Cool Clean Beauty Brands To Know In 2023

The art of beauty branding is exciting, challenging, and limitless. As an industry that continues to grow and evolve, the movements in the beauty space are constantly shifting. Everyday on social media, we are presented with new trends like double cleansing, buccal fat reduction, no-poo shampoo, cloud skin, filters in a bottle, and skin flooding. The list is remarkably endless. And for most beauty and wellness brands, this means finding innovative ways to stand out from all that noise.

As a beauty and wellness contributor, my inbox is often flooded by hundreds of pitches. The lobby receptionist in my building has also started to refer to me as the tiny lady who gets dozens of sample packages everyday. My sister, who has begun to regard my bathroom as a mini Sephora, once asked: “How do you decide on which products to feature?”

This curated list of beauty brands was a story I’ve had on the pipeline for months now. Cool is admittedly relative concept, and may vary from person to person. But regardless of lifestyle, a true blue beauty enthusiast will always tune in to the brand’s narrative. It’s what draws us initially, and establishes a personal, intimate connection with the brand. Functionality, practicality and efficacy evidently factor into whether we like a product or not. It’s hard to like a brand that causes skin irritation. Beautiful packaging, heritage and unique proposition integral parts the make up the cool quotient.

TYPOLOGY PARIS offers radically simple, and straight-forward skincare products made in France.

The Promise: Premium, pared-down, all natural skincare at very accessible prices.

Heritage: 100% French formulations made in partner laboratories around Bergerac, Aix en Provence, and Compiegne

The Hero Product: Tinted Lip Oil

Verdict: The Tinted Lip Oil leaves the most natural and subtle hint of color. It is ideal for creating the candy stained makeup look. Natural ingredients like squalene, jojoba oil, and vitamin E deeply nourishes dry, chapping lips–sans the greasy feel.

IOTA is a nutritional body care brand that creates biome-friendly products to promote overall skin health.

The Promise: Nourishing formulas infused with pre-and probiotics to enhance skin health.

Heritage: IOTA was founded by Monique Meneses, who has worked in the beauty space for over 15 years. Her motherhood journey saw several health scares, which eventually led her to building a body care brand dedicated to skin health.

The Hero Product: Super Vitamin Body Wash + Detoxifying

Verdict: Super Vitamin Body Wash envelops the senses with gentle yet invigorating notes of lemongrass and eucalyptus. It is a bright ray of sunshine inside the shower. A biome friendly formula packed with multivitamins, minerals, algae, magnesium, and goji leaves the body smooth, supple, and squeaky clean.

TRU ALCHEMY believes that skincare is sacred self-care.

The Promise: Skincare products are formulated using patented clinical-strength complexes and active botanical blends.

Heritage: Founded in 2021, Tru Alchemy draws from the school of ancient rituals and infuses knowledge from modern science to bring consumers a self loving skincare experience.

The Hero Product: Glow Serum

Verdict: Glow Serum is a hybrid between a face oil and light serum. It deeply nourishes skin and soothes the senses with a truly clean formula of hardworking ingredients. This includes: activated vitamin C, bakuchiol, Tridroxy Acid blend, white shitake, licorice root and niacinamide. True to its promise of serving up clean formulas with integrity, Glow Serum works wonders even on sensitive skin. After three weeks of regular use, dark spots and blemishes were visibly lighter. Texture and tone also improved significantly.

GISOU brings to the fore the many nourishing and nourishing properties of honey on hair.

The Promise: Bouncy, nourished healthy locks born out of time honored beekeeping savoir-faire and a hairdresser’s special formula.

Heritage: Gisou’s roots date as far back as 1972, but the brand’s first multipurpose haircare oil was born in 1995. Its founder, Negin Mirsalehi, finally decided it was time to share the family’s secret recipe to the world in 2012.

Hero Product: Honey Infused Hair Oil

Verdict: This luxurious hair oil leaves locks with salon shine, softness, and bounce. I love to use it as the final polish after blow drying my hair. It also works well as a pre-styling product, hair mask booster and overnight treatment. Its key ingredient, Mirsalehi Honey, does wonders in protecting hair’s natural moisture.

SOLAWAVE creates state-of-the-art, affordable, and compact wands to address a wide range of skincare concerns.

The Promise: Award winning products that deliver your best skin in two weeks.

Heritage: Travel friendly skin wands and beauty tools from SOLAWAVE were created by a team of designers, engineers and veteran entrepreneurs. This is backed by decades of research and dermatologist approvals.

Hero Product: Advanced Skincare Wand Red Light Therapy

Verdict: Recognized as the the #1 Skincare Tool by the Zoe Report last year, this red light wand combines four technologies in one pen-sized device: microcurrent, therapeutic warmth, facial massage and red light therapy. That it can also fit into a makeup pouch makes it a dream beauty tool especially when traveling or going through a long day on-the-go. SOLAWAVE’s Advanced Skincare Wand works best when paired with skin serum or face mask. After two to three weeks of use, appearance of fine lines, dark spots and blemishes were significantly diminished. I also loved that my pores and overall skin texture has also improved.