Clean Organic Beauty encompasses products that are made without the harmful additives that you may find in mainstream drugstore brands. Clean Beauty companies aim to be more conscious about the ingredients they use, and the effectiveness of the end product.  

Our skin is our biggest organ and absorbs the majority of what we put on it. If we are trying to be more aware of the toxins seeping into our life, taking a look at the beauty products we use is a good idea.  

At one time, we would only find clean & organic beauty products at our local health food store. Today, as consumers are becoming more attentive to what they use in their homes and on their bodies, clean & organic beauty is becoming more mainstream.  

Unfortunately, clean & organic beauty often does cost more, deterring those that feel the expense is too steep. Here we take a look at the top 10 reasons why clean & organic beauty often costs more than mainstream beauty brands, and why the expense is warranted.   

 1. Clean Organic Beauty Are Often From Smaller Companies

When you think of mainstream beauty brands, you may think of walking through the drugstore aisle or Sephora and seeing brands like Cover Girl, L’Oreal, Rimmel, MAC, Lancome…etc. These companies have been in the game for A LONG TIME now and run their manufacturing and marketing on a large scale. Clean & Organic Beauty has emerged as a trend in recent years and companies are smaller, with smaller production lines, and overhead is still more costly. As clean & organic beauty continues to catch on and become more of the norm, companies will grow into a more efficient production line, scaling costs and becoming less expensive in the future.  

 2. Clean Organic Beauty is Often Made in the West

We’ve seen this a ton in the garment industry, to make more profits and see more revenue large beauty brands are manufacturing more of their products in China and abroad. Companies have figured out what and where to manufacture their products so that they can maximize profits while still maintaining a solid brand image. For example, Almay will manufacture their concealer, foundations, and lipstick in the USA, while they have made their blush in China.  

Clean & organic beauty is almost all manufactured in Europe and the USA. This alone adds to costs since workers are always paid based on the standards dictated by the government and the minimum wage.  

 3. Clean Organic Beauty Procures Quality Ingredients

This is a cost that is hugely different when comparing standard beauty brands to clean & organic beauty brands. Organic ingredients are more expensive due to a few factors: growing clean crops is more time-consuming, more labor-intensive, and riskier as crops can easily get wiped out in a season due to infestations or disease. The quality of ingredients is very important to clean & organic beauty brands and thus needs to be well researched, making sure that the farmers are keeping up with organic standards and integrity.  

 4. Clean Organic Beauty Requires Organic Certification

Getting certified organic requires TIME and MONEY! To receive an organic certification a farmer must start a plan and process at least two years before they are certified. They need to pay for applications, certifying agents, inspections, and not to mention the higher cost of organic fertilizer and labor. All of these additional factors are subsequently handed down to the end-user of the product.  

Clean & organic beauty costs more because all of the ingredients in the end product must come from organic sources for it to be labeled organic.  

 5. Clean Organic Beauty Uses Sustainable Packaging

Companies and consumers that use clean & organic beauty products will often also demand sustainable packaging that is easily recycled and works hand in hand with the cradle-to-cradle movement. Sustainable packaging costs more because it is usually made out of materials like glass, thick cardboard, bio-friendly plastics, and eco-friendly dyes.  

For more information on cradle-to-cradle living see this article on the Zero Waste Lifestyle. 

Not only is sustainable packaging more expensive to produce, but it usually weighs more and is more expensive to ship to the store or the consumer. All these costs must be weighed into the product.  

 6. Clean Organic Beauty Uses Higher Concentrations

Next time you walk past a mainstream beauty brand, take a look at the ingredients, chances are the touted ingredients like coconut oil, jojoba, fruit extracts, and flower extracts are near the bottom of the list and are barely present in the solution. They actually have to have only a small portion of the ingredient for them to advertise the benefits.  

Clean & organic beauty brands are effective because they have a much higher concentration of expensive ingredients. Seed oils, flower extracts, and fruit extracts are usually at the top of the ingredient list and cost much more than the fillers used by mainstream beauty brands.  

7. Clean Organic Beauty Uses Fewer Fillers 

Fillers like parabens, alcohol, petroleum products, and emulsifiers are cheap and plentiful in mainstream beauty. Not only have these ingredients been linked with other health-related issues, but they are an easy way to dilute the products and fill the tube.  

If you want to read more about toxic beauty products, take a look at the article here:  

Clean & organic beauty products avoid these fillers and stick to effective and pure substances that aim to help. Most clean beauty companies only use ingredients that have a reason for being there: helps calm the skin, clears blemishes, antibacterial…etc.  

Fewer fillers in the products also mean that less is needed to reap the benefits. This allows your clean & organic beauty products to last longer.  

 8. Clean Organic Beauty Needs Funding for Research 

To keep a cutting edge, clean & organic beauty is constantly searching for safe and new ingredients that are effective. This research requires time and money which ends up being a cost of the end product. Clean beauty does not test on animals, and uses a variety of plant extracts, making it necessary to research the ingredients and ensure products are safe and do not cause reactions.  

 9. Clean Organic Beauty Produces Smaller Batch Manufacture

There are two main reasons clean & organic beauty companies use smaller batch manufacturing. The first is that clean beauty products often have no parabens and shelf stabilizers to keep them fresh longer. As a result, companies make smaller batches to keep products fresh.  

Also, many clean beauty companies are smaller, allowing for only small-batch production. The more we can make of something, the cheaper it will be. Since clean beauty companies do not make large batches at a time, products are more expensive and have a shorter shelf life.  

To learn more about the ultimate natural skincare routine, read this article here:

 10. Clean Organic Beauty Must Maintain Their Clean Image

This last one may be a bit controversial, but it is one to consider. Just think, if a Louis Vuitton Bag only costs $20 would it be a fashion status symbol? The same goes for clean & organic beauty products, yes they DO cost more to manufacture, but if a Beauty Bar Lipstick costs the same as a Covergirl lipstick, it may not have the same appeal and perception, especially to those unaware of the company’s background and mission statement. Image does play a part in our society, and beauty brands are all trying to make money with the products that they are selling.  

The Future of Clean Organic Beauty

As more and more people switch from generic beauty to clean & organic beauty brands, we will start to see these products more as a norm and less as a novelty. Consumers will ultimately dictate what companies can get away with, and if fewer people choose toxic beauty products, we will shift to a new industry standard.  

For more information on clean beauty and sustainable choices, take a look at our other articles on our site.