Found Clean Beauty on how to detoxify your beauty regime

Exposing the hidden dangers in our daily beauty routines may seem scary, but at Breast Cancer UK, we believe that honesty and education are vital to creating healthier, happier habits. 

That’s why this Prevention Week, we are honing in on so-called “clean beauty” and asking the question, what’s really in your cosmetics?  One duo who are hoping to equip and empower women with the answer are Charlie McIntosh and Zoe Bulgin, the creators of toxin-free beauty hub Found Clean Beauty.

Much like Breast Cancer UK’s comprehensive A to Z  chemicals of concern – containing all the nasties which have been linked with a potential increased risk of breast cancer – Charlie and Zoe continue to consult the latest scientific research to maintain an active and accessible catalogue of the no-go ingredients that could be harming our health. Every product is rigorously cross-checked against this beauty blacklist in order to hold brands accountable and provide a trustworthy, evidence-based navigation tool.  But we can’t necessarily afford to throw out all of our beauty products in one go. We spoke to the founders about the small steps we can take to reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals.

What inspired you to start your company, Found Clean Beauty?

A shock, stage 3 cancer diagnosis at age 45, made me completely rethink the way I treated my body. Before I started my treatment, I started looking at all the products I used regularly and was so horrified by the amount of really toxic ingredients in everyday products I was using like shampoos, makeup & skincare. I just got a bin bag and threw it all away, and then started researching toxin-free alternatives for myself & my family. I soon realised what a minefield this was and how much I didn’t know and needed to learn! It was a really frustrating process, and there didn’t seem to be a legitimate source in the UK to find products that were actually toxin-free and safe.

Teaming up with my long-term friend Zoe, Found Clean Beauty was born out of joint frustration with the lack of regulation around the use of the word ‘Clean’ as well as the lack of transparency about certain ingredients. We were also frustrated with the inability to source all the products we wanted to buy under one roof. We wanted to create a one-stop shop for truly clean beauty products that had been properly vetted…by us, without any compromises.

Is there a growing demand for transparency in the beauty industry? If so, how is Found Clean Beauty filling this gap in the market? 

Sadly, so many beauty terms are completely unregulated.  Terms such as ‘clean’ and ‘natural’ are often misused for marketing purposes. With such a wide and unregulated interpretation of these terms, many brands make minimal effort to research their ingredients, and very few offer products completely free from harmful toxins. Customers are definitely becoming wiser to this, and the conversation is definitely changing around how the beauty industry needs to be more transparent.  

We screen on a product-by-product basis – not just on a brand level – and we don’t throw the term clean around casually. We understand the personal and important reasons behind people’s wellness journeys. 

It can be really hard to navigate, and it’s the reason we started the brand in the first place: to help take the guesswork out of choosing clean beauty.  We have a ‘No-Go Ingredients’ page on our website that helps to educate and empower consumers about certain ingredients and their health risks.  There is definitely a growing demand for transparency and understanding, this can be seen in the rise of apps you can download to your phone that can also be used to screen product ingredients for safety, but they are not always foolproof, as the information on them is often crowd sourced so it’s good to have a general idea of some of the chemical categories to avoid, so you can make decisions that are best for you. 

How can the information you provide help to empower women and why is it important to be brave with your messaging?

We’ve tried to make our No-go ingredients page as easy to read and understand as possible. We’ve divided it into health issues for ease, as everyone is on a different health journey and may have a particular concern, so listing things by the chemical name can be even more confusing. 

 With a lot of the industry still being reluctant to acknowledge the issues, we do have to be brave and accountable on behalf of our customers. This isn’t always easy, and we do see pushback sometimes. It’s also not always an easy conversation to have with the brands we stock, as we rarely take their full product range, as there are usually some problematic ingredients in some products.  

Why is it so important to be picky with your beauty routine? How can altering this daily routine slightly have a big impact in terms of our exposure to chemical cocktails?

 Unfortunately, a lot of the research deems things to be safe when added at a certain level.  We are all familiar with the expression ‘the dose makes the poison’, and so we need to consider the cumulative, or the cocktail effect, of certain harmful ingredients. Saying something is safe at a certain amount whilst not taking into account daily exposure of multiple products over many years (as we’ve seen recently with the class action against Johnson and Johnson regarding talc), or increased exposure as multiple products contain similar ingredients, is never really considered. 

