Two Free Guides for Making Healthy Skin Care Choices
By Mary Klest | Editor
Two Free Guides for Making Healthy Skin Care Choices.How much do you know about the skin care products you use every day? How can you make Earth-friendly, healthy skin care choices? That’s a question The British Beauty Council and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) want to offer answers for. The Council’s Planet Positive Beauty Guide – How to make greener beauty choices offers consumers insight on often used terms and what to look for when assessing ingredients, packaging, personnel practices, and sustainable sourcing. The Council’s Executive and Advisory Boards consist of industry professionals advocating for “a sustainable and equitable future” for beauty-focused businesses. They understand that consumers are looking for product information that supports, rather than hinders, the Earth and all of its inhabitants. The Guide also offers links to third party independent testing organizations that verify claims and issue certifications on skin care products.
For example, you may have wondered what the big deal was about palm oil in beauty products. The oil’s popularity generated some unsavory business practices such as deforestation and human rights abuses. To guard against these practices and give the consumer a voice through their purchasing power, third party organizations such as Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) conduct research and help ensure ethical practices through verification. That’s why all those symbols on bottles, jars and packaging are important. Here’s a link to Glamour UK magazine’s guide to product symbols meanings.
Most of the references made in the Planet Positive Beauty Guide are outside of the USA. But we have our own independent professional group mostly affiliated with laboratories and universities. It’s a team of toxicologists, chemists and epidemiologists who assess every product. Unfortunately, our government is not in the business of protecting consumers from beauty industry claims so the EWG has stepped up to do so. Especially important to skin care professionals and consumers is their Skin Deep database. It’s the only online resource where you can compare safety ratings for personal care products. EWG staff, who are predominately accredited scientists, identify product type, use, composition, and special product claims. Their mission is simple: “To empower you with breakthrough research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment.”
When you see a product with a EWG VERIFIED™ label you can rest assured that it meets strict, scientific standards for transparency and health. You can obtain a free copy of EWG’s Quick Tips for Choosing Safer Personal Care Products on their website. The site also includes an up-to-date news section with links to articles and press releases that might be hard to find on your own.
Information on healthy skin care choices is out there. The Planet Positive Beauty Guide and the EWG’s Quick Tips are just two of the resources we have found valuable. We hope this helps you find products that you feel good about purchasing. It’s your choice.