We believe what goes on your body is as important as what goes in it. That’s why our beauty and body care standards go beyond typical “clean beauty” claims.
Standards That Go Beyond Clean
- 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.
Exclusively for Prime members in select ZIP codes.
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.
- Products labeled “organic” are required to contain at least 95% organic ingredients and be certified to the USDA National Organic Standards.
- Products labeled “made with organic X” must be certified to the USDA National Organic Standards and include at least 70% organic ingredients.
- Products labeled “contains organic X” must be at least 70% organic and certified to NSF/ANSI 305, a consensus-based private standard for organic personal care products.
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.
Banned Ingredients | ||
|---|---|---|
2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1(and) 3-Diol | Acetone | Alcloxa |
Aluminum Chloride Hexahydrate | Aluminum Chlorohydrate | Ammonia |
Ammonium C6-16 perfluoroalkyl ethyl phosphate | Ammonium nonadecafluorodecanoate | Ammonium pentadecafluorooctanoate |
Ammonium perfluorononanoate | Ammonium perfluorooctane sulfonate; ammonium heptadecafluorooctanesulfonate | Ammonium Xylene Sulfonate |
AMP-acrylates/vinyl, isodecanoate crosspolymer | Benzalkonium Chloride | Benzethonium Chloride |
Benzocaine | Benzophenone-3 | BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole) |
BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) Butoxyethanol | C12-13 Pareth-23 | C12-13 Pareth-3 |
C9-15 fluoroalcohol phosphate | Chlorhexidine digluconate | Chlorotrifluoropropene |
Chlorphenesin | Cloflucarban | Coal tar |
Cocamide DEA | Copper Disodium EDTA | Diazolidinyl Urea |
Dibutyl phthalate | Didecyldimonium chloride | Diethanolamine (DEA) |
Diethanolamine perfluorooctane sulfonate | Diethylhexyl phthalate | Dimethyl phenylbutanol |
Dimethylmethoxy Chromanyl Palmitate | Disodium EDTA | Divinyldimethicone/Dimethicone Copolymer |
DMDM Hydantoin | EDTA | Emu Oil |
Equine Oil | Ethyl 2-cyano-3,3-diphenylacrylate | Ethyl trimethylbenzoylphenylphosphinate |
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 |
Isobutylparaben | Isododecane | Isoeicosane |
Isopropylparaben | Lead acetate | Lidocaine |
Lithium perfluorooctane sulfonate; lithium heptadecafluorooctanesulfonate | m-Phenylenediamine and its salts | Melanin |
Mercury | Methyl Nicotinate | Methyl perfluorobutyl ether |
Methyl perfluoroisobutyl ether | Methylbenzethonium chloride | Methylchloroisothiazolinone |
Methylene bis-benzotriazoyl tetramethylbutylphenol | Methylene glycol | Methylisothiazolinone |
Microbeads | Myristamide DEA | Nonadecafluorodecanoic acid |
Nonylphenoxypoly (ethyleneoxy) ethanoliodine | o-Phenylenediamine and its salts | Octafluoropentyl methacrylate |
Octinoxate | Oleamide DEA | Oxybenzone |
Paraformaldehyde | Pentafluoropropane | Perfluorodecalin |
Perfluorodimethylcyclohexane | Perfluorohexane | Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) |
Perfluorononyl dimethicone | Perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone | Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS); heptadecafluorooctane-1-sulfonic acid |
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) | Perfluorooctyl triethoxysilane | Perfluoroperhydrophenanthrene |
Phenol | Phenylethyl resorcinol | Phthalates |
Picaridin | Poloxamer—iodine complex | Polybutylene terephthalate |
Polyester-8 | Polyethylene Terephthalate | Polyimide-1 |
Polymethyl Methacrylate | Polyperfluoroethoxymethoxy Difluoroethyl Peg Phosphate | Polyperfluoroethoxymethoxy PEG-2 phosphate |
Polypropylene | Polyurethane-33 | Potassium perfluorooctanesulfonate; potassium heptadecafluorooctane-1-sulfonate |
Povidone-iodine | PTFE | Quaternium 15 |
Secondary amyltricresols | Sh-oligopeptide-1 | Silver Citrate |
Sodium Bisulfite | Sodium Dodecylbenzenesulfonate | Sodium heptadecafluorononanoate |
Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate | Sodium magnesium fluorosilicate | Sodium nonadecafluorodecanoate |
Sodium Oxychlorosene | Sodium xylene sulfonate | Soyamide DEA |
Synthetic Fluorphlogopite | TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone) | Tetrasodium EDTA |
Tetrasodium Etidronate | Toluene | Tosylamide epoxy resin |
Tribromsalan | Triclocarban | Triclosan |
Triple dye | Trisodium EDTA | Undeceth-11 |
Undeceth-5 | Undecoylium chloride iodine complex | Vanillyl Butyl Ether |
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 our ingredient standards to improve formulations, 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 visited Africa to see the impact of these initiatives first-hand in Burundi — and we’ve also traveled to Peru to participate in the sustainable and regenerative practice used to harvest the plants that produce essential oils.
Good Soap
Available exclusively at Whole Foods Market, Good Soap is available in bulk and can be purchased without packaging. Proceeds from Good Soap help build kindergarten schools in Togo, Africa, where the ingredients for this soap are sourced. We've traveled to these communities to celebrate their openings, allowing us to see the direct impact of this work.
Cocokind Skincare
Cocokind founder, Priscilla Tsai, empowers women through the Cocokind Impact Foundation, her nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance and mentorship to women entrepreneurs.
