EP53. Why Safe Beauty is the Latest Industry Buzzword You Should Ignore

Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make and sell your natural beauty formulations. We tackle topics that will make you think and encourage debate about green beauty with your friends, followers or customers. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmayer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetics formulation school Formula Botanica. We have thousands and thousands of students in over 160 countries worldwide who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website today at formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. In today's podcast episode, we're discussing safe Beauty, the latest industry buzzword. I think it's safe to say that the recent emergence of this new term, safe beauty, led to a number of outbursts, mainly from me within the Formula Botanica team, as we were fairly horrified that several industry players thought that this was a sensible way to capitalize on the COVID 19 pandemic. So that's what we'll be exploring in today's fairly controversial podcast. What is safe Beauty? Why has this term emerged when all beauty products for sale should by default be safe? And why do we at Formula Botanica feel that you should be ignoring the very concept of safe beauty? Is safe beauty even a credible term for a beauty formulation when all formulations should be safe? Or are some players simply trying to cash in on a crisis? Today I'm joined by Anna Green, Formula Botanica's Membership Coordinator, who is also a well known green beauty blogger. Welcome to the podcast, Anna.

Thanks Lorraine. Thank you for having me.

So let's start off by setting out what we understand the term safe beauty to mean before we rip it to shreds in the podc. I'll go first. So from what I understand, based on what I've been reading recently, this concept of safe beauty that people are talking about is founded on the assumption that the future of clean beauty formulations will rely on safe synthetic ingredients which may improve shelf life. And this seems to have stemmed from the line of thinking that the arrival of coronavirus will further push this notion that natural isn't always better, especially when it comes to ingredient safety and shelf life. Now, from what I've seen also, some industry players appear to believe that COVID 19 has been a catalyst towards this supposed movement of safe beauty, with brands expecting to face more pressure to convey safety and longevity and efficacy. And some people have suggested that to avoid this distrust, brands have to educate their consumers about the benefits and stability of synthetic ingredients whilst providing evidence and, you know, seals of approval and certifications that product safety is there. And then from what I've seen, there's also this further line of thinking that as consumers become more aware about viruses and germs living on surfaces, that cosmetic products packaged in ways that eliminate the need to touch your face will start to become more successful. Now, from what I've seen, I think it's worth saying that, of course, this definition of safe beauty doesn't necessarily tally with what most consumers would deem to be safe beauty, because of course, most people would think that it means the ingredients are safe for them and their bodies. So what have you seen in terms of safe beauty, Ann?

Yeah, so I think it's a very interesting definition that they've put forward. But actually we've been seeing the conversation about safe synthetics for a long time in the industry. So it's not necessarily something that is new. I think it's quite polarizing language, this sort of safe beauty category. It's quite highly emotive. So I think people will take it to mean, as you said, something that is completely free from harm and danger. And of course, we know that it's not always that clear cut in the beauty industry that, you know, what is safe for one person isn't necessarily safe for another because it is a highly individual product. So the context of safe beauty is quite interesting. Yeah. So the idea that it implies that it will have a benefit beyond what we currently have on the shelves for consumers. So it's safer than something else. It's not necessarily, I think, what is being put forward. So I think it's safe to say that we both feel quite strongly about this topic. Lorraine, shall we talk about why we think safe beauty is probably the latest industry buzzword that we should just ignore?

Yes. So I think it's worth saying up front, all beauty products should be inherently safe. I don't think anyone disputes that. And there isn't supposed to be one product that is more safe than another. And that's also not what Formula Botanica was founded on. You we're very much about the benefits of naturals rather than vilifying synthetics. And of course, you know, we've got cosmetics regulations all over the world that require all formulations to be made safely. So this concept of a global pandemic somehow forcing beauty products to become safer is completely at odds with our regulations in every single country. And of course, going on from that, you know, all beauty brands, regardless of whether they're big or small, they should Follow cosmetic good manufacturing practice. So this is sort of enshrined in best practice around the world. Every single beauty brand should follow GMP good manufacturing practice, which sets out that, you know, there are sets of processes and systems and requirements that you embed in your operations to make sure that the products you make are safe, safe in terms of how you store the ingredients, how you manufacture, safe in terms of everything you do from start to finish. And this is the absolute minimum requirement. So this concept of there suddenly being a movement towards something that's inherently safer is, as I said, completely at odds with the regulations. I think it's also worth pointing out that clean and natural and safe, these terms aren't mutually exclusive. You can still have a natural formulation that is safe. You can still have a clean formulation that is safe. And I think the question really is, what does clean beauty mean? And we recorded a podcast on this several months ago where we redefined this concept of clean beauty. And I really do encourage everyone to go and listen to it again because, you know, clean beauty effectively is also hygienic beauty. If you go to the thesaurus and you look up the word clean, you will literally see the word hygienic in front of you. And clean beauty should also be made under good manufacturing practice conditions, which as I said, is the baseline default. It should be compliant with ISO standards in terms of good manufacturing practice. It should be properly and fully tested and it should be made by a formulator who is proud of preservation. So I think when you put those things together, I think this whole concept of there being this latest industry buzzword around safe beauty, it's just a non issue. We shouldn't even be talking about it.

