LOOKING GOOD
COMING CLEAN
ABOUT GREEN BEAUTY A N D G RO O M I N G P RO D U C T S
(and organic and natural and botanical and eco-friendly and…) By Adriana Ermter
Clean. It’s the buzzy cosmetics category and shopping label applied to lotions, shaving items, deodorants, makeup, shampoos and other products deemed healthy and safe to apply from head to toe. Yet, never has a five-letter word been so simultaneously popular and confusing. With many definitions, connotations and interpretations within the $60 billion beauty and grooming industry, it’s easy to wonder: what does clean actually mean?
MARCH / APRIL 2021
“It’s a catch-all term that can refer to a broad range of approaches for skincare brands,” explains Bill Baker, the president and founder of Consonant Skin+Care, a natural skincare company based in Toronto. “Formulations of green beauty brands can be everything from 100 per cent natural to not very natural at all, but clean. The problem with these descriptors in the beauty industry is that none of the terms are regulated. Each brand determines if their products are clean or natural or green, and that puts the burden on consumers to really understand how to read packaging so they know exactly what they’re buying.”
[women’s consumer] publications like US Vogue. That’s when the idea of all-natural, luxury lines started to take over the beauty space.” Pioneers like 100-year-old Weleda, 50-year-old Dr. Hauschka, 40-year-old Neal Yard Remedies and 26-year-old Lush brands, which had previously owned the once small and under-tapped botanical, natural and organic skincare space, were suddenly being joined by handfuls of new, clean, indie brands. And their numbers increased with each passing year. In 2019, the clean beauty and grooming category hit an all-time high with, according to the US-based market research firm NPD Group, a 39 per cent growth in the industry, earning approximately $22 billion per year. Current favourites like Tata Harper, goop, Drunk Elephant, Tatcha, SheaMoisture, Ilia Beauty, Bulldog and Province Apothecary, to name a few, are often credited with this seemingly overnight explosion. Their presence and domination on Instagram with its e-commerce sales has transformed them into household names, each one boasting upwards of five- to six-digit followers and counting, despite an ever-fluctuating market.
In the 1950s and ’60s, understanding what you were buying was fairly straightforward. Products such as Cheer laundry detergent, “Social media has helped level the playing field for these smaller Pepsodent toothpaste and Brillo Soap Pads used ‘clean’ as a literal indie brands, giving them the means to reach a larger audience,” descriptor in conjunction with the product’s function: to create affirms Bilodeau, an audience made primarily of Millennials and a pristine, spotless outcome. Advertisements, while sometimes Generations Z and Alpha. Renowned for their belief in purposeful goofy, typically left no room for interpretation courtesy of clear product consumption, this demographic – as noted by global messaging like, “Tide’s got what women want! No soap – no other digital measurement and engagement platform Khoros – is the ‘suds’ – no other washing product known – will get your wash as largest consumer of Instagram complete with its click-and-buy clean as Tide!” Or how about Spic and Span’s promise to make capabilities. Of the one million people worldwide consuming “Spring cleaning magic!” while Kolynos Dental Cream “Cleans Instagram each month, 51 per cent are women, 67 per cent are in between.” ages 18 to 29, 47 per cent are ages 30 to 49, and 60 per cent of each household has an annual income of US$100,000 per year. During the early ’70s, however, the meaning behind a product being called clean shifted. No longer simply aligned with hygiene and homecare or even the hippy-dippy, patchouli-rich creams and fragrances favoured in the ’60s, clean was getting an upgrade. For example, bigwig beauty brand CoverGirl, with their “Clean Make-up” line of foundations and powders, defined clean as interchangeable with healthy, natural and fresh-looking skin, and they ran print ads featuring clear-complexioned models Lotte Dessau, Daniela and Cybill Shepherd to validate these claims. And just like that, the label stuck and a new marketing category for subsequent feel-good, do-good beauty products was born. “Green or clean beauty has always been around – most people can remember looking at all-natural skincare and makeup at the health food store,” affirms Michelle Bilodeau, a writer, editor, and creator and curator of The Eco Edit.com on Instagram. “But the current wave of green/clean beauty started just over 10 years ago, when Tata Harper founded her namesake line and was featured in major 6
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