Detoxification, or the process of removing impurities of toxins from the body and skin, has become a true cultural buzzword, with “detox” appearing on labels for every kind of cosmetic and personal care product, from shampoo to body wash to face masks for consumers who are “feeling dirty.”

What’s behind this explosive, purification-obsessed personal care trend? An overall consumer concern about cleanliness, especially for their beauty products, a renewed interest in convenient products to quick-fix the issues of an unhealthy lifestyle, and a slew of exciting and innovative new products that target and address the harm caused by environmental toxins.

Another major impetus behind the detox beauty movement is the relatively new consumer desire to create beauty via the inside out. While beauty used to be viewed as a purely cosmetic pursuit, or a fun extension to fashion, beauty is now viewed as something else entirely. Today, beauty, and subsequently beauty product purchasing, is closely linked to health.

The “detox your way to beauty” movement has taken off in books and other media, as well as products.

Consumers believe that smooth, even skin tone, healthy hair, and a sparkling smile can all be traced to lifestyle factors like a whole foods diet, a good night’s sleep, regular exercise, and a generally healthy life. However, the realities of living in the stress-filled modern world often lead to less than ideal cosmetic results for consumers – and this is where detox beauty products help pick up the slack.

Detoxifying beauty products offer a tantalizing promise to increasingly time-strapped and stressed-out consumers: here’s a fast-track fix to remedying a less than healthful lifestyle! And with viral articles like “10 Skin Saviors to Help You Get Through the Dreaded Morning After” and “How to care for your skin before, during and after a flight” and “Your 7-Step Guide to a Total Complexion Detox” populating publications from Vogue to The Washington Post, it’s clear that cosmetic antidotes to stress-filled, busy lifestyles are desired and craved for by consumers en masse.

While detox beauty products can’t permanently solve unhealthy lifestyle choices, detox personal care products can help temporarily ease the pain of a sleepless night or stressful week and provide relief, relaxation, and positive cosmetic benefits in tandem. For many, those positive benefits are enough reason to add another detox face mask or shampoo into their shopping cart.

A third driver behind the detox beauty movement is the increasingly sophisticated understanding and consumer interest in how environmental influences, or “toxins” or “pollutants,” can disrupt, harm, or otherwise negatively affect the skin, nails, hair, bodies, and smiles.

While toxins were once thought of as indigestible substances, toxins are now viewed as a wide variety of thoroughly modern irritants. Some of today’s most talked toxic factors? Man-made sources like smog and pollution, the blue light that emanates from smart devices and screens, and environmental factors like UV rays.

Detox products aim to solve this new worry with products that both cleanse and remove pollutants (i.e. detox anti-pollution face wash) after a long day in an urban environment. Detox products are truly the perfect personal care niche items for helping consumers deal with their new worries about the potentially harmful effects pollution, blue light, and other artificial irritants can have on their appearance and health.

And, like other trends before it, the detox beauty trend creates an opportunity for formulators to create innovative new products that protect, cleanse, and ultimately provide a “detoxifying” experience for clean-leaning consumers.

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