We just got back from sharing the stage with hundreds of other independent beauty brands at the Indie Beauty Expo and it’s official – clean beauty is the wave of the future. Just like Type:A, more and more brands are introducing clean beauty products to help consumers make safer, healthier personal care choices. Gone are the days of limited choices and zero transparency, especially when it comes to ingredients. We’ve got options now! (Maybe too many options, but that’s a story for another post…)
Looking at this year’s roster of indie brands with a presence at the expo, a few common themes that we’re excited about bubbled to the surface. Here’s everything you need to know to stay on top of your clean beauty game this fall.
Pampering with probiotics
The move toward clean beauty is based on the principle that what we put on our body is as important as what we put into it. So, in that same vein, wouldn’t it also make sense that supplements we’re ingesting to promote friendly bacteria in our guts would also promote friendly bacteria on our skin? Absolutely, say the probiotic-based skin care brands we saw at the Indie Beauty Expo.
According to Bio Milk Skincare, environmental stressors (like UV rays, pollution, allergens, etc) and internal stressors (like actual stress) attack your skin on a daily basis. These attacks disturb the microflora that keeps your skin balanced and are the underlying cause behind all our skincare woes, including inflammation, acne, wrinkles, you name it. Not to worry – the new trend in probiotic skincare introduces friendly bacteria to your skin to moisturize, soothe and protect against the aforementioned bad guys.
Cannabis is bliss for your body
As awareness of the therapeutic benefits of CBD and marijuana becomes more mainstream, more natural beauty brands are incorporating the healing benefits of the hemp plant into their formulations. And what could be more natural than grass? Strolling through the aisles at the expo, we saw CBD bath bombs, hemp-infused facial serums and CBD hair treatments (even your hair needs to chill every now and then).
In case you’re wondering about the difference between CBD oil and hemp oil - CBD in beauty products is typically derived from the flowers, leaves and stalks of the hemp plant, while hemp oil is extracted from the seeds. CBD oil has therapeutic properties, it can help to soothe skin inflammation and irritation, while hemp oil has been said to address a plethora of skin ailments from dry skin to wrinkles to psoriasis.
Teeth are having a moment
Beyond lip care and gloss, clean beauty brands haven’t paid much attention to your mouth…until now. Oral hygiene brands were abundant at the Indie Beauty Expo, demonstrating new methods of keeping your pearly whites, well, pearly. There was pH-balancing mouthwash, which brings your mouth to a more alkaline level for stronger teeth and fresher breath, as well as activated charcoal toothbrushes, which naturally brighten and whiten your teeth. It’s about time beauty brands started paying more attention to the one place where we’re actually ingesting the product.
Beauty should be fun!
Natural and clean beauty brands are serious about your health and fighting toxins, but they still know how to have a good time. We saw adorable toxin-free lip glosses in the shape of lollipops at the Flickable booth and organic lip balms housed inside beautiful necklaces at the Lilu Lip Care booth. There were even little bird-shaped natural hand sanitizer dispensers at the Olika booth that Khloe Kardashian once called “the cutest thing she’s ever seen” (and we agree!).
We do need those stinking patches
Here at Type:A, we’re all about innovative personal care applicators (aluminum-free deodorant in a tube anyone?), so we were excited to see that other brands are embracing new and unique ways to deliver treatments to your skin. There’s now a host of body and skin issues you can treat with a patch. Got anxiety? There’s a patch for that. Hungover? There’s a patch for that. Acne bringing you down? There’s a patch for your pimples AND a patch to help fight the resulting frown lines.
Masks are another beauty delivery system that continue to gain traction. Sure, we’ve all see the sheet masks that arose out of the K-beauty trend, but at the expo we saw masks in new forms, like tea bag eye masks from Beauty Steep, and for new body parts, like your derriere (yes, that’s a thing).
The new frontier of clean beauty
It was truly amazing to see how far the clean beauty movement has come at the Indie Beauty Expo. And it’s taking on many new and exciting forms that address the whole body, which we love. These days, our indie beauty brothers and sisters are showing up in full force with innovations to help us all make smarter, better personal care choices. So, the big question is really, what will they think of next?
Our aluminum-free deodorant was nominated for Best in Show at the Indie Beauty Expo! Interested in learning more about it? Head on over to our shop.
