CLEAN BEAUTY HERO: Carla-King Turner

Meet Carla-King Turner the founder of online clean beauty store, Mooi + U Beauty. 

Her promise is to bring you brands she knows will bring results - because hey! We all want skin that is popping off! But she also promises to only bring you brands that won’t compromise your health or the environment!

It’s a win-win kinda situation. 

How did you get into clean beauty?

I have always been passionate about health and beauty. I was a presenter for TVSN for 18 years and over this time I got to see a lot of different products and brands, the more I saw the more I knew clean, natural, organic was all I personally wanted to use and therefore was what I wanted to sell. This is why I moved on and started my own online store. I knew what I wanted to sell.

There's so much confusion around what is 'clean beauty', what's your definition and take on it? 

So much confusion, and it is because of clever marketing, so many people can be swayed by green washing because it is so believable, to me Clean beauty must be authentic, transparent and more of all non toxic, that does not necessarily mean it has to be 100% natural, and I think this is where the confusion is most times is that the word natural has been misused, there are plenty of dangerous natural products and equally plenty of synthetic harmless products.  

What's been the most rewarding aspect, moving to clean beauty?  

For me leaving the safety of a paid job to go it alone was a being true to my own personal brand and beliefs was as certainly not financially rewarding, any startup knows that, but the knowledge that everything I do, sell, recommend and use personally is in line with my values and I hope my customers see this authenticity.

What ingredients do you like to stay away from?

 I don't like synthetic fragrance in anything, avoid chemical sunscreen as best I can, definitely do not use aluminium deodorant (would rather smell hehe) and the obvious parabens and PEGS. Chemical Dyes and Phlthates get on the list as well.

What's your tips on switching to clean beauty, did you find it hard?

 Do it slowly and replace things as they run out, look for products with great reviews - there are a lot of natural products (mostly in chemists and supermarkets) that don't deliver on results or efficacy - that is why we only range products that stand up to their claims, this way you won't be disappointed and fall back to toxic beauty as many do as they think natural does not work or is not as good.

What products would you recommend switching to natural first and what’s been the easiest clean beauty swap? 

Definitely hands down deodorant, I think it is the most important for our health - second would be fragrance, ditch the traditional perfume, and thirdly sunscreen of course.

What are your fav clean beauty brands? 

Retreatment botanics, Ikou, La Mav Mother SPF of course!! and Miod is an amazing small skincare producer which I absolutely adore.

What's the biggest myth on clean beauty, do you think? 

Natural does not work! hands down.