I recently bought two products from Fenty Skin: a lotion-serum, called Fat Water, and a make-up remover. This is the first time I've tried the famous Rihanna brand.
To my surprise, I saw the brand's logo on the packaging with the words "Clean" and "Earth Conscious". Naturally, I was happy to have bought products that are environmentally friendly and respectful of my skin, because it is rare to find products with clean compositions at reasonable prices.
But, I was quickly disappointed. I read the composition of the two products, and I must admit that some ingredients left me doubtful. So I scanned the two products on Yuka to find out more about the ingredients.
Yuka is a great app, which I always use. It lists thousands of food and cosmetic products. Just scan a product to get its list of ingredients and their potential hazards, it also displays a score out of 100.
The Fenty Skin duo set I bought is rated 47/100. Not great for products that are supposed to be clean.
Looking at the ingredients, they contain phenoxyethanol, an irritating preservative, potential allergen and potential endocrine disruptor often used in cosmetics. It is also presumed to be toxic to the liver and blood. The products also contain CI 17200, which is a dye that can cause sensitivities and allergies.
The rest of the ingredients are safe, like butylene glycol, citric acid and sodium hydroxide.
Then, I went to the Fenty Skin website, to find out more about their definition of "Clean Ingredients".
I saw that Fenty Skin products are vegan and gluten-free, and there is a list of "banned" products, including ingredients such as parabens, phthalates and octinoxate.
Out of curiosity, I went to the website of Kylie Skin, a competing brand. I also found a page that talks about their clean and conscious ingredients philosophy. I analysed the ingredients of similar products to Fenty Skin, and found phenoxyethanol, an endocrine disruptor, as well as irritating fragrances. So Fenty Skin is not the only brand to do this kind of thing.
I honestly think that restricting the ingredients and being vegan and gluten-free is a very good step and a good start. The ingredients of the two products I bought are already better than some of the others I use.
But I don't agree with adding the word "Clean" to a product that contains irritants and endocrine disruptors. Indeed, an effort on simplification and reduction of ingredients lists is made by many brands, like Fenty Skin, but there is still, in my opinion, a long way to go
I think then that selling products with a cleaner composition than what we are used to today and mentioning it on the packaging is clearly a big trendy marketing strategy, but restrictions on the subject are really missing as quoted in the Armor Protein blog.
There is already a restriction on phenoxyethanol: its concentration may not exceed 1% of the finished product. But if there is such a regulation, why is it possible to put the word "Clean" on a cosmetic product that contains it?
What do you think?
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