Online Censorship of Natural Skincare in Canada: What You Need to Know
The Hidden Side of Your Feed
If you think your social feed shows you all the best skincare options available in Canada, think again. Some of the safest, cleanest, most natural products never appear online—not because they don’t work, but because they’ve been quietly filtered out.
We’ve experienced this first-hand.
In 2020, during the height of the plandemic, our Facebook and Instagram shops were shut down overnight. Why? Because we posted that our Dry Hand Salve—made with simple ingredients like olive oil and pure essential oils—could help soothe hands cracked from constant sanitizer use.
That was enough to get flagged for “exploiting the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, large global brands were thriving, selling chemical-heavy products at record profits. It opened our eyes to a truth every Canadian consumer deserves to know: censorship isn’t about safety—it’s about control.
The Double Standard in Skincare
Big Brands Get a Pass
If you have billions of dollars, legal teams, and a global advertising budget, you can sell almost anything—even products later recalled or taken to court:
- Johnson & Johnson has faced tens of thousands of lawsuits over asbestos-contaminated talc. In 2025, a U.S. judge rejected its ~$10B settlement plan, and a Massachusetts jury awarded $42.6M in damages in one case.
- In July 2021, J&J recalled specific Neutrogena and Aveeno aerosol sunscreens because of benzene contamination.
- In October 2022, Unilever recalled multiple aerosol dry shampoos—including Dove, Nexxus, Suave, TIGI (Bed Head/Rockaholic), and TRESemmé—after benzene was detected.
- Chemical hair relaxers from major brands, including L’Oréal and Revlon, are now at the centre of thousands of lawsuits alleging links to uterine and other cancers.
Despite all this, these products continued to dominate store shelves and online ads in both the U.S. and Canada.
Natural Skincare Gets Silenced
On the other hand, when Canadian family-run businesses highlight natural ingredients like olive oil, calendula, or chamomile, posts are flagged as if they’re dangerous. Words as simple as “soothe” or “calm” are often enough to trigger a takedown.
Chemicals with recalls? Promoted. Olive oil and beeswax? Restricted.
How Censorship Works
This crackdown didn’t happen overnight. Social platforms were already under pressure for spreading misinformation. When the plandemic began, they doubled down, turning moderation over to automated systems and third-party fact-checkers.
Without nuance, those filters lumped safe, time-tested remedies into the same category as dangerous medical claims.
The result? Small-batch makers were silenced, while big brands with global reach thrived.
Why Canadians Don’t See Certain Products
Even today, some of our products can’t be published on certain platforms. There’s no clear explanation, no meaningful appeal process—just rejection.
For Canadian consumers, this means:
- You may never discover trusted, natural skincare made here in Canada because it doesn’t pass the algorithm.
- Your options are shaped not by quality, but by what’s easy for platforms to approve.
The Illusion of Safety
It’s human nature to trust what we see everywhere. When a brand is on every shelf at Shoppers Drug Mart or appears in every Facebook ad, it feels safe.
But history shows otherwise. Visibility does not equal safety. Some of the largest, most familiar corporations have faced lawsuits, recalls, and scandals over harmful ingredients.
Meanwhile, Canadian artisans making small-batch products with food-grade oils and herbs are buried by censorship—despite following Health Canada’s labelling standards and offering full ingredient transparency.
What You Can Do as a Canadian Consumer
- Don’t assume silence means absence. If you don’t see Canadian natural skincare online, it may be censored—not nonexistent.
- Shop beyond the algorithm. Farmers’ markets, Canadian e-commerce shops, and local retailers often carry the cleanest finds.
- Support transparency. Buy from Canadian brands that list every ingredient and explain their process clearly.
How We’ve Responded
Instead of letting censorship silence us, we created our own space—the Clean Living Blog—where we can educate, share, and connect with Canadians directly.
We continue to handcraft skincare with real ingredients because we believe Canadians deserve better than watered-down formulas or products filled with unpronounceable chemicals.
And despite the hurdles, we’ve built a community across Canada that values clean living and demands better.
The Bottom Line
The internet is powerful, but it doesn’t always reflect reality. Some of the best skincare products in Canada will never show up in your social feed. Some of the most questionable ones? They’ll be everywhere.
Remember this:
Not all good products are visible. And not all visible products are good.
Sometimes, the best products are the ones you find off the beaten path—crafted in small batches, with integrity, love, and ingredients you recognize.
And that’s exactly what we’ll keep bringing to Canadians.