Hey Rebels! Are you ready for the “clean beauty” talk? I’ve been doing tons of research in the last year and I specifically got this line because I received the Sandstone Hair Revive Elixer in one of my BoxyCharm boxes. I noticed they had quite a few products in their PopUp store (overstock at pretty deep discounts) and I thought it would be a really great line to try more from. I think I’m finally ready to talk about the clean beauty trend and my experience with Earth Harbor. Let’s not waste any more time and jump right into it, so leave your beauty standards at the door and let’s get into it…
*I’m NOT a dermatologist, skin specialist or doctor of any kind. These are MY opinions and MY research. Please consult a dermatologist when starting a new skincare line if you’re unsure of results or how your skin will react*
Let me start off by saying, the clean beauty movement is not a focus in my skin, hair and beauty needs. If I end up using a clean beauty product, it’s because the actual product itself has worked well and was the right price for me OR it was an experience I wanted to share with you so you know what you’re walking into. If you feel clean beauty is the way the world needs to go, then this blog isn’t for you BUT maybe this blog will give you a little insight to the other side. So saddle up folks, this could be a wild ride…
What’s the definition of “Clean Beauty”? There isn’t a definition on the FDA website because it’s still a new concept and unfortunately, it’s come with some misinformation and companies are defining it how they view it. Most of the definitions you’ll see are from websites pushing the clean beauty trend and most of them say “Clean beauty – Products that are free of potential toxic ingredients in your beauty products.” That’s pretty broad, don’t you think? Go to your Google machine and type “what’s the clean beauty definition” and you can see all of the definitions companies are using. It’s kind of wild if you think about it!
I’m going to touch on 2 very important things that the clean beauty movement has replaced with “clean” ingredients. Parabens (preservatives) & Fragrance:
- “Parabens are a family of related chemicals that are commonly used as preservatives in cosmetic products. Preservatives may be used in cosmetics to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria and mold, in order to protect both the products and consumers.
The parabens used most commonly in cosmetics are methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, and ethylparaben.
Product ingredient labels typically list more than one paraben in a product, and parabens are often used in combination with other types of preservatives to better protect against a broad range of microorganisms.”
Please keep in mind, the FDA limits certain amounts of chemicals in our products to do the job of stopping harmful bacteria from growing. If you remove that, your products won’t last as long and the possibility of bacteria growing in your beauty products is incredibly high. Parabens have also been around for 100’s of years and are used by dermatologists everyday! They’ve been tested over and over again and the amount that are put into products are not harmful amounts. I think I prefer parabens in my mascara to stop eye infections from forming, don’t you?
Think about this…
Drinking water is naturally good for you right? What happens if you inhale a large amount of water? The possibility of drowning is quite high isn’t it? Water itself is good! But how it’s used could be a different story. That’s the same with ingredients, insane amounts of parabens could be toxic but a small amount that stops bacteria from forming is not toxic to the human body. These ingredients are regulated by the FDA so please understand that your clean beauty products can go bad faster and possibly cause an allergic reaction if bacteria starts to grow from more “natural” products. Here’s a prime example:
- Nymph Nectar Superfruit Radiance BALM (far right product): DO YOU SEE HOW CHUNKY IT IS? This is common? So it’s common practice to put a product in a pot of warm water to melt it back to it’s original state*? No. I purchased this product to be usable as soon as I opened it. Also, I did leave it on my skin and some of it melted but there’s a ton of grit in it. GRIT! Who’s rubbing that on their face???? This is so common that it’s listed in their Q&A section! WHAT? NO fucking THANK YOU! It sounds like those “fillers & stabilizers” are actually necessary! The background on my purchase of this product was BoxyCharm and I had it stored in a cool, dark & dry place. I never opened it until I was ready to use it. I feel like this should of never happened and it was the most disappointing part of this entire line. *I’ll try the pot with hot water because now I want to see if the grit still withstands the heat or it actually goes to it’s proper state after those instructions above. I’ll update everyone on this on my social media.
Moving onward…
- Synthetic Fragrance: It’s not great right? No. I’ve been very vocal about products that are heavily fragranced for all of the sensitive skin people out there. I care about you guys! I’ve also been more mindful of where fragrance lands on the ingredient list for my own personal use as well (the higher it is on the list, the higher the amount is used). Fragrance is also a category that companies can dump “other unknown” ingredients into and that is NOT ok (be better FDA)!
However…
“Clean beauty” products have replaced fragrance with essential oils. Essential oils have been known to cause skin irritation and allergic reactions. We’re essentially replacing one bad ingredient with another? Now, I’ve mentioned numerous times that my skin isn’t sensitive to fragrances and I hardly have any type of reactions. Well, it seems as though essential oils are NOT my friend. To be completely transparent, I used all of these products for 2 weeks to give them a chance (minus the Nymph Nectar).
- Siren Silk Moisturizer & Aqua Aura Eye Creme: I’ve been incredibly dry this year and I knew these were going to be a little more oily and thick for my dry ass skin. Well, these just sat on my skin and the SMELL of essential oils was overwhelming. I could smell it on my skin for a good hour. These were not comfortable in the least and I noticed my redness got a bit worse in the 2 weeks I used them. I have worked so hard on bringing the redness down and I’ll be damned if I destroy all of that hard work.
- Aurora, Celestine & Sandstone: Sandstone, I spoke of briefly and I really liked it (there’s an oil smell but nothing else) because it nourished my split ends. Aurora & Celestine do have a very light smell compared to the moisturizers above. Aurora was a bit oily for me but Celestine had 0 issues sinking into my skin. I have decided I will keep these 3 bottles and use Aurora and Celestine separately to make sure they weren’t the culprit for redness on my face.
OK! That was a lot!
Here’s what I want to make very clear to everyone – In my opinion, I do believe “clean beauty” was a movement to line companies pockets with more money. When you fear monger, people tend to shell out more money when “may cause cancer” claims get thrown into the universe. As a community, we need to start asking the REAL questions like, “at what amount and for how long is the exposure will it MAYBE cause cancer?” Again, this is my research and there’s SO much more to it then just preservatives and fragrance. There’s a pretty decent list of ingredients that have been replaced and labeled as “unclean” and some of them I believe aren’t great and there’s some room for improvement with the FDA! I urge ALL of you to do research on every product you introduce into your life – spend some time in their review sections and never trust a perfect 5 star review for anything!
As always, thank you for your continued support and if you aren’t up to date with all of my social media, please go HERE! Stay classy & make good decisions (especially for your skin)!
xoxo
Rebel Beauty Courtney 