The Problem of Healthwashing in the Beauty Industry
Let's start with a truth most of the industry would rather you not internalize: a product labeled "clean," "natural," "green," or "non-toxic" is not required by law to be any of those things. There is no federal standard for these terms in the U.S. beauty and personal care market. None. They are marketing language — and for many brands, very profitable marketing language.
Why It Works — Every Time
Healthwashing works for one reason: most consumers trust the front of the label without ever looking at the back. And why wouldn't they? The front of the label is designed by marketing teams with significant budgets and a clear mandate — make you feel good about buying this product.
The back of the label — the ingredient list — is not designed for readability. It is required by law to exist. It is not required to be comprehensible to the average consumer. And in many cases, the ingredients most associated with harm appear under names that are deliberately clinical, dense, or obscure.
The labels say "clean." The ingredient lists say otherwise. Most consumers never read the ingredient list. That asymmetry is the entire business model of healthwashing.
What We Screen For — And Why It Matters
Our pharmacist-led vetting process screens every product that enters our consideration for the following ingredient categories — among others. These are among the first things excluded from Sankofa's platform, and the reasons are grounded in published science:
These are not obscure or contested concerns. These ingredients are documented in peer-reviewed literature, flagged by organizations like the Silent Spring Institute and Harvard's School of Public Health, and disproportionately found in products marketed to Black and brown women.
"Knowing the ingredient is the first line of defense. Having a pharmacist read it for you is the second."
The Sankofa Standard
Every brand featured on Sankofa Collective has cleared our vetting process. That means:
We do not accept "mostly clean." We do not accept "cleaner than most." We apply the same rigor a pharmacist applies when reviewing a medication list — because what goes onto your body matters as much as what goes into it.
And for brands that do not pass? They do not appear on our platform. That is not punitive. That is the standard.
You Deserve to Know What You Are Buying
The self-care market is $5.6 trillion globally. The majority of that spend flows toward products that were not formulated with your skin type, your hair texture, or your health vulnerabilities in mind — and many of those products are actively mislabeled as safe.
Sankofa exists because that is not good enough. You deserve brands that are honest about what they make. You deserve a platform that is honest about what it sells. And you deserve a pharmacist who has already read the label — so you do not have to decode it alone.
About the Founder
A. Elizabeth Ferguson, PharmD
FOUNDER & CHIEF CURATOR · SANKOFA COLLECTIVE
Dr. A. Elizabeth Ferguson is a Doctor of Pharmacy, retired U.S. Air Force Officer, and former Federal Pharmacist with the Defense Health Agency. She served as a Health Policy Advisor to the U.S. Senate, drafting legislation for both the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and the Committee on Finance. She is the Founder of Sankofa Collective™ — a pharmacist-led, curated clean beauty marketplace built exclusively for and by the Black community — and Managing Strategist at Health Strategy Collective [Global]. She currently lives in Panama City, Panama, while completing her MBA at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School with a focus in Finance and AI/ML.
Editorial Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of Dr. A. Elizabeth Ferguson and reflect her personal education, clinical training as a Doctor of Pharmacy, lived experience as a Black woman and consumer, and her convictions as a founder. This content is not intended as medical advice and does not constitute a pharmacist-patient relationship. AI tools were used to help refine and make this content editorially sound; all perspectives, positions, and conclusions are entirely her own.
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