We care. We care deeply. And because we care deeply, we ask questions.
Given our decade of experience, we know that it’s worth poking at an industry so colossal and under-regulated. Because we are truly committed to caring about beauty, and caring about the impact of our industry, we ask questions and take what we learn to drive change.
What do we mean by clean beauty?
Credo clean means that we ask about the source of the ingredients, as well as potential safety, sustainability and ethical concerns.
We are pushing for greater transparency and more available information in a supply chain that is often murky and full of marketing claims.
Product
We strive to understand the safety of ingredients on the market to help ensure safer, better consumer products.
Packaging
Our Sustainable Packaging Guidelines require our brand partners to eliminate the use of single-use items and reduce the use of virgin plastic and non-recyclable materials.
People
The just treatment of people all along the supply chain is essential to clean beauty.
Planet
Sustainable sourcing means doing as little harm as possible to the environment to meet current needs, without compromising the needs of the future.
Explore our standards
Want to dig a little deeper?
Photo by Ivan Bandura. Wastewater runoff.
our restricted substances
The Dirty List™
We believe everyone deserves safer, better products. The Dirty List™ is the foundation of the Credo Clean Standard and contains over 2700 chemicals that we prohibit or restrict, usually due to safety and/or sustainability concerns. Credo brand partners are committed to not using our restricted ingredients in their products. You can download an abridged version of The Dirty List™ here.
safer products
Testing
Because overall product safety is of utmost importance to Credo, our Clean Standard goes much further than our Dirty List. We require and guide brands through a variety of raw material and final product testing. Our brand partners test for contaminants, heavy metals, preservative efficacy, irritation potential, occular safety, and more. Prior to launching, brands run this testing and some relevant tests are also conducted at regular intervals to ensure product integrity.
understanding what’s inside
Labeling and Claims
We believe everyone deserves to be able to easily understand ingredient lists both on product labels and online. That's why we require all brands use a consistent naming convention for cosmetic ingredients called "INCI". INCI stands for the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients.
pushing the industry forward
Fragrance Transparency
The word “fragrance” or “parfum” is common on ingredient lists, but did you know a fragrance mixture can contain dozens (or more!) ingredients and that companies aren’t legally required to share the ingredients? We believe everyone has the right to know exactly what’s in every product they use. Our brand partners are required to categorize the source of their fragrances and are celebrated when they fully disclose all fragrance ingredients in a product.
working towards circularity
Sustainable Packaging Guidelines
The beauty industry has contributed to a massive packaging waste problem. We committed to making actionable reductions by introducing our industry-leading Sustainable Packaging Guidelines in 2020. Our approach to sustainable packaging is three-fold: smart design, sustainably sourced, and optimized for end-of-life. We prohibit single-use materials and we are taking bold steps to reduce the use of virgin materials, especially plastic. We encourage a holistic approach to choosing packaging and prohibit false claims around recyclability and “green” materials.
