Increased investment in innovation and supply chain improvements could help to clarify ambiguous definitions and address regulatory gaps in the clean beauty sector, according to a report published by a collective made up of Sephora, Ulta Beauty, The Honest Company, Credo Beauty, Counter, Inolex, Dow and the Environmental Defense Fund.
The purpose of the 2025 Beauty & Personal Care Ingredient report was to establish a unified analysis of safe ingredients across cosmetics, haircare and skincare. The collective — called the Know Better, Do Better (KBDB) Collaborative, established in 2023 in partnership with non-profit Chemforward — analysed 1.25 million ingredients across 48,000 US beauty products. It identified what it deems as “chemicals of concern”, according to a classification system established by KBDB that’s based on comprehensive toxicological assessments and validated through independent third-party evaluation and reporting.