‘Clean’ is one of the most commercially successful words in beauty. It is also one of the least regulated. Unlike ‘organic’ — which has legal definitions in food but loose application in cosmetics — ‘clean beauty’ has no agreed standard across the EU or UK. Brands define it themselves, to different specifications, with varying degrees of rigour.
This is not a reason to dismiss the category. It is a reason to understand what each brand means when they use the term, rather than treating ‘clean’ as a proxy for any particular set of properties.
What brands typically mean by ‘clean’
Most clean beauty claims involve some version of an exclusion list: ingredients the brand has chosen not to use. Common exclusions include parabens (preservatives), synthetic fragrances, phthalates, formaldehyde-releasing compounds, mineral oils, and silicones. Some brands extend this to surfactants, colorants, or any ingredient with contested safety profiles.
The problem with exclusion lists is that they vary substantially. A brand might exclude 10 ingredients; another might exclude 1,300. Neither is necessarily better formulated. And the ingredients on different brands’ lists reflect a mix of evidence-based concerns, consumer perception, and marketing calculation. Parabens, for example, were widely removed from clean beauty formulations after a contested study linked them to breast cancer — the scientific consensus is that they are safe at cosmetic concentrations, but the consumer association stuck.
Certification as a more consistent benchmark
Some certification schemes offer more consistency than brand-defined ‘clean’. The most relevant in Europe and the UK:
COSMOS (and its national equivalents — BDIH, Cosmebio, Ecocert, ICEA, Soil Association Cosmos) provides standards for natural and organic cosmetics. It defines which ingredients are allowed and in what proportions, covers manufacturing processes, and distinguishes between ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ categories. A COSMOS-certified product has a defined ingredient basis.
Leaping Bunny and BUAV certification address cruelty-free claims — no animal testing at any stage. This is distinct from ‘clean’ but frequently bundled with it in marketing.
B Corp certification, increasingly used by beauty brands, assesses whole-company performance rather than formulation specifics. It indicates something about business practices without specifying what is in the bottle.
The packaging dimension
Sustainable beauty has a packaging problem that ingredient lists do not capture. The beauty industry generates an estimated 120 billion units of packaging annually, the majority of which is not recycled — not because recycling infrastructure does not exist, but because beauty packaging is often too small, too composite (mixed materials), or too contaminated with product residue to process effectively.
Progress on this front looks different from progress on formulation. Brands reducing packaging often move toward refillable systems, concentrates, or solid formats. Refillable systems require behavioural change from consumers and investment in return logistics; they are genuinely harder to implement than switching a preservative. Concentrate and solid formats reduce transport emissions and material use at source.
When assessing a clean beauty brand’s environmental credentials, the packaging story — explored in more depth in this guide to zero-waste skincare formats — is at least as significant as the ingredient list. A beautifully formulated serum in a single-use glass and aluminium pump bottle may have a lower ingredient impact than a conventional alternative, but a higher packaging impact.
A practical approach
For most consumers, a useful framework involves two questions: what is the brand’s standard, and can they substantiate it? Brands that have pursued COSMOS certification have submitted to external verification. Brands that have published their exclusion list and the reasoning behind it are more accountable than those using ‘clean’ as an unglossed label.
What ‘clean beauty’ means in practice depends on who is defining clean. The term points in a useful direction without being a destination in itself.