skincare

Sephora Is Launching a ‘Clean’ Beauty Section

Photo: Kevin Schafer/Getty Images

There’s a new Clean at Sephora campaign to make shopping for “natural” products much easier. This year is the store’s 20th anniversary, and after hearing from vocal Beauty Insider customers, the store decided it was time to meet their demands. “We know over 60 percent of women that buy beauty read the label before they do, and over 54 percent want to know if it’s natural or clean and what ingredients are in there,” Artemis Patrick, Sephora’s chief merchandising officer, said to WWD. “It’s not about whether it’s good or it’s bad, it’s about being transparent.”

“Clean” or “natural” beauty is notoriously hard to define. There aren’t any formalized regulations around these terms, but Sephora has its own criteria for “clean.” The campaign will identify products that are made without ingredients like surfactants (chemicals used to help clean and create suds) SLS and SLES, parabens, formaldehyde, phthalates, musks, or mineral oil. Each product must be formulated with less than one percent synthetic fragrances.

In stores, Sephora will have displays grouping clean products together, and online, products that fit the bill will have a Clean at Sephora sticker displayed on the page so you know exactly what you’re getting. You can expect brands like Supergoop, Caudalie, Tata Harper, Boscia, and Drunk Elephant to be included, as well as nearly 50 others. All told, they expect to carry about 2,000 items (including the Instagram face mask of the moment, Summer Fridays). The Clean at Sephora campaign launches in June and will also be available on the mobile app.

Sephora Is Launching a ‘Clean’ Beauty Section