Has Clean Beauty Become Too Complicated?
There’s no denying beauty feels more difficult to navigate than it once did. Ingredient lists are under greater scrutiny, skincare routines have grown longer and somewhere along the way, many of us started second-guessing products we’d used for years. What once felt relatively straightforward now feels far less clear-cut.
At the same time, there are signs beauty is recalibrating. We’re asking better questions. What genuinely supports skin health? Do we really need twelve products, or have we simply been overdoing it? Even the ultra-curated “clean girl” aesthetic feels like it’s losing some of its grip, with many of us wanting something that feels a little less perfect and a lot more realistic.
Brands like Tower 28 have found their place in this changing landscape. Founded by Amy Liu, the brand was built around the idea that sensitive skin products shouldn’t have to feel clinical or joyless.
So, has clean beauty become too complicated, or are we just getting smarter about what actually deserves space in our routine?
Why Clean Beauty Feels Different Right Now
Clean beauty once felt closely linked to minimalist packaging, certain buzzwords and a very specific kind of lifestyle. Earthy tones, curated routines and products that looked good lined up in the bathroom often carried just as much appeal as the formulas themselves. Now, we seem far more interested in what’s inside the bottle and whether it’s worth investing our time and money in.
Amy has noticed this change too. “People are so much savvier,” she says. “A few years ago, clean beauty was still riding a lot of vibe, the aesthetic, the lifestyle. Now consumers are closely reading labels, researching ingredients and asking harder questions. They want to understand the why, not just be told something is clean and trust it. That’s a really healthy shift.”
At the same time, what we prioritise seems to be changing too. Products that look good on a shelf still matter, but increasingly so does how our skin actually responds to them.
Are We More Ingredient-Aware Or Just Completely Overwhelmed?
If social media has ever left you questioning every product in your bathroom cabinet, you’re definitely not alone. One minute fragrance is supposedly the problem, the next it’s parabens, then sulfates and suddenly everyone’s talking about ingredients most of us had never heard of six months ago. It’s hardly surprising that skincare can feel harder to decode.
We know far more about ingredients than we used to, which is undoubtedly a good thing. At the same time, with so much information coming at us from every angle, it can be hard to know what genuinely matters and what’s just hype. Apps like Yuka have only added to this too. Many of us are now scanning products before they even make it into our basket, paying far closer attention to ingredients, but not always with enough context to properly make sense of them.
Amy thinks both things are true at once. “There’s a group of people who are deeply ingredient-literate, and then a much larger group who’ve been given so much conflicting information they don’t know what to believe,” she says. It’s also part of the reason skincare has started to feel more complicated than it needs to be. “It’s partly our industry’s fault,” Amy adds. “We’ve made skincare feel way more complicated than it needs to be.”
When every product promises dramatic results and every new launch claims to be essential, it’s understandable that many of us are craving a simpler approach.
Why So Many Of Us Suddenly Have “Sensitive Skin”
Skin barrier damage, redness, irritation and reactive skin seem far more common than they once were. Whether that’s because we’re more aware of changes in our skin or it genuinely has more to contend with is hard to say. Amy thinks it’s likely a mix of both. “Awareness is part of it. People are becoming much more conscious of how their skin responds, but I think there’s a real physiological element too… stress, environment, and pollution all affect your barrier.”
Modern life clearly plays a part, but our skincare habits may be contributing too. For years, we’ve been encouraged to chase faster results through stronger actives, more exfoliation and increasingly layered routines. Most of us have probably overdone it at some point, only to end up wondering why our skin suddenly feels irritated, reactive or harder to settle.
Amy sees overcomplicated routines as part of the issue too. “The explosion of active ingredients and multi-step routines hasn’t helped. We’ve been doing a lot to our skin in the name of improvement. Sometimes the skin pushes back.”
Aesthetician Melinda McKee of Sated Face says the signs of a compromised skin barrier are often easier to spot than many of us realise. “When the skin barrier is affected, moisture escapes more easily, which can show up as dehydration and dullness,” she explains. “Products may suddenly sting, skin can feel unusually reactive and healing often slows down too.”
It also helps explain why gentler routines, skin-soothing formulas and fragrance-free products are resonating more right now. Fragrance, in particular, has become much more of a consideration, especially for anyone dealing with eczema, rosacea or reactive skin.