Do you think that once we trust a brand, we have a tendency to stop checking the labels? If so, how are you helping to counter this?

Yes, absolutely, we often hear our customers saying, ‘Why don’t you stock this brand? They’re really clean?’. The reality is we have to look at a product level as they all have totally different ingredients, so looking at a brand level doesn’t work. There are definitely cleaner brands than others, but it’s still important to check labels. I think as well, people get caught up when brands use words like ‘Natural’. It’s worth noting that natural doesn’t always mean safe. There are lots of chemicals in nature that are toxic to humans or can be cross-contaminated with toxic ingredients, especially those mined from the ground, which carry the risk of cross-contamination with heavy metals and asbestos. Certain lab-created nature-identical chemicals can in fact be safer than natural, and there are, of course, synthetic chemicals that are really bad. 

What is your process for staying on top of the latest scientific studies?

Yes, confusion and misinformation are exactly why we set up the business. Before we even launched the site, we spent over 2 years researching the ingredients in beauty products. We went to the source and read white papers and published scientific testing reports on ingredients. We also looked at cancer research blogs and articles, and websites such as The EWG and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in association with the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners in the US. As well as the latest research from The Scientific Advisory Group on Chemical Safety(SAG-CS), who advise the UK Office for Product Safety and Standards and the latest research coming from the European Commission.   

From this, we compiled a list of over 150 chemicals that were used in our personal care products that had the potential to cause harm to human health.  We then looked at all the different names these chemicals may present as on an ingredients list. A good number of them can be listed with different names, for example, Titanium dioxide in makeup may be listed as its pigment reference CI7789. If a product has even one of those ingredients in it, we won’t stock it. 

This was just the groundwork for the business, though.  Our work is ongoing, and we continue to check updates from both the UK, EU and US government bodies, as well as continue to research any new scientific findings that have been independently published and update our no-go ingredients list accordingly.   

Like Breast Cancer UK, you have a list of no-go ingredients. Why is it better to apply the precautionary principle? Why is it so important that we break down this information for public access? 

Health and wellness are such personal pursuits. Our goal has always been to be transparent, to help people understand better what is best to avoid in their beauty products and make it simple and stress-free for them without having to spend hours researching. We are here to provide a one-stop shop for people, for whatever reason they have decided to try and reduce their toxic load. My own health experience has made me apply the precautionary principle.

I’m still in remission, and it just doesn’t make sense to me to be adding any more risk to my health. I also have 2 teenage daughters who are really into skincare and makeup, and I really worry about the exposure, particularly to EDCs, that girls are having as they consume these products at younger and younger ages. It’s not about worrying about it all the time, but taking a sensible approach to all the things you regularly use and trying to reduce your toxic exposure whenever possible. 

Given that a lot of the power is in the hands of big companies, do you think that as individuals, our choices can impact the beauty industry as a whole? 

Companies are driven by consumer demand. If there is a shift towards cleaner, safer ingredients, then these companies will be forced to switch out toxic ingredients for safer alternatives or face losing market share.  We hope in the future that we don’t have to talk about ‘clean’ beauty, and all beauty will be clean. There are plenty of clean alternatives for pigments, preservatives, and other essential ingredients that are successfully being used in products. Consumers need to drive this forward and demand and purchase clean products to make the big players rethink how they do things. 

What actionable advice would you give to encourage people looking to make sustainable changes and start their clean beauty journey today? 

The main thing when looking to make a change is not to don’t feel overwhelmed, it doesn’t have to be complicated, just start with some simple steps. 

If you don’t feel like you’re ready to give up your favourite lipstick, for example, maybe just start with something you do feel comfortable swapping out.  Try a clean cleanser and moisturiser, for example, and see how you go. You can start with products that you use most on a daily basis or ones that stay on your skin the longest, as these have a larger potential for absorption into your bloodstream. 

Just like incorporating positive changes in your diet and exercise routine, it doesn’t have to be done all at once. Take the time to find alternatives that you really love, and when you run out of a certain product, look to replace it with a clean alternative. 

To find out more about Found Clean Beauty, check out their website here.

For information on how to navigate your labels, visit our chemicals page here. For dedicated guidance on how to reduce your risk and to receive a tailored prevention plan, visit our prevention hub here.

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