I’m not big on certifications (not looking at Organic, cough, cough, or anything …). However, in the dirty-hippie aka clean beauty movement, the widely-recognized authority has always been the Environmental Working Group, so when they release a cert, it’s worth mentioning. (Also worth mentioning: I do NOT agree with all of the EWG’s positions or opinions. I do think they are great to use as a benchmark and information in your clean beauty journey).
The EWG VERIFIED™ program now features 833 personal care and cosmetics products under 52 brands; 120+ of them are already available in stories with the mark on the packaging.
Refresher course in why go clean beauty: cosmetics chemicals are designed to penetrate the skin’s inner layers, so you’re mainlining chemicals in. If the ingredients are endocrine disruptors or known carcinogens, you’re giving them direct access to your body. The average woman uses 12 products that contain 168 different ingredients every day; the average man, six products with 85 unique ingredients.
Products bearing the new EWG Verified mark must score in the “green” range, which comes from a combined hazard (concern) rating that reflects known and suspected hazards, while synthesizing the data availability rating that captures the incompleteness of our knowledge of ingredients or effects or both. The products must be free of substances that EWG has put on its “unacceptable” list and meet limits for chemicals on EWG’s “restricted” list. More info on those ingredients and limits here.
Ken Cook, EWG president and co-founder, says: “There are dozens of product choices in every category, long lists of chemical ingredients to study, and market claims designed more to soothe and spin than to inform. EWG VERIFIED™ is the wilderness guide that shopper has been waiting for.”
For more on my own clean beauty journey, here’s that first post.