I absolutely agree. And I think it's worth mentioning as well that like you said, that rules and regulations exist around the world. They do vary from country to country, which I think is confusing for consumers. And I think the industry does play on that sometimes as well. But as a whole, the industry is regulated for safety and it's an ongoing process. So those processes will be reviewed and changed as we get new information about ingredients. And as new ingredients emerge, you know, they get swapped over sometimes in formulations.

Yeah. Do you think the COVID 19 pandemic has given us cause to create a whole new beauty segment then?

No, absolutely not. We do not need a whole new beauty segment. We don't need any more beauty buzzwords to confuse consumers. I think consumers are already confused enough in the beauty space. In fact, what I think people really need in a COVID Pandemic is for the industry to be reassuring and they need to see some unity from the industry rather than trying to sort of play segments of the industry off against each other. I think we've had enough of that already. Yes, we've seen some wonderful initiatives from the industry during the COVID 19 pandemic, such as lots of beauty brands donating to key workers to ensure that they've got products and, you know, brands that didn't previously make hand sanitisers, for example, putting their resources into creating something that is in demand. And I think that's wonderful. The industry should be proud of and highlight the some of the amazing products in the hand care category that, you know, should shine in this moment. But we don't need a new beauty category for that to happen.

Yeah, I completely agree with you. Absolutely. We don't need more confusion for consumers.

So why do you think some of the industry players are trying to shift us from natural clean beauty to this category of safe beauty?

I've been thinking about this quite a lot and I found it fascinating to watch some fairly big players try to claim that the conversation is shifting from natural and clean to safe when that doesn't seem to be what the statistics are telling us. Now, I looked at Mintel, who've also been talking about safe beauty recently, and they said that 1 in 10 people feel that clean beauty products expire too quickly. But that suggests that the overwhelming majority of people, that is 90%, feel that clean beauty is the way forward and that they can work with the shorter expiry dates that you get from natural ingredients. And the other thing that we've seen during lockdown and this pandemic is that wellness has become a lot more important. And in fact, I saw some data from the US the other day that said that sales of health and beauty products rose an impressive 13% over the last 12 weeks of this pandemic. We're recording this at the moment in June. And you know, if you compare that to the same period in 2019, that's a significant increase. And they seem to think that these soaring e commerce sales have come from people investing in self care during lockdown. Lockdown. So rather than going for safe beauty, people have been going for wellness and self care. So I find it really interesting that people are talking about this safe beauty segment when actually it seems to totally be missing the point and not reading the room at all. Now there's been a lot of anger and upset about this concept of clean beauty over the years and that's of course because the opposite of clean implies that mainstream cosmetics are dirty. And as I said earlier, that's not what Formula Botanica stands for. It's not what we believe. And the point is that many people seem to have missed that. Clean beauty effectively embraces this concept of wellness as well as safety. In fact, our philosophy for clean beauty encompasses four main points. So the first one is that we bring together these concepts of beauty and well being, even though that is at odds with the cosmetics, claims and regulations that are out there. Because of course, beauty is for the outside of the skin. It isn't there to work as a pharmaceutical product or to have a profound impact on your health. But nonetheless, that's how consumers view it. So beauty and well being need to be brought together a little bit more. And the concept of clean beauty does that. We also feel that clean beauty means transparency and ethics are brought to the forefront in this conversation about what a formulation is. Clean should also be clean for the planet as well as for people. So also brings in this concept of green beauty. And finally, as I said earlier, clean beauty products should be safely and hygienically made. So in effect, clean beauty is safe beauty. Which is why I find it so frustrating to see this conversation around safe beauty. Because, you know, clean beauty should be safe beauty, natural beauty should be safe beauty, synthetic beauty should be safe beauty, whatever you want to call it, everything should be safe. So I understand, and I think it's worth pointing out that you've obviously been blogging for many, many years, Anna, and you've received a lot of questions about safety, beauty over the years. So can you tell us a little bit more about the questions you've received from people?

