Best Celebrity Beauty Brands

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a surge in celebrities bringing out their beauty and grooming brands. Fans have been quick to purchase their idols' new products, but are they any good? Most importantly, do they get the Proverb seal of approval for the ingredients used? 

We took a deep dive into the ‘beautysphere’ of celebrities to find the best celebrity beauty brands out there and put their eco-friendliness to the test.

Goop by Gwenyth Paltrow 

For any health and wellness lovers out there, you may be already familiar with Gwenyth Paltrow’s Goop, originally starting as a weekly newsletter back in 2008, to now creating entire skincare and haircare lines, as well as selling other clean brands on their website too.

Goop has widely spoken out about the ‘toxic ingredients’ (one of their favourite terms and one we refuse to use in the Proverb office, as we explained in our greenwashing article) used in personal care and beauty products. All of their products are formulated without parabens, petroleum, phthalates, SLS, SLES, PEGs, TEA, DEA, silicones or artificial dyes or fragrances. The brand is also cruelty-free. 

Goop is known for controversy and loud opinions on ingredients, without being willing to show the consumer the opposing opinions or evidence. While at Proverb we agree with most of their beliefs about ingredients and skincare production, ‘green brands’ delivering crazy statements (like telling you petrochemical skincare would poison you), is starting to do just as much damage as the mainstream brands using said chemicals.

Would we recommend Goop? They have a very strong platform, thanks to their celebrity founder, and receive a lot of press (good and bad). From an educated skincare standpoint they have, and repeatedly seem, to make mistakes, such as telling people last summer to apply sunscreen in just streaks down your nose and on your cheeks like a highlighter. This is a recipe for sun damage and pigmentation. We are very respectful of their desire to use better ingredients but would hope with that level of cash and PR, they would give more sound skincare advice.

Humanrace by Pharrell Williams

The ‘Happy’ singer-songwriter, Pharrell Williams founded Humanrace with a mission to empower people in their pursuit of wellbeing. The brand features both skincare and body care. All of the formulations are vegan, fragrance-free and cruelty-free and don't contain parabens, essential oils, mineral oils and silicones, as well as being made without rocks, nuts, seeds or plastic particles to prevent micro-tears. Although Humanrace only has a handful of products available on the site, they have some pretty unique ideas with a powered cleanser that transforms into a paste when wet. 

Would we recommend Humanrace? While the products may seem a little too innovative for the average Joe, we love to see such big names trying to make a difference in what ingredients people apply to their faces and body. After having a good inspection of the INCI list, we can confirm that ingredients such as Snow Mushroom Extract, Pumpkin and Lotus Leaf, it receives the Proverb seal of approval. 

Rosie Inc by Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely 

British model, Rosie Huntingdon-Whitey is the CEO of Rosie Inc which is a ‘clean beauty brand’ that sells a range of makeup, skincare, brushes and tools. Unlike most other celebrity beauty brands, Rosie Inc is certified vegan by the Leaping Bunny Association with all of its ingredients being both vegan and cruelty-free. They are so confident in the ingredients they use, that they have an ingredients glossary decoding all of the complex names of ingredients within their products on the website. The model-ran brand uses sustainable packaging, including FSC-certified paper cartons made with 30% hemp and rinse-off labels manufactured with a 90% PCR liner. 

Would we recommend Rosie Inc? Although the brand may not generally appeal to our Proverb audience, we applaud Rosie for the efforts on the ingredient list, containing ingredients such as Lactic Acid and Coco-Glucoside which is a natural foaming agent to avoid using any SLS. For that reason, it gets the Proverb seal of approval. Just remember that if a brand is vegan, that doesn’t make it natural and/or organic. You could have 100% petrol and be vegan. 

Fenty By Rihanna 

If you are into makeup, you know what Fenty is - one of the first celebrity brands to truly take the world by storm. Rihanna was inspired to create Fenty Beauty after years of seeing a void in the industry for products that performed across all skin types and tones. She launched a makeup line “so that people everywhere would be included,” focusing on a wide range of traditionally hard-to-match skin tones, creating formulas that work for all skin types, and pinpointing universal shades.

Would we recommend Fenty? As a brand, we love what Fenty stands for and the push for the makeup industry to have a greater diversity of shades and tones. However, if you are after an eco-friendly make-up brand, unfortunately, Fenty may not be the one for you. Although their products are vegan and cruelty-free, this, unfortunately, doesn't mean that the packaging is on the greener side of things with lots of plastic packaging that can be difficult to recycle with the various layers of laminate.

Kylie Cosmetics

The last celebrity beauty brand on our list comes from the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan: Kylie Jenner, who founded Kylie Cosmetics back in 2014 with her viral lip-kits and has gone on to create an entire makeup and skincare range (Kylie Skin) as well as a baby range and controversial swimwear line. 

Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin both use only vegan and cruelty-free ingredients. As someone who has such a big influence over Gen-Z, the brand is encouraging the younger generation to care more about the ingredients they are putting on their skin from a health and efficacy point of view (if you ignore the walnut scrub fiasco, of course).

Would we recommend Kylie Skin? Although it's awesome that someone with some much influence is starting a conversation with vegan ingredients, it doesn't necessarily mean that their packaging follows the same standards. Kylie Skin still uses its infamous millennial pink plastic packaging, which again, a bit like Fenty, can be a recycling nightmare, as it can be a task to dismantle the layers of laminate and plastic. 

There you have it, our deep dive into celebrity beauty brands and their eco-friendly status. Did we miss your favourite? Just let us know which celebrity beauty brand you want us to put to the test next on social media @proverbskin