Without proper regulations, it can be hard to weed out products with harmful ingredients from your self-care routine, but Roseann Fernandez and Tru Alchemy are working to change that.

The vice president of brand marketing and creative at the skincare brand is encouraging customers to take note of what they're really putting on their skin. That's why Tru Alchemy features ingredients that are responsibly sourced and free of sulfates, silicones, parabens, and fillers.

Roseann Fernandez on Building Clean Beauty Brand Tru Alchemy

"We really want to be conscious of the ingredients we use in our formulas and purposely try to find truly effective ingredients that can actually impact your skin, but in the most healthy and safe way possible," she tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now.

Despite the prominence of the beauty industry in the U.S., Fernandez says there still "hasn't been much legislation in our in our country in regards to safety of products and ingredients." One piece of legislation she believes has helped is the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA).

President Biden signed MoCRA into law on December 29, which subjected cosmetic companies to facility registration and product listing requirements, as well as good manufacturing practices (GMPs), serious adverse event reporting, and record-keeping and safety substantiation. Fernandez says that the legislation will "start actually enforcing how ingredients are listed, which is a step in the right direction."

According to Fernandez, social media and advertising are also a large part of ensuring safety and transparency within the beauty industry. She says that one way to avoid the "fakers" out there is to look into the clinical studies surrounding a certain product.

"Doing clinicals is becoming a standard now in the beauty industry, and consumer perception studies as well," she explains, continuing, "Retailers are also kind of expecting it as well, and so [companies] are understanding that having those true clinical studies and consumer perception reports really can show the efficacy of your product, and that you're not just putting a whole bunch of marketing magic out there to to fake the consumer out."

For more interviews like these, watch Advocate Now on The Advocate Channel.