Try opening your makeup drawer, can you differentiate which one is βclean beautyβ and which one is not? Itβs okay, weβre not here to tell you to throw away your precious makeup. Instead, weβre going to share with you about Clean Beauty and why itβs important to be conscious of this. Do you know that in 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products, almost 14,000 are found to contain industrial chemicals such as carcinogens, pesticides and hormone disruptors? What is Clean Beauty? Clean Beauty is products that are made with ingredients and substances that wonβt harm the Earth. This is different from cruelty-free because cruelty-free focuses on banning animal testing while the former emphasizes producing non-toxic products. However, both can exist concurrently. Clean Beauty focuses on beauty products that are nontoxic and produced with human and environmental health in mind. Usually, these products are made of plant-based ingredients and it does no harm to the environment. For example, a reef-safe sunscreen is considered a clean beauty because itβs safe to be used underwater because it doesnβt contain oxybenzone and octinoxate which kills the corals. As of today, the EU law bans 1,328 chemicals from cosmetics that are known or suspected to cause cancer, reproductive harm or birth defects. Among the ingredients that go against the Clean Beauty principles are Parabens, Aluminium Compounds, Refined Petroleum, Talc, and Hydroquinone. Most of these ingredients are suspected to cause cancer and other harmful effects on human health. Clean Beauty = Plant-based? Generally, clean beauty focuses more on botanical extracts instead of lab-made sketchy chemicals. One important thing to note is that clean beauty doesnβt necessarily mean all-natural and just because itβs natural, doesnβt mean itβs totally safe. Essential oils are famous lately and to aestheticians, they are extremely potent and if you simply apply it to your skin, it can disrupt your skin barriers. Why Clean Beauty? You should consider the personal and environmental impact of these harmful ingredients. Yes, they might work for you now but who knows what can happen to you in the long run. Not only that, clean beauty is beneficial for your body too as its ingredients are not only safe but it also helps to unveil more radiant results. Environmental-wise, if youβve been avoiding using plastic straws then a similar practice should be practised for your other belongings too. So, how do you shop for Clean Beauty? While you can just shop for the Clean Beauty category in certain retail stores (or online), there are still a lot of products that have yet to be labelled as βcleanβ because itβs not huge yet especially in the Asian regions. Fret not, you can still check your skincare or makeup holy grails and see if there are any harmful ingredients hiding. Skincarisma.com is one of the many websites you can use to check your cosmetic and skincare products. You can even filter according to your product preference if youβre on the hunt for new goodies!