A Beauty Insider On The Clean Beauty Backlash & Clean-Washing

The world of clean beauty can often feel extremely messy. For one, there's always debate about what should or shouldn't end up on no and yes lists. Ingredients that were once mainstream can quickly become controversial with a viral TikTok video or misleading news report. And complicated ingredient nomenclature can often trigger undue confusion about a formula's safety and efficacy.

Often, folks are left feeling like they need to become their own armchair experts in order to suss out the product market.

"It's positioned as empowering for the consumer to 'do their research' on ingredient lists, but I actually think it ends up being disempowering. You need an advanced degree in chemistry to keep up with the ingredients, formulas, and latest research. How can we expect the average consumer to do that?" says Jaleh Bisharat, founder of beauty e-retailer NakedPoppy. The site actually has an in-house cosmetic chemist researching the formulas of everything they sell—doing the work so you don't have to.  

But it's not just the ingredient lists and formulas that are confusing—customers often struggle with finding brands that align with their values. And so in this episode of Clean Beauty School, I chatted with Bisharat about how folks can go about finding brands they feel comfortable using.

We've seen something of a "backlash" against clean beauty, which uses cases of fearmongering, bad science, and instances of brands making stronger claims they may have the right to. Certainly, that exists and I find as much of a problem with it as other folks do.

"I really don't think it's a backlash against clean beauty but a backlash against clean washing. People are tired of misleading marketing," she says. "But really, who can object to products that are better for you?" Well, I tend to agree.