WASHINGTON – Buying products from Black-owned beauty brands is a powerful way to support the Black community directly. To make finding their beauty products easier, including clean options, the Environmental Working Group has added a new filter to its popular Skin Deep® database that allows consumers to search through almost 3,300 products in the database from 140 Black-owned brands.
“It is long past time for better diversity and inclusivity in the personal care products market, particularly in clean beauty,” said Nneka Leiba, EWG’s vice president of Healthy Living Science. “One important way to support Black-owned businesses, especially those offering safer products to minority populations, is to buy their products.”
“I’m proud that EWG has made it simple to learn more about these brands and how their products rate,” Leiba said. “I’m also proud that we are making it easier to find cleaner options that may be geared more to the Black and brown community. Our Healthy Living Science Team will continue to add and tag personal care products in Skin Deep with this new permanent feature.”
The Skin Deep Database
In 2004, EWG launched the Skin Deep database, an easy-to-navigate online guide, to help consumers find personal care products with fewer hazardous chemicals and avoid ingredients with known health harms. Skin Deep scores are based on hazard information from more than 60 toxicity and regulatory databases.
At launch, the database included ratings for 7,500 products and almost 7,000 ingredients. Today, Skin Deep rates more than 81,000 products and almost 9,000 ingredients. And it has become a trusted resource for consumers, manufacturers and scientists alike. In 2020, visitors viewed 61.5 million pages and made 13 million unique searches of the database.
“Our team is constantly adding new products to Skin Deep,” said Carla Burns, a senior research analyst at EWG. “We know that for many consumers trying to make healthier choices for themselves and their families, the Healthy Living app and Skin Deep are go-to guides for trusted information and product ratings. Now consumers can find ratings for products from Black-owned brands specifically.”
Supporting Black-Owned Beauty Businesses
Consumer spending has proven to have a significant impact on the marketplace. Retailers and investors pay attention to where dollars are spent and on which products. One way to support broader representation and improve the variety of products that line store shelves is to support Black-owned brands.
In January, EWG VERIFIED™ brand partner Follain announced that it would mentor and sponsor Black-owned partner brands that wanted to earn the EWG VERIFIED mark for their products. EWG and Follain have partnered to further the diversity of high quality and clean personal care products available to consumers.
The EWG VERIFIED mark means that a product goes above and beyond its green rating in Skin Deep, because the company has met EWG’s most rigorous standards and disclosed more information about its ingredients, formulations and manufacturing processes.
Thousands of new products are added to Skin Deep every year, but EWG can’t evaluate every product on the market. If the product you’re interested in is not rated in Skin Deep, you can either ask the company to contact us, or submit a product to [email protected]
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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
