A few years ago, the term "clean" beauty [1] burst onto the scene like the cool, more transparent solution to greenwashing [2] — dropping hair, makeup, and skincare products [3] formulated without parabens, phthalates, SLS and SLES, mineral oil, or other potentially controversial ingredients. Now, your beauty routine is more like Gwyneth Paltrow [4]'s by way of Marie Kondo: carefully curated and cleaner than your sock drawer.
Here to assist you in the quest of finding the hands-down best clean beauty products [5] on the market, we asked our trusted team of editors to try out the year's latest formulas. Ahead: the winning formulas that will spark joy.
Don't forget to read up on the rest of our 2019 Power Your Pretty Awards winners [6] – a curated list of beauty products tested by editors, chosen for YOU.
Lune + Aster RealGlow Skin Tint
For anyone who hates the look of foundation but wants some coverage to even things out, or brighten you up, or just make strangers wonder how the hell you look like that without any makeup, we present the Lune + Aster RealGlow Skin Tint [7] ($52). This lightweight formula feels like you're wearing nothing at all, but contains light-diffusing mica to impart a subtle glow, plus hyaluronic acid to keep you looking fresh and dewy.
Sephora Collection Glow Peel Pads
Call these Sephora Collection Glow Peel Pads [8] ($15) the Emergen-C for dull, lackluster skin — only cleaner. Formulated with naturally-derived exfoliating glycolic acid and soothing aloe vera, one pre-soaked cloth will wipe away a night of bad decisions and make you glow. Even better? Every piece of the packageing was created with sustainability in mind, from the jar made out of sugar cane residuals to the words etched in vegetable ink.
Burt’s Bees Hydrating Facial Mist
Nothing transports you straight to the spa quite like a luxurious facial mist, but if it happens to also contain all-natural ingredients, smell like fresh laundry, and cost less than $15 — like in the case of this Burt's Bees Hydrating Facial Mist [9] ($12) — well . . . even better.
Davines Solu Sea Salt Scalp Scrub Cleanser
There were, if we had to guess, about 9,203 new scalp scrub launches this last year, and we tested nearly as many for these awards. The collective favourite across the board was the Davines Solu Sea Salt Scalp Scrub Cleanser [10] ($42), which sources its sea salt sourced from the Trapani coast in Sicily (Fancy!) and combines it with beet sugar extract and jojoba oil to make getting rid of product build-up on your scalp feel luxurious.
Drunk Elephant A-Passioni Retinol Cream
If you've been too afraid to — as Frank Ocean once put it — "throw a retinol" into your skincare regime, but want in on the skin-smoothing, acne-clearing benefits, we see no better (or cleaner) option than the Drunk Elephant A-Passioni Retinol Cream [11] ($74). It boasts a vegan derivative of the stuff that still improved our testers' skin texture, plus soothing fatty acids to counter any drying effects. A win-win.
Don't forget to read up on the rest of our 2019 Power Your Pretty Awards winners [12] – a curated list of beauty products tested by editors, chosen for YOU.