Last night I attended and event at STORY, a NYC pop-up concept store, about natural beauty. The event called, “Let’s Talk Natural Beauty with Well + Good!” was filled with so much insightful information from how to read beauty product ingredient labels to the connection between skin health and diet. Here are some highlights:

Panelists
• Ali Finney, Beauty Editor, Well + Good
• Tina Hedges, Founder, LOLI Beauty
• Bee Shapiro, NYT writer and Founder of Ellis Brooklyn
• Amy Galper, Educator at New York Institute of Aromatic Studies and author of the upcoming book Plant Powered Beauty

Clean doesn’t always mean safe and can be deceptive
• Just because an ingredient is natural, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe or the source it was derived from contained no toxins.
• Just because a store’s genre is “clean beauty” (ex: Credo, Whole Foods..etc) doesn’t mean all the products are clean. USDA allows for products labeled as organic to contain up to 5 percent of nonorganic materials (pesticides, food colorings..etc). In the same way a person would educate themselves about what they eat, they should also educate themselves about the ingredients on the labels of products they are using.
• The natural movement adapted by celebrities harmful and creates false expectations. Alicia Keys, who now goes makeup free, gets regular facial massages and treatments to keep her skin looking healthy, which the average person can’t afford to do.

How to read a beauty product’s ingredients label
• Amy recommended looking for a whole plant or plant derivative to be listed in the first 3-6 ingredients, as ingredients are listed in the quantity they appear in the products. The first ingredients can be 65-96 percent of the entire product.
• Loli created a graph that is used on their labeling which tells the user every single ingredient used in the product and the quantity of each.
• Tina would like to see the conversation shift away from what the product doesn’t have (ex: free of parabens, petroleum…etc), towards what it does have in it.

Future of clean beauty
• Beauty is about wellness and how we feel. There will be more of an understanding of the connection between self-care, emotional health, diet and skin care.
• Superfood organic beauty is expected to be a trend, as well as 100 percent transparent; pure and potent; and, personalization.
• Clean beauty won’t stay simple. Expect to see innovations in the formulas, delivery systems..etc.