Navigating the world of kid-friendly products can be a challenge, especially when you’re aiming for a toxin-free home. Here’s the problem: the cosmetics industry in the USA is a free-for-all. Brands can claim pretty much anything, and there’s no one keeping tabs on them. Terms like “clean,” “non-toxic” and “all-natural” are used as catch phrases with no standard definition, meaning or verification.
What’s worse is that the US cosmetics industry is largely unregulated when compared to other countries. Over the years, the government has had virtually no legal authority to control the health and safety of cosmetics products or ingredients on the consumer market. For example, the European Union bans over 1,400 ingredients for use in cosmetics; compared to the US where only 11 of these ingredients are forbidden by the FDA. That’s quite a gap! Given that we apply multiple products to our skin every day, starting as children, it is important to be vigilant with the products we apply to our skin. Children require particular attention because a child's delicate and developing skin barrier absorbs substances more readily.
When I first envisioned creating Jovy, my goal was to make life easier for parents by delivering products they can fully trust. Our journey began by teaming up with a top manufacturing partner in Italy. Together, we adhered to Jovy’s incredibly strict ingredient blacklist, crafted based on industry-leading sources such as Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Red List and EWG’s Unacceptable List. This ensured that we excluded any ingredients that didn’t meet our high standards, taking the guesswork out of the equation for parents.
Now, here’s the catch– with so many brands making similar claims, why trust Jovy? That’s where the EWG VERIFIED® program comes in. The mission of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is to empower you with breakthrough research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. For more than two decades, EWG has shined a spotlight on outdated legislation and industry loopholes that pose a risk to our health and the health of our environment. The EWG VERIFIED program recognizes products that meet EWG’s strictest standards for your health. When you see the EWG VERIFIED you can be confident the product avoids EWG’s ingredients of concern, provides full ingredient transparency, and is backed by science. Their experts check every product to make sure it's safe for you and your family.
From the very beginning, we formulated Jovy’s play makeup with the goal of becoming EWG VERIFIED. We are happy to share that Jovy’s Berry Bliss Play Makeup Kit was finally confirmed as EWG VERFIED just days before 2023 came to a close. Jovy’s kids makeup is now officially the first ever clean verified play makeup for kids – pretty cool, right?
This EWG Verification is a statement. It marks the start of Jovy's journey to set a new standard for kids' cosmetics, by always providing full-label transparency with the cleanest, safest, and most effective formulations, one product at a time.
In the coming weeks you will see updates to our website and packaging reflecting the EWG VERIFIED mark, and you will be able to find Jovy’s Berry Bliss Play Makeup Kit reflected in EWG’s database of cosmetics products that have achieved EWG VERIFIED certification.