As clean beauty and sustainable life choices become more and more popular, so too does the  – pretty insidious in our opinion – act of greenwashing. Often called the beauty industry’s “dirty little secret”, it’s rife in New Zealand and internationally, with many a well-meaning beauty fan easily swept up by its charms. So, just what is greenwashing and how does it affect your daily beauty choices? Cambridge Dictionary says greenwashing is designed “to make people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is”, and it can be found in everything from the fashion and automotive industries to household products and skincare. Sometimes referred to as “green sheen”, greenwashing as a term actually dates back to the 1980s. As a practice, it’s been compounded by the lack of regulation around terms like “natural” and “organic”.  Dubious claims, eco-imagery and marketing lingo all add a veneer of sustainability to products that have been designed to convince us that they help the environment, rather than designed to actually help the environment. Starting to get the gist? Read on for how you can avoid being greenwashed via just a few simple steps. Search for ‘transparent’ brands These are the brands with nothing to hide, or if they do, are honest about what they’re doing to change. Even if a brand is not 100 per cent clean just yet, if they are openly transparent then that is a big step in the right direction. Ask yourself: does the company disclose ALL of their ingredients, selection process, testing process or even give you behind the scenes peaks at their brand? Transparency is the first step toward eliminating greenwashing. Look out for pointless buzzwords So many companies make a major deal of the claim that their product is vegan or of late, gluten-free. While this may be good news for vegans and coeliacs, in a lot of cases, it doesn’t necessarily make their products safe, clean or even good for the environment. They may not test on animals directly, but many of the chemicals and additives used in their creation may be toxic to the environment and our bodies. Also, very often vegan ingredients are derived from resources that animals rely on, which creates a whole new issue when it comes to best practice in the formulation of skincare and makeup. Look out for the colour green, as well as goddamn cute animals We all want to save the polar bears and the red pandas, and many cheeky marketers slap meaningless images of cute  – often endangered – animals on their packaging as a nod to being environmentally friendly. You’ll also often see images of green leaves and just a general overuse of the colour green employed as well, all of which can definitely fool the average consumer. Become an ingredient obsessive We shamelessly gaze for hours at ingredient decks over at Clean Beauty Collective, where every single drop most definitely counts. Look out for any known carcinogens, toxic ingredients, hormone disruptors and synthetic ingredients, and check them against great online resources like the Think Dirty App and EWG’s database. Oh and definitely be wary of overly scientific-sounding ‘trademarked’ ingredient names such as “SkinGlow BioTech997” or similar, without a description of exactly what goes into it (and yes, we made that ingredient up). Beware the use of eco lingo These are vague marketing language and terms such as:

• Eco-friendly
• Environmentally friendly
• Non-toxic
• Natural (means nothing)
• Pure (ditto)
• Save the Earth (one lone product cannot do this)
• Sustainable 
• Biodegradable (this means the product breaks down into smaller pieces, but does not necessarily disappear)

How can we avoid greenwashing? Firstly buy less stuff. Look suspicious? Leave it in the shopping cart and move on. We can also pressure corporations and brands to create truly viable, post-disposable, sustainable and circular design solutions by changing our own habits and behaviours to support the more sustainable options.