The 5 Best Clean Beauty Brands To Try
This post contains affiliate links, which means that when you click and shop the links, we may earn a small commission. All opinions and product recommendations are our own.
How often do you use skincare products or makeup on your face or body? Many of us use several daily, multiple times a day. They are embedded in our routines and are supposed to help us look and feel refreshed and vibrant.
However, many traditional beauty companies design products with ingredients that are toxic or harmful to our skin — a counterintuitive truth that has inspired many to seek out clean beauty brands.
What Are Clean Beauty Brands?
Clean beauty brands are committed to producing products free from harmful chemicals. Non-toxic makeup and clean skincare provide consumers an alternative to other brands in the market, particularly in the United States.
While the EU has stringent regulations for cosmetics, with over 1,700 ingredients currently prohibited and even more restricted, the US only bans 11 ingredients.
Clean beauty brands hold themselves to higher standards than US regulators and often take additional steps to create items that are safe for people, animals, and the planet. Many brands embrace vegan ingredients, design eco-friendly packaging, and develop products with an eye toward animal welfare.
Here, we explore the best in clean skincare and beauty and share our favorite offerings from these clean beauty brands.
1. RMS Beauty
Rose Marie Swift began her career as a makeup artist to the stars, working with supermodels like Gisele Bündchen and Miranda Kerr. However, after decades in the business, touching high-end cosmetics daily, Rose Marie began to notice troubling health symptoms.
As she sought answers about her condition, she learned that some of the toxic chemicals and heavy metals in her body were commonly used in cosmetics. She founded RMS Beauty to offer others access to clean beauty products made from raw, food-grade, organic, and natural ingredients while maintaining the high performance and efficacy she needs when doing makeup for a Vogue spread or runway show.
Our favorites from RMS Beauty
Luminizer – Unlike traditional bronzers or highlighters, which often appear glittery on the skin, the Luminizer makes your skin appear to glow from within.
Eyelights Cream Eyeshadow – RMS Beauty’s Eyelights go on as a cream and dry to a shimmery powder, making the dreaded mid-lid crease a thing of the past.
2. OSEA Malibu
A longtime trailblazer in the clean beauty space, OSEA signed onto the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in 2001. But the brand’s origins date back even further, to the 1920s, when the founder’s grandmother had a devastating accident and turned to the ocean to help heal her injuries.
It worked, and her experience created an intergenerational interest in the restorative power of the sea. Her granddaughter began experimenting with seaweed cosmetics in the 1980s and used what she learned to develop her vegan skincare brand, OSEA, in 1996.
OSEA continues to expand its cosmetics brand and advocate for clean beauty that serves its clients and the planet. The team is active in lobbying for more stringent regulation of the cosmetics agency, and the company is Climate Neutral Certified and Ocean Positive, supporting kelp forests in California to offset its carbon footprint.
Our favorites from OSEA
Collagen Dream Night Cream – Your morning skin routine really begins overnight. OSEA’s Collagen Dream Night Cream is hydrating and luxurious, meaning you wake up with skin that is already radiant and ready to face the day.
Vagus Nerve Bath Oil – The vagus nerve is the heart of your parasympathetic nervous system, overseeing essential functions like digestion, stress control, and immunity. This soothing bath tincture, infused with essential oils, promotes calm energy and baby-soft skin.
3. Fresh
Fresh traces its roots to our hometown of Boston. In the early 1990s, founders Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, who had relocated to New England after a childhood in Europe, dreamed up the idea of opening a store filled with skincare offerings featuring global ingredients and the ambiance of an old-world open-air market.
The founders remain directly involved in product formulation and other aspects of the brand, and they continue to align themselves with international clean beauty standards, banning hundreds of ingredients.
Fresh also has bold sustainability initiatives. The brand can trace 100% of its hero ingredients to their specific geographies and invests in the land and people of the areas from which they source. They’ve partnered with the Union for Ethical Biotrade and the LVMH Resource and Innovation Center to work toward their goals.
Our favorites from Fresh
Sugar Lip Balm – A hydrating lip balm is a luxury; Fresh takes theirs a step further by offering it in a range of tints to elevate your daily makeup routine.
Rose Hydrating Eye Cream – Applying this eye cream, with the refreshing scent of rose in a cooling gel formulation, is the ultimate act of calming self-care after a hectic day. You’ll still smell the gentle scent as you sink into bed and drift off to sleep.
4. True Botanicals
Like many other natural beauty brands, True Botanicals came into being because of the founder’s lived experience.
At age 32, Hillary Peterson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She began to reevaluate all aspects of her life, looking to make choices that would help protect her health, and she was shocked to learn how many cosmetics contain toxic ingredients. She set out to create the skincare brand she wanted for herself.
True Botanicals is committed to bioholistic skin science, meaning it approaches skincare not as a separate indulgence, but rather as part of your overall physical, mental, and environmental health. The brand uses functional, natural ingredients from the land and sea that work in harmony with your skin’s biology.
But True Botanical’s science isn’t cold and clinical — the scents from natural ingredients like ginger, acerola cherry, papaya, and passion fruit offer a soothing and sumptuous aromatherapy component to your skincare.
Our favorites from True Botanicals
Ginger Tumeric Cleansing Balm – This balm removes makeup and oil from your skin straight from the jar, then turns into a lather when water is added, for a luxurious one-step cleansing routine.
Pure Radiance Oil – One hundred percent of clinical trial participants saw a reduction in the look of fine lines and wrinkles, plus improved hydration and more luminous skin.
5. Juice Beauty
Founder Karen Behnke’s lifelong interest in health and wellness honed in on the cosmetics and skincare industry when she became pregnant in her 40s. As a woman facing the hormonal upheavals that come with pregnancy and middle age, she sought clean, effective beauty products.
When she couldn’t find them, she was inspired to create them herself — Behnke partnered with scientists to develop a botanical juice-based skincare line, and Juice Beauty was born.
Today, the business embraces sustainable practices and creates vegan, cruelty-free products formulated with organic ingredients.
Our favorites from Juice Beauty
Green Apple Peel Sensitive Exfoliating Mask – Those with sensitive skin often struggle to find effective yet gentle exfoliating products. This mask evens skin tone and reduces discoloration with alpha hydroxy acids derived from natural sources, including green apples.
Signal Peptides Firming Eye Balm – This rich formulation, which includes organic ingredients from sunflower, rice, and wild blueberry, firms around the eyes and has been shown in lab results to reduce crow’s feet.
