Sephora Natural & Organic – How do they Rate?

By Tania Reuben

Sephora is offering it’s customers over 1400 Natural & Organic products. A clear indication of their response to consumers demand for more Natural Cosmetics. But how are they really doing?

PND spent some time researching their choices, learning how these products rank in the EWG’s Cosmetics Database (CD).  The CD gives products hazard scores from 0-10. To learn more about why PND uses this database click here.

The CD Ranking:
0-2 Low Hazard
3-6 Moderate Hazard
7-10 High Hazard

Top marks went to Juice Beauty, although all the information in the CD was derived from their old formulation – one can only hope their new formulations are even better.  Many of the lines had too few items listed in the CD to give an overall assessment of their line.  This seem like a basic step to overlook for a company in the natural beauty market.

Many other lines had a number of offerings that scored well, only to have others do poorly – very confusing for consumers. My personal preference is to find brands that can be trusted overall to take the guess work out of shopping and keep things simpler.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE OFFERINGS:

Bare Escentuals – Mineral Make Up
They have 188 products list in the CD score from 1-6. Most of their ranges scores in the 3-5 range. Not to bad, but keep in mind there are many mineral lines with products scores in the 1-3 range. Their safest offering – bareVitamins Prime Time (1). Their highest scoring product – Faux Tan Body Moisturizer (6).

Bieux Skin – Skin Care
Only one product is listed in the CD. Sephora is selling two of their products. Bionaturals Power Lift & Repair Serum – 3

Boscia – Skin Care
They have 8 products listed in the CD with score from 1-4 and Sephora is selling 14. Their safest offerings are their Enlivening Amino-AG Eye Treatment and Soothing Cleansing Cream – both products scored a 1.

Carol’s Daughter – Body & Hair Care
Carol’s Daughter has 22 products listed in the CD scoring from 0-5. Take your pick of 2 lip balms and a lip gloss with a 0.

Caudalie – Skin Care
Caudalie has 21 products list in the CD scoring from 3-8. Their best offerings are Energizing Concentrate & Anti-Ageing Serum Eyes & Lips, both coming in at 3. Will their worst scoring product is the Radiance Day Fluid, SPF 8 scoring 8.

Coloron – Press on Mineral Make Up
Did not show up in the CD. I don’t think I want press on make-up, but perhaps I should try it before I make wide sweeping comments.

Evian – Water
Are they really listing water as a natural beauty product? I’m pretty sure we can all be youthful and radiant without a can of evian water to mist on our faces!

Jack’s Black – Men’s Skin Care
Jack’s Black has 35 products listed in the CD scoring from 3-9. With 9 of their products in the red zone (7-10) I would look for an alternative. Their are many safer men’s line’s in the market.

Josie Maran – Make Up
Jose Maran has only 2 products listed in the CD a lipstick and tinted moisturizer – scoring 3-5.

Juice Beauty – Face & Body Care
Juicy has 25 products listed in the EWG all products scoring 1-4.  They are also certified organic.  All of the products have been noted as being rated based on the “old formulation”.
Products like their Revitalizing Eye Treatment and Daily Nourishing Moisturizer score at 3.

Jurlique – Skin Care
Jurlique has no products listed in the CD, Sephora is offering 15 of their products. They look lovely, I’d love to be able to say more.

Klorane – Hair Care
Klorane has 11 products listed in the CD scoring from 4-8. With scores starting out so high, this is a line that I would just avoid all together.

Korres Natural Products – Make Up and Skin & Body Care
Korres has 81 products listed in the CD scoring from 0-9. With 16 of these products scoring above 7. This is another line I would move past. Some of their products are good, but when the score range this broad it is much less confusing to just cross it off the list of products to try. How does a line with this many high scoring products get to use the word natural in their name?

Lavanila – Fragrance & Body Care
Lavanila has 3 products listed in the CD – they score from 3-5. I’d like to see more of their products listed in the database. I’m a bit familiar with this company and I’m relatively confident their ingredients are safer than many in the market place.

Nude Skin Care – Skin Care
No products listed in the CD.

Nuts Cream Perfume
No products listed in the CD.

Nvey Eco – Make Up
Nvey Eco’s Certified Organic only has 3 products listed in the CD, but they score 2-3, so it appears they are on the right track. Sephora is carrying 10 products. I’d feel much better if they had more products in the database to enable a more extensive review.

Ole Henriksen – Skin Care
Ole Henriksen has 17 products listed in the CD, most of the listings score from 0-4. Products to avoid are the Blue/Black Berry Enzyme Mask (6) and the Grease Relief Face Tonic (8).

Pacifica – Perfume and Body Care
Pacifica has 3 products listed in the CD and they all score 3. With this limited information it’s difficult to assess.

Phyto – Hair Care
Phyto has 99 products listed in the CD scoring from 1-9. With 27 (over 25%) of their products scoring above 7. Consider looking for a safer line.

Plantlove By Cargo- Make Up
Plantlove by Cargo has 24 products listed in the CD. They score from 4- 6 and are primarily lip products. While the score isn’t horrible, there are many lip products that score lower and I also think that if it’s going on your lips, the standard need to be a little higher, not only is our skin absorbing it, but we’re likely to ingest some too.

Skyn Iceland – Skin Care
Skyn Iceland has 12 products listed in the CD. Their products scored from 2-10 in the database. With 50% of the line score a 10 – this is a line I would skip.

Tarte – Make-up
Tarte has 133 products listed in the CD scoring from 3-8. Products like tarte Lash Hugger Mascara, Smooth Operator Foundation and Double Dose Berry Boost & Lip Gloss that score 4 and under, however they also have a number of lip glosses, sheers, and spf lip balm that score above 7 and would likely be better on the store shelf than on your skin. Product lines with such varied scores make it tricky – you really need to cherry pick the line to make safer choices.

Yu-Be – Skin Care
Yu-Be has 3 products listed out of 5 that Sephora carries, they score 4-5 in the CD. They list a skin polish, and 2 Skin Creams. You could likely do better, but you could do worse too.

THE BOTTOM LINE
While a couple of lines being offered by Sephora are excellent. Many of these “Natural Lines” contained products scoring in the 8’s & 9’s.

Hopefully this overview gives you an idea of how careful we need to be in choosing our personal care products. The lines that we studied here were selected by Sephora buyers for being Natural & Organic. It would be nice if we could add safe to that description. Until we have better regulation in the industry we are going to need to be very careful in the choices we make for personal care if we want to be assured that they are really safe to use on our bodies.

Sephora Natural & Organic – How do they Rate?