Decoding clean, plant-based, vegan, and organic beauty products

The term ‘Clean Beauty’ has managed to create quite a buzz in the beauty industry. At a broader level, clean beauty refers to products that are devoid of harmful chemicals and ingredients that cause harm to your skin and body.

There has been a lot of chatter about clean beauty as it encourages people to be more gentle and caring towards their skin by avoiding products with harsh chemicals and ingredients that can cause skin irritation and other health concerns.

The marketing done by clean beauty brands on various social media platforms with the help of influencers has helped in creating the buzz among conscious consumers led by millennials and GenZ. Up to 60% of products we apply to our skin get absorbed. Therefore, it is but an obvious switch to clean beauty for many consumers.

Along with clean beauty, there are few other keywords that have also been in the news--plant-based, vegan, and organic. While there are similarities among these, they are not the same. Read on as we decode clean beauty, plant-based beauty, vegan beauty, and organic beauty.

Clean beauty

Being an umbrella term, clean beauty can be debated based on the ingredients used in developing a beauty product. Clean beauty is something that never compromises with ingredients. It completely avoids ingredients like sulphates, parabens, phthalates, etc., that cause health hazards like skin irritation, cancer, and hormonal imbalance.

The focus of clean beauty is on providing transparency in the labelling and sourcing of ingredients. They prioritise using cruelty-free and toxic-free ingredients. However, clean beauty does not require the ingredients to be vegan or plant-based. They can use non-vegan ingredients as long as they are safe for the skin and ethically sourced.

Due to the lack of strict regulations, beauty brands use buzzwords like eco-friendly, and natural to garner the attention of consumers and this can sometimes be misleading.

Clean beauty shouldn’t contain any dubious or mysterious ingredients, it must be simple. Although clean beauty is synonymous with non-toxic beauty, it doesn’t have to be plant-based, vegan, or organic.

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Plant-based beauty

Plant-based beauty promotes the usage of plants as much as possible and avoids the usage of animal-based ingredients that cause harm to the animals. Plant-based beauty products focus on providing the best ingredients derived from herbs, plants and other botanicals to provide effective beauty products. They usually contain active ingredients that penetrate the skin to make it healthier.

Vegan beauty

Essentially, vegan beauty is something that promotes beauty products made without any animal-based ingredients or animal by-products. While most vegan ingredients are extracted from plants, some can be developed in labs by mixing plant ingredients and chemicals.

Plant-based beauty products and vegan beauty products are usually interchangeably used. However, they are different from each other. While plant-based beauty products avoid animal-based ingredients that involve animal slaughter or cruelty towards animals, vegan products avoid all types of animal-based ingredients. Plant-based beauty products use naturally occurring ingredients (or extracts) and avoid the usage of any artificial ingredients, while vegan beauty products may contain artificial ingredients that are created in labs (healthy ingredients that do not harm skin).

Organic beauty

Organic beauty promotes products that are manufactured by using ingredients grown organically without using artificial pesticides and fertilisers. Organic ingredients are not only plant-based, they can also include animal by-products. These ingredients are cultivated in a way that will benefit the soil and ecosystem to make the product more sustainable for the earth. Organic beauty products have long-term skin benefits as the ingredients are manufactured without the use of adulterated and heavy chemicals.

Clean, plant-based beauty

Combining the best of clean and plant-based, these beauty products offer a host of benefits. They contain active ingredients or bio-actives that provide high levels of efficacy while being gentle on the skin and planet.

For eg: Serums with phyto-retinol or plant-based retinol are a great option as it provides better anti-ageing benefits. Choosing clean, plant-based beauty products instead of toxic products is a great initiative toward opting for a skin-friendly and environment-friendly alternative.

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Conclusion

Owing to the lack of regulation in the beauty industry, terms like clean, plant-based, vegan, and organic are vaguely used in some beauty products. While choosing a beauty product, always make it a point to read the labels and specific claims offered by the product. Also, keep in mind to choose a product that suits your skin type, irrespective of whether it is clean, plant-based or not.