Yes, I've had lots and lots of questions over the years. And what people will tend to do is they'll ask my advice, product recommendations, and I'll get a question, something like, well, can you recommend a clean conditioner or a moisturizer with no nasties? And people tend to latch on to these marketing terms and these marketing buzzwords that are used. And of course, we know that the conversation around safety is often more nuanced than that. So I have to unpick what the consumer is actually asking me, what people actually want in their recommendations. And I have to sort of say to them, well, what hair type do you have? You know, what is clean meaning to you? What's important to you about this concept of clean? What do you want your moisturizer to do on your skin? Basic questions like that. What is your budget, where you want to shop. And I keep trying to bring people back and away from the buzzwords and to this idea of efficacy and individuality. We are all individuals, and there are so many products on the market that people can choose from that if there is something that is particularly important to them, if they want to avoid, you know, microplastics, for example, or, you know, animal testing is something that they feel really strongly about, and they want somebody who has certified their product as not animal tested. All of those things are available to people to buy, but you have to bring people away from the buzzwords and down to the actual detail of what people want. And it's not often easy to do. Often it takes quite a few different questions to get a real idea of what people are after.

Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think, you know, people are looking for guidance on what to do. And coming back to the point, which I completely agree with, that you made earlier, you know, this concept of bringing all these new buzzwords in is just going to cause more confusion. Now is the time for people to really, truly understand what goes into their beauty products, regardless of whether it is natural, clean or safe.

Absolutely. I think the industry has a lot of work to do in terms of education. I don't think we need more words to do that. And I think often the industry creates words for itself rather than for consumers. Just my personal opinion on it, but we've seen that there is enough terms out there already. What we need to be doing is clarifying what we mean by those terms and what that means for the consumer at the point of sale. So do you think there actually will be a consumer shift to safe beauty?

I don't think so. And I really do feel that the people who've been talking about safe beauty over the last couple of weeks have really missed the trick. And as I said, they're not reading the room. I think this idea that consumer perspective will shift from clean to safe, I just totally disagree with this. I think actually consumer opinion is shifting towards sustainability. I mean, we've seen these conversations throughout lockdown and throughout the pandemic, where people are saying, I hope we emerge from this with a new normal, a greener society. Let's use this opportunity where we haven't been flying and we haven't been traveling and we haven't been consuming quite so much to actually reevaluate how we live and how we work and how we consume products. And I think the beauty industry is going to start seeing more and more people talking about sustainability, you know, talking about the ingredients that have the potential to harm the environment, the choices of packaging that are out there, the fact that we consume vast quantities of beauty products that maybe we don't need and you know, low consumption beauty is something I've been talking about quite a lot on my my own personal channel and I think this is where the consumer opinion is going to start going. So no, I don't feel that we're going to see a shift towards safe beauty also because I think consumers feel they've already shifted to safe beauty by embracing naturals and this concept of clean beauty. So yeah, I feel that some people aren't reading the room quite right at the moment because as I said right at the beginning of this podcast, all beauty is safe beauty and we should celebrate that and be proud of that rather than trying to polarize the industry further, as you just said.

Absolutely. I totally agree.

So I hope that you've enjoyed listening to our discussion about why safe beauty is the latest industry buzzword you should ignore. Thank you for all your input into the conversation, Anna. Lovely to have you on the podcast again.

Lovely to talk to you.

Thank you to Anna for joining me on our latest podcast. I hope this episode has fired you up to come and tell us on our social channels what you think. Do you think that safe beauty is is a credible term? Or are some industry players simply trying to play on people's fears? Would you buy a formulation labeled as safe? Is that even legal? Or do we as consumers simply expect all beauty products to be inherently safe? And do you agree with us that safe beauty is the latest industry buzzword we should all resolutely ignore and move on from? I would also encourage you to listen to one of our previous Green Beauty Conversations podcasts in which redefined the term clean beauty. So please do join the discussion and leave us a comment on our social channels to tell us what you think of safe beauty. The Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you, so come and tell us your views. Thank you for joining Anna and I for this latest podcast episode of Green Beauty Conversations where we look at the term safe beauty and we talk about why we think think it's a ridiculous concept. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on itunes or Spotify and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest or LinkedIn. We are everywhere. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today.