Why I Wanted to Create a Clean Beauty Brand

When Victoria and I started brainstorming about what we wanted to create, we asked ourselves, what would the most amazing luxury beauty brand look like in ten years? We concluded it would be super clean, perform at the highest luxury level, welcome everyone who loves beauty, help people fuel their lives inside and out, be sustainable, digital-first, and cruelty-free, and be created by women (naturally).  So that’s where we started.  We haven’t achieved it all yet (sustainability is a big challenge! #notperfect), but one of the many areas in which we’ve made significant strides is the marriage between luxury performance and clean formulations.  Both Victoria and I are passionate about health, wellness, and beauty, so creating clean products that performed was a natural progression for us and a challenge we wanted to meet. 

So what is clean beauty? Clean beauty itself is about ingredient safety, incorporating both synthetic and natural materials. Not all natural ingredients are safe and not all synthetic ingredients are unsafe. Overall, clean beauty products are created and produced without ingredients that are proven or suspected to cause adverse health effects. Seems like a no-brainer. But…the beauty industry is effectively self-regulated. In the EU, the European Commission (EC) bans over 1,300 of these potentially harmful ingredients, however, 80% of those ingredients have not been used and would never be used as cosmetic ingredients. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits or restricts only eleven. This means that many products on the market contain questionable ingredients—and we might use them every single day.

This is why clean beauty is in its infancy in many ways, and the reason the clean beauty revolution is being propelled significantly by consumers and newer brands. I’ve now tested many, many clean formulas, and often found them lacking. They either did not have an impactful colour payoff, great wear, luxurious application, or, in the case of a lot of skincare, simply didn’t perform. I’ve always been incredibly selective in what I put on my skin and keep in my makeup bag, but I want products that perform, and I’ll only swap out a favourite product if I find a cleaner option that doesn’t compromise on performance.  Sometimes that means making the products yourself.  And as demand for cleaner formulas increases, raw material suppliers and the cosmetic laboratories that use them are more willing and able to source and use better alternative materials. This is good news for everyone.

That drive and strive towards clean is at the core of Victoria and my personal philosophies on beauty as we fill the gaps in our own increasingly healthy routines. As the founders of Victoria Beckham Beauty, we are committed to formulating all of our products with safety, transparency, education, and inclusivity at the forefront. In addition to the over 1,300 ingredients banned by the EU, we avoid over 40 materials that are deemed harmful or have questionable or inconclusive safety data. Our products are formulated without mineral oil, petroleum, phthalates, DEA/ TEA, formaldehydes, BHA/BHT or cyclic silicones.  What we do use in our formulations we will explain, ingredient by ingredient, on our beauty website victoriabeckhambeauty.com.  We think you probably want to also understand what is in the product, not just what isn’t.

As a beauty lover who is constantly trying to do better for myself, my daughters, and my health, this inspires me. And as the co-founder and CEO of Victoria Beckham Beauty, this work fuels me every day. It’s an undertaking that thrills me and scares me in almost equal measure. This is just our beginning, and we are excited to bring new clean products to you, hear what products you want us to deliver, and to add another strong voice to the clean beauty revolution. So, as we embark on this new chapter together, I want to pose a question to you, what products are you longing to swap out for a clean beauty alternative? Share your experiences using the hashtags #victoriabeckhambeauty and #notperfect because it could become part of our upcoming lineup.