This year, National Clean Beauty Day is celebrated on July 15 to commemorate all of the efforts towards making cosmetics and skin care safer for our bodies and our environment. These efforts include making and using natural, non-toxic, cruelty-free, and eco-friendly products and packaging. Many people generally consider this trend to have started in the late 1980s as the language around beauty and health was starting to shift, with keywords such as “natural” and “organic” being increasingly used in marketing. Although it wasn't until the 1990s when the term “clean beauty” began appearing in Southern California, seemingly in tandem with the “clean eating” trend. It seems as though people were becoming increasingly more aware of both what goes into their bodies, as well as what they put onto them. 

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However, this issue has been around for much longer than most people even realize…

     The Victorian era (1837-1901) was notorious for using dangerous ingredients in their everyday objects, but in modern-day we often misunderstand this to believe that no one of this era knew these substances were harmful. This is not necessarily true. Much like today, many brands and magazines were advising women to be more mindful of what goes onto their skin. One example of this comes from a women's manual called The Arts of Beauty;

or, Secrets of a Lady's Toilet (1858), where it tells the reader, 

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     At a trifling expense, a lady may provide herself with a delightful wash for       the face, which is a thousand times better than the expensive lotion which

     she purchases at the apothecaries. Besides, she has the advantage of 

     knowing what she is using, which is far from being the case where she

     buys the prepared patent lotions. These preparations are generally put

     up by ignorant quacks and pretenders ; and I have known the most

     loathsome, beauty-destroying, indolent ulcers to be produced by the

     use of them. (44-45)

The author, Madame Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfeld uses this as an opportunity to warn other women against marketing which pretends to promote healthy and beautiful skin, and instead encourages the reader to make educated choices about their skin care. However, this type of advice did not stop companies from using these toxic ingredients. This was largely because these ingredients were how many of the extreme beauty trends of the time were achieved, such as very pale skin. 

     Just like today, many women were facing the same dilemma on how to fit the beauty standards without taking a significant risk on her health. Women were practically forced to choose between following the trends to be socially accepted but risk ruining her face forever, or preserving her skin but believing she will not be perceived as beautiful enough. Thankfully, over the course of the 20th century science and technology advancements allowed the beauty industry to improve and slowly make progress towards caring about the aftermath of using their products on the body. 

     Although there have been significant changes within the beauty industry, it is still alarming how, more than 100 years later it seems as though we are still having the same conversations about who we can trust with our bodies. Our society still struggles with unrealistic beauty standards and it seems as if every brand is selling the solutions to whatever problems we have with ourselves. Unfortunately, because there is “...no consensus on the specific substances and chemicals that should be avoided or embraced,” each brand has the ability to label themselves as “clean” in order to make their product seem more appealing to consumers, even with menial differences to their competitors (New York Times). This makes the phrase “clean beauty” start to lose meaning as it has no clear definition for companies or consumers to follow. Products with these labels typically cost much more than similarly made products without the label simply because most companies know that people would rather buy something that is “clean” because of the insinuation that the alternative is somehow bad— or dirty.

     “Clean” or “natural” ingredients do not necessarily mean they are safer than artificially made chemicals. In fact, many of these naturally derived ingredients are not even tested with the same safety tests as synthetic ingredients and have been found to cause irritation or allergic reaction. Many synthetic ingredients have been engineered to prevent these types of reactions on a wider range of people, and because they are being made by man they are undergoing much more rigorous safety testing. 

     At the end of the day, you know your skin and body the best so it is probably best to listen to how you feel about certain products. As made clear by the history laid out above, the question of who we can trust with our skincare has been circulating for a long time. Ultimately, there is no one right or wrong answer when it comes to the issue of “clean beauty,” and we can only try our best to stay informed.