You want your skin care and beauty products to be free from harmful chemicals and potential irritants. You might even be willing to spend a little extra on a product claiming to be clean. But what does clean actually mean, and does it really protect you from these harmful ingredients? Let's shed some light on the subject, the potential risks associated with this buzzword, and why OneSkin prefers to use safe instead.
01
What Does โCleanโ Really Mean?
Clean beauty originally meant that products were free from potentially harmful ingredients, a well-intended idea that promised safer choices for consumers. However, as the industry evolved, the meaning of clean expanded, and it was often used to suggest that a product had broader characteristics like natural or organic.[1]So, how did a well-intended term turn into marketing craftiness? The challenge here is that clean has never been clearly defined by the FDA, and because thereโs no formal regulatory framework around it, the term has become ripe for misuse. Plus, there isnโt a widely accepted list of banned ingredients that would deem a product not clean, meaning a product can potentially include irritating ingredients despite it being labeled as clean. [1]This has allowed brands to market products as clean as they see fit and with little accountability. When your skinโs health depends on it, why take that risk?
02
Why is โSafeโ Better?
The ambiguity around โcleanโ products is why OneSkin prefers to use the term safe instead - a term that is testable and defined. Our scientists can rigorously test our products on human skin in the lab and provide hard evidence that skin health is not harmed. Additionally, OneSkinโs products are, and always will be, free from these known irritants:
- Parabens
- Palm oil
- Phthalate
- PEG
- Fragrance
- Colorants
- Sulfate
- Baking soda
- Triclosan
- Triclocarban
- Retinyl Palmitate
- Mineral Oil
- Formaldehyde
- Acrylate
03
What Can You Do to Ensure Your Products Are Non-Toxic?
Itโs usually a safe bet that clean products will exclude well-known harmful ingredients such as parabens and sulfates, which can irritate the skin and deteriorate skin health, but how do you know your products donโt contain other lesser-known irritants and potential toxins? One way is through databases developed by health advocacy groups, such as SkinSAFE, the National Eczema Association, the EWGโs Skin Deep Database, or the Think Dirty App, all of which provide consumers with hazard scores for beauty products.Many well-known retailers, like Sephora, Target, Walmart, and Amazon, have their own guidelines for what ingredients should be excluded from clean products. While this is helpful, the problem is that thereโs no official governing body overseeing these lists, meaning they can change without notice. This can place a lot of burden on you, the consumer, to stay on top of what products may potentially include ingredients that you donโt want.
04
How Does OneSkin Determine Whether a Product is Safe During Development?
While our team of scientists ensures that our products are free of known irritants and harmful ingredients, how do we truly know whether a product is harmful to human skin? At OneSkin, testing our products on human skin samples is fundamental to our R&D process. Our scientists evaluate various biomarkers of skin health after exposing human skin samples to ingredients and products. This allows us to assess the safety, or toxicity, of products on the cellular level, going deeper than most other skin care companies to verify the safety of our products before we begin our clinical trials.
Using Histology and Expression Analyses To Evaluate Skin Health
The structural integrity of the upper skin layers โ the epidermis and dermis โ are powerful and reliable indicators of skin health since they play a strong role in the skinโs barrier function. A thicker skin barrier generally means younger, healthier skin, as it protects the rest of the skin and body from external aggressors and keeps your skin's moisture locked in.[2]To analyze a productโs impact on the skinโs barrier and health, our scientists treat ex vivo human skin samples with products of interest in the lab. By viewing very thin layers under the microscope a process called histology, our scientists can note each layer's morphological and cellular changes.[3] This is one of the primary tools that OneSkin uses to assess a productโs safety, and not just our own. We can also test other products on the market for their safety or toxicity. See a prime example below.
Our scientists treated ex vivo human skin with nothing (no treatment), the OS-01 peptide, and two other products โ Product A and Product B โ both of which are popular on the market, then viewed those skins under the microscope.
As a baseline, skin with no treatment was evaluated to be healthy. Skin treated with OS-01 increased the thickness of the epidermis, indicating that it improved the skinโs barrier and health. Similarly, โProduct A,โ containing glycolic acid, also improved the thickness of the epidermis, though not as much as the OS-01 peptide. Skin treated with โProduct Bโ significantly diminished the thickness of the epidermis, indicating that the product is potentially toxic to the skin and impairs skinโs health.[4] In addition to histology, our scientists also use expression analyses to test an array of biomarkers associated with skin health. This can tell us whether a product might increase inflammation, accelerate aging, or increase senescence, leading us to know that skin is not reacting well to the product. Alternatively, we can also evaluate changes in biomarkers associated with collagen and hyaluronic acid production, cell proliferation, and repair pathways. If these biomarkers are increased, we can tell that skin is reacting positively to the product. By assessing our formulas beyond a theoretical database and evaluating the cellular changes that occur with exposure to products on real human skin, weโre leaving the guesswork out of the ever-important claim of safe skin care.
