Beauty's eco landscape is confusing at best. Christine Lennon separates fact from fiction and sorts out safe products that deliver.
'Take Bryan Meehan, an organic-food entrepreneur who founded the skincare line Nude with Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. After watching streams of women walk into his Fresh & Wild stores in London (later sold to Whole Foods Market)- and bypass the beauty isles entirely- he saw an opportunity. 'People's perception fo organic food has changed. It's not hippie and crunchy. It's contemporary,' says Meehan. 'I wanted to do the same with beauty.'
He did just that. 'Our philosophy is no synthetics, except for a preservative system in the products that contain water,' says Meehan says of the decision to formulate without silicones, propylene glycol, polythylene glycols (PEGs), parabens, phthalates, and sulphates. 'Unless we can prove they're safe, we're not going to use them. Even if they just irritate the skin, inflamation causes aging, and we don't want it.'
So, for example, instead of emulsifier PEG- which gives a nice slip to cosmetics and skin creams but is believed by some to have carcinogenic components- NUDE uses xanthan gum and jojoba oil. 'Our Advanced Cellular Renewal Serum can stand up to anything on the market,' Meehan says of his new probiotic-rich treatment.