British Beauty Council Patron DECIEM have recently launched their ‘Everything is Chemicals’ initiative, which aims to demystify beauty buzzword ‘Clean’.
DECIEM have penned an open letter to explain more about the initiative:
Chemicals are nothing new. Atoms form bonds, creating molecules that make up matter, that makes up everything around us, long before humans created Chemistry. One can say that nature is the original Chemist, and Chemistry is the language through which humans communicate their findings about the workings of the world around them down to an atomic level.
In the language of Chemistry, a chemical is any substance with a definite composition. We communicate this using the periodic table – Chemistry’s very own alphabet – to create chemical formulas. For example, a simple combination of one atom of oxygen (O) and two atoms of hydrogen (H) gives us H2O, the chemical formula of water. In this context, water is a chemical. When the language of Chemistry is removed, water is still water, with the same molecular structure, playing the same role it always has.
Humans are entirely made of chemicals too, and so is everything around us: from the things we can see, to the many that we can’t. From the foods we can taste, to the flowers we can smell, the solids we can grab and the gases we cannot. Everything is made of chemicals. So what is it about defining a substance by its chemical composition that makes it “unclean” when compared to its common name? What makes vinegar and baking soda cupboard staples, but acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate dangerous substances? Much like some of us are afraid of the dark, most of us will fear the unknown.
At DECIEM, we believe that by bringing science-backed, repeatable, experimental evidence to the forefront, we are leaving some of this darkness behind. The unknown is replaced with reliable information, so that our fears cannot be used as a form of marketing. And while we understand that there is much to be uncovered, we conscientiously avoid cherry-picking information to further an agenda, choosing instead to trust the many scientists making a monumental effort to evaluate a complete body of evidence pertaining to the safety of the products that you know and love.
When interpreting said evidence during and after the creation of our products, we follow the core principle of toxicology – dose makes the poison. We understand that, while everything around us might pose a life threatening hazard, the circumstances under which we come into contact with this hazard are what truly makes the risk. This risk based approach, coupled with solid regulations across the globe, is what has always allowed us, and virtually all current beauty brands, to ensure your safety. Science has worked very hard to earn your trust and, going forward, we vow to show you exactly how.
We believe that the beauty of science is its inquisitive nature – it never stops questioning. And at DECIEM, we question the safety of our ingredients with the same energy that we apply to investigating their efficacy. In both cases, we turn to our fellow scientists for evidence, never settling for one single source, or buckling under the pressure of inaccurate claims propagated by fear-mongering.
DECIEM was founded on principles of authenticity and transparency, and the unclear definition of “clean beauty” directly contradicts these values by encouraging marketing to lead over very clear science. As we all move towards a more transparent future, it’s important that we continue to question the ways in which the beauty industry communicates with us.
As a thank you for trusting our disruptive ways, DECIEM’s own Scientific team has been working on an exciting project that will shed some light on the subject of ingredient and product safety, from a scientifically-sound perspective that encompases both the principles of toxicology and the basis of regulatory requirements. In the upcoming months, we will share this work via a number of resources that will enable you to better understand the chemistry of the world around you. We would love for you to join us on this journey (and we promise to keep it clean ;-))
In support of science,
DECIEM
