Shopping for personal care and beauty products while picking up groceries can be super convenient, and its tempting to grab and go. But just how safe are products at the grocery store?

Whole Foods Clean Beauty Standard

At Whole Foods, the personal care products and beauty items must meet certain requirements determined by Whole Foods. The requirements include a ban on over 100 ingredients like parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde donors, oxybenzone and EDTA. Read the full list of banned ingredients here. Also, organic claims must be backed up by a third-party certification like USDA Organic or NSF/ANSI 305 Organic Personal Care Products standard. [1]

While Whole Foods sets a higher standard for products compared to other grocery stores and pharmacies, some harmful ingredients still make it into products on Whole Foods’ shelves. These include fragrance, phenoxyethanol, and others.

After reading labels and trying out countless products, these are my tried and true Whole Foods picks that are safe and actually work. You can also find these products on Amazon Prime if you placing on online order from Whole Foods using Amazon Prime.

Best Whole Foods Clean Beauty Products

Juice Beauty’s tinted moisturizer with SPF 30 uses safe non-nano zinc oxide while being lightweight and hydrating. Yarok Feed Your Ends is the perfect detangler and heat protectant combo that will not weigh your hair down. Captain Blankenship dry shampoo absorbs oils without leaving hair tacky.

Best Whole Foods Personal Care Products

Himalaya Botanique toothpastes are fluoride-free and use natural ingredients like neem to clean teeth. Alaffia bubble bath has a light scent and is gentle on skin. Climb on Creme nourishes dry skin and works especially well for dry heels and elbows. Dr. Bronner’s castile soap is a multi-use soap perfect for foaming hand soap. Dr. Bronners bar soap is extra gentle on skin with a simple ingredient list. The Dr. Bronner’s Sugar Soap makes a great moisturizing hand soap or bodywash. EO hand sanitizers have a pleasant mild smell (not alcohol-y), and do dry out hands

Harmful Ingredients Not Banned At Whole Foods

These are ingredients that are not Whole Foods banned list, but can still be harmful and should be avoided. I consider these red flag ingredients - if you see one or more on an ingredient label, its best to skip that product.

Fragrance- mix of fragrance and chemicals associated with allergies, dermatitis, respiratory distress and potential effects on the reproductive system. Fragrances have been found to contain unnamed toxic ingredients like phthalates which are associated with developmental and reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption, and cancer.[2][3][4][5]
Phenoxyethanol- skin, eye, or lung irritant. In 2008, the FDA warned consumers not to use Mommy’s Bliss Nipple cream because it contained phenoxyethanol which was harmful to infants. The statement indicated phenoxyethanol could “depress the central nervous system and may cause vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration in infants.” Phenoxyethanol remains a controversial ingredient and even “green” beauty products continue to use it as a preservative.[2]
Cocamidopropyl betaine – used as a foaming agent and thickener. Associated with allergies and contact dermatitis and can potentially form nitrosamines.[3] There is strong evidence that nitrosamines are carcinogenic, and they are banned from Canadian cosmetics. Limited evidence has been shown for developmental/reproductive/organ system toxicity from nitrosamines. [4][5]
Polysorbate 20 – an ethoxylated ingredient that can have residual amounts of ethylene oxide and 1,4-dioxane which are associated with reproductive, developmental, and endocrine effects, cancer, and DNA damage.[6][7] One study shows that polysorbate 20 inhibits the growth of cells and should be used with caution.[8]