Clarity Is Needed in the Clean Beauty Discussion

Deciem has been a rising star in the beauty world since its launch in 2013. With its secondary moniker as “The Abnormal Beauty Company,” it was an industry disruptor. Its lead brand, The Ordinary, for instance, generated a cult following among consumers who were drawn to the brand’s affordably priced products and utilitarian approach to packaging and “familiar, effective clinical technologies.”
 
Weathering its own corporate drama, Deciem has been growing rapidly. Net sales last year were $460 million.
 
Deciem’s success caught the attention of competitors, including Estée Lauder, which earlier this year became the majority owner of the Canadian company, having held a 29% stake since 2017. 

A big part of the Deciem’s success can also be traced to authenticity and transparency—concepts that the company’s late Founder Brandon Truaxe said were lacking in the category—and its straightforward approach to engaging consumers about the beauty products they were putting on their skin.
 
More consumers have been fishing for information about cosmetic ingredients, but the waters have grown increasingly murky. So many sources—and not all of them accurate—can be found and searched on the internet. To this end, Deciem released its “Everything is Chemicals” campaign, which was designed bring awareness to the fear-mongering associated with some ingredients in the cosmetics industry.


 
More recently, Deciem’s in-house cosmetic chemists worked with Spate to produce a report that analyzed more than 200 billion searches across the beauty and ingredient categories within the US. 
 
The report puts data behind the concerns consumers associate with skin care ingredients.
 
The Spate report shows that some key ingredients from the chemist’s toolkit are being searched along with keywords like “toxic” or “safe.” For example, there was a 36% increase YOY in search of “retinol + safe” and 14% increase in “zinc + toxic.” Spate reported a 29.2% increase YOY for “hyaluronic acid + safe.” 

 
Happi asked Deciem’s Chief Scientific Officer Prudvi Kaka about the report, and what can be done to better inform consumers about skin care ingredients.
 
HAPPI: Working with Spate, your brand was able to get some more detail on how much consumers know/don’t know about ingredients and safety in beauty. What surprised you the most when looking at the data? 
 
Kaka: Deciem has always been a company that’s taken pride in providing consumer education that’s digestible and backed by scientific peer-reviewed research. When looking at the initial trend report Spate had provided us, it was shocking to see ingredients (hyaluronic acid, zinc, retinol, phenoxyethanol) that we use in our products to be searched alongside keywords such as “toxic” and “safe.” With the amount of regulation that’s put in place for cosmetics, it’s clear to anyone working within the science side of the skin care industry that these ingredients are indeed safe to use. With that being said, the lack of peer-reviewed articles that provided answers to these search queries simply gave our scientific communications team a further reason to address any misinformation we found. 
 
HAPPI:  In terms of ingredients that have proven benefits or a history of safety that’s documented but still have some level of concern from the consumer perspective, is consumer education a must? 
 
Kaka: While consumer education may not have been at the forefront of the skin care industry a few years ago, the same cannot be said in 2021! With so many resources available (whether they are reliable or not is a different question) to consumers nowadays, it’s extremely important to provide information to consumers that has been peer-reviewed rather than cherry-picked and based on anecdotal evidence. 
 
This is why we have launched our “Everything is Chemicals” campaign led by members of our scientific communications team! Our goal with “Everything Is Chemicals” is to bring awareness to the fear-mongering associated with some ingredients in the cosmetics industry, and how it can be demystified by understanding the chemistry of everything that surrounds us, as well as providing the basics behind toxicology, and the regulations that are put in place to ensure consumer safety. 
 
HAPPI: Have beauty brands failed to communicate ingredient safety effectively?
 
Kaka: There are definitely beauty brands out there that base their marketing off of ‘’fear-mongering’’ of some ingredients. One consistency we find with “clean beauty” brands that fail to communicate whether or not an ingredient is safe is the use of the term “free-from.” While this term is useful for those who have allergies or sensitivities to certain ingredients (like fragrances), it perpetuates the thought that any ingredient that a product is “free-from” will be harmful to us. Oftentimes, “free-from” lists are devised without considering real-life risks of the ingredient, following instead a hazard-based approach that does more for propagating fear than ensuring consumer safety; toxicology basics tell that whether a compound will be a risk to us or not depends not only on potential hazards it may impose, but also our exposure to the compound (time, frequency and mode of exposure are all extremely important, and taken into consideration  when assessing product safety). For example, we all know swimming amongst sharks can be hazardous, but sharks are not a risk for people walking on land. Similarly, an ingredient that is hazardous when ingested may be absolutely safe when applied topically. 
 
It should also be said that the term “clean beauty” in itself is an unregulated term —meaning it does not have an official definition with each brand interpreting “clean beauty” as they see fit. 
 
At Deciem, we believe that whether an ingredient is safe or not should be guided by skilled toxicologists and scientific committees, in collaboration with regulatory bodies that were created to ensure consumer safety. 
 
HAPPI: Is there ever a time to throw in the towel so to speak and seek an alternative ingredient? For example: parabens. Consumers simply don’t want them in their products, yet many scientists will boast about their safety profile.
 
Kaka: Before throwing in the towel on any ingredient, we will provide science-backed, repeatable, experimental evidence to educate consumers. We do not believe that seeking an alternative ingredient should become an option unless there has been extensive research and evidence showing that an ingredient is indeed harmful to our bodies (whether it be short-term or long-term), the environment, or animals. As such, we will continue using ingredients we believe to be safe for the consumers, as long as they are backed by scientific evidence. 
 
With regards to parabens specifically, at Deciem, we do not use parabens simply due to consumer demand. However, we stand with the opinion that parabens are indeed safe to use within cosmetics. As a preservative, specific parabens have been widely studied and deemed safe for daily use in topical applications in specific concentrations. It should also be said that any cosmetic product that says “preservative-free” is not as safe as one may think. Preservatives are necessary for many everyday household items including food, cosmetics and even pharmaceuticals, as they act to prevent the growth of harmful yeast, mold, and bacteria that can lead to infections. 
 
While we cannot make each and every consumer believe that an ingredient is safe, we can empower consumers with the confidence to make their own decisions about the products and ingredients that they decide to use!