Ulta Beauty wants to make it easier for you to shop responsibly [1]. This week, the retailer launched a Conscious Beauty category [2], which curates sustainably-made clean beauty products from ethical brands, in order to offer transparency and encourage people to make educated choices for themselves and the planet. But as we've learned, clean beauty isn't regulated [3] under the FDA, so what exactly does Conscious Beauty entail at Ulta?

Conscious Beauty brands at Ulta, which include labels like Tula, KVD Vegan Beauty, and Tarte, are thoughtfully certified based on five pillars: clean ingredients, cruelty-free, vegan, sustainable packageing, and positive impact. To identify and standardize what constitutes clean ingredients, Ulta also developed an official "Made Without List" based on the human and environmental health impact of said ingredients, which customers can find starting 2021. And, as part of its sustainable packageing commitment, the retailer is also promising that 50 percent of all packageing sold at Ulta will made from recycled or bio-sourced materials, or be recyclable or refillable by 2025.

The news comes over two years after Sephora launched its Clean at Sephora initiative [4] in June 2018, in which customers could identify which products the retailer considers "clean." At Sephora, the special category is defined by whether items are free of ingredients like sulphates, parabens, formaldehydes, phthalates, and mineral oil.

Ulta created Conscious Beauty based on proprietary research, which showed that 75 percent of its customers wished it was easier to know what's "truly clean," and 63 percent believed it to be "somewhat or very important" to buy products safer for the planet. "The introduction of Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty reflects the incredible value we place on listening to our guests," said Dave Kimbell, president of Ulta Beauty, in a press release. "We consistently work to answer their evolving desires and with this holistic effort, we're aligning beauty choices with their personal values."