Clean makeup is one of the most important beauty decisions you can make for your skin and your health. I know this because it absolutely changed mine.
I’m Annie Lawless, and I am the creator + founder of Lawless Beauty. I am also a certified holistic health coach, co-founder of an organic cold-pressed juice company called Suja Juice, and a certified yoga instructor. Health and wellness is my greatest life passion, and I am SO excited to share my mission of clean beauty with you!
I KNEW I WANTED TO MAKE A CHANGE
About 3 years ago, I decided to completely transition over to clean skincare. I was seeing so many new “clean” products hit the market, and lots of information about ingredients in our skincare, like parabens, synthetic fragrance, silicones, mineral oil, phthalates, glycols, and sulfates was coming to light. I realized so many of my products contained these things, and I wanted to avoid them, so I decided to clear them out and start anew. About a month into using all clean skincare products, I noticed my skin looked better than ever. The texture was the smoothest it had ever been (bye little bumps), the tone was more vibrant and healthier, and the clarity was tremendously increased. I also realized there were so many great natural ingredients my skin loves and responds to so much better than the harsh chemicals I was using.
With my new love for clean skincare, I decided to face the ingredient lists on my makeup, which I knew contained so many of the ingredients I was trying to avoid. All of the products contained isododecane, talc, fragrance, silicones, aluminum salts, formaldehydes, mineral oil, carbon black, acrylates, non-USP grade petrolatum and paraffins, and the list goes on. And on and on and on! I saw the absurdity in the fact that I was spending more money and effort seeking out and purchasing clean skincare products, only to pile all these potentially toxic, objectionable ingredients I was avoiding back onto my skin 5 minutes later with my makeup. This seemed insane, and I knew I wanted to make a change. Health and wellness are hugely important to me and I care deeply about what I put on my skin and in my body.
"I DECIDED TO PURCHASE AS MANY CLEAN PRODUCTS I COULD FIND. I WAS UNDERWHELMED."
I decided to purchase as many clean makeup products as I could find from a lot of different brands to test new things and find new clean favorites to replace all of my conventional staples in my makeup bag. If I’m being honest, I was very underwhelmed by the payoff, performance, longevity, packaging, and lack of variety. As a true makeup girl who loves a full glam and wears a full face of makeup most days, the no-makeup makeup, sheer look that clean products were geared towards was not for me. I didn’t want a tinted moisturizer; I wanted a full coverage foundation to replace my Estee Lauder Double Wear. I didn’t want a sheer, neutral eyeshadow quad, I wanted an 18-shade pigmented shadow palette with color, everyday neutrals, and a variety of textures to replace my Anastasia faves. I didn’t want a cream bronzer stick to be used on the eyes, cheeks, and lips, I wanted a pigmented matte powder bronzer to replace my Nars Laguna. And, I didn’t want a sheer tinted lip balm, I wanted to replace all of my liquid lipsticks, glosses, and bullet lipsticks from brands like Huda, Charlotte Tilbury, Tom Ford, and Marc Jacobs.
...NO BRAND HAS CREATED THE TYPES OF CLEAN PRODUCTS I'M LOOKING FOR...
I realized, if no brand has created the types of clean products I’m looking for, why the hell don’t I just do it myself? I felt like if I wanted my makeup to be clean, I had to settle for ugly packaging, basic products, and earthy colors. It seemed nuts to me that I had to sacrifice performance just to avoid ingredients that could be toxic in my beauty routine. Why though? I know soooo many of you feel the same way as I do about the lack of effective, pigmented, sexy, chic, cool natural makeup on the market. We are all trying to avoid potentially unhealthy ingredients wherever we can, and remove potential toxins from our lives, without sacrificing or compromising on the things we love and look for in our makeup.
...CLEAN MAKEUP THAT PERFORMS JUST AS WELL, IF NOT BETTER THAN, CONVENTIONAL LUXURY BRANDS...
I created Lawless because I want to change that and create products that perform just as well, if not better than the conventional luxury brands on the market, and happen to be free of potentially toxic ingredients, synthetic fragrance, endocrine disrupting ingredients, and anything that has been linked to serious health issues. I am also very dedicated to always maintaining a 100% cruelty-free brand, and working towards more sustainable packaging and manufacturing practices every day.
We use the term Clean AF, and this is my way of ensuring you guys that we really are clean. We don’t just have one buzz word ingredient that is clean and a bunch of other bad ones too. We are a pure, clean cosmetic line that is dedicated to changing the world of clean makeup for the better. So many of you have been interacting with me on social media, both on my page and the brand page, and I appreciate your cheering Lawless on so so much!! It is an honor and a pleasure to have you here. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I am so excited to take you on this journey with me!!!