What “clean beauty” does—and does not—mean

“Clean” is a marketing term, not a regulatory one. In the United States, cosmetics labeling is overseen by the FDA, and the word “clean” has no defined meaning under its rules. In practice, a brand using it has excluded a list of ingredients it has decided are undesirable. Which list depends on the brand, and the lists do not agree with each other.

What the label does not guarantee: safety, efficacy, clinical testing, or that the excluded ingredients were harmful at the concentrations used. What it often does mean: a shorter ingredient list, a higher price, and sometimes a shorter shelf life because effective preservatives were removed.

Our approach is to describe what a product did in our use, attribute claims to whoever made them, and avoid the word in our own verdicts. If a product is good, it is good with or without the adjective.