By Brianna Civitano
Growing up I was always captivated by how glamorous the beauty industry looked. From the beautiful colors, artistic abilities, and innovative ideas to seeing incredible launch parties for the latest beauty brands or product drops. It always made me think, “Wow, the things I would do to be in that inner circle.”
While it is still an alluring industry, as I’ve gotten older, I have realized that there are many dark sides to it. It is important to know and learn about these problems to help further create a safe space and see continuous change for the better in the industry. Well, I’m not going to gate keep these secrets, so let’s dive into the top three together.
1. CLEAN BEAUTY & GREENWASHING
The past few years “clean beauty” has infiltrated the market. That’s fine though because clean beauty is great, right? Organic, clean ingredients in products truly meant to help the skin and not hurt it. It’s like the beauty brands actually care about us. I wish it was just that simple.
Trying to define clean beauty is incredibly challenging because there’s really no single definition. It ultimately comes down to the ingredients that make up the product, packaging, planet impactions, and sustainability. Again, while all of that sounds fantastic, not all of those factors have to be implemented to be “clean”. Let’s put it this way, as long as a product’s ingredients list does not contain a “toxic” ingredient, it’s clean, but all of those ingredients are not necessarily clean. Why? Because the US only bans 9 chemicals from personal care products, while the European Union and other countries have banned over 1,600. That’s a major discrepancy.
Anyways, once a product has passed the clean standards test in the US, it is slapped with an eye catching green label. If I was an average consumer walking by a beauty brand that had “clean beauty” written on a green label, the chances of me purchasing from that brand are higher than purchasing from a brand without the label because the idea of it being better for my skin is now implemented in my head. This is a marketing tactic called greenwashing. Brands dump money to get the green label rather than dump money into actually making the product good for the person and environment.
I always recommend doing your own research when one sees the green clean beauty label because a lot of it is too good to be true.
2. INCLUSIVITY & DIVERSITY
Inclusivity and diversity have been societal problems for centuries and I wish I could say the beauty industry did not face these problems, but I’d be lying. Representation on the market, shade ranges in makeup, and haircare products suited for textured hair are all examples of problems the industry needs to continue working on because the lack of representation can lead to exclusion and limited choices for many consumers.
In 2017, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna was the first beauty brand to launch an inclusive foundation shade range of 40 different shades, now increased to 50. This was a pivotal moment for the industry because it made people realize it is possible, and we need to stop settling for the 15-20 shade ranges. It also allowed there to be an open conversation that many brands, influencers, celebrities and average people started to partake in to hopefully spread more awareness about this issue.
Golloria, an influencer on TikTok, uses her platform everyday to test different shade ranges of products like foundations skin tints, and concealers to see if they actually meet true inclusivity standards. She will give her audience the brutal truth because this is a topic she is very passionate about and truly wants to help create a these brands evolve for the better so everyone is included.
We have seen major improvements, but there is so much more change that can be done.
3. CHEMICALS…
As if me bearing the hard truth of clean beauty and greenwashing wasn’t enough, beware of chemicals that can be found within beauty products as well. Every product has an ingredients list, but what many don’t know is that brands use vague words to conceal some ingredients like “fragrance.”
“Fragrance” is not an ingredient, it’s a term to let consumers know there is an added scent to the product, but that added scent most likely contains many harmful ingredients. The root of this problem is lack of regulation. If the US did a better job regulating these products and ingredients, we wouldn’t have to worry about it as much, but since our skin, the biggest organ on our body, soaks up every single ingredient it is so important to do your own research, so you are not affected by the incredibly harmful side effects.
Listen, I am still a beauty girl at heart. No matter the ugly truth, I will continue to love and support the industry, but it is very important to do your own research, have these conversations, and promote change to help the industry evolve into its best self.
