321 Companies Take Pledge for Safer Cosmetics

As the demand for safe cosmetics accelerates, and women vote with their pocketbooks at make-up counters across the country, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetic recently announced that 321 cosmetics companies recently met the goals to produce safer products. The Campaign’s voluntary pledge to avoid chemicals banned by health agencies outside the U.S. and to fully disclose product ingredients has become a pioneering practice in the cosmetics industry.

The new report, “Market Shift: The story of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and the growth in demand for safe cosmetics,” released by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, describes the seven-year project during which the nonprofit organizations that make up the Campaign worked with companies in a unique partnership to raise the bar for safer personal care products.

More than 1,500 companies initially pledged to meet the campaign’s goals for safer personal care products, but most didn’t follow through for various reasons. The campaign has been pushing Johnson & Johnson for 2 1/2 years to remove harsh and potentially dangerous chemicals from all its personal care products. The health giant is now steadily removing those chemicals from its baby products worldwide but has not committed to do so for products for adults.

The report describes how these 321 companies–from small mom-and-pop businesses to some of the largest businesses in the natural products sector–are setting a new high-bar standard for personal care products. The Champions are demonstrating best practices by:

• Making effective products without using ingredients linked to cancer or birth defects.
• Disclosing all their ingredients, including those that make up “fragrance,” showing that it’s not necessary to hide these ingredients from the public.
• Working together with nonprofit health groups to increase market demand for safe, sustainable products and practices.

According to the coalition, natural and safe cosmetics have become the fastest-growing part of the $50 billion cosmetics industry, accounting for roughly 10 percent of sales.

With the project now concluded, the campaign is pushing for the Safe Cosmetics Act, federal legislation introduced in July to update outmoded cosmetics regulations that date back to 1938 and fail to protect health in today’s market.

To see a complete list of which of the 321 companies have already stepped up their game, click here:

Search the List of  Companies

To read the press release, click here and to visit the Environmental Working Group’s website, click here.