Clean labels and retailers
Clean at Sephora, Ulta's Conscious Beauty, Credo and Target Clean, read on the retailers' own pages and set against the ingredient databases, plus what the same product costs at each store. The claims that matter here are what a seal bans, what it only limits, and what it never covers.
Five lines we check on every clean label
Every guide here reads these lines on the maker's own page and dates what it found. The full method is on how we check.
- 01
What it bans
The excluded ingredients and categories, counted from the list the retailer publishes.
- 02
What it only limits
Ingredients allowed under a cap or a standard, such as fragrance.
- 03
What it never covers
Dose, contaminants, irritancy and allergy, as the retailer states it.
- 04
Who certifies
Self-declared, retailer-reviewed or third-party verified.
- 05
Price and shelf
The same product and size at each store, and who carries it.
Every clean label guide
Each one prints the date its figures were read and the date they will be read again.
Clean at Sephora vs Ulta Clean
Two banned lists drawn side by side, and the same products sealed at one store and not the other.
Is Sephora or Ulta cheaper?
Every same-size pair we could read at both stores, and where the real difference is.
Are beauty dupes the same?
Fifteen famous dupes, ingredient by ingredient and price per gram.
Does SkinSort find the dupes the press names?
Nine famous originals looked up on its dupe finder: where the named dupe lands, and what its percentages are made of.
Where the law stands. FDA says cosmetic ingredients, other than colour additives, need no approval before sale (FDA’s ingredient page); California bans a named list of 24 chemicals when intentionally added (Health and Safety Code section 108980); and the EU prohibits 1,736 entries in Annex II (Regulation 1223/2009 on EUR-Lex), read 23 October 2026. Look any ingredient up in our ingredient files.