WHAT DOES CLEAN EVEN MEAN?

Can a non-natural brand like The Ordinary be deemed as clean?
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This is how we see it:
?”Clean Beauty” and “Natural Beauty” to us, are two different things. A bit like how organic and natural aren’t one in the same, but often get mixed up.
?100% Natural Beauty in our eyes is when every single ingredient in the formulation is natural, or naturally derived, and no synthetic ingredients are present (this in itself could warrant a debate as there are things like nature identical ingredients that confuse things. formulabotanica did a great podcast on this topic).
?Clean Beauty to us is safe and effective formulations using only ingredients that have a skin benefit purpose, without being harmful or pointless. We understand that this is a description that’s wildly open to interpretation and this is where things get blurry.
?The way we look at it is that natural formulations are fantastic for overall skin health – a bit like eating fresh vegetables. Clean formulations are great are targeting specific skin concerns such as wrinkles or acne, a little bit like taking an asprin for a headache. Like with a healthy diet, natural ingredients will keep skin health at its best and healthy skin ultimately means less chance of aforementioned skin concerns.
?A great example of a decent clean brand is deciem with The Ordinary. The concept of taking a “clean” ingredient, albeit it natural like Marula or Rosehip, or synthetic like retinol, and delivering it to the skin in a simple and effective way, makes a lot of sense. They don’t use 100% natural ingredients, instead they choose the safest ingredient that they believe will be most effective in solving very specific skin issues.
??‍♀️We’ve both been using their Retinol, an ingredient that actually can’t be sourced naturally, to target fine lines that are creeping in around the eyes and forehead. It certainly feels like it has an effect on smoothing those specific areas.
? yahoonews