Green beauty. The number of shoppers, women and men alike, who identify with and support the ‘green beauty’ movement continues to grow in leaps and bounds. At the NAA, we strongly label ourselves as ‘green’ in terms of our beauty routines, but no two of us are the same when it comes to our perspective, knowledge, preferences, or bodies. Green beauty feels, to us, as personal a choice as diet; it’s no coincidence both are heavily influenced by our individual bodies. We’ve seen that people have vastly different approaches to green beauty, and have come to respect them all. Below, we introduce you to six types of green beauties, to help show how many shades of ‘green’ exist—all valuable in their own ways.
6 Green Beauties Walk into a Boutique
Their eyes meet one gorgeous new miracle serum highlighted on a shimmering display that reads, ‘Best new product in green beauty!’ Here’s what each of them thinks of that product, along with a personality description that will help you recognize their different, but equally important, approaches to green beauty. In which combination of archetypes do you see yourself?
1. The Safety-First Green Beauty. “Is it really safe?”
This beauty is committed to keeping herself and her loved ones safe from toxins. She’s well-versed in the EWG’s Skin Deep Database, and will be able to tell you the safety rating for each ingredient in a product that that has come up against her scrutiny. She doesn’t tolerate greenwashing!
2. The Source-Savvy Green Beauty. “I want to know more about the company that makes this.”
It’s not enough for this beauty to see safe skincare ingredients listed on the label; transparency of information surrounding ingredient sourcing, harvesting, production, and even environmental impact go hand-in-hand with a true ‘green beauty’ product in her mind. She considers the indirect consequences of her product choices, and wants to inform herself as much as possible about a product’s ‘cradle to cradle’ life cycle.
3. The Results-Oriented Green Beauty. “Nice, but does it actually work?”
This beauty loves clean formulations, pretty packaging, and clever catchphrases as much as any other green beauty, but none of that matters to her if the product itself doesn’t live up to its promises–or her expectations. She’s a well-informed consumer who does her homework, and doesn’t want to try a product or miracle ingredient without some form of evidence that it actually works. She looks for the product’s claims to be backed by scientific studies, and also refers to herbal materia medicas and formularies for traditional and anecdotal evidence. She also seeks reviews where the tester has taken the time to use the product for long enough to determine its efficacy (at least 30 days or one cell-turnover cycle).
4. The Budget-Conscious Green Beauty. “It’s crazy to pay that much for a serum, natural or not!”
This beauty takes a no-nonsense to her beauty routine’s bottom line. She’s a savvy shopper and not afraid to take a do-it-yourself approach to her products if she can’t find the quality she wants at the price point she’s seeking. She wants products with solid performance but she absolutely refuses to pay premium. She demands her green, clean beauty products come at—or near—drugstore prices. She isn’t swayed by fancy packaging and will flip over the package with the thought “Why pay for marketing, when I can buy my own quality oil and make this for far fewer dollars per ounce?”
5. The Trendy Green Beauty. “I read about this serum last week and I’ve been dying to try it!”
Her vanity overflows with a gorgeous array of products and her cabinet is bursting with little tubes and vials, samples of the most recently released essentials. She’s often seen wearing the “it” lipstick color or using buzzed-about formulas. When asked, she can name numerous green beauty online shopping stores, and she has even more bookmarked on her computer. She most likely follows, and reads, multiple green beauty blogs with passionate interest. She knows the hot skin care brands and makeup collections. Friends call her for product views, as they should, because this green beauty has her finger on the pulse of the world of green beauty.
6. The Newbie Green Beauty. “I recognize most of these ingredients in this product, so it seems pretty green to me.”
This beauty has a brand new consciousness about her beauty products, and she’s eager not only to learn all she can, but also to swap as many of her conventional products as possible for natural alternatives. But even she’ll admit that navigating the beauty aisle is downright mind-boggling. Sometimes she’d like to trust a product’s safety based on its packaging claims of ‘natural,’ and ‘green’ alone, but she works hard to read ingredient labels and find brands with her developing ingredient standards..
Finding the common ground.
We find it so fascinating that different people are attracted to a single product for different reasons. It’s also clear that there are many shades of green on the green beauty spectrum, and different people have different ‘must-have’ and ‘no-way’ criteria. We support all green beauties, and encourage flexibility and openness in green beauty thinking; because in the grand scheme of things, the green beauty movement is still in its infancy. New research on ingredient safety and efficacy, as well as on skin health itself, is released on a regular basis. We’ve also seen trends reverse–what was once a miracle ingredient is now a carcinogen, or what was once poison is now seemingly benign in a different preparation in many cases. We have to allow for the fact that we’re also learning, and for the fact that our needs and desires may shift. We can’t be afraid to change our opinion after new information comes to light. We also strive to always advocate for experimentation and the understanding that what works for one person may not work for another–and that doesn’t make a product ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
At the NAA, we applaud any individual’s effort to embrace an integrative approach to healthy skin through green beauty, whether that starts at the farm, drugstore, or spa. It’s all about individual consciousness that’s inclusive of different lifestyles, budgets, health histories, and of course, bioindividuality. No shade of green is ‘better’ than another in our eyes–we want people to know that it is easy being green if you are true to yourself.
We’d love to know your thoughts!
