Beauty product chemical analysis flags endocrine disruptors and disclosure gaps

ChemFORWARD’s latest review of 156,594 U.S. beauty and personal care products found 19 potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals, hazard classification changes for two common ingredients and major fragrance disclosure gaps. The findings arrive before a major U.N. chemicals conference and are meant to help brands track safer chemistry progress.

Why it matters: - The analysis shows where beauty and personal care brands can tighten chemical safety, especially as regulators and global leaders push for better hazard data. - The findings provide a benchmark for measuring progress toward safer ingredients across a large consumer product category. - The report highlights risks that may not appear on restricted substances lists, including potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

What happened: - The Know Better, Do Better Collaborative, an industry-led initiative managed by ChemFORWARD, released its 2026 Beauty & Personal Care Safer Chemistry Profile on October 22, 2026. - The profile reviewed nearly 2.9 million ingredient occurrences across 156,594 products sold in the U.S. - The analysis more than tripled the number of products examined from last year. - The release came ahead of the first international conference of the UN Global Framework on Chemicals in Geneva, set for November 16–20.

The details: - The dataset found 96.8% of ingredients were disclosed, and 69.4% were characterized for human health and environmental hazards. - The analysis classified 62.8% of ingredients as safer chemistry and 5.3% as chemicals of potential concern by frequency. - Up to 15.4% of products analyzed may contain an endocrine-disrupting chemical, as defined in the report. - The aggregated dataset identified 19 potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals appearing 34,885 times. - The report says 24% of products, or more than 40,000 items, contain undisclosed fragrance ingredients. - The collaborative filled nearly 174,000 individual chemical knowledge gaps in 2025. - In 2025, collaborative members invested about $140,000 to fund 33 new or updated Chemical Hazard Assessments. - The resulting data is shared through the Chemical Hazard Data Trust, with an average investment of less than $1 for each knowledge gap filled. - The report applies the Safer Chemistry Impact Metrics Framework developed by the Safer Chemistry Impact Fund. - The collaborative includes Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Target, The Honest Company, Credo Beauty, Counter, Inolex, and Dow. - Full findings are available at the ChemFORWARD report page.

Between the lines: - The report shows how a central hazard-data system can surface new risks faster as science evolves. - ChemFORWARD said new scientific and regulatory information led to a 2025 reassessment of caprylyl glycol and phenethyl alcohol. - After reassessment and independent peer review, both ingredients moved from Hazard Band C to Hazard Band F because of reproductive toxicity data published after the original assessments were verified. - Caprylyl glycol appears in about 23% of the products analyzed, so a single hazard update can affect thousands of formulations. - The fragrance findings point to a major transparency gap because undisclosed mixtures cannot be fully characterized for hazards. - U.S. and European regulators are moving toward greater fragrance ingredient disclosure, which raises pressure on brands to identify what is in these mixtures. - Heather McKenney, director of science and safer chemistry at ChemFORWARD, said a central source of dynamic hazard data can help companies identify emerging concerns earlier and make safer decisions proactively. - Glass said the work gives the industry a way to move beyond ingredient-avoidance lists and use chemistry data to drive safer formulation and innovation.

What's next: - The November UN chemicals meeting in Geneva is expected to put chemical safety targets and implementation under a global spotlight. - The KBDB Collaborative plans to keep expanding shared hazard data and filling knowledge gaps through the Chemical Hazard Data Trust. - Companies using the framework can track whether ingredient choices are shifting toward safer chemistry over time.

The bottom line: - The report gives beauty and personal care brands a practical map for reducing chemical risk, improving transparency and measuring safer chemistry progress at scale.