The clean-beauty checklist (and what 'clean' actually means)

"Clean" is a marketing word. It has no legal definition, no governing body, no agreed standard. Brands can call themselves clean and mean almost anything by it — or nothing at all. We think that's worth saying out loud, because we care about being honest with you.

Here's what we mean when we say clean at Vita Beaut.

What we leave out

We've made a clear, specific list of ingredients we don't use — and we keep it updated. These aren't arbitrary. Each one has a reason:

Parabens — a class of preservatives with ongoing questions around endocrine activity. Alternatives exist, and we use them.

Sulfates (like SLS and SLES) — effective cleansers, but aggressive ones. They strip more than they need to, and for daily-use products, that matters.

Phthalates — common in synthetic fragrances, which is part of why we don't use synthetic fragrance. When we add scent, we tell you what it is.

Talc — questions around purity and contamination have led us to use cosmetic-grade mineral alternatives in everything we make.

Mineral oil — it's not dangerous, but it's heavy and occlusive in a way that doesn't work for daily wear. We prefer lighter, more skin-compatible alternatives.

Synthetic fragrance — a catch-all term that can hide hundreds of undisclosed ingredients. We don't use it. If something in our range has a scent, it comes from a named botanical source.

Why the list isn't longer

Some brands compete on the length of their "free from" list — 1,800 ingredients banned! That number mostly comes from listing every form and variant of a category of ingredient separately. It sounds impressive. It doesn't mean much.

We'd rather have a shorter, honest list than a long one that's padded to look good. Clean should mean something. It shouldn't just be a number.

How to read your own labels

Ingredients are listed in descending order by concentration. If water is first, there's a lot of water. If an "active" ingredient is near the bottom, there's very little of it.

Fragrance (or parfum) is a red flag on a label if you're sensitive or if you want full transparency — it can cover a huge range of undisclosed ingredients. Unscented and fragrance-free are not the same thing: unscented products may still contain masking fragrance.

When in doubt, ask. We're at support@vita-beaut.com, and we'll tell you exactly what's in anything we make.

Read more about our approach on our Ingredients page.