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.
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.
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.
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.
ChemFORWARD Releases v1 Botanicals Hazard Assessment Methodology
ChemFORWARD Releases v1 Botanicals Hazard Assessment Methodology
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.
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.
INTRODUCING SAFER™ BY CHEMFORWARD
ChemFORWARD, a leader in creating broad access to chemical hazard data and safer alternatives, announced today the introduction of an exciting new program for raw material suppliers. ChemFORWARD’s SAFERTM program will verify their safer alternatives and amplify them as safer by trade name through leading B2B marketplaces. The program was co-designed with suppliers and retailers over the last two years to fill a critical gap in safety data.
ChemFORWARD Helps Target Support Diversity, Innovation with Chemicals Data for B3P Participants
ChemFORWARD is honored to work with Target to provide access to high quality, actionable information about chemical hazards and safer alternatives to diverse and woman-owned businesses through the retailer’s B3P program.
Guest Post: Confused about chemical safety? You’re not alone.
Every chemical should have hazard data publicly available. Hazard is an inherent property of an ingredient, and refers to its ability to cause harm, whereas exposure is how you come into contact with the chemical. (Hazard + exposure = risk)
Botanicals Deserve Credible, Harmonized Assessments: Heine and Bartlett
Consumers and producers often assume that “natural” means “safe,” sometimes without adequate information. Beauty Matter has published this article by ChemFORWARD, examining the rapidly growing field of botanical ingredients.
In Conversation with Boma-Brown West: Pursuing a Unified Definition of Clean Beauty
“Clean” has grown to dominate the growth in the beauty sector, with prestige beauty brands claiming to be clean surging 39 percent in 2019 and doubling their share of high-end skincare sales in the last four years.
ChemFORWARD Executive Director Stacy Glass sat down to talk with Boma Brown-West, director of consumer health at Environmental Defense Fund. Brown-West is an engineer who works at the intersection of science, policy and corporate leadership to drive safer products in the retail marketplace. Glass leads a nongovernmental organization working to provide a shared database of chemical hazards and safer alternatives, allowing companies to use better information to make safer products.
EDF’s Clean Beauty Roadmap Offers Long-Needed Guide to Credible Claims of Safe Products
This roadmap is a clear framework for companies making clean beauty claims to restore and build confidence in their products. It equips them to move beyond the practice of claiming to be “free of” a group of hazards or restricted substances -- no matter how extensive -- and instead offer the credible assurance that ingredients have been thoroughly and credibly assessed and found to be free of hazards.
Credo Beauty Joins ChemFORWARD as Codesign Partner, Accelerating Supply Chain Transformation
“Adding The Dirty List™ to our globally harmonized repository of safer alternatives makes it even easier for brands, formulators, and other decision-makers in beauty and personal care to eliminate chemicals of concern, avoid regrettable substitutions, and design safer from the beginning,” said Stacy Glass, ChemFORWARD’s executive director. “By strengthening our work with the partnership of a leader like Credo’s, we can make even more progress toward ending toxic chemical exposure and advancing health equity.”
Now You Can Future Proof Your Beauty and Personal Care Products with Clean Chemistry
ChemFORWARD’s team of seasoned safe-chemistry pioneers built this platform to offer an easy way to create safer beauty and personal care products which demonstrate leadership in this industry. The tool offers a simple, intuitive, and affordable route to eliminating chemicals of concern, avoiding regrettable substitutions, and designing safer from the beginning.
The Science of Clean Beauty - Expert Video Collection
ChemFORWARD hosted a series of virtual coffee breaks featuring leaders from clean Beauty and Personal Care. These 30-minute sessions offered a targeted introduction to ideas you’ll want to explore further along with meaningful, provocative conversation.