Quality in clean beauty packaging

Today’s conscious consumers are not only living by the “you are what you eat” saying but are also applying that way of thinking to their beauty and skincare products. Whether it’s ingested or applied, many consumers are taking a holistic approach that includes “clean beauty” products with safer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly ingredients – and they want the packaging to share these same qualities.

The Clean Beauty movement is growing

The beauty industry, estimated at USD 532 billion in 2020, is constantly growing.
That’s a mind-boggling amount of product that consumers are dabbing and massaging into their skin on an often-daily basis. Up until fairly recently, little thought was given to the contents of those products, or to their cumulative effect on health. Now, however, there’s a growing “clean beauty” movement that has been mainly spearheaded by new entries into this billion-dollar market, such as the French All Tigers vegan brand of cosmetics.

“The clean beauty trend is the idea of getting rid of controversial ingredients with potential negative impacts on health or on the environment,” says Alexis Robillard, founder of All Tigers, which gives back one per cent of all its sales for wild tiger preservation in Asia.

“It teaches consumers to become more expert and pickier about the ingredients they put on their skin, and this might motivate heritage brands to reconsider their formulation habits.”

Alexis Robillard started All Tigers when he experienced a lack of brands that were both trendy and eco-friendly.

“Today, consumers want to dig into the formula, and make sure the products fit with their convictions and values.”

CLEAN BEAUTY is generally perceived as being purer, more environmentally friendly, and safer than heritage cosmetic products, and its growing popularity is a response to the frightening “cocktail effect” caused by combining many products containing synthetic ingredients over a lifetime. It is a trend that is fuelled by the organic movement, says Emily Safian-Demers, a Senior Trends Analyst at Wunderman Thompson.

“In many ways, consumers are looking for the equivalent of organic produce. They want to know that it is good and nourishing for them and does not contain harmful ingredients. People are looking for fresh, untouched products and ingredients out of fear of chemicals and processing,” she says.

Certifications are on the rise

While most countries have some regulations governing the cosmetic industry, many people feel these are too lax or dated. Consumer groups are demanding stricter regulations and more frequent revisions of directives, particularly in the US, where the American Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulations on skin products and cosmetics date back to 1938. With the exception of colour additives, cosmetic products and ingredients do not need FDA premarket approval.

However, the FDA can take action against products that are not in compliance with the law once they’ve hit the market. By then, it can be too late, which is why some third-party certification bodies have been formed. These include organic certification organisation ECOCERT, EWG verification, and Soil Association Certification, which all offer rigorous testing to check for chemicals and toxins.

Not all clean brands opt to pay for certification, but these organisations are gaining traction. According to a report released by the British Soil Association, there was a 23 per cent year on year growth of certified organic beauty and wellbeing brands in the UK in 2019.

The heritage beauty industry is starting to catch on to the trend and they are wise to do so. While most people remain loyal to their beauty brand, natural products are a strong trigger encouraging brand defection in the beauty care industry. According to the 2019 Ipsos report “What the Future”, 66 per cent of American respondents would try new products from other brands if they were natural.

But what does “natural” really entail? And what is the difference between clean, natural, pure, and green cosmetics anyway?

RMS Beauty advocates for organic cosmetic products

“The word ‘natural’ means absolutely nothing,” says Rose-Marie Swift, the founder of RMS Beauty.

“There are no laws to define the term or regulate its use. You are on your own to find beauty products that are actually formulated with natural ingredients. I was surprised to learn that the majority of ingredients used for ‘natural’ cosmetics are refined, bleached, clarified, deodorised, fractionated and heated to extreme temperatures. Because of this level of processing, they shouldn’t be considered ‘natural ingredients’ anymore – they are now the equivalent of manmade chemicals.”

Clean beauty takes a holistic approach to products, which extends to the packaging. RMS Beauty selects packaging that is recyclable and requires little energy to produce.

SWIFT BELIEVES that clean beauty should be both skin-friendly and environmentally friendly. “But really, ‘clean beauty’ is just a phrase chosen by retailers to cover an entirely new sector of the beauty industry,” admits Swift, adding that the other terms basically stem from the idea of cleaner cosmetics.

“All of these terms, at their core, are trying to communicate the same thing: Safety.” After years of working as a makeup artist for prestigious magazines, fashion photographers, models and actors, Swift began digging into the chemicals that had been absorbed into her own body when her health deteriorated.

She found that some of the toxic chemicals and heavy metals in her system were also in some everyday beauty products.