Beautywell Project

We have developed the beautywell project database that addresses the problem of skin-lightening products, chemical exposures, and colorism in the cosmetics industry. This database contains skin-lightening products that beautywell has tested in labs and identified to contain harmful ingredients that pose significant risk to individual and communities health. This will give individuals and communities to learn about this toxic skin-lightening and other cosmetics products that contain high levels of toxic chemicals. This will help individuals and communities to make informed decisions about their health and advocate for safer beauty practices and stricter regulations within the cosmetics industry. Last year we have tested more beauty products including skin-lightening products which showed elevated levels of mercury. Last year we have increased our partnership and collaborated with the university of minnesota school of public health on the healthy beauty salon project which is community-based participatory research project that helps beauty salon owners deliver the healthiest experience for their clients and workers. This project helped us working with several salons and learned the type of products they use and we were able to collect samples to test the products that they use. This learning also helped us develop education and training materials for the salons. We have trained students and professionals to effectively work with salons and conduct community-based participatory research in salons and communities. Beautywell has been working with some salons to prepare them for green business certifications.

Moreover, beautywell hosted a roundtable discussion last year that highlighted and raised awareness on the issues of toxic beauty products including skin-lightening and chemical exposures. This important discussion helped us to bring together number of stakeholders including state and national legislators, representatives from the minnesota state agencies, and federal agencies including food and drug administration (fda) who have been working with beautywell to address skin-lightening and chemical exposures. We also have developed a knowledge hub where we posting all the education materials including videos, infographics and brochures. These materials are about raising awareness on the issues of colorism, skin-lightening practice and chemical exposures. We have created this knowledge hub for people to help them stop the use of these toxic skin-lightening products and learn about the health and psychological impact that these products cause for human health. Both the beautywell database and knowledge hub are now launched, and people have been accessing to this information and found the sites helpful.

We have developed animation videos in english, somali, spanish, hmong, french, swahili, and amharic languages. These animation videos focus on educating communities of color about mercury, hydroquinone, and steroid exposures from skin-lightening products to raise awareness of the health and psychological impacts of these toxic products. The lack of culturally specific and sensitive educational materials, social pressures, and lack of solid regulation systems that can regulate those toxic chemicals all contribute to this issue. The purpose of these animations is to address the root causes of skin-lightening use, including colorism and other harmful cultural practices. Uplift and communicate messages of diverse beauty standards and community strength while communicating specific information about harms from chemicals.