Is e.l.f. a Clean Beauty Brand?

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When you think of e.l.f. Cosmetics, what comes to mind? For me, it stands out as one of the only brands that’s cruelty-free, vegan, affordable, and reliably stocked almost everywhere. That last part is key: it’s nice to have a brand that checks those boxes available in your local pharmacy, Walmart, and practically all the stores in between. But as I’ve learned more about the questionable ingredients hiding in beauty products, I wondered: is e.l.f. a clean beauty brand, too?

This question is a bit more complicated than immediately meets the eye, so let’s break it down.

Table of Contents

What’s Clean Beauty?

This question—is e.l.f. clean beauty?—assumes that ‘clean’ is something a beauty brand can be. And although we may intuitively have a sense of what clean beauty should mean (like made without harmful ingredients), there’s no universally agreed-upon definition. What counts as harmful ingredients? In what quantities are they harmful? And so on and so forth.

Because there’s no real standard in place, brands tend to throw the term clean around. It’s an easy way to sell more products since we as consumers, understandably, buy into the basic idea of better products. This is a big topic on Florah, which you can read more about here.

So without any sort of official “CLEAN” stamp that products can apply for and receive, clean beauty ultimately boils down to what matters to you as an individual. This process is made somewhat easier by claims and certifications that tell us concrete things about products, like cruelty-free, vegan, organic, fair trade, certified B Corp, etc.

There are also sources available to help us assess the ingredients that brands use in their products, like EWG’s Skin Deep Database. Their site lets you look up brands, products, and ingredients and ranks them on a 10-point scale from low to high hazard. Note, though, that sources like these may not be without their own flaws and biases.

Having said all that, let’s get down to the core question:

Is e.l.f. a Clean Beauty Brand?

Claims & Certifications

Let’s review the facts. Here are e.l.f.’s main certifications and standards:

1. e.l.f. is a cruelty-free brand.

e.l.f. takes cruelty-free to the next level. They’re certified by not one but two leading organizations—Leaping Bunny and PETA—which I’ve actually never seen before. They also say, “We offer “Pawternity Leave” for our employees. Under this policy, any e.l.f. Beauty employee who adopts a shelter animal is allowed paid time off so that they can tend to the new pet in their lives.” I mean.

2. All e.l.f. products are vegan.

e.l.f. is a 100% vegan brand. This means that no animal products or byproducts are present in their products.

3. e.l.f. has a list of banned ingredients.

As stated on their site, “At e.l.f., clean beauty means each skincare and makeup product is formulated to comply with the European Union Cosmetics Regulation (EUCR) and FDA restrictions for over 1,600+ ingredients.” Which, ya know, we love to see. Because why on earth are ingredient regulations so relatively lax in the US?

4. e.l.f. uses a Fair Trade Certified factory.

Now we’re talking about a clean conscience, too. Indeed, e.l.f. was the FIRST company in the beauty industry to get its manufacturing facility Fair Trade Certified.

The Bottom Line

By most standards it seems fair to say that, yes, e.l.f. is a clean beauty brand. Depending on your personal standards and preferences, it may not check every single ‘clean’ box. For example, it’s not organic, and by and large their products still come in plastic.

But being able to buy a cruelty-free, vegan product made in a Fair Trade factory and formulated to EU clean ingredient standards—all at drugstore prices—is pretty incredible. And that’s to say nothing of the brand’s quality, which judging by their cult following is quite something.

Where to Buy e.l.f. Beauty Products

The cool thing about e.l.f. is that despite all it has going for it in the quality and ethics department, it still really is a drugstore brand. As such, it’s both competitively priced and widely available. You can purchase e.l.f. beauty products: