5 EWG Verified Beauty Brands You Need to Know

We all want healthy skincare that’s toxin-free, natural, and most importantly safe. Unless you’re a beauty buff who enjoys spending endless hours researching ingredients, shopping for safe beauty products can be time consuming. Enter certifications like the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which holds skincare brands (like NENA!) accountable with high standards on the ingredients used in their products.

What Does EWG Verified Mean?

As a refresher, all EWG verified products must:

•   Be free of EWG’s ingredients of concern
•   Fully disclose all ingredients on the label
•   Follow good manufacturing practices

Check out our blog post for more info about being EWG verified.

Celebrity Skin(care)

Time-starved celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian rely on EWG to take the guesswork out of shopping: she uses EWG’s Healthy Living app to learn about product label ingredients.She’s even taken her concerns about the health and safety of skincare products to the US Congress. There, she made her case that, “Everybody should have the right to healthy products.”

Not to mention, Michelle Pfeiffer went as far as to launch her own EWG verified fragrance this year, because for over a decade she couldn’t find scents that didn’t compromise safety.

5 EWG Verified Beauty Brands You Need to Know

We’re all about supporting the continued transparency in beauty products, so we thought we’d share some of our fave brands that offer the same transparency about their ingredients:

1. Henry Rose Michelle Pfeiffer’s EWG-certified Henry Rose line discloses 100% of its ingredients, setting a new precedent for personal care transparency, as the fragrance industry traditionally has been secretive about its concoctions. This was by no means an easy task, as Pfeiffer and her team worked within the EWG and Cradle to Cradle standards, leaving them with only a few hundred ingredients (as opposed to thousands) to work with. The results are no less impressive, as demonstrated by its five distinctive genderless scents.

2. ATTITUDE — This Canadian brand is one of only 8 EWG verified sun care brands, and it features the most EWG certified sunscreens too! Mineral sunscreens are preferred over chemical sunscreens by many, but because they block out the sun’s rays physically with nanoparticles minerals (i.e. zinc oxide), sometimes they’re found to leave a white film. Good news, though! Canadian online beauty leader, TheKit.ca, named ATTITUDE a sunscreen brand that leaves a zero white-cast. They’re also cruelty-free and made in Canada. Does sun care get any better than this?

For more information on safe sunscreen options, check out EWG’s 2019 Guide to Sunscreens.

3. Mineral Fusion — Since 2007, Mineral Fusion has been one of the most trusted better-for-you cosmetic brands. It leads in the EWG Makeup category with 135 cosmetics products! Best sellers include their foundations, naturally: Liquid Mineral Foundation and Pressed Powder Foundation. Mineral Fusion Volumizing Mascara received a 2019 better nutrition Best of Natural Beauty Award. Case in point, a customer’s review said, “This product is in every one of my gift baskets I give... Many have become converts as have I."
   
   
4. Graydon — Founder Graydon Moffatt started making small batches of product in her kitchen for her students when she was a yoga instructor. Fast forward a few years later, Graydon is a leading Canadian green beauty brand that activates the transformative power of plants (think ingredients like broccoli, avocados and coconut). Even the preservatives are natural, like rosemary leaf extract and vitamin E. No wonder she’s known as the ingredient anthropologist!  
   

5. Herbal Essences — Didn’t expect a drug store brand to make this list, did ya? This year, two new Herbal Essences sulfate-free shampoos became the first big name brand to be EWG Verified! Studies have shown that sulfates can be irritants to eyes and skin, so if you’ve got a sensitive scalp, these shampoos would be a good bet. We’re all for supporting indie brands, but we’re also happy to see change come from bigger companies.