Clean Beauty by the Numbers: What 259,000 Ingredient Lists Reveal

The clean beauty movement made a promise: if enough people demanded safer products, the industry would reformulate. Brands would ditch the "dirty dozen." Ingredient lists would get shorter, simpler, and less alarming.

We wanted to see if that actually happened. So we ran the numbers on 258,990 beauty products in the HadaBuddy database, covering both K-beauty and Western brands. The results tell a more complicated story than any clean beauty marketing deck.

How we ran this analysis

We parsed full INCI ingredient lists for 258,990 products across skincare, hair care, body care, and makeup. The data covers both Korean (K-beauty) and Western formulations. We searched for six categories of "avoid" ingredients that dominate the clean beauty conversation: parabens, sulfates (SLS/SLES), fragrance/parfum, alcohol, phenoxyethanol, and chemical sunscreens (oxybenzone and similar). We also tracked the presence of popular "hero" ingredients for context. Every product was counted once, regardless of size or variant.

This is not a trend analysis over time. It is a snapshot of what's on shelves right now, across a quarter million products.

What the clean beauty movement actually changed

Let's start with the wins.

Parabens are basically gone. Only 4.4% of products in our database contain any paraben (methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, or ethylparaben). Among K-beauty products, it is even lower at 2.5%. Western products sit at 5.0%. A decade ago, parabens were in the majority of personal care products. The reformulation pressure worked.

Sulfates are disappearing too. SLS and SLES show up in just 4.1% of products. K-beauty is at 1.2%, Western at 5.0%. For an ingredient category that was once the default in cleansers, body washes, and shampoos, this is a steep decline. Consumers asked for sulfate-free. Brands delivered.

Chemical sunscreens are low as well. Oxybenzone and similar chemical UV filters appear in 7.6% of products. This reflects both consumer demand and the rise of mineral (zinc oxide, titanium dioxide) and newer-generation UV filters, particularly in K-beauty.

If you care about parabens, sulfates, or oxybenzone, the market has largely moved in your direction. Finding products without them is no longer difficult. It is the default.

What it didn't change

Here is where the data gets uncomfortable for clean beauty marketing.

Fragrance is everywhere. 47.3% of products contain fragrance or parfum. Nearly half. This number is remarkably consistent across markets: 49.9% in K-beauty and 46.6% in Western products.

Fragrance is the ingredient that dermatologists flag most consistently as a sensitizer and allergen. The American Contact Dermatitis Society named fragrance the "Allergen of the Year" in 2007, and the research since then has only reinforced that concern ¹. Contact allergy to fragrance ingredients affects an estimated 1 to 4% of the general population, with higher rates among people with existing skin conditions ².

If the clean beauty movement's goal was to reduce unnecessary irritants in skincare, fragrance should have been the first target. Instead, it barely moved. The reason is straightforward: fragrance sells. Products that smell good get repurchased. Removing fragrance is a harder sell to consumers than removing an ingredient they have never heard of.

Alcohol is in nearly two-thirds of all products. 62.9% contain some form of alcohol. Western products are higher at 67.5%, K-beauty at 48.4%. But this number needs context, and we will get to that in a moment.

The phenoxyethanol paradox

Here is the part that bothers me as someone who reads ingredient lists for a living.

Parabens dropped to 4.4%. That is the clean beauty success story. But phenoxyethanol, the preservative that largely replaced parabens, now appears in 38.3% of all products (19.6% in K-beauty, 44.3% in Western).

The industry swapped one preservative for another. That is a reasonable thing to do, since products need preservatives to stay safe. The problem is how it was framed. Parabens were characterized as dangerous. Phenoxyethanol was positioned as the "clean" alternative. But the safety evidence does not support that framing.

Parabens have been studied extensively for decades. The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) concluded in 2013 that methylparaben and ethylparaben are safe at concentrations up to 0.4% individually or 0.8% combined ³. The much-cited concern about parabens mimicking estrogen was based on studies using concentrations far above what cosmetics contain, and subsequent research found the estrogenic activity of parabens in cosmetic formulations to be orders of magnitude weaker than the body's natural estrogen ⁴.

Phenoxyethanol, meanwhile, has a thinner body of long-term safety data. It is generally recognized as safe at cosmetic concentrations (typically up to 1%), but the regulatory history is shorter and the research less extensive. Japan's Ministry of Health restricts it to 1% in cosmetics. France's National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) recommended against its use in products for children under 3 ⁵.

None of this means phenoxyethanol is dangerous. It means the swap from parabens to phenoxyethanol was driven more by marketing pressure than by comparative safety data. Consumers were told parabens were bad, so brands replaced them. The replacement is fine, but the framing was misleading.

The alcohol confusion

The headline number (62.9% of products contain alcohol) sounds alarming if you have been told to avoid alcohol in skincare. But it is mostly meaningless without context.

