Breaking Up with The Clean Beauty Biz : Lockdown was a Bitch! Episode 2
We thought lockdown was the worst of it. Not only were we mostly in stores but every time a store would re-open they would ask for all new testers and as most independent brands we went into considerable debt to stay alive. But what came after?
Even worse. In the world of clean beauty, we saw small brands fighting for survival while big corporations swooped in to seize the spotlight. And as much as we’d like to say the clean beauty business bounced back, it didn’t. I mean lots of new lines popped up - with untested mono- plastics and all sorts of nonsense. If plastics love PFAS then if the plastic is not tested for organic fluorine then who cares if it's mono plastic - it's still leaching PFAS into our world!
The clean beauty movement that started with heart, with purpose, soon headed downtown—flirting with the wrong kind of change. Big chains with questionable claims began dominating the scene, waving the flag of "clean" without holding themselves accountable.
Corporate wings disguised the sad reality. Plastic packaging suddenly became the must-have, the new trend—but behind that glittering façade was the same old dirty truth. It was a quick sell to the masses, and the message got lost in the noise.
Worse still, small retailers - mostly female owned —those who helped shape and build the clean beauty movement—were shown the door, leaving doors shuttered and legacies lost. 😔
Founders and builders of the clean beauty world began closing shop.
Outspent, outmaneuvered, out marketed by the giants with massive ad budgets, they couldn’t keep up.
But then the PFAS scandal emerged, shaking the very foundation of the concepts of both clean and sustainable and we have a lot more to say about this as we go along.
The truth? Lockdown was just the beginning. What came after was a harsh wake-up call. The clean beauty world became dominated by big players with bigger wallets, while the integrity of what we once fought has fallen to the wayside.
But we’re not giving up. We believe clean beauty can still stand for something real. We’re still here, fighting for transparency, honesty, and integrity in a world that needs it now more than ever. We know there are other small independent companies fighting the good fight and we applaud their efforts, even though they do not want to risk transparency - yet -- one step at a time.
Join us as we keep walk this path to PFAS free and leave the noise behind.
Stay tuned—there’s more to come. 💥