Greenwashing 101: How “Clean Beauty” is Catfishing Your Skin

Walk into any store’s “clean beauty” aisle and you’re met with soft pastel packaging, leaves on the labels, and words like natural, plant-based, and dermatologist approved. It feels safe. It feels wholesome.

But peel back that label and you’ll find a very different story. Petroleum jelly with a drop of olive oil calling itself “eco.” Lab-made “bioidentical” oils dressed up as nature. Synthetic fragrances hiding under the words “essential oil blend.”

This isn’t “clean beauty.” It’s greenwashing. And it’s convincing people they’re protecting their families when they’re really buying the same old formulas with a compostable jar and better marketing.

At Skin Pantry & Apothecary, we make food-grade skincare. That means if we wouldn’t put it on a plate, we’re not putting it in a jar. Here’s how other brands are catfishing your skin and why we refuse to play that game.

The “Dermatologist Approved” Myth: Bought, Paid For, and Meaningless

That little seal of approval you see on so many jars? It doesn’t mean safety. It doesn’t mean purity. And it definitely doesn’t mean “clean.”

“Dermatologist tested” usually means a company hired a dermatologist, paid them to review the product, and bought the right to use that phrase. There’s no universal standard, no independent panel, no ingredient regulation behind it.

“Dermatologist recommended” is even looser. A brand can send samples to a handful of doctors, get one thumbs-up, and legally stamp every jar with the phrase. Meanwhile, the product can still be full of petroleum derivatives, synthetic preservatives, and lab-made oils that offer nothing but a false sense of security.

The Sneakiest Greenwashing Tricks

1. “Plant-Based” Petroleum

A soft green label, a few leafy graphics, and one drop of natural oil in a jar of petrolatum—that’s all it takes to call something “plant-based.” The reality? Petroleum coats skin like plastic wrap. It traps everything underneath, including irritation, and offers zero nutrition or repair. Your skin doesn’t need an oil slick with a marketing team.

2. Synthetic Fragrance Masquerading as “Essential Oils”

When a label says “lavender essential oil blend,” chances are it’s not lavender at all. It’s a lab-made perfume designed to smell like lavender. True essential oils are steam-distilled or cold-pressed from plants and carry antioxidants and therapeutic compounds that feed the skin barrier. Synthetic versions smell nice and do nothing else.

3. Diluted “Hero Ingredients”

Front of the jar: made with cucumber oil. Back of the jar: cucumber oil buried 12 ingredients deep under water, stabilizers, and cheap carriers. That means you’re getting a splash of the “hero ingredient” the marketing team picked, not enough to deliver benefits. It’s like throwing one blueberry into a gallon of pancake batter and calling it “blueberry pancakes.”

4. Undefined Buzzwords

“Natural.” “Clean.” “Non-toxic.” None of these are regulated terms. A jar can have one natural ingredient and twelve synthetic ones and still call itself “natural.” Real clean beauty defines what those words mean and backs it up with transparent ingredient lists you can actually read.

5. Bioidentical Oils: The Great Catfish

Many “natural” brands use lab-made bioidentical oils—synthetic copies designed to mimic lavender, rosemary, or grapefruit. They smell right, but they’re not plant-derived and don’t carry the antioxidants, fatty acids, or micronutrients of the real thing. Your skin isn’t falling for the catfish. It knows the difference between scent and substance.

6. Overprocessed “Natural” Ingredients

Even when a brand uses real oils, many are the cheapest, most refined versions. Heat-processing and bleaching strip away the delicate nutrients that make those oils worth using. What’s left is a neutral, shelf-stable filler that does little more than act as a base. That’s why we stick to cold-pressed and unrefined wherever possible—your skin deserves ingredients in their raw, nutrient-dense form, not the equivalent of reheated fast food.

7. “Free From” Distraction

You’ve seen the stamps: paraben-free. Sulfate-free. Cruelty-free. Great things—but they’re also a distraction. A product can be “free from” every scary word in the marketing playbook and still be full of petroleum, synthetic fragrance, or lab-made oils. A “free from” label tells you what’s not inside without telling you what is.

8. Eco Packaging ≠ Eco Ingredients

A compostable jar doesn’t fix a dirty ingredient deck. True sustainability starts inside the jar—with biodegradable, food-grade ingredients that feed your skin and don’t burden the planet. Packaging should never be the cleanest part of your skincare.

“Clean” Ingredients That Aren’t Clean at All:

• Phenoxyethanol: Marketed as a “safe” preservative. It’s a petrochemical linked to irritation and banned in infant products in several countries.
• Synthetic Vitamin E (dl-alpha tocopherol): Petroleum-derived, less bioavailable, and lacking the antioxidant potency of natural vitamin E.
• Fragrance/Parfum: A trade secret loophole that hides a cocktail of synthetic scent chemicals under one word—even in “natural” products.
• Caprylyl Glycol & Ethylhexylglycerin: Petroleum-derived preservatives often labeled as “gentle and natural.”
• Lab-Created “Bioidentical” Oils: Look and smell like plant oils but carry none of their nutrients or benefits.
• Polysorbates (20, 60, 80): Common emulsifiers that are ethoxylated, often contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, a known carcinogen.
• Mineral Oil: Still a petroleum byproduct, no matter how many times it’s labeled “gentle” or “pharmaceutical-grade.”

How to Read Labels Like a Pro:

1. Check the first 3 ingredients. They make up most of the product. If you see petroleum or synthetics, it’s not as “clean” as it claims.
2. Watch for vague language. “Fragrance,” “parfum,” and “essential oil blend” without a plant name are red flags.
3. Look for sourcing details. Cold-pressed, steam-distilled, unrefined = nutrient-rich. Words missing? Probably cheap, processed versions.
4. Ignore the front of the jar. That’s marketing. The back tells the truth.
5. Recognize the buzzword trap. “Dermatologist approved” is a purchase order, not a safety seal. “Natural” means nothing unless it’s defined.

Why Skin Pantry & Apothecary is Different:

We don’t use buzzwords as a smoke screen. We use grass-fed & finished tallow because its fatty acid profile mirrors human skin. Raw beeswax to lock in moisture without suffocating. Cold-pressed red raspberry and carrot seed oil for vitamins and antioxidants. Steam-distilled essential oils—never lab-made scent copies.

Our ingredient lists are short because every ingredient has a job. No fillers pretending to be functional. No “clean” labels hiding dirty secrets. Just food-grade, small-batch formulas designed to feed, protect, and restore your skin barrier the way nature intended.

Your skin deserves more than greenwashed marketing. It deserves the good stuff.