The RMS Rules: What Clean Beauty Means To Us
In our quest to create groundbreaking clean beauty with skin-loving ingredients and undeniable expertise, our standards are high—and have been since we launched in 2009.
A pioneer of the clean beauty movement, Rose-Marie Swift is the founder and the spirit of the brand. A master makeup artist for over 40 years, her lightbulb moment was realizing that cosmetics could be made with better, safer ingredients while simultaneously making women more beautiful. Bold, authentic and unwavering in her quest for innovative clean ingredients that perform, she launched RMS in 2009 to clean up the industry and set a higher standard for beauty. We call these standards The RMS Rules—what clean beauty means to us.
What Clean Beauty Means To RMS
Skin-Loving Clean Ingredients
Our products are formulated using raw, food grade, certified organic, wildcrafted and naturally derived ingredients. We are also in constant pursuit of new technologies to up the clean beauty ante and provide even greater efficacy and innovation, and they must always meet our rigorous safety standards and testing.
Quality & Transparency
We have nothing to hide, and we proudly disclose every hand-selected ingredient used in our products, including fragrances (which are never synthetic). The way we see it, not all synthetics are bad, and not all natural products are good—it all depends on the level of safety for human health. That said, we conduct patch tests for irritation and sensitization evaluations, using a trusted dermatologist to confirm that our products are non-irritants. And finally, all of our products go through a rigorous safety assessment by a trusted toxicologist who looks at every ingredient in the formula, the % used and its safety profile.
A Health-First Mindset
We firmly believe that you should trust your beauty products, so ours are free of: parabens, gluten, synthetic fragrances, GMOs, sulfate, phthalates, talc. We encourage a balanced, healthy lifestyle chock full of restful sleep, exercise, good nutrition, hydration to create radiance from within that our products can enhance. But we also want you to live your life to the fullest. So order the French fries, stay up late if your heart desires or life gets in the way—because when you need a little extra glow to face the day with confidence, we’re here to help you feel beautiful inside and out.
A Sustainable Future
While we have always been environmentally minded and responsible in our ingredient selection and manufacturing, we’re adding more refillable products to our line, paving the way for a more sustainable future. Many of our products are in glass so that they can be recycled. Starting in 2022 the white plastic caps on our small glass jars are 100% PCR plastic. All new launches starting in 2022 have packaging sustainability as top priority, either using glass, are refillable, or alternatives to plastic such as aluminum tubes, wooden pencils or when we use plastic they will be at least 50% PCR. Our unit cartons are made of at least 80% recycled paper, forestry certified, manufactured with wind energy and made with vegetable ink.
You Ask, We Answer
We are thrilled that clean beauty is becoming part of the mainstream, and we applaud everyone who digs deeper and does their research when understanding a brand’s standards. That curiosity and rejection of the status quo is what drove Rose-Marie Swift to start RMS Beauty in 2009. We believe in the safety of our products and we have nothing to hide, so let’s answer a few frequently asked questions:
1. Where are RMS products manufactured?
We use manufacturing partners that use facilities that are GMP certified and have exceptional expertise in formulating products with very high natural content (greater than 90% natural origin) and organic ingredients. When a facility is GMP Certified, it ensures that a product is manufactured according to quality standards mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
2. I see you use a few synthetics in your products? Why?
Again, not all synthetics are bad, and not all natural products are good—it all depends on the level of safety for human health. Rose-Marie would absolutely prefer to use all-natural ingredients, but in the spirit of products to meet our high performance standards, we are open to the innovation of synthetic ingredients as long as they go through a rigorous regulatory check to meet our safety standards. In certain cases where a natural ingredient isn’t suitable for a formula, we allow a synthetic ingredient in our formulas if it has been fully vetted by our product development team, and as long as it meets our ingredient restrictions, EWG safety rating of 3 or lower and is approved by EU/FDA and international regulations, such as FD&C colorants. We only use colorants approved for use in food, drugs and cosmetics, regulated and safety reviewed by the FDA. They are used when we are unable to create a shade with natural mineral derived colors, particularly pinks and reds. We have taken this approach since we launched back in 2009.
3. How many ingredients do you ban?
The United States currently bans only 30 ingredients from personal care products. At RMS, there are currently over 2700 ingredients that we do not use. We follow the personal care product safety standards of the European Union, CANADA, and other countries, and we are proudly Credo compliant.
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