Whether you’re new to clean beauty, new to Clean Beauty Collective, or a long-time customer, our goal is to ensure that we provide you with helpful, insightful information to guide you at every stage of your clean beauty journey. If you’re just getting started, often making that switch to clean beauty and swapping out your regular “go-to” products for safer, cleaner options can be daunting and let’s face it, a little overwhelming. At the same time, if you’ve been on a clean beauty journey for a while now, you might just not be vibing with the products you’ve been using anymore and aren’t sure where to go from here. 

In this journal, we are taking a deeper dive into ‘The Clean Beauty 5’, our top five products that set a solid foundation for your clean beauty routine.  For those of you who are looking for guidance on where to start, The Clean Beauty 5 will give you all the information you need in a concise format hopefully taking some of that daunting, overwhelming feeling out of the process and we’ll even give you some product recommendations to get you started!  And for those of you that have already been following a clean beauty routine and have found yourself in a rut, think about it as clean beauty tinder… you never know which product you might swipe right too and discover a new love!

Before we jump in though, let’s talk about our product selection process, our Dirty Ingredients list and why making the first step of getting to know us at Clean Beauty Collective is a good one for your future self.

At Clean Beauty Collective, we believe that “clean beauty” is about providing you with products that are not harmful to you or the environment, starting with the ingredients that are not found in any of the products we sell.  

Clean also means ethically safe and none of our products are tested on animals.  We work closely with each of our partnered brands to ensure that they aren’t including any of our blacklisted ingredients in the products they create and are working with companies that are sourcing and manufacturing ethically in every part of their supply chain.  

Ingredients matter and while we have become more aware of food ingredients and what we eat in recent times, we also need to think about the ones that we allow in our products. Our skin is our largest organ absorbing 70 percent of what we put on it, so we should be aware of what ingredients we are feeding it. Ingredients, however, can be hard to decipher and often have hard to read names, so we have created a Dirty Ingredients List to help explain more about why we don’t allow them in the products we sell. 

We also follow a strict step-by-step process to testing and ensuring these ingredients are not contained in any of the products we stock, alongside other important considerations.

Our approval process has 4 steps:

1. Our beauty experts, makeup artists, aestheticians, naturopaths, and beauty experts extensively research and review our products to test efficacy, texture, and experience.
2. They then scour the ingredient labels and test formulas for weeks.
3. The products are then passed on to our Cosmetic Chemist, who technically clears ingredients to be ‘clean.’
4. Brands must share information on ingredient sourcing, manufacturing processes, compliance, and certifications to back up claims made about their products. They also have to share INCI lists for ingredient checking.

With all that in mind, be safe in the knowledge that we’ve done the mahi, searched the globe, completed intensive research and testing, all of which, has led us to discover the best clean beauty products on the planet, ready for you to meet.

When you are ready to make the switch to clean beauty, we recommend you take the time to be sure you’re investing in products that are right for your skin, hair or body.  That’s why we don’t recommend you switch all your products at once.  Start by replacing products one by one – it’s easier on your budget, less wasteful and will make that transition that little bit easier.

‘The Clean Beauty 5’

Our top 5 products that will get you started on your Clean Beauty Journey or introduce you to a new obsession.

Cleanser

The place to start all good skincare routines.  Whether you cleanse once, double cleanse, use a foam, oil or cream, everyone needs a great cleanser in their skincare routine.

A cleanser is one of the key staples to switch when looking to swap to clean beauty, and the reason is pretty simple.  Your skin absorbs more when its wet.  With this in mind, it is more likely to absorb ingredients deeper into the skin layers.

Cleansers come in all types of formats (foaming, oil, milk, cream, gel) and are often formulated to address a specific concern like dehydration, oiliness and blemishes or even anti-ageing. 

A great all-round cleanser is the Nuori Vital Foaming Cleanser. It’s super creamy and removes makeup without stripping your skin of its natural oils.  Its key ingredients Pomegranate enzyme and radish root extract gently and effectively remove impurities and slough away dead skin cells. Oat kernel extract and natural betaine offer powerful antioxidant protection and combat redness and irritation. Botanical glycerin helps maintain the skin’s natural moisture balance, leaving it smooth, supple, and refreshed.

Moisturiser

Moisturisers are often one of the last products applied in your routine and but also the one that stays on your face or body all day (and night), till you wash them off or shower.  Because of this, it’s a great place to consider swapping first as one of those key staples for moving to a cleaner routine.  Especially if you love the rich, long-lasting moisturisers that reinforce the skin’s moisture barrier.

