These Are The Clean Beauty Brands Everyone Is Talking About
No more harmful sulfates, parabens, synthetics, and ingredients you can’t pronounce.
A solid foundation - pun intended - for a cleaner beauty routine is to stock your bag with products composed of ingredients you can pronounce. Harmful sulfates, parabens, synthetics and, um, freaking formaldehyde have been used in the mascara we slick onto our eyelashes and shampoos we lather into our scalp. And, ahem, they’re no longer invited to the routine. Thankfully a bevy of beauty brands have been cleaning up cleansers to highlighters and hair dye to lip gloss so that we can all feel better about smearing, patting and rubbing these products into our skin.
Folks, it’s 2021. We’ve been through a lot. Self care is a must and that means studying ingredient lists and researching the eco-friendly ethos of your favorite brands. What exactly are we looking for in cleaner products? Seals that swear their serums are cruelty free, derived from plants, are organic and/or so safe that they’re practically edible. We’ve organized this list of the clean beauty brands you can feel good about to compact your researching efforts and get started re-organizing your vanity.
Lip Gloss That Lasts
We’ll admit to years of slathering gloss across our lips without the slightest idea as to what exactly it is we’re smacking onto our mouth. These old ways are outdated. Tower 28 illuminates the ingredients in their glosses which happen to be identifiable oils like Raspberry and Rosemary.
ShineOn Lip Jelly, $14, Tower 28
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Take Your Vitamin C
We wholeheartedly stan a beauty brand that doesn’t make finding their ingredient list as challenging as an archeological dig. True Botanicals lists them front and center. Their Vitamin C Booster is good for reducing the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and dark spots and consists of just four easy to pronounce ingredients. Customers review it as “magic in a bottle” and we’re adding it to cart without hesitation.
Vitamin C Booster, $90, True Botanicals
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Coconuts About Kopari
Okay, fine, don’t take it from us. Take it from the 1,274 five star reviews of Kopari’s 100% Organic Coconut Melt. Coconut oil is a natural beauty product that you can store in your pantry but should also keep on your bathroom vanity. It’s packed with Vitamin E and proteins that moisturize, making it a versatile product for hair and skin beautification. Kopari’s Organic Coconut Melt is vegan and cruelty free.
100% Organic Coconut Melt, $28, Kopari
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Safe with LOLI
We’re all aware of the usual certifications. The cruelty free bunny. The expansive green field of the USDA organic stamp. These are the stamps of ethical approval that we seek and trust when searching for new products. And now there’s a new certification to look out for; the Made Safe seal. You can pat LOLI’s Tea Seed Elixir on your face assured that the ingredients are vetted and damn near edible. (But we wouldn’t advise taste testing.)
Tea Seed Elixir, $42, LOLI Beauty
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Honestly So Good
Recipient of Byrdie’s 2021 Eco Beauty Award, The Honest Company lives up to its name. Cruelty free, dermatologist and Jessica Alba tested, these beauty products are the trustworthy elixirs we want to slather all over our face. Honest even goes so far as to inform us on the recyclable makeup of the containers so you can beautify and dispose of packaging responsibly.
3-in-1 Detox Mud Mask, $19.99, Honest Co.
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We Ship Clean Cleansers
When it comes to washing our face what exactly is cleansing about it? Three Ships thoroughly explains what’s in their 100% plant derived cleansers along with the reason those ingredients are in the bottle. Did you know that Aspen Bark extract is a natural source of salicylic acid that battles pimples while papaya extract balances and brightens? We didn’t! We love a skincare routine that comes with a side of education.
Refresh Papaya and Salicylic Acid Cleanser, $22, Three Ships
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Dark Circles Aren’t Forever
And that’s because these eye masks are. Instead of wasting eye mask after eye mask, unnecessarily feeding the landfill with harmful waste, get one that will last forever. Eco minded Dieux Skin has created a reusable eye mask that cradles the serums and creams you use. You’ll feel good about yourself, not just because you’re taking care of your skin, but also because you’re taking care of the Earth.
Forever Eye Mask, $25, Dieux Skin
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No Hairy Situations Here
The amount of harmful ingredients mixed into hair care products and dyes is enough to give in to the greys. But coloring our hair is fun and thank the hairy heavens that there are brands like Hally that make navigating hair care less stressful. Their demi-permanent dye is gentle and free of ammonia, sulfate and parabens.
Color Cloud, $25, Hally Hair
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Pucker Up
Finally, a lipstick that doesn’t just paint lips but moisturizes them so you don’t end up with clumpy bunches of color at the end of a day full of conference calls and conversations over candlelight. True + Luscious Super Moisture Lipstick is cruelty free, 100% vegan and employs Konjac Root so your pucker stays supple.
Super Moisture Lipstick, $22, True + Luscious
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A Better Glow
Leaving the house with cheekbones accentuated with highlighter turns concrete sidewalks into red carpet runways. Feel even better about your glow when your golden highlighter is made from honeysuckle flower extract, rosehip oil and jojoba seed oil.
Aether Beauty Highlighter, $14, Kinder Beauty
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Eco Deo
Single use plastics are a hard no, babe. But deodorant is, to some, a must. Myro makes refillable deodorant cases so that you can battle body odor and climate change at the same time. We love a solution.
Moss Case with Spa Day, $25, Myro
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Hand Model
2020 was hand sanitizer’s year. With an uneasy emphasis on germs we will forever more be leaving the house with sanitizer in tow. Thankfully Nala makes a vegan variation that’s free from parabens, artificial fragrances, artificial colors and cruelty. It’s actually free from so many of the major no-nos that it’s called the “Free-From Hand Sanitizer”.
Free-From Hand Sanitzer, $13, Nala
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Body Beautiful
Beauty doesn’t have to be pain. In fact we’d argue that it shouldn’t be, at all, ever. Beauty feels good and that starts in the shower. PiperWai’s Scentless Body Wash is your base for feeling refreshed and therefore, naturally beautiful.
Scentless Body Wash, $16, PiperWai
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Aging Gracefully
We all grow older. But we can do so without the skin to give away our age. Enjoy the sun and laughs without the wrinkles or lines with Cardon’s Anti-Aging Skincare Set.
Anti-Aging Skincare Set, $74.80, Cardon
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