As the skincare world gets increasingly conscious of the impact products have on our planet and ourselves, clean beauty has emerged as a safer and more dependable path towards sustainable skincare practices and mindful choices. This Clean Beauty Day, we are celebrating the occasion by raising more awareness on the topic. In this blog, we aim to empower intelligent consumers like you with the knowledge of skincare ingredients, guiding you to make more informed decisions.
So, What Is Clean Beauty?
Clean beauty is not a mere trend but a philosophy that believes beauty is skin deep. It encourages using natural, toxic-free skincare products that nourish your skin and nurture your well-being while being gentle with the environment. Clean beauty is slowly changing the way we think of beauty routines and rituals. The movement encourages people to stop obsessing over complex skincare practices that focus on improving outer beauty, sometimes even at the cost of your overall wellbeing. Instead, clean beauty prioritises self-care, beginning with the care of your skin.
The first step to starting your clean skincare journey is to identify products free from everyday toxins and skin irritants that cause more damage than good with long-term use. To start your clean beauty journey, let’s examine the ingredients you must avoid.
Clean Beauty: Skincare Ingredients To Avoid
- Artificial Fragrance
Traditionally, artificial fragrances have been used in skincare products to mask the smell of other ingredients that make up the product. But that’s not the only reason! Sweet-smelling fragrances can hook you to the products by offering a more pleasant sensory experience. Unfortunately, artificial fragrances are terrible for your skin! It is one of the most common causes of skin irritation and redness. Even if you are not sensitive to a particular fragrance, with repeated use, they can sensitize your skin. Your skin will become more reactive to not just the fragrance but also other ingredients, leading to irritation. At Lotus Herbals, all our products are artificial fragrance-free.
- Parabens
Parabens are preservatives that are readily available and super-cheap. This is why they are used widely in skincare products to extend their shelf life. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they are -
- Endocrine disruptors can get absorbed through your skin and mess with your hormonal balance.
- Potential risk to cancer as they have been detected in breast cancers. Although there still needs to be more research to categorize it as a cancer-causing ingredient.
- Potential skin allergen that can trigger skin irritation, just like fragrance, especially in sensitive skin.
With rising concern, we have shifted to using superior preservatives in our paraben-free products like sunscreens and moisturizers so you can enjoy your skincare without worries and risks.
- Sulfate
Sulfates are the stuff that gives soaps and detergents their soapy, foamy feeling. So, why do we make sulfate-free facewashes and cleansers at Lotus Herbals? Because sulfates are powerful cleansers that dry out your skin during cleansing. They strip your skin of its nourishing and protective natural oils, leaving you with a stretchy, tight, and dry feeling. This can trigger your skin to produce more oil to combat the dryness. And make it more susceptible to external irritants.
Modern skincare technology and science have blessed us with better sulfate alternatives from natural sources like coconut oil, olive oil, and fruit sugars. They offer a rich, luxurious lather that cleanses without disrupting your skin’s natural oil balance.
Clean Beauty: Things To Look For
Now that we know what we should avoid let’s focus on what you should look for in your products.
- Natural Ingredients
Being the very land that gifted the wisdom of Ayurveda to the world, we don’t need much convincing to understand the power of natural ingredients. Since ancient times, our ancestors have relied on ingredients like turmeric, sandalwood, rose water, Cica, and like to nourish their skin and rejuvenate their bodies holistically.
Naturally derived oils and extracts are concentrated enough to give you fast results yet gentle enough to enhance your glow without side effects.
- Dermatologist Tested
Natural remedies without any processing or preservative may sound good, but they are a comfortable place for microbes to grow. This is why they are a significant risk to your skin and well-being when used regularly.
Moreover, along with the good stuff, natural ingredients also have the bad stuff that can irritate your skin. Only good, skin-boosting compounds are taken out from these raw ingredients and processed to offer better results during extraction and procession.
They are then formulated carefully by experts to boost their efficiency further. And finally, they are tested by dermatologists to ensure their efficacy and safety. Never settle for products not tested by dermatologists if you want the best, medically safe skincare.
- Cruelty-Free
We have reached an advanced stage in skincare, where there are multiple options to test products before they are released in the market for you to use. It is time we give up animal testing and stop the unnecessary cruelty in the name of beauty.
At Lotus Herbals, we use sophisticated technology to test products with more accurate and reliable results than animal testing. Now, as a consumer, it’s your turn to support advanced brands like ours and urge more companies to follow the path of cruelty-free skincare and beauty.
This Clean Beauty Day, let’s take an oath to make clean beauty the future norm rather than a trend that fades in time.
