“Clean" or Just Plain Mean? Our Thoughts on Selling by Scaring

Between “toxic mattress syndrome” (yes, it’s a real thing on the internet) and formaldehyde in pillows, chemicals have become the modern-day boogeyman that quite literally hides under your bed. That is, until you buy a $3,000 mattress made out of avocados. And how about all those malicious soaps in the shower?! They’re full of phthalates, sulfates, and all the other terrifying words that end in -ates. And what’s really in our clothing? Synthetic fibers that will soak into our bloodstream? What about prepping lunch? How safe is Tupperware?

These are all very real and very common Google searches. “Toxic” has become the most overused word to describe everything from face wash to uncomfortable work relationships. And ridding yourself of “toxicity” is easy, for a price of course. Just throw every item you own away and buy $500 worth of bottled juices and whatever Gwyneth Paltrow recommends on Instagram. But you and your skin will pay the price.

The Honest Company is valued at over one billion dollars, Mrs. Meyers is owned by the same conglomerate that makes Windex, and BeautyCounter’s main investor is the Carlyle group AKA the world’s largest private investment firm that mostly deals in real estate and the defense industry. 

The fact is that fear sells and these companies have the marketing budget to scare you into buying their products, so don’t be quick to assume their sole mission is to keep you clean. You also owe it to yourself to use skincare that makes your skin clear and glowing, shampoo that actually washes your hair, and body soap that gets rid of odor (maybe you owe that to your friends and family). 

You know who is really honest? Aestheticians. Aestheticians are not corporations. They are humans so passionate about making people’s skin better that they went to school (often while paying off loans from their 4-year degrees) for a job to pop pimples hunched over in a chair all day. We promise they have your best interest at heart and most of the time work with professional lines whose marketing budgets can’t front clickbait. 

So what is “clean beauty” and who is really reaping the benefits? If you are letting a green label that has no legal merit choose your products, it’s probably not you or your skin.