A new analysis of over 156,000 beauty and personal care products has exposed a persistent gap between ingredient disclosure and chemical safety, revealing that transparency does not always equate to scientific clarity. The “2026 Beauty & Personal Care Safer Chemistry Profile,” published by the Know Better, Do Better (KBDB) Collaborative and managed by the nonprofit ChemFORWARD, examined nearly 2.9 million ingredient occurrences in the U.S. market, providing a stark assessment of an industry grappling with incomplete hazard data.
The findings, released ahead of the United Nations Global Framework on Chemicals conference in Geneva this November, highlight the complexities of navigating supply chain transparency. While the industry has made significant strides in labeling, with 96.8% of ingredients disclosed, the report notes that identifying a substance is merely the first step. Only 69.4% of the analyzed ingredients possessed sufficient toxicological data to be classified under the report’s methodology. Of those with enough data, 62.8% were identified as safer chemistry, 5.3% triggered concerns, and a significant 27.4% remained entirely uncharacterized.
This ambiguity poses a structural challenge for retailers and manufacturers who rely on “restricted substance” lists to manage chemical exposure. A product may technically comply with current regulations while still lacking the comprehensive data required to assess long-term safety. The report specifically points to endocrine disruptors as an area of ongoing concern, identifying 19 chemicals linked to endocrine activity that appeared nearly 35,000 times across the dataset. While the presence of these substances does not confirm a health risk—as safety depends on concentration, exposure frequency, and pathways—the prevalence of these chemicals suggests that chemical screening must be an ongoing, evolving process rather than a static compliance check.
The issue of fragrance remains one of the industry’s most opaque hurdles. Approximately one-quarter of the products analyzed—more than 40,000 items—contained undisclosed components hidden under the umbrella term “fragrance” or “parfum.” While proprietary trade secrets are a cornerstone of the fragrance industry, this lack of disclosure limits the ability of brands and retailers to conduct thorough hazard assessments. With the European Union expanding its fragrance allergen labeling rules and the U.S. Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 driving similar federal conversations, companies are facing increasing pressure to move beyond current label practices.
To address these data gaps without forcing individual companies to shoulder the massive cost of redundant testing, the KBDB Collaborative has pioneered a shared-data model. By pooling resources through ChemFORWARD’s Chemical Hazard Data Trust, participants—including major players like Sephora, Target, and Dow—have effectively reduced the cost of scientific assessments to less than $1 per chemical knowledge gap. In 2025 alone, this collaborative effort addressed nearly 174,000 data voids.
This shift toward shared knowledge represents a transition from simply banning “bad” chemicals to proactively evaluating a broader inventory of substances. The report sets an industry-wide target of 80% chemical hazard characterization. Achieving this, however, will require a concerted effort from suppliers to provide more robust toxicological data and a standardized approach to measuring progress across the supply chain.
As regulatory requirements tighten and consumer scrutiny intensifies, the beauty industry finds itself at a crossroads. While the rise in transparency is a positive development, the “2026 Safer Chemistry Profile” underscores that current efforts are still catching up to the speed of innovation. For manufacturers, the path forward involves integrating hazard data into the early stages of product development, ensuring that safety is designed into a formulation rather than retrofitted to comply with shifting standards. For now, the industry remains in a state of transition, where the ability to document chemical safety is becoming as vital as the performance of the products themselves.
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