Conscious Beauty®

Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty® is our way of empowering you with transparency and choices. You'll be able to identify Clean Ingredients, Cruelty Free, Vegan, and Sustainable Packaging brands and products. It also highlights brands that Give Back to our communities and planet. Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty® includes brands across Makeup, Skin Care, Hair Care, Body Care, Fragrance and Nail product categories in order to give our guests even more choices.

Brands within the Clean Ingredients pillar certify with Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty that they comply with the Ulta Beauty “Made Without List”, Ulta Beauty's set of standards that considers the human and environmental health impact of ingredients.

We highlight brands that do not conduct animal testing. To do this, we tie our definition to existing certifications. Specifically, we’ll accept PETA or Leaping Bunny certifications—which many of our brands already have.

No. Cruelty Free and Vegan are sometimes used interchangeably, but the two terms are not the same. Cruelty Free means the products have not been tested on animals. Vegan indicates products are completely free of ingredients that are animal products, animal by-products and animal derivatives. A product can be either or both of these.

Vegan products are those that are completely free of ingredients that are animal products, animal by-products and animal derivatives. That includes but is not limited to ingredients such as honey, beeswax, lanolin, collagen, albumen, carmine, cholesterol and gelatin.

Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty defines sustainable packaging as packaging that is made from bio-sourced or recycled materials, or is recyclable or refillable. At least 50% of a brand’s total packaging, by weight, sold at Ulta Beauty must meet these standards to qualify for the Sustainable Packaging pillar. The 50% is calculated across all of a brand’s products and the percentage may vary by product.

Through Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty, we're highlighting brands that have giving back at their core. They are committed to making a positive impact by providing ongoing financial support to environmental and/or social causes.

Our Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty Advisory Council brings expertise, insights and help drive Conscious Beauty forward. The Council brings together experts at the forefront of clean beauty, product development, packaging sustainability and brand leadership.

In partnership with Pact Collective – a non-profit working to help end beauty packaging waste – we have created The Beauty Dropoff™. All Ulta Beauty locations have a bin to collect hard-to-recycle, cleaned out empties. The bin is typically placed near the register.

The Beauty Dropoff­™ Program is brand-agnostic, meaning the bins accept any and all beauty packaging that meets Pact’s collection guidelines, regardless of brand. Only hard-to-recycle, cleaned out beauty and wellness packaging empties should be placed in the collection bins.

Credo and Ulta Beauty share a passion for transparency in clean ingredients. Credo has an extensive restricted substance list that consists of thousands of ingredients. We refer to this as “super clean.” Like Credo, Ulta Beauty’s list will continue to evolve and as partners, we will continue to share and grow together.

Our Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty Advisory Council brings expertise, insights and help drive Conscious Beauty forward. The Council brings together experts at the forefront of clean beauty, product development, packaging sustainability and brand leadership.