“Clean” skin care products that are free of certain chemicals are not always safer than their traditional counterparts, dermatologists warn.

Arbitrary descriptions of products as “clean” or “natural” are not regulated, and many of these products contain high concentrations of ingredients that can cause irritation and allergies, the US authors write in an editorial in JAMA Dermatology.

“We wanted to shed light on the fact that the ‘clean beauty’ movement is more of a business model and marketing tool that plays on the trend of people wanting to use natural rather than synthetic products right now,” said Dr Bruce Brod of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who co-wrote the editorial.

In the US between 2017 and 2018, the natural skin care market grew by 23% to $1.6 billion, accounting for about a quarter of the $5.6 billion annual skin care sales in 2018, they pointed out.