Clean beauty – what the hell is it?

Did you know that 80% of chemicals in personal-care products have never been tested for safety? That’s bloody scary. Just because a brand says they’re “green”, “natural” or “clean”, doesn’t mean they are safe. What’s even more shocking is the amount of products that we use everyday – ones we ingest, inhale and absorb through our skin that contain more than one hundred chemicals. Shocker, those chemicals actually end up inside us.

So, what the hell is clean beauty? Clean beauty products are made without ingredients shown or suspected to harm human health. BUT, there is no governing body or regulation to police it, so brands can easily clean-wash you. A lot of us easily fall into the trap of thinking that all beauty products are highly regulated. Well, sadly they’re not. Like, at all. We know, wild.

For us, clean beauty means products with a small ingredient listing that won’t harm our bodies. This includes hormone disruptors (hello parabens and sulfates), carcinogens and things that piss off our skin (which is a lot of things for us).

Clean-washing. Yep, it’s a thing. A lot of natural ingredients flare us up, so how do we know if a brand that’s “green”, “organic” or “all natural” is clean? Hot tip! Look for products without:
– parabens
– phthalates
– PEGs
– ethanolamines
– chemical sunscreens
– synthetic fragrances
– BHT
– BHA

“Myth buster: “preservative-free” isn’t necessarily a good thing. Preservatives do actually play a role when it comes to water-containing products as their main role is to kill bacteria. Though they’re necessary to keep out things like mould and some preservatives are very toxic. Specifically watch out for formaldehyde (potent skin irritant and allergen), also known as quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, and bromopol.“

You’re probably getting the picture by now that our products don’t contain any of the above? Yep, you’re right. When we developed our products we were shocked to discover that current science proves even the tiniest doses of certain chemicals can contribute to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, not to mention the wide range of other health conditions on the rise. Our mission is to bring you clean products, always, that won’t harm your hair and body.

Alongside Yours Only, you can find some other clean beauty brands listed in Pop Sugar’s recent article on 7 Clean Beauty Brands That Are Great For People With Autoimmune Conditions and Allergies.