Story written by Nicole Villanueva

We have all heard that healthy skin starts from within. While this can be true, many have also turned to skincare to aid in achieving healthy looking skin.

Clean skin care has recently become more of a want among consumers. The packaging of a product, however, can be misleading. When we read “free of” it can distracts us from wanting to read any further because we assume it is completely clean.

The FDA is not obligated to approve beauty products before they reach the stores. Lauren Sucher, a press officer for the FDA confirmed this in TODAY Style in 2016. It is up to us, as consumers, to understand what we are putting on our skin.

The back of the packaging can contain a lot of vital information. Symbols and stamps like NON GMO, USDA Organic, and EWG means they’ve been verified from various sources.

It does not necessarily indicate the product is safer but that it has passed numerous checks and guidelines.  

The clean beauty movement focuses on the safety of the products rather than the source. This is because not all natural ingredients are safe. Most clean beauty products are made without parabens, sulfates, silicones, phthalates and synthetic fragrances.

Luckily for us, our jobs to assure we are using clean products has been made easier by several companies.

Target hopes to have its new “chemical strategy” in full effect by 2020. This will promote complete ingredient transparency.

Products in beauty, personal care, household cleaning, and baby will be banned from containing phthalates formaldehyde and parabens.

Sephora has created a section fully dedicated to clean beauty on its website tagged with a green leaf signaling clean beauty.

Consumers can also view a list of what is product is formulated without under each product description online.

Our skin is our biggest organ and it is important we know the products we are putting on it.