Resources for Curious Consumers: A Masterlist of Fact-checking

EWG, or Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit organization that, “specializes in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and corporate accountability. In terms of beauty and personal care products, EWG has their Skin Deep database which allows consumers to search over 70,000 products and 9,000 ingredients to determine the toxicity level of their everyday products. Because of the lack of industry regulations of language used in labeling, EWG’s Skin Deep provides behind the scenes insight that brands might be trying to cover up. Link to database here: https://www.ewg.org/skindeep

Similarly, is the app called Think Dirty. Think Dirty was developed with the same purpose in mind: to provide accurate and easy to understand information about the potential toxicity of beauty and personal care products. While EWG covers a larger majority of products, Think Dirty focuses on cosmetic and personal care products. While EWG is primarily focused to be used within a search engine, Think Dirty is its own app. Although you can use the app to search individual products or ingredients, the interface has been adapted to be even more consumer friendly. The user can scan the barcode of their product and within seconds get all the information necessary to make purchase decisions. When Think Dirty launched in the summer of 2013, there were about 68,000 products listed in their database. Today, Think Dirty claims to cover 4,200 brands, 1.1 million products, and 19.8 million unique scans. The service is constantly updating and adding new products and ingredients daily, making it an industry leader in providing consumers the information that otherwise might be difficult and time consuming to search for.

For makeup lovers in particular, in 2018, Sephora launched Clean at Sephora- a masterlist of all the certified “clean” products that they have to offer. Unlike EWG or Think Dirty, Sephora created its own seal of certification. This seal communicates to the consumer that, “the brand formulated without sulfates, parabens, formaldehydes, formaldehyde-releasing agents, phthalates, mineral oil, retinyl palmitate, oxybenzone, coal tar, hydroquinone, triclosan, and triclocarban. For a full list of excluded ingredients, check out the Clean at Sephora homepage here: https://www.sephora.com/beauty/clean-beauty-products. Personally, I think this method of information search is one of the most effective for the consumer. Not only does Sephora offer the online navigation of their “clean” products, but products that fall under these conditions are clearly labeled within retail locations as well. Although ultimately purchasing products through Sephora is probably not the most sustainable choice, Clean at Sephora at the very least starts to bridge the gap and inform consumers that this is something they should and need to be paying attention to.

Although EWG, Think Dirty, and Clean at Sephora might be the most popular information sources for consumers to research their products and their ingredients, Amazon remains one of the top retailers for all beauty and personal care products across the board. In response to recent allegations against Amazon for overlooking several ethical business practices throughout the company, they have released their Restricted Substance List (https://d39w7f4ix9f5s9.cloudfront.net/f6/96/d5fe59c0473bb808d328b1df6320/amazon-restricted-substance-list.pdf) and have made claims of working towards providing a smoother shopping process by providing private-label consumer products to be available and easily accessible information about the ingredients of the products themselves. However, when I searched for an Amazon private label branded product, I failed to find a full ingredients list for the product. Not listed on the back of the bottle, nowhere on the product page of Amazon, and even after a Google search of, “Ingredients of Amazon Brand - Solimo Liquid Hand Soap Refill, Mango and Coconut Water, 56 Fluid Ounce,” the only search results that came up were rerouting links back to the product page. If Amazon is making it this difficult to find a full ingredients list of one of their own products, how is an everyday consumer supposed to be able to trust the brand to be truthful about their product safety claims?

The greenwashing of the beauty and personal care products industries has exploded within the last few years. As consumers are becoming increasingly more educated, the demand for eco-friendly and sustainable products as reflected those same trends. If you’re even slightly curious of the ingredients of your products, I can only encourage you to keep digging deeper and to never stop asking questions.

The summer before my senior year of college I was taught something I’ll never forget- vote with your wallet. Every time you make a purchase, you are endorsing the product, the brand, and the manufacturing process behind it. If you’re passionate about challenging unethical business practices, the best way to get your voice heard is to practice what you believe. Do your research and purchase from brands who are not only vocal about their sustainable business practices, but are continually adapting to change and adjusting their manufacturing and supply chain process.

Along with the resources mentioned in this post, here are a few more links to help you in your search of accurate information and safety of the products you use on a daily basis:

• NPA Illustrative List

• Whole Foods list

• COSMOS Natural certifications

• REACH SIN List

• Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Red list

• BASF Ingredient Insider