Does a Product Need to Be All-Natural to Be Clean?

The short answer is no: An all-natural product can absolutely also be clean, but synthetic ingredients can be clean, too. And the phrase “all-natural” or “no synthetics” on a product doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily clean. (Both “natural” and “clean beauty” are terms that are currently unregulated by the government.)

What clean beauty means at goop is that the products we sell and report on contain no ingredients known or suspected to harm human health. Here, a short list of favorites and bestsellers—some purely botanical, others that brilliantly combine synthetics with pure plant oils and extracts.