Did you know that up until 2022, 1938 was the last time the federal government passed a major piece of legislation to protect the health and safety of consumers through personal care products?
Here’s the math on that: EIGHTY FOUR YEARS of massive neglect for the health of the consumer (which is you and me. As a matter of fact, women drive 70-80% of all consumer purchasing). The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA) was a massive step in the right direction, but we’ve got a long ways to go.
If you recall the Claire’s debacle with little girls applying makeup with asbestos or the Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuits, you are aware of the fact that up until a year ago (per MoCRA), the FDA has not had the power to recall unsafe personal care products.
To be clear, there are currently no legal requirements for any cosmetic manufacturer marketing products to American consumers to test their products for safety," the FDA said. For example, the agency says that in this case, it did not have the authority to force Claire's to pull the potentially dangerous products off store shelves. (Merritt Kennedy for NPR).
MoCRA gives the FDA more control over cosmetics, allowing them recall authority (imagine that!), facility registration requirements, and improved labeling.
It definitely moves the needle forward for consumer protection, but the FDA still doesn’t have to review or restrict harmful chemicals. (Not-so-fun fact: the U.S. takes an “innocent until proven guilty” approach to chemicals introduced to the marketplace yearly- of which there are thousands- whereas the EU takes a “guilty until proven innocent” approach).
Whereas the EU has banned somewhere around 1300 chemicals of concern in their products, the U.S. has banned around 10.
Good news for you if you use Beautycounter: Beautycounter has banned 2,800 questionable ingredients.
And because Beautycounter, along with other leaders in the clean beauty/consumer safety space, knows that MoCRA was only one step in the right direction, the Advocacy efforts continue (did you know Beautycounter has an in-house Advocacy team? You’re investing in a healthier future simply by purchasing skincare or makeup! How incredible is that?).
This is why we go to Washington DC regularly: to continue the crucial work of advocating for more health-protective laws so that one day, all beauty can be clean beauty (which means ALL companies and manufacturers are adhering to practices that protect the consumer vs. the system we have had for the last century).
Beautycounter Brand Advocates in front of the U.S. Capitol on a Lobbying Trip
Our next trip to the Hill is this May and Beautycounter Brand Advocates have the opportunity to go and represent their communities and lobby their elected officials for more oversight when it comes to what we put on our bodies.
I’d love to represent you. Because this is a movement to get cleaner products into the marketplace and because visibility of the brand means more awareness and more awareness means more advocacy (we’ve helped pass 15 pieces of legislation in the last 10 years!), the way to secure my spot as your representative on this DC trip is to continue to get Beautycounter into the hands of more women. Here’s the idea:
Beautycounter is a mission-based company that uses commerce as an engine for change.
Women learn about Beautycounter and either use the products or at the very least, become aware that what they put on their bodies matters and they start to make informed choices in the beauty aisle at Target.
When women DO purchase Beautycounter, it allows the Advocacy team to keep partnering with other needle-movers and lobbying for more health-protective laws (which means things like MoCRA get passed)
The biggest way women know to purchase Beautycounter? Through the thousands of Brand Advocates Beautycounter employees as contract employees (I have proudly been one since 2019!).
This story is best told person to person. Products can’t educate you sitting on a shelf.
The brass tacks breakdown:
Beautycounter consultants —> Beautycounter sales —> Allows for Advocacy Team’s work + continued product formulation using transparently sourced ingredients that have been rigorously tested for safety
Beautycounter is simply a medium for change. Conscious capitalism, you could call it.
If you’d like to partner with me in this work, you can join me here.
If you’d like to be a part of the journey to help me secure my spot on the Beautycounter DC trip, you can continue to shop your Beautycounter with me and send your friends my way! It’s an earned trip which means it’s a community effort and as much as it humbles me and puts me far outside of my comfort zone to ask for your support, I know that the bigger mission of consumer safety is vital. It affects all of us. If I make it to DC, I will just be the physical embodiment of all of you. And I’ll bring you with me every step of the way.
The fact that Beautycounter is a clean beauty brand that LOBBIES IN WASHINGTON DC (I mean. Let that sink in for a second), is what caught my attention about this brand back in 2016 when I first heard of them. Advocacy is the current of my work- it’s why I’ve been a Beautycounter Brand Advocate for 4.5 years.
Your health and safety deeply matter to me. I want you to live a long, vibrant, healthy life and I believe there’s an onus on our government to provide more protection so the burden isn’t on you as the consumer. And I plan to tell them that this May.
Let’s go, girls.