brand and that’s why I won’t mention the name. but there is a brand right now I can tell you that my mother has been using religiously and let me tell you, she was a woman who grew up in rural India, exposed to the sun all the time she still has sunspots and a lot of freckling, she has been using this product daily every morning and it hadn’t even been two months when she called me in tears going ‘I never thought these spots would go away.’ So I am telling you with full confidence that there are brands out there that are doing it right and focusing on the science and they’ve been focusing on the science.
You guys really need to look at what they are doing and start mimicking, I’m not saying do exactly what they are doing and well obviously don’t cause redundancies, but we as an industry need to push for the chemicals and the things and the actives in these kinds of products that are creating results. Result driven technologies. Would you want a computer that just looked nice and you could say hey it’s an eco-friendly computer but it doesn’t do jack? No, you’d be really frustrated because you couldn’t check your emails, you couldn’t play your games, you couldn’t utilize it the way you want to utilize it, you’d be annoyed. Why? Because it’s just a token you have sitting around and that’s great make it a coffee table or furniture, but that’s not the goal here. We love filling our vanities with beautiful products and packaging and things that say clean on them, but do we really need them? If anything, you are probably causing damage to yourself through airborne toxicity that occurs through chemicals being inhaled for prolonged periods of time and causing problems. That happens with clean brands, non clean brands, clinical brands, that’s an all around problem. So are we even talking about that? No, but that’s a real health risk. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is what we call it in medicine. Where do you think that name comes from? Idiopathic means that you know we don’t know what’s causing these problems but we know there is a problem. So the reason I mention this is because of the chemicals we are adding to that.
Whatever it is, whether it’s natural, clean, organic, I don’t care what it is, the problem is that it’s there. The real underlying problem is clutter. The clutter in this industry has got to go and I’m sorry but the truth is a lot of that clutter is because all those brands out there the only thing they have going for them is that they are clean, okay? So I really urge people to create options, real options, don’t create fluff, don’t create redundancies. Science is everywhere when it comes to skin, you can’t avoid it. It’s not like any other beauty categories. We’re not saying you shouldn’t be paying attention to our other beauty products just as much, I could do a whole other episode about that because I am a firm believer that we do need to redefine the way that we create beauty products. But, what I am saying is when it comes to skin science, you cannot take shortcuts, you cannot just do things because you think no one is going to notice.
Gone are the days of cooking up things in your kitchen, gone are the days of not running any clinical trials that are representative of the actual community in which you are selling your products, if that is a nationwide thing than you need to be sampling from a nationwide base population so that you can really reflect what your product does. These are just some things, I have a huge list, and so with that being said I really urge you guys to reach out to us if you have any questions; how to rectify things, not rectify, but how to add to what already exists for you as a brand. If your brand centers around nature, clean, organic focus that is ok and that is great. You are probably a great brand and have great science in your products that you just haven’t talked about yet, that’s ok. It’s never too late to start that conversation, and it’s never too late to just admit ‘I haven’t really focused on that part and maybe I should, you know I owe it to my customers and to myself as a brand founder.’ Those conversations and internal dialogues need to be really resonating right now and I am really proud of us as an industry that we are making these steps and these changes because you know what, this is what it’s all about guys and it’s amazing to see.
Huge shoutout to all of my favorite publications that I read on the daily, Beauty Independent, Beauty Matter,I am a huge subscriber to both of them, CEW, and all the amazing venture capitalists on LinkedIn that I follow, you guys are amazing and pull some of the best articles i’ve ever seen that really keep me informed and please keep doing that. For everybody out there, I urge you to follow in their footsteps and for example contribute to Beauty Independent articles or Beauty Matter articles or our articles. If you know what you are talking about then reach out because these are the publications that are doing that low ground work. Vogue is always amazing, business Vogue and beauty Vogue and any publication really. I think we are really solid when it comes to beauty editorial and I really love the editorial community in the beauty realm and business realm. I really urge anybody if you’ve got news, if you’ve got an idea, if you’ve got insights then reach out to them, reach out to me, whoever you can. And let’s get this conversation to a point where it’s normalized and easy to talk about; brands aren’t worried about being demonized, brands aren’t worrying about their reputation going down the hill. I don’t want to see that personally as a consumer, as a part of the industry, I don’t want to see that happen to any brand because every founder creates a brand out of love, passion, and enthusiasm.
Nobody goes into this with vicious intent or just lackluster initiatives. I really urge everybody to keep the conversation going, and I’d be happy to do a part two if someone wants to come on the show or we could even do a panel discussion if listeners want to hear it. I urge listeners to chime in and let us know who you want to hear from on the podcast about this topic. If you want me to do a panel, I would love to and I will start reaching out to people. Let’s really really amplify this because now is the time. Thank you guys so much for listening, sorry for the rant it’s been a solid 13 minutes of me talking your ear off. Thank you for listening, thank you for everything, skin care would not be anything without people tuning in which is exactly what you guys do and our numbers reflect it. I couldn’t be more thankful, the whole team is thankful. We look at our numbers everyday and we are just like ‘Oh my gosh, people are actually listening to us’ and for me that’s astounding because I’ve always been that person that’s an introvert. I never had a lot of friends, I was always in my books, so to see that you guys really care and you listen and you hear me out and hear out what we have to say, it means the world thank you. And to all the amazing skincare executives out there, thank you for really doing great stuff and I regard you guys in the same way I regard my colleagues in medicine. I have the utmost respect for entrepreneurs, it is an incredibly courageous feat to create a brand, and grow it, and make it what it is. So I really want to reiterate that this is not a rant about brands, this is a rant about how we need to do better, that’s all. So, thank you for listening and I will be back next time with a full length interview!
Transcribed By: Madigan Pizzella
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