WASHINGTON – The EWG VERIFIED™ program now features 833 top-rated personal care and cosmetics products, allowing consumers to quickly spot items that meet stringent ingredient and transparency requirements.
EWG’s mark was designed to help consumers identify healthier products, right at the point of purchase.
“Let’s face it, when a shopper sets foot in the personal care product aisle she’s walking into a consumer wilderness,” said Ken Cook, EWG president and co-founder. “There are dozens of product choices in every category, long lists of chemical ingredients to study, and market claims designed more to soothe and spin than to inform. EWG VERIFIED™ is the wilderness guide that shopper has been waiting for.”
“The EWG VERIFIED™ mark keeps consumers in the know about what’s really in their products, so they can rest easy knowing that every ingredient meets our rigorous criteria. We make it simple for families to avoid the toxic and potentially harmful chemicals widely used in personal care products,” Cook added.
EWG VERIFIED™ products include cosmetics like foundations, blushes, eye shadows, eyeliners, lipsticks and lip glosses; skin care products such as lotions and moisturizers; shampoos and soaps; and many more personal care products.
“We’re thrilled that more and more companies are submitting their products to be verified,” said Nneka Leiba, EWG deputy director of research. “The EWG VERIFIED™ program is gaining momentum and raising awareness, with 52 brands now included and the number of products in the pipeline for verification rapidly growing. EWG researchers have done the hard work for you.”
“The EWG VERIFIED™ mark prevents companies from hiding potentially harmful ingredients behind terms like ‘fragrance,’” Leiba added.
The European Union has banned or restricted more than 1,000 ingredients from use in personal care products, compared with only 11 chemicals restricted or prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Many cosmetics chemicals are designed to penetrate the skin’s inner layers, and consequently, some common cosmetics ingredients turn up in people’s bodies. Every day, the average woman uses 12 products that contain 168 different ingredients. The average man uses six products daily with 85 unique ingredients. Some ingredients are endocrine disruptors – chemicals that interfere with the body’s hormones – which are linked to reproductive system disorders, fertility problems and other health issues.
The EWG VERIFIED™ program takes the popular Skin Deep® database to the next level. Items that bear the mark must score in the “green” range and meet EWG’s verification criteria, which include compliance with strict ingredient standards, good manufacturing practices and robust labeling.
EWG VERIFIED™ products must be free of substances that EWG has put on its “unacceptable” list and meet limits for chemicals on EWG’s “restricted” list. Ingredients on these lists have been banned or restricted by U.S. or international government agencies, or other authoritative public health bodies such as the World Health Organization. Companies must also fully disclose the specific ingredients that make up their fragrance mixtures.
In stores, about 120 products by companies like MyChelle, Baby Mantra and ATTITUDE have the EWG VERIFIED™ mark on their packaging.
“By giving consumers more information, we’re encouraging companies to produce healthier products,” said Leiba. “We can pressure cosmetics makers to reformulate products with chemicals that don’t threaten our health.”
There are several ways to find products that have earned the EWG VERIFIED™ mark:
-
Look for the mark on packages. The EWG VERIFIED™ mark is visible to shoppers in store aisles and online.
-
Check company websites. Companies with EWG VERIFIED™ products have information on their websites to show which of their products meet EWG’s health and transparency standards.
- Search our Skin Deep database. Each EWG VERIFIED™ product is flagged in Skin Deep, with the mark appearing next to the Skin Deep score. The mark also appears at the top of all EWG VERIFIED™ product pages.
