Chrissy Teigen and Kris Jenner recently launched Safely, a vegan home care line. The celebrity duo teamed up with Good American CEO Emma Grede to debut the plant-powered range that includes hand sanitizer, glass cleaner, laundry detergent, and more.
The brand, which formally launched in March, was designed to create an accessible, high-quality product line with an emphasis on “clean cleaning.” Unlike many other household cleaning items, Safely’s range is completely vegan and free of harsh, potentially toxic, chemicals. Instead, Safely products, which are designed and manufactured in the United States, are made with plant-based ingredients such as coconut surfactants and mineral salt.
Together with Grede, Teigen and Jenner co-founded Safely because the famous pair wanted to create “high-quality home care products” Americans can use that will “keep their families safe without the compromise of using harsh chemicals.”
Per a press release shared with LIVEKINDLY, the trio’s mission was simple: “To make premium, powerful plant-powered products with natural aromatherapy scents and to make them more affordable.”
For Teigen, the decision to create Safely was also rooted in her own personal experiences cleaning her home. “I couldn’t find products out there that I loved and that also cleaned as well as these old-school products did,” she explained. “So when we started talking about Safely, it seemed like such a no-brainer to create premium products that actually work and are more accessible.”
And for Jenner who has five children and 10 grandchildren, it was especially crucial that Safely products be affordable and free of damaging chemicals. “Our goal is to help rid American homes of harsh chemical cleaners by providing them with a better alternative that’s truly luxurious, plant powered, and doesn’t cost the world,” she said. “It is a purpose I strongly believe in as a co-founder and business partner.”
The Safely product line includes “six essential products featuring premium ingredients and complex fragrances” and prices on individual items range from $6 to $14. Conscious consumers can buy vegan hand soap, hand sanitizer, hand cream, universal cleaner, glass cleaner, and laundry detergent.
Consumers can also head to GetSafely.com and purchase refills, as well as items in designated product kits. The four kits bundle several Safely items together and retail for $25 to $52. For example, the Clean Freak Kit includes the entire product line, while the Clean Hands Kit comes with the hand soap, hand sanitizer, and hand cream.
Are Vegan Cleaning Products Better for the Environment?
Safely’s products are made with plant-based ingredients such as naturally-derived ethyl alcohol from corn, which is found in the hand soap and hand sanitizer, as well as coconut oil, which is used in the brand’s vegan glass cleaner, universal cleaner and laundry detergent. These ingredients are much healthier for the planet than powerful chemicals.
In fact, similar products from other brands often contain chemicals that have been scientifically proven to harm the environment in three main ways. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, chemicals found in home cleaning products contribute to water pollution because they are washed into streams and rivers. Some can even enter the food chain and harm aquatic life. Air pollution is also an issue because the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cleaning products can impact indoor air quality and contribute to outdoor smog.
There’s also waste to consider. Many traditional home cleaning products are stored in containers that aren’t made from recyclable materials, which means packaging and empty bottles frequently wind up in landfills. By contrast, Safely packaging is recyclable, and the brand sells refills so consumers can use the bottles and containers multiple times.
Cleaners made with harmful chemicals (unlike Safely) can also have a negative impact on people’s overall health. A 2004 study published in the journal Atmospheric Pollutants, found that common cleaning products and even air fresheners can expose people to carcinogenic pollutants and reproductive toxicants. Even if these items don’t lead to cancer or reproductive issues, plenty of research has proven that cleaning products can cause adverse health effects.
Additionally, a 2018 study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine even went so far as to say that regularly using house cleaning products could be as detrimental as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. This is because exposure to these cleaners impedes your lung function.
More specifically, researchers discovered that lung function (measured by the amount of air you can blow out of your lungs in one second and the total amount of air you can blow out of your lungs after you’ve taken the deepest breath possible) decreased faster for women who regularly cleaned their own homes than those who did not.
The data also showed that the declines were even steeper among women who worked as cleaners compared to those who didn’t, and did not regularly clean their own homes. And asthma was more common among women who cleaned their homes or worked as cleaners than those who engaged in neither.
