What is “Clean” Beauty, and Why Should I Care?

I love a good skin care routine but recently I had to take a step back and really look at the routine I had been following. I was in Ulta buying one of my usual skin care products a few weeks ago and one of the workers approached me and recommended me trying Juice Beauty products, a clean beauty line. At first, I resisted and told her I had been using this brand and that I was extremely happy with it. Much to my dismay she continued to explain that the product I was about to purchase was made up of chemicals comparable to bleach. I was horrified, swiftly picked up a 30 day Juice Beauty kit and pretended I had not just tried to argue my product was superior to hers.  I had not heard of many clean products so I assumed they were not very effective, however, I could not be more wrong.

So what is clean beauty?

Essentially clean beauty includes products that are free of toxins that other products include like synthetic fragrances, parabens and carcinogens. All of these can lead serious harmful effects like hormone disruption or cancer in addition to regular skin irritation. Clean beauty is vegan and cruelty free.

How Is Clean Beauty effective?

Now on to my main concern with clean beauty skin care products: how effective can it really be? Unfortunately, I was more concerned about the appearance of my acne rather than the actual health of my skin which caused me to be apprehensive with these new products. I figured that if there were no chemicals in them, how could they treat acne? I did some research on my 30 day kit and found that the products use an organic juice base like grape seed juice or citrus juice instead of petroleum glycols. The products also include ingredients like sustainably sourced, organic shea butter, pineapple enzymes, fruit stem cell blends and other organic antioxidant rich fruits and veggies. After about three weeks of use, I have noticed less breakouts and significantly less skin irritation.

Clean beauty may seem like a fad right now, but the health benefits as well as its effectiveness are here to stay and gain traction.