Night-time moisturisers are a key consideration if you’re not currently using one as they tend to contain richer actives and deeper nourishing and hydrating properties.  Because you’re less exposed to all the free radicals of the day they have better penetration, so all the more importance to have these switched to a cleaner version.

Tailor Moisture gives you that just finished “yoga” glow, it’s a lightweight and non-greasy lotion formulated with pure plant nutrients to nourish and protect your skin.

BYBI Night Nutrition is the perfect overnight moisturiser packed with antioxidants, essential fatty acids, vitamins and ceramides. Like a smoothie for your skin, the nutrient-rich formula works while you sleep to repair, renew and strengthen skin so that you wake up to a pillow-soft, healthy, glowing complexion.

Deodorant

Deodorants are the most widely publicised product around the globe on the impacts that they can have on your overall health and as such, have to be one of our biggest selling categories and places that most of our clients who shop at Clean Beauty Collective start with.

Traditional deodorants often use aluminum to block your sweat glands. Your sweat glands (specifically the armpit glands) are there to release bacteria and toxins from the body. When you think about it, blocking those glands and pushing the bacteria and toxins back into your body is, well let’s face it, pretty gross.  Preventing your body from doing what it is designed to do, detoxify, is unnatural.  But we can’t all walk around smelling like we’ve been dragged backwards through a trash can (yes, we just said that!).

Clean Deodorants mostly use ingredients like baking soda and arrowroot to absorb the smells that your sweat naturally makes.  Kaia Naturals our leading deodorant brand, is the absolute authority on sweat and your body’s ability to detoxify.  They have a range of great smelling charcoal activated deodorant sticks, sweat powders and an underarm bar that will transform your natural deodorant into extra strength protection.  You’ll never look back once you’ve made the switch to their one-of-a-kind system that keeps you fresh and odourless all day long.

The Kaia Naturals starter kit is a great place to discover their range before committing to the full size products in their system.

Mascara

Your eyes are one of the most sensitive organs in your body and coincidentally a moisture haven.  Your Mascara might flake, we cry, we rub our eyes and when we do this your makeup flows into them.  As we know moisture, in this case tears or fluid around your eyes, helps to absorb ingredients directly into your body, so with this in mind it’s a key clean beauty swap.

Aleph Mascara has a consciously crafted formula designed to lift, define and add volume to the lashes on application. Over time, its unique peptide blend works to nourish, strengthen and lengthen lashes. It’s 100% microplastic-free, smudge-free, flake-free and is sustainably made in New Zealand.  How much better can it get?  Oh, did we mention Vegan? It’s Vegan.  The perfect mascara for every occasion.

Shampoo

Shampoos and conditioners contain some pretty toxic ingredients that actually once you know more, are going to want to avoid putting near your scalp.  Your scalp is 4 times more absorbent than any other part of your body, so that’s why its one of our top 5 to switch.

Traditional Shampoos often contain Sodium Laureth Sulfates or SLS as they are often referred too – these are what makes you feel like your hair is super squeaky clean, but just like when you strip the natural oils from your face with a harsh cleanser, when you strip the natural oils from your hair, it’s going to dry it out. This includes drying out the scalp for some as well.

Often the first question from a newly transitioning clean beauty customer is that they’ve tried natural shampoos before and they haven’t worked, or they smell funny, or leave their hair feeling heavy, sticky or actually still dirty.

Like with the transition to a clean deodorant, you need to give your hair time to transition.  It needs to detox and often this will mean your hair will get oilier before it reaches its new happy place. Because traditional shampoos are full of harsh ingredients like SLS that strip your hair every time you use them, your scalp is used to overcompensating by producing more oil to nourish your hair again.  It needs time for that to settle.  Generally speaking, you need to give your hair 6-8 weeks to detox. Using a dry shampoo in between washes to give your hair a break will help this process.

Our top recommendation for a cleaner shampoo is the Chloe Zara Silk Wash.  It works to cleanse, restructure, strengthen and nourish hair while adding intense hydration in order to create smooth, soft, and easy to comb hair. It’s suitable for all hair types, particularly colour-treated hair and is fragranced with a unique blend of Sandalwood, Pineapple, Fig, and Saffron.

Wherever you choose to start, remember that just starting is the most important thing.  Research shows us that as you reduce the number of toxic ingredients in products, you will see them less and less in our bodies.  So just starting is the first step towards creating a cleaner, better version than before.