Episode 61: Clean Beauty, Policy Change, and Black Women’s Wellness | Michelle Anaba

In this thoughtful and empowering episode, Dr. Kristian sits down with Michelle Anaba, a clean beauty advocate and founder of The Candid Beauty Edition. Michelle shares her journey of discovering the truth behind toxic ingredients in everyday personal care products and how that knowledge propelled her to create a space where Black women can access clean, safe, and culturally relevant beauty education. From guided meditation to deep dives into ingredient policies, Michelle speaks with clarity and conviction about why wellness must be accessible—and why education and legislation go hand in hand in the clean beauty movement.

Callout Quote:
“I really wanted to create something because I didn’t find what I was looking for.”

Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:

• Michelle’s clean beauty journey began with reading ingredient labels and realizing how many harmful chemicals are considered ‘normal’ in U.S. products.
  
• The U.S. bans just 11 ingredients in cosmetics, compared to over 2,400 in the EU. Michelle breaks down why this matters and what it means for Black women’s health.
  
• Michelle believes true change happens at the intersection of education and advocacy: helping Black women make informed personal choices while pushing for better national standards.
  
• She launched The Candid Beauty Edition—a blog and educational platform—to provide a clean beauty roadmap tailored to Black women, a demographic often left out of the clean beauty conversation.
  

Check Out These Highlights:

• Michelle shares the personal health journey that led her to question everyday product ingredients [00:03:15]
• Why ingredient transparency is a racial justice issue [00:07:25]
• Michelle’s vision to educate Black women and advocate for cleaner industry standards. [00:19:40]
  
• The harsh comparison: U.S. bans only 22 ingredients while the EU bans 2,400+ [00:22:18]
  
• How food and beauty products are reformulated abroad but stay toxic in the U.S. [00:25:24]
  

Memorable Quotes:

• “What I want to do is educate Black women and empower them with the knowledge to make safer decisions.”
  
• “There are things in your skincare that might not be the best for you. And that’s not always easy to find out.”
  
• “The EU has banned 2,400 chemicals. We’re just now getting to 22. That’s crazy.”
  
• “Right now, the resources for Black women in clean beauty are really limited. I created The Candid Beauty Edition to fill that gap.”