For Amy, removing it from Tower 28 products was never really up for debate. “Fragrance is one of the most common irritants in beauty, and also one of the most unnecessary,” she says. “It’s purely there to make something smell nice. For people with eczema or reactive skin, it can be a real trigger.”
Of course, fragrance isn’t automatically a problem for everyone. Plenty of people tolerate it perfectly well. Yet if skin suddenly feels irritated, sensitised or harder to settle, simplifying a routine and stripping fragrance back can often be a useful place to start.
Has “More” Skincare Officially Peaked?
If the last decade of beauty taught us anything, it’s that we got very comfortable layering. “We’ve been told for years that more is better… more steps, more acids, more actives, but your skin barrier isn’t a problem to be solved. It’s a system that wants to function,” says Amy. Somewhere along the way, routines stretched far longer than anyone realistically had time for and more somehow started to feel synonymous with better, even when our skin wasn’t always agreeing.
Melinda has seen the effects of this first-hand too. “It started with the industry encouraging over-exfoliation and then normalising ten-step routines,” she explains. “Social media trends, from dermaplaning to glass skin, have only accelerated it. Strong actives used too often can quickly damage the skin barrier.”
Part of that may be that so many of us are a bit exhausted by beauty. “People are tired of 12-step routines, tired of chasing the next thing, tired of their skin acting up because they’ve overdone it,” she says. Amy has seen the benefits of stepping back herself too. “My skin has never been better than when I simplified. That’s not just a platitude for me, it’s genuinely a lived experience.” She also thinks it reflects something broader happening culturally. “There’s also a broader shift toward intentionality, wanting fewer things that actually work rather than a shelf full of stuff you’re not sure about.”
It feels bigger than beauty too. We’re seeing the same mindset show up everywhere, from fashion to food with fewer but better choices, less excess and more thought around what actually adds value.
It’s a useful reminder that skin doesn’t always need correcting and sometimes it just needs supporting. “Less but better” skincare isn’t really about stripping everything back… it’s about being more selective with what we use.
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What Does Clean Beauty Actually Mean Now?
The term has become so widely used that it can feel a bit vague these days. Depending on the brand, “clean” might mean fragrance-free, sensitive skin-friendly, sustainably minded or simply avoiding certain ingredients altogether.
For Amy, the definition has always been much more straightforward. “It’s about skin health, not fear,” she says. “Clean beauty means formulating without known irritants, being transparent about what’s in your products and why. It doesn’t mean demonising an entire category of chemistry,” she adds. That distinction feels particularly important in beauty right now, especially as more of us grow sceptical of dramatic claims around what’s supposedly “good” or “bad” for our skin.
Melinda agrees that “clean” is often more complicated than the label suggests. “Clean beauty is a broadly used marketing term. It has no regulatory body overseeing it,” she explains. “I wouldn’t let it influence my purchase decisions alone. Pay attention to the back of the bottle.” She also points out that using high-strength actives at every step of a routine can quickly overwhelm the skin barrier, which is often where irritation begins.
Amy believes another part of the problem has been how all-or-nothing beauty messaging became. “It’s been far more about anxiety than information, and consumers are starting to see through that,” she says.
So, Where Does Clean Beauty Go From Here?
Clean beauty hasn’t disappeared, but our expectations of it have changed. We’re far less interested in blanket “toxin-free” claims and much more interested in products that actually support our skin, rather than overload it.
For most of us, that looks less like throwing everything out and starting again, and more like being a little more considered. If skin feels irritated, reactive or harder to manage than usual, it may be worth pausing before adding another active. Thinking about barrier health and considering fragrance if skin tends to flare up can often be a sensible place to start, because more products doesn’t always equal better skin.
For Amy, the future feels far more grounded in evidence than fear. “I hope it gets less polarising and more science-based. The ‘this ingredient is evil, that one is holy’ framing hasn’t served anyone well,” she says. “I’d love to see the conversation move toward skin health as the real goal, what actually helps your barrier function, what causes harm and less aesthetic-driven marketing. Beauty needs more substance and far less noise.”
Clean beauty may be evolving, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s no longer about following rigid rules and instead about understanding what truly works for our own skin. Beauty feels far more compelling when it is led by understanding rather than confusion.
Words by Samantha Nice with expert Melinda McKee for The Well Edit.
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