The products we put on our body matter as much as the ones we put in our body. That’s why so many cosmetic labels now include buzzwords like “clean,” “natural” or “organic.”
But unless you’re a clean beauty connoisseur, it’s hard to know why terms like “clean” or “traceable” are important when choosing the best brands and products for you.
That’s why some companies are taking steps to spell out what these terms mean for their products. That includes Artistry™, the skin care and makeup brand sold by Amway.
Setting clean beauty goals
Spurred by the goal to improve products for consumers while being conscious of environmental impact, the Artistry team created Artistry Clean Guidelines for future product launches.
The guidelines ensure consumers get the information they need to feel confident that Artistry products are safe and effective. They call for vegan formulas, pure and safe ingredients, traceability for key ingredients and better manufacturing processes, among other requirements.
“We’ve always believed that the products applied to your skin should be beneficial for you and for the world around you,” said Marisa Grossnickle, Artistry brand manager for Amway North America. “That’s why we’re setting ambitious goals to improve our product formulations and further increase our environmental stewardship.
“We will continuously monitor the latest science, regulations, and public concerns to ensure we are delivering pure, safe and effective products to you.”
The new Artistry Skin Nutrition collection follows these guidelines, and the brand is committed to follow them for all new Artistry products moving forward.
What does clean mean when it comes to beauty products?
“Clean” can mean different things to different products and brands. Are certain ingredients clean? What about certain manufacturing practices?
For beauty, clean generally means that a product is safe and has a transparent ingredient label – bonus points if the company can also trace the ingredients back to the source.
That’s important because skin care products and cosmetics can be absorbed into the bloodstream with potentially dangerous results for your health. Products applied to your skin should be beneficial for you and for the world around you.
Ingredients to put on the ‘No’ list
When searching for clean makeup and skin care, a good place to start is by being aware of what is – and is not – in your beauty products and choose ones that match your goals. One strategy is to develop a ‘No’ list to help identify ingredients that are unnecessary and harmful versus those that are safe, effective, compliant with regulations and reviewed by a toxicologist.
Trusted brands will be detailed and transparent about their ingredients. If you have to look too hard to find the information, you might want to think twice about taking it home.
Artistry has a specific Clean Beauty Ingredient No List with more than 1,300 ingredients that the brand will never use in skincare products, like lead, mercury and triclosan. The brand follows global regulatory restrictions, including the prohibited list from the European Union, which is one of the more precautionary organizations.
In addition to the lengthy list of banned ingredients, Artistry also has a list of additional ingredients it chooses not to use as part of the Artistry Clean standard moving forward, including parabens and animal-derived ingredients.
Ingredients to put on the ‘Yes’ list
Yes, clean beauty products avoid toxic and dangerous ingredients, but they also prioritize the best ingredients, both naturally derived and synthetic, to create safe, effective formulas.
Just like the definition of “clean,” that can mean different things for different brands. For the researchers at Artistry, Marisa said it means using powerful botanicals rich in plant nutrients.
The new Artistry Skin Nutrition line, for example, uses ingredients off a ‘Yes’ list of more than 50 botanicals, including white chia, spinach and pomegranate.
“When these powerful, plant-based ingredients are combined with our groundbreaking skin science, we are able to create products that deliver real, visible results,” she said.
Do you know where the ingredients came from?
That brings us to another facet of clean beauty products: traceability. Traceability is knowing where ingredients come from and how they are made. It’s the best assurance you can get of clean, safe beauty products.
The botanicals used in new Artistry products come from any of the four Nutrilite™-owned certified organic farms that supply botanicals for Nutrilite products, Amway’s vitamin and supplement brand. That means they are traceable from “seed to skin,” Marisa said.
“Every step of the way we know where and how they are grown, by whom, and how they are transformed into ingredients for Artistry Skin Nutrition products, ensuring complete integrity and the highest quality,” she said. “It’s an extraordinary level of transparency – and it’s very rare in the world of beauty.”
Registered for your peace of mind
Clean beauty standards can still be up for interpretation – so buyer beware. It’s always a good idea to seek out third party validation for brand statements and claims.
For example, the new Artistry Skin Nutrition products are not tested on animals, but you don’t have to simply take the company’s word for it. Those products are also registered with the Vegan Society.
To be registered with the Vegan Society, products must meet specific criteria assessed by a team from the Society that double checks for any potential inclusion of animal ingredients.
A continual quest for improvement
A dedication to clean beauty means it’s never ok to compromise or to stop trying to improve. Look for brands that evolve with the beauty industry and are continuously monitoring the latest science, regulations and public concerns.
The Artistry team has several ambitious goals for the future to improve product formulations and further increase environmental stewardship, including expanding the number of ingredients that are traceable, aligning more Artistry products with the Clean Beauty Ingredient No List and creating more biodegradable Artistry formulas.
Are you ready to make better beauty choices? Start looking at the labels and get ready to swap out your products for cleaner options.
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Excited to see Artistry catching up and going CLEAN. Have had to buy from competitors for several years to avoid parabens and such. Hope this continues into all products.