withSimplicity Makeup
Non-Toxic at Truly Free | Makeup is the hardest aisle in the store — colorants and preservatives are where the trouble hides. Every one of these formulas was read line by line.
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Hi, I'm Wendy. The Face Behind the Trust Badge System.
Former environmental lawyer and consumer educator, helping shoppers learn how to evaluate ingredient labels and live a practical toxin-free lifestyle.
I’ve been every person in this story. I’ve been the mom in the aisle, looking for anything that wouldn’t make my daughter’s eczema worse. I’ve been the environmental lawyer and the lobbyist trying to get toxic ingredients out of the system entirely — one painfully slow regulation at a time. I’ve been the partner helping clean brands decide what goes in their formulas and on the label and what stays out. And now I’m behind the scenes at Truly Free, building the thing I always wished existed: a store where the checking is already done.
But this story isn’t about me. It’s about you — the one reading labels at 5 p.m. with a toddler on your hip, carrying the whole mental load of what comes into your house. Here’s how we take some of it off your shoulders.
Mom --> Environmental Lawyer --> Ingredient Educator --> Truly Free Advisory
See the Standard in Practice
Wendy visits Willow Moon Farm to explore what goes into earning the Non-Toxic badge, and how greater transparency helps thoughtful sellers stand out.
What Changed in the Trust Badge System
This year, Truly Free rebuilt the badges around one idea: you should be able to search for exactly what your family needs — and trust what you find.
Does someone in your house react to sulfates? Shop the Sulfate-Free badge. Sensitive to scents? Unscented is your section of the store. Avoiding fluoride, parabens, or dyes? Click, click, click. Behind every ingredient badge, the brand handed over its complete ingredient list — every ingredient, no exceptions — and it was screened against that badge’s published standard. Not the brand’s marketing. The actual list. Because when your family needs “free of” something, “probably” isn’t good enough.
And if your family prioritizes Organic, Glyphosate-Free, Non-GMO, Cruelty-Free, or Vegan — those standards belong to independent third-party certifiers, so the badge doesn’t go up until the brand shows us its actual certificate, current and valid. Organic here means a real certification stands behind it — USDA Organic for food, GOTS for bedding and textiles — and we checked.
No scores. No red-versus-yellow. No “is it a 3 or a 4?” A product either cleared the standard or it doesn’t carry the badge.
You search. You find. You breathe easy.
The Non-Toxic at Truly Free Standard
If you only trust one badge with your family, make it this one — because I built it like your family was mine. The standard behind it is the Restricted Substance List: evidence-based, research-backed, and published in full, so you can read every word and decide whether it matches your values. It’s the list of what I won’t bring into my own home:
“I would bring every single product that carries this badge into my own home. That's the bar.”
No mystery fragrance.
Synthetic fragrance is out entirely; natural fragrance qualifies only when it’s 100% plant derived with no hidden ingredients.
No parabens. No synthetic dyes.
And no whole chemical families — all phthalates, all bisphenols, all PFAS — so there’s no nearly-identical substitute sneaking in when one famous chemical gets banned.
No “clean-ish” preservatives.
Chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol still show up in products from brands that call themselves clean. Not here.
Minerals, yes — with proof.
Clays and minerals are wonderful ingredients. They can also carry heavy metals like lead and arsenic — contaminants that never appear on a label. So we require heavy-metal testing before those ingredients clear the standard. You could never see this on an ingredient list. Now you don’t have to.
And a human always gets the last look.
Our system screens every ingredient list against the RSL — then a real person (sometimes me, always someone I trained) reads it before the badge ever appears.
My Picks: Six Products, Six Badges Doing Their Job
AIZOME Textiles
Organic | Certified organic and verified current. You spend a third of your life face-down on this fabric — it should have to prove itself. [Confirm cert type displayed on listing — GOTS per the textile standard]
Willow Moon Farm Skincare
Non-Toxic at Truly Free | Small-batch doesn’t mean small standard. It cleared the same list as everyone else.
Truly Free Home
Non-Toxic at Truly Free | Refillable System | Keep the container forever, refill for less — and yes, this is Truly Free’s own brand, which is exactly why it went through the same review as everybody else. Same list. Same scrutiny.
Wellnesse Toothpaste
Non-Toxic at Truly Free | Fluoride-Free | It goes in your mouth, and kids swallow more than anyone admits. Two badges turn the aisle people agonize over into a five-second decision.
Meaningful Mantras Candles
Non-Toxic at Truly Free | Candles are where synthetic fragrance hides most comfortably. This one cleared the same review as a face serum. Light it and think about literally anything else.
Every word of my work is published — you can check it any time. Or don’t. That’s the point.
Questions about a specific ingredient or badge? [Contact our compliance team] — a real person reads every Non-Toxic submission.
