Largest-Ever Chemical Footprint Analysis of 156,000 Beauty and Personal Care Products Reveals Areas to Strengthen Chemical Safety Ahead of UN Chemicals Conference

DURHAM, N.C. — Ahead of a major United Nations chemicals conference in November, the largest-ever analysis of the chemical footprint of beauty and personal care products reveals opportunities to strengthen chemical management policy, including on endocrine-disrupting chemicals, while showing how the industry can measure its transition to safer ingredients.

The Know Better, Do Better (KBDB) Collaborative, an industry-led initiative managed by ChemFORWARD, today released its 2026 Beauty & Personal Care Safer Chemistry Profile. The analysis examines nearly 2.9 million ingredient occurrences across 156,594 products commercially available in the U.S., more than tripling the number of products analyzed last year. Among the findings, researchers identified 19 potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals, as defined in the report, and new scientific evidence that changed the hazard classifications of two widely used ingredients.

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Beauty & Personal Care Leaders Release 2025 Report Showing Progress Toward Safer Chemistry, Yet Urgent Gaps Remain

The Know Better, Do Better (KBDB) Collaborative, an industry-led initiative managed by ChemFORWARD, today released the 2025 Beauty & Personal Care Ingredient Intelligence Report — a collaborative, data-driven benchmark for ingredient safety in beauty and personal care. Composed of members including Sephora, Ulta Beauty, The Honest Company, Credo Beauty, Counter, Inolex, and Dow, the KBDB Collaborative represents a rare coalition of retailers, brands, and suppliers working together to create the first standardized, data-driven benchmark for ingredient safety.

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Safer Ingredients Make Strides in the Beauty Industry, but Challenges Remain

New report quantifies the use of safer chemistry in consumer products, moving beyond “bad lists” to set a new standard for accountability

ChemFORWARD released the first "Beauty & Personal Care Ingredient Intelligence Report.” The report, which analyzed 8,500 products, showcases the groundbreaking collaboration among major beauty retailers, brands, and ingredient suppliers, including Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Credo, Beautycounter, The Honest Company, Inolex, and Dow, to define a standard for safer chemistry and measure progress.

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Groundbreaking collaboration between leading cosmetics companies will advance safer chemistry for the beauty sector 

ChemFORWARD, a science-based, nonprofit organization, announces "Know Better, Do Better," the first-of-its kind collaboration of industry-leading beauty companies Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Credo, Beautycounter, and The Honest Company, as well as ingredient designer Inolex and the global nonprofit organization Environmental Defense Fund. These stakeholders are banding together to promote the use of safer chemistry and improve chemical hazard data to enable informed decision making.

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Beautycounter Joins ChemFORWARD as Co-Design Partner to Collaboratively Advance Safer Chemistry for All

Beautycounter is bringing their commitment and experience in sourcing and formulating products that protect both people and the planet to the collaborative work of scaling greater transparency and safer chemistry throughout the industry as a ChemFORWARD co-design partner.

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ChemFORWARD’s Lauren Heine & Chris Bartlett to Present at the SOT 61st Annual Meeting and ToxExpo

Lauren Heine, Ph. D., ChemFORWARD Co-Founder and Director of Science and Data Integrity, and Chris Bartlett, Ph.D, ChemFORWARD Lead Toxicologist, will be presenting at the Society of Toxicology 61st Annual Meeting and ToxExpo on Sunday, March 27th in San Diego, California.

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MEET THE COMPANIES LEADING A “START SAFER” REVOLUTION

When ChemFORWARD began in 2018 they knew one of the most pivotal moments would be transitioning their work from assessing single chemicals to assessing trade name materials. After all, if they wanted to transform the supply chain with safer chemistry, they would need to make it easy for formulators to find verified safer alternatives and easy for raw material suppliers to assess and verify their safer offerings. While it took three years and an unprecedented supply chain collaboration, that moment is here.

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