Target doubles down on 'clean' beauty

Target is the latest major retailer to clean up its beauty aisles.

The chain store has unveiled a new ‘Target Clean' icon, designed to alert shoppers to products formulated without a group of certain chemicals, and it has applied it to almost 4,000 products across its beauty and personal care aisles. The icon, which is bright green, denotes products made without phthalates, propyl-parabens, butyl-parabens, sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) and more.

"We introduced the Target Clean symbol earlier this year in household essentials and baby and we've had many guests tell us that it's made their shopping trips easier," said Christina Hennington, Target's senior vice president, general merchandise manager, essentials, beauty, hardlines and services, in a statement.

"Now, guests can easily shop for skin care, hair care, cosmetics, oral care items and more that are formulated without a group of commonly unwanted chemicals they may not want included in their daily beauty routines."

Target isn't the only retailer tightening up on clean beauty -- earlier this month, cosmetics giant Sephora revealed it was tripling the list of vetoed ingredients on its ‘Clean at Sephora' program.

Meanwhile, March saw organic grocer Whole Foods launch the ‘Whole Foods Market Better Beauty Swap,' which aimed to raise awareness of the importance of checking out the ingredient labels on everyday beauty products and to encourage consumers to do their research on commonly-found ingredients such as parabens, microbeads and formaldehydes.