Why do they put so many toxic chemicals in beauty products?

[User]

It’s just tons of non-science nerds spreading fear for the sake of marketing 🤦‍♀️

[morgantremble]

It’s the other way around: why are there so many beauty products in my scary chemicals?!?!?

[luxeford]

I swear, if I ever launched a skincare brand I'd call it 'Toxic Beauty'.

It's not only that the "clean" vigilante is wrong. To me, the notion that the world we live in something to be afraid of and to be seen as 'dirty' is downright frightening.

'Uncleen' moisturizers today; people tomorrow?

There's a Cl number for gold in cosmetics.

[crystaljewellery]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Love your scientific and critical way of thinking! Never thought of it this way before but totally makes sense.

[amnam]

I hate the whole "putting chemicals on your face" notion. WATER is a

[curiosity]

tysm for continuing to talk about this because the misconceptions are staggering. like, i too want preservatives in my shampoo! i want appropriate preservatives in all my products, actually! it always astonishes me when people talk about not wanting preservatives in their beauty products. like why?! why do you want your products to be unsafe to use within days (or possibly hours) of being made?!

[marianayumi]

Honestly, the fear-mongering around preservatives is so strange. Especially when “clean beauty” products that go bad in a couple months have super deceptive marketing about it… Why would you call it clean if it's expired in a third of the time?

[SaheeliRai]

And most people sadly don't understand that just because a chemical substance has something like 'could irritate skin, eyes...' on the pure substance, that does not mean 'it will melt of your skin immediately' when it is 0.1% in some product. Like every essential oil has these warnings. At work (chemistry lab) we use 99.8% Thymol, which is quite irritating. But normalpeople would not avoid thyme at every cost, or wear gloves when

[padelackles]

💯💯💯

“Clean” beauty is the most depressing trend that will not die.

[nawshinnoorfaria]

People fear the things most that they don't understand.
Then makes up random things up.

[camilleb.]

I wonder if those ingredients are popular because they are absurdly effective or because they are cheaper.

[hiba.t]

Hey dear I recently dicovered your channel and really loving the content, can you please make a video dedicated to curly hair, what shampoos, conditioners & oils are going to suit them, I have dry curly frizzy hair & it's a struggle to manage them or even make them look presentable enough😧

[debpalm]

Thanks so much!! Good to hear from you as always.

[jenluv]

Thank you for your service, Michelle!. I appreciate you so much!

[stevens]

Korean skincare uses “clean” and “natural” so much. I don’t mind it as much as “non-toxic” which the west uses.

[solangepolegar]

We should put this in a loop on certain “clean beauty” aisles ;) ❤❤

[vidyadharmarajan]

Ur content has made me not fear the so called chemicals in cosmetics...cud u plz let me know if there is a scientific reason for not using sulphates n silicone on curly hair...love u😘

[psqhddq]

Here is an hard, knowing truth; indie brands cannot compete with the vast stores of knowledge, wealth and resources that big companies have. That vast wealth and those resources translate to the very necessary and crucial things for consumers. Big companies scout for and hire the top tier scientists, often scouting for them as interns while they are still in school. The research that takes place at these large companies is light years ahead. Because Big brands are publicly traded companies they have to make sure that shareholders and the consumer are well protected, so they go to above ordinary lengths to formulate and test products to ensue their efficacy (or in other words that the performance matches the claims) and their safety to exceed standards. These big companies have the brightest scientists, they have international collaboration, they have Research & Development centers of excellence, they test to an insanely critical degree, and on. What do small indie brands have? The scary truth? Not very much. They do not have world class scientists, sorry that is a fact. In fact they rely on third party manufacturing labs that often are staffed with chemists that large companies would not hire because they are not or barely qualified. These third party labs are not interested in testing or safety. The key here is to make as many batches in a day because time is money in this part of the industry. These labs that indie brands rely on often rotate the same basic formula to multiple customers, just changing out fragrance, color and fairy dust ingredients. I know we love these "independent" brands. But you should be aware of at what cost...because these indie brands are not all that independent. The scientists who formulate for them are not employees of the brands, they work for third party contract manufacturers, who have no loyalty to the indie brands or their consumer. Indie brands also often don't have a regulatory group. This group is really vital, these are the super smart people who both understand the chemistry and the law that applies to products, they look at and approve use levels to make sure products are SAFE. So indie brands who do not have regulatory staff, rely on third party manufacturers whose job it is to make and sell as much stuff as they can to indie brands...do you see the problem here? If you want an illustration, ask your favorite indie brand what the qualifications of their chemists and scientists that they have on staff are via their social...I promise you you will hear crickets, because most do not have in house scientists. So indie brands do not have the training, the knowledgeable staff, the folks who understand the legal regulatory safety checks in place to tout to the public. In fact most of them literally have nothing that should command consumer trust. So if they can't trade on expertise, what do they do? They can scare you. They use fear. They rely on the fact that the average consumer can't even pronounce phenoxyethanol, let alone understand why it would be and has been used. They don't have scientists? Well they don't think they need them because they have marketing people. What do marketing people do? They make up stories, that is their job. They have to sell product and the way they do that is by creating a story that will hook you. The story can be positive, like a brand that has been created to give back to a community. But mostly how indie brands have gained a foothold is by using fear. It is a powerful weapon. The thinking is, if I can make you afraid of something, I can change what you buy. And they have. Start asking real questions of your favorite indie brands & social media. Chances are the answers you receive might be more scary than the fear tactics Indie brands have been using on you...also recognize that the goal of most start up indie brands is to build the brand and then sell it to the big companies. The news is full of big companies buying small brands. You may love the fun entrepreneurial appeal of indie brands, but jeep in mind stories are exactly and only that, stories. Think critically. Buyers beware...

[Cesiaj]

Thanks a lot for enlightening us about these chemicals, Michelle! I'd love to hear more about other inci-coded ingredients and what their roles are in skincare.

I started using sulfate free hair products because i noticed that my salon treated hair (which costs a pretty penny) lasts longer without SLS. In other products i don't really mind this ingredient.

Preservatives - yes.

Fragrance - generally fine. There's scents i like and scents i'm not fond of. For example, I'm still on the fence about that tocobo coconut cleansing foam, good as it is, because it confuses the hell out of my brain. It foams so i know it's not edible, but at the same time i cant help but think like i'm rubbing food on my face because it smells like coconut cream pie!!! Another prduct that throws me off is that cosrx aloe sun cream that literally smells like OFF insect repellant lotion. if i close my eyes i probably won't be able to tell w/c is which. 😣

[julias]

Michelle will you please review the ‘Not so pretty’ docuseries on HBO max? Particular the episode on skincare!