Beautycounter Joins ChemFORWARD as Co-Design Partner to Collaboratively Advance Safer Chemistry for All
Beautycounter is bringing their commitment and experience in sourcing and formulating products that protect both people and the planet to the collaborative work of scaling greater transparency and safer chemistry throughout the industry as a ChemFORWARD co-design partner.
Beautycounter joins other co-design partners leading in the beauty and personal care sector including Credo, Sephora, and Target. These companies share a commitment to empowering the supply chain to make informed decisions about the chemistry they use. By creating broad access to chemical hazard data and illuminating safer alternatives, ChemFORWARD’s co-design partners aim to collaboratively address toxic chemical exposures toward equitably improving public health and protecting the environment.
Since its launch in 2013, Beautycounter has been a leader in ‘clean beauty,’ maintaining a comprehensive ingredient assessment process that informs its Never List of over 1,800 chemicals never used in products. The Certified B Corp has built a responsible sourcing program that works to continually address relevant high-risk ingredients. For example, Beautycounter is the first beauty brand to have conducted third-party traceability audits on 100% of their trusted supplier’s mica mine locations — a radical step towards transparency in the beauty industry. Beautycounter is also well known for its advocacy for more health protective regulation of cosmetics in the U.S and Canada.
To further strengthen this work, the organization recently added Jennifer McPartland, Ph. D. as Director of Safety & Stewardship. Prior to Beautycounter, Jennifer was the senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund where she was one of the original ChemFORWARD co-design partners. McPartland is a vocal advocate for shared chemical hazard data fundamental to advancing safer chemistry across supply chains.
“We are leading a movement to a future where all beauty is clean beauty. We are powered by people, and our collective mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone. Formulate, advocate, and educate—that’s our motto for creating clean beauty products that truly perform while holding ourselves to unparalleled standards of safety. It’s simple: ChemFORWARD’s efforts to develop and share trusted chemical assessments aligns with our mission.” Jennifer McPartland, Director of Safety and Stewardship at Beautycounter.
“Expanding our co-design efforts with leaders like Beautycounter signals the next phase in our work. Now that we have established a benchmark for what is known and not known about ingredients used in the beauty and personal care sector, we can set collective goals to address knowledge gaps, and collaborate to fill gaps that have the most potential to reveal safer alternatives,” explained Stacy Glass, Executive Director of ChemFORWARD, “At the same time, we are moving toward deeper levels of transparency by engaging raw material suppliers to have their trade name ingredients assessed.”
“Beautycounter is all in on bringing safer beauty and personal care products to the market, proving that ‘clean’ isn’t niche any longer. We will continue to breakdown misconceptions, overcome barriers, and champion policies that make safer, more sustainable products the market standard,” McPartland concluded.
ChemFORWARD’s codesign partners are leaders from diverse industries which share a commitment to scaling the availability of safer chemistry.
