“Clean beauty” is a phrase that has been floating around long enough—on frosted bottles, in mission statements, on influencer grids full of beige linen and eucalyptus—to mean something by now. It’s promising better ingredients, gentler formulas, more ethics, less guilt. Sometimes it’s even whispering about saving the planet while it’s at it. You see it, you hear it, and you want to believe it. But ask five brands what “clean” means and you’ll get five different answers. Because unlike food, there’s no FDA definition. No legal parameters. Just vibes, really. And a lot of marketing jargon.
At its most useful, clean beauty is shorthand for formulas made without the usual suspects—certain preservatives (such as parabens, formaldehyde-releasing agents like quaternium-15, and methylisothiazolinone), synthetic fragrances, known allergens (including natural rubber latex, fragrance mixes, and metals like nickel), and anything else that might mess with your skin barrier or your hormone levels. Ideally, it also means cruelty-free, responsibly sourced, and packaged with a little more intention than the average landfill-fodder lipstick tube. But whether any of that holds up depends entirely on who’s making the rules—and spoiler, there are none. The rise of clean beauty came when shoppers began flipping over their serums and googling words like “ethylhexylglycerin” at the drugstore. It picked up speed when apps like EWG and Think Dirty told you whether your favorite moisturizer was secretly plotting against you. And it exploded when TikTok turned ingredient-label literacy into content.
Brands that wanted to stand out hustled to respond, including Tower28, which beauty industry vet Amy Liu founded after dealing with eczema flare-ups caused by products that claimed to be gentle but had the opposite effect.
Her team introduced the SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray, designed to calm inflamed skin while sparing users from the familiar sting that so many people have come to expect when they try a new mist. The bottle looks intentional rather than rushed, which is refreshing to see in a sector where packaging sometimes feels like an afterthought.
Some beauty companies favor a more focused approach, which often feels more trustworthy than the “let’s release something new every week” cycle. Laney Crowell, who founded Saie, told The Industry that she keeps the lineup small so the brand can maintain stricter standards for formulations and packaging.
“I founded Saie in 2019, to set a new industry standard with high-performance formulas, sustainable packaging and practices, and a promise to create positive change.” – Laney Crowell for The Industry
Image from @saiebeauty
Her Glowy Super Gel is far from the sparkly, sticky primers we tolerated in the past. It merges performance, environmental awareness, and user-friendliness, which is quite a feat in a market dominated by brands that rely on minimalist aesthetics rather than substantial transparency. Marketing experts interviewed by Business of Fashion have pointed out that some companies get away with a quick leaf motif and soft focus on the box, a tactic referred to as greenwashing because it substitutes vague impressions for verifiable data. In beauty, greenwashing thrives on ambiguity—terms like “natural” and “clean” are often unregulated, allowing brands to appear eco-conscious without making measurable changes to their formulas, sourcing, or supply chains. It’s marketing that gestures toward sustainability while rarely being held accountable for the details.
Kosas is another standout in this arena. It blends skincare-centric ingredients with makeup that feels designed for real life, rather than a photo shoot. Founder Sheena Zadeh-Daly crafted products like the Revealer Concealer to include niacinamide, caffeine, and arnica, but the real highlight is how naturally it blends and wears.
Kosas also mentions that its packaging can be recycled in many areas—thanks to its use of mono-material components, PET bottles, and glass where possible, all of which are more likely to be accepted by municipal recycling programs—though it does not parade that as the sole reason to love the brand.
Clean beauty does not deliver an overnight moral awakening, but it does encourage people to think twice about what products they use on their skin and where those empty bottles eventually go. In a January 2021 interview with Forbes, Katherine Power, founder of Merit, revealed that she removed several well-known irritants from Merit’s formulas to create products suitable for sensitive skin. She emphasized that the brand is “taking a holistic approach to clean,” focusing on both the ingredients and the packaging to ensure safety and sustainability.
“We’ve eliminated things like artificial fragrances, parabens, sulfates, and phthalates.” – Katherine Power for Forbes
Courtesy of Merit
She also chose to limit how many products the company releases, including the Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick, which combines foundation and concealer in a single formula to cut down on clutter (and potentially reduce how many half-used products end up in landfills).
A handful of companies are trying refill programs, ethically harvested materials, and sustainable packaging that will not sit in a landfill for centuries. Others are banking on the hope that the word “clean” still has enough sparkle to dazzle shoppers who are not looking too closely. Either way, the movement has forced the industry to pay attention to what it sells and how it advertises, which could be the push needed to shape a future where transparency and integrity matter as much as pretty labels.
