In recent years, the demand for clean beauty has surged.
In fact, the clean beauty market is projected to reach over 21 billion by 2030.
This is a huge win for our community. Think about it… We’re not just sharing facts about toxic ingredients anymore. We’re witnessing a total shift, where people who experienced real health transformations are demanding action.
But with great power comes great responsibility, right?
Honestly, there’s a lot of earning potential for brands who market their products as “toxin free.” And if you’ve ever been tricked by great advertising and a sketchy ingredient label, you know what we mean. Greenwashing is a canon event for clean beauty newbies. But there are ways to recognize it before you buy a product.
Why Greenwashing Happens
The term “greenwashing” refers to a product that claims to be clean but is secretly toxic. Usually, the packaging is earth-toned, with illustrations of plants and herbs, and might even claim to be “paraben free.” But in reality, the product is using clever marketing and labeling loopholes to disguise what’s really inside.
Greenwashing is super common for a few reasons. It’s expensive to formulate a makeup or skincare product that’s genuinely clean. For years, beauty brands have used cheap fillers to bulk up their products. Now, they’re pressured to source intentionally, buy from American farms, and create formulas with rich natural ingredients that are preservative free. That’s a tall order, and it’s not doable for most drugstore brands.
So, many brands are choosing the easy way out. Pretty packaging and slight formula changes sell easily when customers don’t know how to recognize greenwashing.
But we’re here to tell you the truth so you can find the clean beauty products you actually want.
Practical Ways to Avoid Greenwashing Your Makeup Bag
If you’re going to invest in a nontoxic makeup bag, you deserve to find truly clean products. No greenwashing, all wholesome and healthy ingredients.
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What’s at the top of the ingredient label?
On your label, ingredients are listed by volume. That means, if water and alcohol are listed first, that’s primarily what fills the product. The first ingredients say a lot about the product and the brand itself. Are they selling you nourishing ingredients that improve your skin or simply trying to fill space? Let’s also make sure the top ten ingredients are easily recognizable and not chemical based.
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Always check the label for artificial fragrance
The word “fragrance” is a dead giveaway that your makeup isn’t clean. Since brands don’t want to disclose their signature scents, the FDA allows them to build a fragrance from 3,000+ preapproved chemicals. These chemicals include parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde releasers, and other toxic ingredients that you’d never allow in your makeup normally. But since they hide under the “fragrance” or “parfum” label, you don’t see them.
As clean beauty becomes more popular, many mainstream brands have taken the parabens and phthalates out of their general ingredient lists and hidden them under “fragrance.” You can often see this happening in real time if you check the back of the bottle.
Remember, ingredients are listed by volume, and fragrance shouldn’t take up much space in the product at all. Traditionally, it’s listed last. If you see fragrance as one of the top ten ingredients, it has a high product volume. Most likely, this is because it’s hiding parabens, phthalates, microplastics, and other chemicals they want to use to fill the product.
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Avoid drugstores and beauty retailers
Products that are sold in retail stores usually aren’t clean. Most major beauty brands fall under the leadership of just seven megacompanies, so there isn’t a lot of accountability. These megacompanies are quick to buy up smaller clean brands, too, and change the formulas.
In order to get products on store shelves, the products need to contain a certain level of preservatives. That really limits what you can find that’s truly clean. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. You may have a local health food store or health-conscious retailer that has a handful of amazing makeup options. Just be aware that the beauty industry in general isn’t as independent as it seems.
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Buy from local and trustworthy brands
Honestly, it’s no fun to read the fine print. You have better things to do with your time than squinting at ingredient labels. If you want an easy way to find clean products, look at the brand sourcing. Chemical formulas are made overseas in labs, while real ingredients are sourced from local farms and handmade close to home.
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If it sounds like a chemical, it probably is a chemical
This might seem overly simple, but it’s true. Real ingredients are easy to pronounce. Watch out for bulky ingredients lists with long words that are hyphenated and numbered. That’s usually a giveaway that the product contains toxins. For makeup, you really don’t need that many ingredients to formulate a usable product. Twenty is reasonable. If there’s more than that and they’re all difficult to pronounce, it’s time to ask questions.
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Look for brands that prioritize third-party testing
Independent testing is a clear sign that your beauty brand genuinely cares about product safety. This testing doesn’t just look at the ingredients; it reviews chemical contamination, which can happen anytime during production. Brands that submit their products for third-party testing are also super confident that they’ve made something genuinely clean.
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Go beyond ingredient “highlights”
When you’re shopping for nontoxic makeup online, you need to check clean brands for ingredient “highlights.” Often, when you click on the ingredients tab, there’s a section that shows hand-picked natural ingredients but not the full label. If brands are making it difficult to click through to the official label, there’s something they’re trying to hide.
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Learn how to recognize microplastics
Microplastics are found in 90% of makeup products. So, if you can identify them fast, you can easily see whether or not your makeup product is clean. Look for “polymer” on the ingredient label or any word that starts with “poly.” If you’re not sure, you can run the label through the EWG to check. Beat the Microbead also has a great list to check for plastic ingredients.
Explore the Toups and Co “Never List”
You deserve to feel beautiful, safely. At Toups, it’s our mission to provide genuinely clean makeup made from real and recognizable ingredients. To make shopping easier, we have a “Never List” that shows the ingredients we’ve personally banned from our products. You’ll never have to check the label to know these aren’t included in your purchase.