When searching for organic food and vitamins, Healthy Options is one of the top-of-the-mind stores. But unknown to many, especially for skincare and makeup enthusiasts, long before clean beauty became a trend and developed into an actual lifestyle, since 1995, Healthy Options is already offering Filipinos natural and sustainable alternatives for skincare and beauty needs.

In an exclusive interview with Manila Bulletin Lifestyle, Crystal Callano, category manager of Healthy Options, shared what conscious consumers can get inside their stores and the company’s journey of finding the right products and brands to offer.

According to Crystal, one of the things they want people to know is that everything we use and put on our skin is also being absorbed by our bodies. Thus, Healthy Options’ goal is always to find healthy and natural products for their consumers. She said that each item inside the store underwent a rigorous screening process, ensuring everything is natural and sustainable, from ingredients to packaging.

“On every item that we bring in, we check all the ingredients. We take our time to review. We work with experts and formulators to check if these ingredients are really good and natural,” she said. “And then we push our vendors, our partners, and brands. We asked them: ‘How do you source these ingredients? What's the concentration of these ingredients? Is it ethically sourced? Is it sustainably sourced?’ We also check if it's biodegradable, if it's been tested. We want to check on how the ingredients are worked before, during, and after we use them to ensure that the products that we offer are good for our bodies and our planet.”

On top of these, Crystal also said that they follow the European Union’s (EU) high standard of product evaluation and are in line with the ASEAN directive and with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

“There's always new ingredients or new chemicals coming out every day and we have a very stringent vetting process for each and every product that we bring in,” she adds. “We have over 2000 ingredients that we monitor on top of the ingredients being monitored by like the ASEAN directive, the EU and the FDA.”

After all these processes, the brand is able to bring in a long list of natural products that pass their standards. Under their Personal Care category are different items from skincare, makeup, and feminine products.

“In Healthy Options, natural beauty doesn't stop with just skincare or it with just addressing concerns,” Crystal said. “We actually aim to offer the daily needs. We have anything from hair color, shampoo conditioners to skin care. We even have feminine products as well. As much as possible, we aim to have better alternatives available.”

Some of the brands available in their stores are Derma-E, Mad Hippie, Attitude, Nena, and Humphreys. Meanwhile, not all stores offer makeup products yet, but they are available on their website.