The latest industry buzzword to emerge as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is safe beauty. The thinking behind the term 'safe beauty' is that consumers are now more willing to accept preservatives and synthetic ingredients to ensure they don't experience product contamination and expiration. In fact, some industry players are now claiming that the arrival of COVID-19 will further push the notion that natural isn't always better, especially when it comes to ingredient safety and shelf life.

It's safe to say that the Formula Botanica team was fairly horrified to discover the emergence of the term safe beauty. After all, shouldn't all beauty be inherently safe to use? Why should a pandemic suddenly encourage the beauty industry to look for a new marketing term, when Good Manufacturing Practice should ensure that the billions of beauty products manufactured globally?

Do you think that safe beauty is a credible term or are some industry players simply trying to play on people's fears? Would you buy a formulation labelled as 'safe' or do we as consumers simply expect all beauty products to be safe? And do you agree with us that safe beauty is the latest industry buzzword we should all resolutely ignore and move on from?

In this podcast, you will:

• Hear the Formula Botanica team discuss how the term safe beauty has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Learn why all cosmetics should be inherently safe for use and why this latest buzzword is trying to play on people's fears, when fear-based marketing has already created so many subsets of the beauty sector.
• Listen to Lorraine and Ana discuss why we should all ignore the term safe beauty in the latest marketing hype to come from several mainstream industry players and resolutely move on.

Key takeaways include:

The beauty industry does not need any further buzzwords to cause confusion amongst consumers and polarisation amongst brands.

• Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) exists to ensure that all cosmetics are manufactured to industry safety standards. As long as GMP is met and formulations are adequately tested, all cosmetics should be safe for sale.
• The terms clean beauty, natural beauty and safe beauty are not mutually exclusive. In fact, Formula Botanica redefined the term 'clean beauty' in a recent podcast to include formulations that are safely and hygienically made. The very meaning of the word 'clean' is hygienic, after all.
• Consumer opinions are not shifting towards enhanced safety in personal care formulations. If anything, consumer opinions are shifting towards enhanced sustainability of beauty products, as people emerge from lockdown aiming for a modified, greener society where beauty brands work as activists for change.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Formula Botanica: Green Beauty Conversations podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher so that more people can enjoy the show. Don't forget to follow and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.