Green beauty today means much more than whipping up a fresh avocado mask in your kitchen.
From shampoo to cosmetics, toothpaste to body lotion, products are increasingly available that focus more on plant-based ingredients than harsh chemicals or materials considered dangerous in skin care, such as talc and lead.
Close to 30 percent of all beauty products launched in the U.S. last year were labeled organic, ethical or natural, up from 23 percent in 2007, according to Mintel Beauty Innovations, which tracks sales of beauty and personal-care products.
“Green beauty is not a trend, it’s a lifestyle,” says Rona Berg, editor of Organic Beauty, a new bimonthly magazine. She says green beauty is a $7 billion industry, and growing.
“There’s a lot going on to support what we’re doing. People are more interested than ever in the environment and the economy,” Berg says. “We’re buying less but reading labels more. We want to look good, but also want to streamline our beauty regimens and do it in a way that’s healthy.”
Consumers also are supporting companies that produce cosmetics in environmentally friendly ways, such as Aveda’s wind power efforts in Minnesota; and those that donate to such groups as 1% for the Planet, an organization of businesses committed to environmental causes.
Organic Beauty is geared to women ages 25-65, “mothers, daughters, grandmothers,” said Berg, a former beauty editor of the New York Times magazine and author of two beauty books. “Beauty can be an intimidating subject to begin with, so what we’re trying to do is help readers incorporate aspects of green beauty into their lives to the extent that they’re comfortable.”
Going green with a beauty routine is neither as difficult or expensive as some women might think, she said.
“I would never say to toss everything and start over. The idea is to prioritize, and maybe start with something like a moisturizer that is going to sit on your face all day,” Berg said.
Look for products that don’t contain parabens, which have been linked to allergies, organ-system toxicity and irritations of the eyes and skin.
Other things to look at are ingredients you might be inhaling, such as talc. “It can stick in your lungs,” Berg says.
“The idea with all these products is to stop, think about it, educate yourself and prioritize,” she said.
Some women are also revisiting the late 1960s by making their own beauty products.
“We’re in a very crafty moment, but not everyone will be mashing avocados and whipping up bath salts and face masks. There are very stylish and effective natural products out there, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
She recommends looking for “multitaskers,” things that do multiple jobs. It might be an eyeshadow, highlighter and lip gloss all in one package, or an oil that can be used on hair, nails and body.
Economics also comes into play when considering that some natural products are concentrated. With sulfate-free shampoo, a smaller amount is needed per use than with mass-market cleansers, Berg says.
And consumers don’t need to worry that green products will spoil more readily, Berg says. “Advances in green chemistry are growing by leaps and bounds. The products are gentler and cleaner, but still do the job.”
Consumers are also finding a wider array of green beauty tools, such as the EcoTools line of brushes made with synthetic bristles, bamboo handles and recycled aluminum cases. The line also includes such products as cotton cleansing sponges infused with soybean oil, bamboo powder puffs and reusable pouches used as packaging, all at such mass retailers as Walgreens and sell for $10 or less.
Speaking of packaging, all the cardboard and excess plastic that goes into wrapping some luxury skin-care items is raising the environmental hackles of industry experts like Allure magazine’s Linda Wells. She devoted a recent editor’s letter to the topic.
While testing hundreds of products for the beauty publication’s Best of Beauty issue, she accumulated mountains of trash and told readers, “The packaging of expensive beauty products has gotten out of control. Some cosmetics companies seem to believe that all these layers relate a sense of luxury, that they make the product look precious . . . but that idea is passe.”
Wells said she recycled the materials, but still was uneasy. “There are a lot of brands out there that have come up with great design solutions,” Wells said in a follow-up phone call.
She would like to see more companies follow the example of Malin+ Goetz and Kiehl’s and put all the information customers need right on the bottle, which can be recycled when empty.
As for the growth of green products, Wells is more circumspect. Allure had a “green” category in its “Best of” issue, but the editor doesn’t see the trend taking over the industry. “I think women are looking for it, yes. But the key thing is, does (the product) perform as well as its synthetic counterpart? People might be willing to give up a little performance, for example, in shampoo, where lather isn’t crucial to cleaning. But I don’t think the majority of women are ready to give up the efficacy of anti-aging ingredients” if the organic or natural ingredients don’t produce the same results.
For the same reason, Dr. Andrew Weil says he hasn’t insisted his line of plant- and herb-based skin care products for Origins be organic.
“The closer things are to being all natural or organic, the better,” he says, adding that in the end, people have to see “real benefits” or they won’t buy.
Suzanne S. Brown: 303-954-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com
Why go green?
Most Americans go blithely about their grooming routines each day, using an average of nine separate products with 126 chemical ingredients, according to Skin Deep, the online cosmetics safety database created by the Environmental Working Group. Products are not required to be tested by the Food and Drug Administration before they go on the market.
So consumers can make informed decisions about what to buy and what to avoid, has information and safety reports on more than 41,000 personal care products. You’ll find, for example, that many mass-market toothpastes rank 5 on a scale of 1-10, 1 being safest, 10 most hazardous to your health. The ingredient getting the bad rap is sodium fluoride, which EWG says is linked to cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, endocrine-system disruption, organ-system toxicity and irritation of skin, eyes or lungs, among other things.
Green beauty on the Web
