Clean Beauty Made Easy

Clean beauty sounds great in theory — until you run out of mascara and end up standing in the fluorescent aisles of the drugstore squinting at the tiny print on a label. But NakedPoppy, which sponsored this post, makes it easy to choose more natural cosmetics and skincare products. The company designed a beauty assessment quiz that delivers surprisingly accurate product recommendations — from the best-match foundation for your complexion to the super-hydrating facial oil you never knew you needed. No more time-sucking scrolling! And there’s more to NakedPoppy than a neat algorithm: They’ve made clean beauty an obsession. Want to learn more and score a cool 10% off? Read on!

THE NO LIST

Did you know that the word “fragrance” can represent more than 3,000 different chemicals that manufacturers don’t want to list on their labels? Neither did I, until I started researching clean beauty more than a decade ago.

Clean beauty used to be called green beauty — I even wrote a Mommy Greenest Guide to Green Beauty where I share some of the red flags to look for in personal care and cosmetics. (Like Christmas, right?)

But NakedPoppy screens products to make sure they avoid the 12,500 questionable ingredients commonly used to formulate products — and put those baddies on their no list, meaning they won’t formulate products or sell products that contain them.

CRUELTY-FREE

It’s a short story: Every product made by or sold through NakedPoppy is cruelty-free. The end.

IMPACT

NakedPoppy partners with brands that follow fair labor practices and minimize their environmental impact. Although they do carry products packaged in plastic and you can’t — yet — use the algorithm to prioritize those that choose PCR (post consumer recycled) plastic, it’s easy to search your picks for those that package in (perpetually recyclable) aluminum or glass. These include NakedPoppy’s own Facial Cleansers and bestselling Facial Oil. 

THE GANG’S ALL HERE

Many of the brands sold at NakedPoppy are OG clean beauty innovators that I’ve been following for years — like RMS Beauty, Kosas, Kari Gran, and Odacité. And now they’re all available at one lovely site!

YES, PLEASE

My favorite part? NakedPoppy employs a team of experts and makeup artists to test out each product before it goes on the site, and they show product photos applied to multiple skin tones so you can really see how they would look on your skin.

The assessment generated perfect picks for me, including Kosas Revealer Super Creamy + Brightening Concealer and Daytime Eye Cream in 2.5 W — 28 different shades to choose from in three categories — light, medium, and deep— ($28) and Naked Poppy Clean Liquid Eyeliner in Black ($22).

I also tried out the NakedPoppy Foaming Refresh Cleanser ($12), formulated with aloe, which lathers up beautifully and contains lactic and polyhyroxy acids to gently exfoliate, but doesn’t strip my skin. Love!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

So back to that game-changing, three-minute NakedPoppy assessment. Mine began with basic questions — such as how important clean beauty is to me — and then went deep. It asked very specific details on my preferences and skin tone — such as whether I prefer white or ivory shirts. For each question, you can click a helpful “why is this question important” button for an explanation: People whose skin has a warm undertone typically prefer off-white. Who knew?

PRIVACY

Those who are concerned about privacy will want to know that NakedPoppy protects all the information they collect and will not sell or share. I liked that the photo requested during the assessment — which was facilitated by the app — was promptly destroyed, especially as I took it while sitting in bed with my laptop before I’d even had caffeine.

10% OFF

Want to try? Save 10% off your NakedPoppy orders (min $50) by clicking the links in this post, including here. Happy shopping!

Thanks to NakedPoppy for sponsoring this post. For more about my editorial standards, please click here.