Clean beauty: Chemicals, claims and consumers

The “clean beauty” trend, often synonymous with so-called ‘free from’ claims, is commonly associated with safety. The fact that ‘clean’ as a claim is undefined has not meant consumers limit their expectations of ‘clean’ to just a few ingredients since ‘clean’ can extend to brand policies centred around sustainability and ethics as well. Very recently some of the core aspects of ‘clean beauty’ have been indirectly introduced into the EU regulatory sphere by way of the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), which aims to better protect human health and the environment as well as boost innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals. Various initiatives and strategies connected to the CSS are already underway including cosmetics.