The word "alcohol" on an ingredient list can refer to several very different substances:

Drying alcohols (alcohol denat, SD alcohol, isopropyl alcohol) evaporate quickly and can strip the skin's natural oils. These are the ones that concern dermatologists, particularly at high concentrations in products that stay on the skin.

Fatty alcohols (cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol) are completely different. They are waxy, emollient, and moisturizing. They help creams feel smooth and keep formulations stable. They do not dry out your skin. In fact, they do the opposite.

When a product says "alcohol-free," it usually means free of drying alcohols. The fatty alcohols stay. And they should stay, because they are beneficial.

The 62.9% figure in our data includes all forms. A large portion of those products contain only fatty alcohols and are perfectly fine for sensitive skin. Scanning for the word "alcohol" without understanding which type creates unnecessary anxiety and limits your product choices for no good reason.

The gap between marketing and formulation

For context, here is how often the "hero" ingredients of the clean beauty era appear:

• Hyaluronic acid: 30.0%
• Niacinamide: 18.7%
• Vitamin C (ascorbic acid and derivatives): 12.2%
• Centella asiatica: 11.6%
• Ceramides: 6.6%
• Retinoids: 4.3%

Fragrance (47.3%) is more common than any single "good" ingredient. It appears in nearly five times as many products as ceramides, and more than twice as many as hyaluronic acid.

That is the gap between what clean beauty promises and what formulations actually look like. The ingredients that generate the most marketing copy (hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, vitamin C) are in fewer products than the ingredient most dermatologists would prefer you avoid.

What this means for you

The data points to a simple conclusion: ingredient lists matter more than labels. A product can be marketed as "clean" and still contain fragrance. A product can list "alcohol" and be perfectly gentle because it only contains cetearyl alcohol.

Three things worth doing:

1. Stop avoiding categories and start reading specific ingredients. "Alcohol" is not one thing. "Chemicals" is not a useful category. Learn the five or six specific ingredients that matter for your skin concerns.
2. Treat fragrance as the real priority. If you have sensitive or reactive skin, fragrance is a more significant concern than parabens (which are nearly gone anyway) or sulfates (also mostly gone). Unscented and fragrance-free are not the same, either. Look for "fragrance-free."
3. Use a scanner to cut through the noise. Reading a 40-ingredient INCI list in a store is impractical. Tools exist to do it for you.

HadaBuddy scans the full ingredient list of any product and flags exactly what is in it, from fragrance and drying alcohols to beneficial actives like niacinamide and ceramides. It distinguishes between types of alcohol, identifies preservatives, and lets you compare products side by side.

Download HadaBuddy on the App Store. Free on iOS.

FAQ

Is "clean beauty" actually safer than conventional beauty products?

Not necessarily. "Clean beauty" has no regulated definition. Any brand can use the term. What the data shows is that the mainstream market already removed the ingredients clean beauty campaigns targeted (parabens at 4.4%, sulfates at 4.1%). The ingredient most dermatologists consider a real sensitizer, fragrance, still appears in 47.3% of products regardless of whether they are marketed as clean.

Are parabens actually dangerous?

The current scientific consensus is that parabens at cosmetic concentrations are safe. The EU's SCCS reviewed the evidence extensively and approved methylparaben and ethylparaben up to 0.4% individually. The endocrine disruption concerns were based on concentrations far higher than what you would encounter in a moisturizer or cleanser. That said, if you prefer to avoid them, the market has made that easy: only 4.4% of products still contain them.

Should I avoid all products with alcohol in the ingredient list?

No. Fatty alcohols (cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol) are moisturizing and beneficial for skin. They are completely different from drying alcohols like alcohol denat or SD alcohol. Avoiding all alcohol-containing products would eliminate many excellent moisturizers and creams for no reason. Focus on whether the alcohol listed is a fatty alcohol or a drying alcohol.

Why does fragrance appear in so many products if it is a known sensitizer?

Fragrance sells products. Scent is one of the strongest drivers of repurchase in beauty. Removing fragrance often makes a product smell like the raw materials, which many consumers find off-putting. The industry has been slower to reformulate away from fragrance because the consumer demand to keep it is stronger than the demand to remove it.

How can I check whether a product contains these ingredients?

Use an ingredient scanner app like HadaBuddy. Scan the barcode or search for the product by name. The app will flag fragrance, drying alcohols, sulfates, parabens, and other ingredients of concern, along with the beneficial actives present. It is faster and more reliable than trying to parse a 30-ingredient list in a store aisle.

Further reading: The most common ingredients across 259,000 products · K-beauty vs Western skincare: what the data shows · What 51,000 Korean products reveal about K-beauty · Best skincare scanner apps compared · Ingredients you should never mix · Niacinamide: what it does and how to use it

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