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A quick guide to Clean at Sephora standards, restricted ingredients, compliance checks, and how you can develop clean, retail-ready products effectively.
“Clean at Sephora” is one of the most influential standards in beauty retail. For customers, it signals safer ingredient choices. For brands, it is a strict criteria list that must be met before a product can display the green seal.
Understanding these rules is essential for founders, formulators, and regulatory teams aiming to qualify.
Sephora’s clean requirements focus on ingredient safety, transparency, and responsible formulation. The list is updated regularly, and products must avoid certain chemicals, follow clear labeling rules, and provide supporting documentation.
In this article, we explain what “Clean at Sephora” means, the ingredients that are not allowed, and more.
Key Takeaways:
“Clean at Sephora” is Sephora’s internal standard for identifying products made without ingredients they consider high-risk, non-compliant, or environmentally concerning.
But the Clean seal does not mean:
Instead, it means your product has passed a strict retailer compliance review that evaluates ingredient safety, formulation integrity, sourcing transparency, and documentation readiness.
Sephora evaluates three core areas:
In simple terms, “Clean at Sephora” means your product must meet a defined ingredient standard supported by verified documentation.
To qualify for the Clean at Sephora seal, your product must exclude all ingredients on Sephora’s restricted list. These fall into key categories:
Important: Sephora updates this list regularly. Always check the latest published criteria before finalizing formulas or packaging.
These brands meet Sephora’s clean formulation standards and are known for transparent, safety-focused ingredient choices.
Sephora’s in-house clean line focuses on simple, effective formulas without the ingredients on the retailer’s exclusion list. Products are designed to offer accessible pricing while meeting strict transparency standards.
Clean Products to Explore:
Glow Recipe blends playful branding with fruit-powered actives and clean formulations. Their products avoid Sephora’s restricted ingredients while delivering clinically tested results and strong consumer appeal.
Clean Products to Explore:
Caudalie is rooted in vineyard-derived antioxidants and plant-based actives. The brand has long avoided controversial ingredients and aligns naturally with Sephora’s clean requirements.
Clean Products to Explore:
Tatcha combines Japanese skincare traditions with gentle, well-tested formulations. Their clean-approved products focus on skin barrier support and soothing botanicals.
Clean Products to Explore:
Also read: The 10 Essential Stages of Skincare Product Development
Farmacy uses farm-grown, traceable botanicals and science-backed actives. Their formulations prioritize sustainability, transparency, and exclusion of all ingredients restricted under Sephora’s clean criteria.
Clean Products to Explore:
Saie focuses on modern, minimal-ingredient formulas made with high-performance naturals and responsibly sourced synthetics. The brand prioritizes transparency, gentle textures, and everyday wearability, making it a strong fit for Sephora’s clean standards.
Clean Products to Explore:
Kosas creates makeup that behaves like skincare, using nourishing botanicals and avoiding common irritants. Their formulas emphasize comfort, blendability, and skin barrier support, which aligns well with clean formulation requirements.
Clean Products to Explore:
Youth to the People is known for its superfood-powered skincare and clean, vegan formulations. The brand blends cold-pressed plant extracts with clinically supported actives, balancing clean principles with performance.
Clean Products to Explore:
Tower 28 develops sensitive-skin-safe makeup and skincare that meets both Sephora’s clean standards and the National Eczema Association Seal. Their formulas are simple, soothing, and designed to avoid common triggers.
Clean Products to Explore:
Briogeo is a clean, texture-inclusive haircare brand focused on naturally derived ingredients and science-backed actives. Their formulas avoid sulfates, silicones, and parabens while delivering effective repair, hydration, and scalp care.
Clean Products to Explore:
Collectively, these brands demonstrate what successful Sephora Clean compliance looks like in practice.
Building a Clean at Sephora–ready product requires more than removing restricted ingredients. Sephora evaluates your formula, documentation, suppliers, manufacturing processes, and testing data to confirm that the entire product meets its clean criteria.
To prepare, growing brands need a structured approach across formulation, sourcing, manufacturing, and compliance.
Sephora reviews your full INCI list and cross-checks every ingredient against their restricted list. Your formulation must be built clean from the start — retrofitting a formula later typically leads to full reformulation.
What to prioritize:
A clean formula is the foundation of compliance; without it, nothing else passes.
Sephora may request detailed supplier documentation at any stage. Brands must ensure every raw material is traceable and verifiable.
Be ready with:
If your suppliers cannot provide this, your product will stall during review.
Clean formulas often rely on alternative preservatives and natural actives that require stronger testing. Sephora expects validated safety and performance data.
Required testing includes:
This data protects your product from reformulation requests later.
Sephora frequently asks for documentation that aligns with CGMP standards. Inconsistent batches or incomplete batch records are a red flag.
Your manufacturer must provide:
This is where a CGMP-certified, turnkey partner becomes a competitive advantage.
Clean formulas can react differently with packaging. Sephora may request compatibility data depending on the format. Consider:
Packaging decisions influence testing, shelf life, and retail approval timelines.
Even after approval, Sephora expects:
Clean compliance is not a one-time event — it’s an ongoing operational system.
Also read: How to Start a Makeup Line: A Step-by-Step Guide
Even strong formulations fall short of Sephora’s clean criteria when brands overlook the operational realities behind compliance. Here are the mistakes that create the most delays:
These issues slow approvals and complicate launches, making it essential to embed clean compliance into every stage of formulation, sourcing, and manufacturing.
At Respect Manufacturing, we help beauty and wellness brands build products that meet Clean at Sephora standards with the quality, documentation, and consistency retailers expect. Our FDA-registered, CGMP-certified facility ensures every batch is produced with full traceability and rigorous oversight.
We support clean-beauty brands with:
Our end-to-end approach removes multi-vendor complexity and delivers market-ready products that align with clean standards, retailer expectations, and long-term brand growth.
Clean at Sephora requires more than removing restricted ingredients. It demands clean-compliant formulation, strong documentation, verified raw materials, and production in a controlled, CGMP environment. Brands that prepare for these operational requirements early move through retailer reviews faster and maintain consistent product quality.
At Respect Manufacturing, we support clean-beauty and wellness brands with end-to-end formulation, testing, packaging, and manufacturing. Our CGMP facility, AQL testing, stability programs, and turnkey packaging capabilities ensure every product is consistent, traceable, and retail-ready.
If you are developing a clean product and need a partner who can manage the entire process under one roof, we are here to help.
Partner with Respect Manufacturing to bring clean, compliant, and market-ready products to life.
It indicates the product meets Sephora’s clean standard, avoiding restricted ingredients like parabens, phthalates, sulfates, PEGs with contaminants, and cyclic silicones, with required transparency and documentation.
“Clean” refers to formulas made without certain restricted or high-concern ingredients, focusing on transparency, safety, and responsible formulation practices.
Clean at Sephora includes brands like ILIA, Saie, Youth To The People, Biossance, and Summer Fridays, though availability changes by store and region.
Insider, VIB, and Rouge. These tiers are part of Sephora’s Beauty Insider program and unlock increasing benefits based on annual spending.
