Nice To Meet You, Beautycounter!

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Introducing Beautycounter, a beauty brand leading the way in the “clean beauty” movement. In their own words, committed to making the world a healthier place complete with safer products you can trust. That’s a commitment I can get behind! We dug a little deeper to get to the bottom of the Beautycounter philosophy as well as some of it’s best products. Read on to find out more!

Here’s the thing, if you’re here and you’re reading this, you are probably already aware that there is a major issue going on with chemicals in skincare and beauty products. I use the term chemicals loosely here, because we all also know that chemicals literally make up everything, including water, and that chemicals in and of themselves are not inherently dangerous, so I’m not here to get into that debate.

For the purposes of this article I’m referring to chemicals as those additions to our beauty, skin and hair care products that really have no use being there. Those which have little to no safety data and are more or less unregulated within the larger skincare industry. Are we on the same page? Ok!

Beautycounter Philosophy

Bringing us back to Beautycounter, the skincare and makeup brand has, since its inception in 2013, banned over 1,500 harmful or potentially harmful ingredients from it’s products, referring to this list of questionable ingredients as “The Never List.” They have done the work of sussing out the dubious ingredients, so you don’t have to. Is that to say that every one of those 1,500 skin, hair or makeup ingredients is cancer-causing or hormone-disrupting?

Certainly not.

But by using Beautycounter products it’s like taking a stand against the uncertainty of any potential harm that may be lurking in your mainstream products.

And that’s not all! Beautycounter is taking things a step further by actually lobbying for more protection within the skincare industry. They are one of the supporters behind the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Act of 2019 (H.R. 4296) – a bill introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Democrat-IL) calling for full fragrance ingredient disclosure to consumers.

Beautycounter is out there advocating for safer cosmetics laws for everyone. In their own words: Our collective mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone. Why? It’s really this simple: beauty should be good for you.”

Beautycounter Certifications

Certified B-Corp

Beautycounter is a certified B-Corp, a notable distinction that isn’t easy to acquire, and means that their business structure is not simply about profit but also about meeting social and environmental standards as well.

Leaping Bunny

The Leaping Bunny cruelty-free certification means that Beautycounter products undergo no animal testing.

EWG

The Environmental Working Group certifies products with the highest safety standards. Over 1/3 of Beautycounter products are EWG Verified. And more! You can check out all of Beautycounter’s certifications HERE.

Ingredients

I quickly mentioned “The Never List” above, but it contains the usual baddies like parabens, formaldehyde, phthalates and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS); as well as any and all fragrances, retinol and retinyl palmitate (Vitamin A), BHA and BHT and many, many more.

Beautycounter also devotes an entire section of their website to an Ingredients Glossary, (which you can find HERE) a list of ingredients that they do use. This list includes not only the source of the ingredient, but also the benefits/properties/uses as well as which products contain it.

Best Beautycounter Products

Though it’s hard to choose just a few, for the purposes of this article, here are some of Beautycounter’s best sellers and award winners:

Counter+ No. 1 Brightening Facial Oil – An Allure Best of Beauty Award Winner 2017
Instant Eye Makeup Remover – A bestseller and winner of Cosmopolitan 2018 Beauty Awards
Countersun Mineral Sunscreen Mist – A 2018 finalist for the Refinery 29’s Beauty Innovator Awards

Where to Buy

Beautycounter products are sold direct to consumer either through their website or by independent brand consultants, but you won’t find their products in mainstream department stores. They also have 3 physical store locations: NYC, Denver and Nantucket.

Beautycounter is one of those brands that not only talks the talk but walks the walk when it comes to clean beauty. They’ve made their products the literal gold standard for ingredients, testing and sustainability – but also are imploring the entire beauty industry to do the same.