RIPT to Test for Human Sensitization
To ensure repeat exposure doesnโt induce irritation over time, all OneSkinโs products are tested for human sensitization, a phenomenon of reverse tolerance where the skin becomes increasingly sensitive to a product with continued use. This is done via Repeat Insult Patch Tests, or RIPT, which is a clinical evaluation of the level of skin irritation with continued usage of a substance. Through RIPT, all OneSkinโs products have been deemed non-irritating and Safe for Sensitive Skin.[4] This testing was also necessary for OneSkinโs products to earn the National Eczema Associationโs seal of approval. Every OneSkin product is clinically tested using RIPT to ensure that even those with the most sensitive, eczema-prone skin can use our products without irritating their skin.ย
05
How Do We Know The OS-01 Peptide is Safe?
At OneSkin, we take the safety of our products seriously. All of our supporting ingredients are extensively tested by us and by our vendors. But what about the safety of our star proprietary ingredient, the OS-01 peptide? Here's how we tested the OS-01 peptide to make sure it's gentle, non-toxic, and safe:
Irritation and Toxicity Tests
During lab testing, we ran cell viability tests on human dermal fibroblasts and keratinocytes, exposing them to different concentrations of the peptide, ranging from 0.01 to 100 ฮผM. The great news? There was no significant drop in cell viability, even at the highest concentrations. Since the peptide works best at much lower doses (0.5โ12.5 ฮผM), this confirms that itโs non-toxic and safe to use.[5]We also wanted to see how the peptide would affect real skin, so we tested it on 3D human skin models. OS-01 improved skin health by maintaining epidermal thickness and stratification, proving itโs safe and beneficial for your skin.[5]
Genotoxicity Testing
In addition, we performed three different genotoxicity tests to make sure the peptide doesnโt harm your genetic material:
- Ames Test: The Ames test measures a compound's mutagenicity or ability to cause DNA mutations. We found that the OS-01 peptide did not induce mutations in DNA, even at high concentrations far exceeding those used in our products.[5]
- Micronuclei Test: Micronuclei are small fragments of chromosomal DNA linked to chromosome instability, genome rearrangements, and mutagenesis. Genotoxic compounds can increase the formation of these micronuclei, which is why testing the genotoxicity of the OS-01 peptide was crucial. The OS-01 peptide did not increase micronuclei formation.[5,6]
- Karyotyping: Chromosomal analysis of cells treated with OS-01 showed no chromosomal abnormalities, confirming the peptideโs safety with no genotoxic effects.[5]
Carcinogenicity testing
Ensuring that the OS-01 peptide doesnโt influence cancer cells was integral to determining its safety. We exposed several cancerous cell lines, including melanoma (MeWo), cervical cancer (HeLa), pancreatic cancer (SW1990), and lung cancer (H358), to the OS-01 peptide and observed no increase in cancer cell proliferation.[5] Important to note is that the OS-01 peptide was not designed to cure or treat cancer. These tests were strictly for safety purposes.
Absorption Testing
Given that one of the benefits of topical peptides is their ability to penetrate the skin barrier, determining whether the peptide will enter the bloodstream is important for determining our product's safety. During a 12-week clinical trial in which participants applied OS-01 BODY and OS-01 FACE daily, we found no peptide in blood samples, indicating that while the peptide absorbed into the skin and boosted skin health, it didn't spread throughout the body.[4]This is all fantastic news. At OneSkin, we believe the best way to cut through clever marketing buzzwords is by relying on science. Thatโs why although our products are considered โcleanโ by most measures, theyโre also scientifically proven to be โsafe,โ a term which carries far more weight when it comes to ensuring your long-term skin health.
Key Takeaways:
- Without formal oversight, "clean" beauty can include irritating ingredients, making the term unreliable.
- OneSkin prioritizes "safe" products that undergo rigorous lab and clinical testing to prove they wonโt harm your skin.
- By excluding harsh chemicals, OneSkin ensures its products are gentle and effective.
- OneSkin uses several tests for our products and ingredients to determine that they support skin health without causing cellular damage.
- OS-01 improves skin health without compromising cell viability, harming DNA, increasing cancer risk, or absorbing into the bloodstream.
Disclaimers
- This article was initially published in July 2022 and has been updated.
References
- https://uclawreview.org/2024/03/06/clean-beauty-a-void-in-consumer-protection/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470464/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6115505/
- Based on data from clinical studies and/or lab studies conducted on human skin samples, 3D skin models, and skin cells in the OneSkin lab. Explore more at oneskin.co/claims
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9742937/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8119331/
