Clean Beauty Is a Scam and Won't Give Us Safer Products | Lab Muffin Beauty Science

Clean beauty ignores the very basics of ingredient safety. Here's how it gets everything wrong, and how safety assessments actually work (hot tip: they're being done correctly already). Featuring an actual real-life toxicologist (not a fake clean beauty one).

In this video:
🧼 What is clean beauty?
🧼 There's no such thing as clean and dirty ingredients
🧼 Hazard vs risk
🧼 How scientists ACTUALLY work out risk
🧼 Parabens: personally victimised by clean beauty
🧼 Why take any risk at all?
🧼 How did we get here, and how do we get out?

Thanks to Dr Fred Lebreux for being so generous with his time and expertise - more from him here:
@TheEcoWell facilitates conversations with experts in the beauty industry

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Lab Muffin Beauty Science is a channel by me, Michelle - I'm a chemistry PhD and beauty lover, here to explain how beauty products work, debunk myths, and help you make smarter decisions about your skincare, hair and makeup!

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[LabMuffinBeautyScience]

Do you think clean beauty can be stopped? Or is it too big of a movement?

[damaracarpenter]

Whenever I hear the phrase "... and it's free of chemicals!" I think.. oh so its... nothing at all?? 🤔😂😂😂

[TimaHypenoodles]

“It’s like never drinking water because of a fear of drowning” loooove that

[MrMikk]

"We don't use SyNtHeTiC FrAgRaNcE, we use EsSeNtIaL OiLs". It kills me to see citrus oils in skin care

[Minsooky]

Clean beauty is also a big thing in zero waste, which is another problem, because it seems a lot of people who claim to be zero waste have no clue what it actually means. It seems to be this weird elitist competition of being as “pure” as possible, and they end up buying a lot of stuff they don’t even need and is pretty useless for the skin. Of course, the best way to be sustainable is to simply not buy stuff, but nobody wants to do that...

[leonkande]

Clean beauty is quite "dangerous" I think.
When I started getting into skincare, I was bombarded with "clean" beauty from facebook groups and blogs. I basically excluded hundreds of great products because of the fear mongering "parabens give you cancer" etc. I've used only "clean" beauty products, even though a lot of them weren't working for me, and I was told this is normal because my skin is "detoxifying".
Good thing I've found Michelle and other creators who are more science based :D

[laurenchan]

What disappoints me even more is that this "clean, all-natural beauty" idea has made it's way into education! I'm in the middle of my Diploma of Beauty Therapy, and so far all my teachers have been talking to us about all the "harmful" ingredients that are in most skincare products. One of my teachers even has a salon where she only stocks products made with all-natural chemicals, and she had us do a mini research project on some "bad" ingredients, including parabens. I'm disappointed that even experienced beauty therapists and skincare experts have fallen for this bs movement, because I truly feel like I'm not getting a full-rounded education on skincare products, which is essential for my life of work. I'm so glad I've found this channel, it's frustrating that I'm paying thousands of dollars yet I'm learning more skincare science from YouTube than I am my instructors

[camilagonzalezcontreras]

People should stop taking everything so personal, yes, we can be allergic to anything; if we taking this to food allergy, it would be like banning nuts from ALL FOOD due to their potential to be allergenic. In my case I’m allergic to onions and garlic (allium) but you don’t see me trashing every place/cooking that uses onions and garlic...

[definitely_not_bryce]

I reject the idea of clean beauty as it is marketed to us as consumers. However, I do appreciate brands that make an effort to avoid irritating ingredients that don’t really need to be in cosmetics, such as fragrance, essential oils, etc. I think that’s one reason why brands like The Ordinary and The Inkey List have been so successful in recent years.

[methylatedlysine]

Michelle: "I don't want this video to be an hour long"
Me: 😠😠😔❤️

[tiaraono]

I'm a chemist with a background in toxicology, For a long while I was dating a guy who's family owned a "All Natrual" cleaning company. I'd often get into arguments with them because they were making claims that were just plain WRONG and dangerous. It was always a point of contention when we were together.

They were big users of the "Chemical free" BS, and it made me so mad.

[DaPoofDaPoofDaPoofDa]

What's worst is some of these same advocates for "clean beauty" don't trust the scientific community -- so what's the point?? Why would i trust your barometer for whats clean or safe or non-toxic, anyways? Its like playing a board game with 2 different sets of rule books

[SamMKKK]

Clean Beauty will demonize petroleum jelly & mineral oil b/c of “toxins”, yet sell you shea butter concoctions literally whipped up in some kitchen. I hate it here.

[jlrntz]

PLEASE do another video on the environmental side of clean beauty!! Especially from a full product lifecycle perspective.

[myconfusedmerriment]

"Pseudoscience is generally easier to understand and easier to sell." Yes!!! So glad I found your channel. Thank you for all the research and the work you put in to these videos, Michelle!

[Queenfairypants]

I don’t understand the fear about ‘toxins’ in skin care when we are breathing in pollution and ingesting micro plastics every day. Surely those are more pressing issues and the reason for health problems. People are mad about moisturiser but not ‘forever chemicals’ 🤷🏼‍♀️

[clairekennedy]

I remember my friend told me to get this app years ago and I thought all my affordable simple products were bad for me. I’m so glad my dermatologist educated me.

[estherherzog]

I work in marketing in a fairly technical industry and totally agree that educational marketing is the way for skincare companies to go. When I see really good information from a brand on why they chose certain ingredients (not just because they're "natural" or "plant-derived") and talking about how the formulation affects the final product, I'm much more likely to purchase products from them.

[julieespitia]

I'm 24 and I've never had a consistent, daily skincare routine. I'm trying to put together one, but two incredibly important things for me are sustainability and cruelty free brands. And I'm in Colombia, so cheap things in the States, UK, Australia, etc. are expensive to me. And there's so much info out there is maddening trying to flesh out the brands that can potentially be good for me (won't ever know if it will work for me if I don't try it out) but that aligns with my morals as well. Understanding this clean beauty thing is very important to me, so thank you Michelle for always making in depth ideos that are still understandable to non scientists (and even non native English speakers lol)

[bayleaf]

Thank you Lab Muffin. I detest how big companies are exploiting our naivete and worries, to make themselves more wealthy- at our expense! 🙄 Disgusting. Your well-reserched, consise info is greatly appreciated x