A Roadmap to Accelerate Safer Chemistry for All
Executive Summary
The beauty and personal care industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by consumer demand for safer and more sustainable products. The “Establishing Beauty & Personal Care Ingredient Intelligence Report” report highlights the progress made in 2023 through the Know Better, Do Better (KBDB) Collaborative, a group of industry leaders committed to increasing ingredient hazard transparency, shared data, and the use of safer chemistry.
The report reveals that 70% of all ingredients in the analyzed dataset are well-characterized, meaning their potential hazards are understood and that 66% of those characterized are verified as safer chemistry. However, there’s still work to be done, as high hazard ingredients are still used in high frequency across product types and should be prioritized for elimination.
The report also signals the importance of assessing uncharacterized ingredients. 30% of all ingredients reported account for data gaps in the assortment and thus occur in a significant number of products. Over the past year, KBDB Collaborative members have sponsored chemical hazard assessments to characterize unknown ingredients that have already made a substantial impact, filling thousands of data gaps in the assortment and paving the way for informed decision-making across the industry. With more work to be done on characterization, the Collaborative invites others to join this effort for even greater collective impact.