At Whole Foods Market, we’re serious about better ingredients for you and your family. So serious, in fact, that we’ve established strict standards for our beauty and body care products that go above and beyond.
Exclusively for Prime members in select ZIP codes.
Standards That Go Beyond Clean
We believe what goes on your body is as important as what goes in it. That’s why our standards go beyond typical “clean beauty” claims.
- We ban 100+ ingredients commonly used in beauty and body care and counting.
- No need to look for a seal, label or aisle to find our best-in-class products. Our high standards apply to all beauty and body care products in our stores.
- Organic means something here. Organic claims on our body care products are required to be backed up by third-party certification.
100+ Banned Ingredients and Counting
Our experts review the latest research on beauty and body care ingredients for many factors including possible impacts on the environment and human health. We’ve banned more than 100 typically used ingredients, including parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde donors, oxybenzone and EDTA.
- 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1(and) 3-Diol
- Acetone
- Alcloxa
- Aluminum Chloride Hexahydrate
- Aluminum Chlorohydrate
- Ammonia
- Ammonium C6-16 perfluoroalkyl ethyl phosphate
- Ammonium Xylene Sulfonate
- Benzalkonium Chloride
- Benzethonium Chloride
- Benzocaine
- Benzophenone-3
- BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole)
- BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) Butoxyethanol
- C9-15 fluoroalcohol phosphate
- Chlorotrifluoropropene
- Chlorphenesin
- Cloflucarban
- Cocamide DEA
- Coal tar
- Copper Disodium EDTA
- Diazolidinyl Urea
- Diethanolamine (DEA)
- Dimethyl phenylbutanol
- Dimethylmethoxy Chromanyl Palmitate
- Disodium EDTA
- DMDM Hydantoin
- EDTA
- Emu Oil
- Equine Oil
- Fluorosalan
- Formaldehyde
- Hexachlorophene
- Hexylresorcinol
- Hydroquinone
- Imidazolidinyl Urea
- Iodine complex with ammonium ether sulfate and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate
- Iodine complex with phosphate ester of alkylaryloxy polyethylene glycol
- Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
- Isododecane
- Isoeicosane
- Lead acetate
- Lidocaine
- Melanin
- Methyl Nicotinate
- Methyl perfluorobutyl ether
- Methyl perfluoroisobutyl ether
- Methylbenzethonium chloride
- Methylchloroisothiazolinone
- Methylene bis-benzotriazoyl tetramethylbutylphenol
- Methylene glycol
- Methylisothiazolinone
- Microbeads
- Myristamide DEA
- Nonylphenoxypoly (ethyleneoxy) ethanoliodine
- Octafluoropentyl methacrylate
- Octinoxate
- Oleamide DEA
- Oxybenzone
- Pentafluoropropane
- Perfluorodecalin
- Perfluorodimethylcyclohexane
- Perfluorohexane
- Perfluorononyl dimethicone
- Perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone
- Perfluorooctyl triethoxysilane
- Perfluoroperhydrophenanthrene
- Phenol
- Phenylethyl resorcinol
- Phthalates
- Picaridin
- Poloxamer—iodine complex
- Polyethylene Terephthalate
- Polyimide-1
- Polymethyl Methacrylate
- Polyperfluoroethoxymethoxy Difluoroethyl Peg Phosphate
- Polyperfluoroethoxymethoxy PEG-2 phosphate
- Polypropylene
- Povidone-iodine
- PTFE
- Quaternium 15
- Secondary amyltricresols
- Sh-oligopeptide-1
- Silver Citrate
- Sodium Bisulfite
- Sodium Dodecylbenzenesulfonate
- Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate
- Sodium magnesium fluorosilicate
- Sodium Oxychlorosene
- Sodium xylene sulfonate
- Soyamide DEA
- Synthetic Fluorphlogopite
- TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone)
- Tetrasodium EDTA
- Tetrasodium Etidronate
- Toluene
- Tribromsalan
- Triclocarban
- Triclosan
- Triple dye
- Trisodium EDTA
- Undecoylium chloride iodine complex
- Vanillyl Butyl Ether
We Care About Organics
In our Beauty and Body Care department, organic really means organic. There are no mandatory government standards for organic label claims on beauty and body care products, so we’ve created our own:
- Personal care products making an organic claim on the front label must be third-party certified to either the USDA National Organic Standards or the NSF/ANSI 305 Organic Personal Care Products standard .
- If the product does not have certification to one of the above standards, the product cannot have an organic claim on the front label of the packaging.
Our Favorite Beauty Suppliers with Purpose
We engage with many of our beauty and body care suppliers and participate in the journey with them. We help make alliances with our foundations, advise on formulations to improve ingredients, onboard smaller regional and local suppliers to help them grow their brands and help showcase innovative ingredients and formulations. Learn more about some of our suppliers who are doing more below.
Alaffia
Profits from Alaffia body care products help raise funds for community projects in Togo, such as maternal health programs, building schools and planting trees.
Pacha Soap Co.
Pacha Soap is sold in bulk in our stores, eliminating the need for packaging. Every bar that we sell benefits clean water initiatives and economic ventures in developing countries. We've also traveled to the farm in Peru where Pacha sources our essential oils to see the sustainable harvesting and agro-forestry practices first hand.
Good Soap
Available exclusively at Whole Foods Market, Good Soap is package-free and available in bulk. Proceeds from Good Soap help us build and open kindergarten schools in Togo, Africa where ingredients for this soap are sourced.
Cocokind Skincare
Cocokind founder Priscilla Tsai empowers women through The Cocokind Impact Foundation, her non-profit organization that provides financial assistance and mentorship to women entrepreneurs.
