The word “natural” appears on roughly 40% of new personal care products launched in the US every year. It also has zero legal definition under federal law.
That’s not a typo. The FDA — which oversees cosmetics through the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) — has never formally defined what “natural” means in the context of skincare or beauty products. Any brand can print it on a label. No certification required. No third-party verification needed. Same goes for “clean,” “pure,” and “non-toxic.” These are marketing words, not regulatory categories.
That’s worth sitting with for a moment before you spend $65 on a moisturizer because it says “100% natural” on the front.
The FDA Doesn’t Define “Natural” — and Brands Know It
Under the FD&C Act and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, cosmetic manufacturers are required to list ingredients using standardized INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) names, in descending order by weight. That’s the extent of it. There’s no pre-market approval process for cosmetics the way there is for drugs. The FDA acts after a product is found to be unsafe or misbranded — not before you buy it.
This changed somewhat with the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA), signed into law in December 2022. MoCRA gave the FDA new tools: mandatory facility registration, adverse event reporting requirements, and — for the first time — explicit authority to issue mandatory cosmetic recalls. It’s the most significant update to US cosmetics law in 85 years. But MoCRA still doesn’t define “natural.” The ingredient labeling gap remains wide open.
Compare that to the EU. Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 bans or restricts more than 1,300 cosmetic ingredients. The FDA’s list of prohibited cosmetic ingredients sits at fewer than 15. That gap is why some products sold freely in US drugstores are banned outright in European pharmacies. It doesn’t mean US cosmetics are uniformly dangerous — but it does mean “natural” carries no regulatory weight on this side of the Atlantic.
When a brand calls its face serum “natural,” the only check on that claim is the FTC’s general prohibition on deceptive advertising, which requires proof of deception after the fact, not pre-market policing. The word is essentially free.
What’s Actually in Your “Natural” Skincare Products
Here’s where things get genuinely interesting. Many ingredients that sound synthetic are derived from natural sources — and vice versa.
Take phenoxyethanol, a preservative you’ll find in countless “clean beauty” products positioned as the safe paraben alternative. It occurs naturally in trace amounts in green tea, but commercial phenoxyethanol is almost always produced synthetically. The EU permits it in cosmetics at up to 1% concentration. Most consumers who made the switch away from parabens landed on products with phenoxyethanol — often without realizing it. Neither is inherently harmful at regulated concentrations, but the “natural” label implies a chemical-free formulation that simply doesn’t exist.
Then there’s “fragrance” — listed as parfum on some labels. Under US law, fragrance formulas are protected as trade secrets, which means a single ingredient entry can represent anywhere from one to several hundred individual chemical compounds. Some fragrance chemicals are documented allergens. Certain phthalates, sometimes used as fragrance fixatives, have shown endocrine-disrupting effects in animal studies (though the evidence in humans at cosmetic use levels is less conclusive). Either way, you’d never know which compounds are present, because the label isn’t required to say.
Products labeled “unscented” aren’t necessarily a safer bet. Unscented often means a masking fragrance was added to neutralize the odor of other ingredients — so you’re getting fragrance chemicals without the detectable scent. Truly fragrance-free products will say exactly that.
None of this is meant to scare you away from your skincare routine. It’s meant to illustrate that the system wasn’t designed with your shopping decisions in mind. The “natural” claim isn’t protecting you. Your ability to read a label is.
The Ingredients Getting Unfair Bad Press — and the Ones That Actually Deserve Scrutiny
Part of the “clean beauty” wave has pushed consumers away from ingredients that are genuinely well-studied and safe, while leaving some legitimately concerning compounds unchallenged. Getting these right matters.
Parabens are probably the most overhyped villain in skincare. Methylparaben and ethylparaben are among the most rigorously tested preservatives in cosmetic history. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel — an independent scientific body that evaluates ingredient safety — has reviewed paraben safety multiple times and consistently concluded they’re safe at concentrations used in cosmetics, typically between 0.01% and 0.3%. The concern around estrogenic activity is real but routinely overstated: the estrogenic potency of parabens is thousands of times weaker than naturally occurring estrogens in the human body. Many “paraben-free” products replaced them with less-studied preservative systems, not no preservatives — because unpreserved water-based skincare breeds bacteria within days.
Formaldehyde releasers are a different story and one worth paying attention to. Ingredients like DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, and diazolidinyl urea slowly release small amounts of formaldehyde to inhibit microbial growth. Formaldehyde is classified as a known human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at high occupational exposure levels. Whether trace quantities released in a rinse-off shampoo or leave-on lotion create meaningful risk is actively debated among toxicologists — but it’s notable that several EU member states have restricted their use more aggressively than the US has. If you’d rather avoid them, check the INCI list specifically. They won’t be labeled “formaldehyde” but they will be listed by their chemical names.
Mineral oil has a reputation problem it hasn’t fully earned. Cosmetic-grade mineral oil is heavily purified — a different substance entirely from the industrial-grade version — and has been used safely in skin care for over a century. It occludes the skin effectively, reducing transepidermal water loss. It’s not glamorous, and it’s not derived from a plant, but it works and it’s safe. Plenty of “natural” serums contain it under names like paraffinum liquidum without advertising that fact.
The overarching point: “natural” doesn’t equal safe, and “synthetic” doesn’t equal dangerous. The molecule doesn’t know where it came from.
How to Actually Evaluate a Natural Skincare Product
The marketing claim on the front of the bottle tells you almost nothing. The INCI ingredient list on the back tells you quite a bit, if you know what you’re reading.
A few practical principles:
Position on the list matters more than presence. Ingredients are listed from highest to lowest concentration by weight. Something in the 15th spot out of 20 ingredients is present in very small quantities. A botanical extract near the bottom of a long list is largely cosmetic — in the marketing sense, not the scientific one.
If water is ingredient #1, the product needs a preservative system. Aqua or water leading the list means a water-based formula, which means microbial risk without preservation. Any brand claiming “preservative-free” with water as the base either has a very short shelf life or is using ingredients that function as preservatives under a different name — like certain plant-derived alcohols or essential oils, which carry their own sensitization risks.
Third-party certifications actually mean something. The USDA Organic seal requires that at least 95% of ingredients (by weight, excluding water and salt) meet organic standards. The COSMOS-standard (used by brands across Europe and increasingly in the US) sets specific rules around natural and organic ingredient sourcing and processing. NSF/ANSI 305 covers personal care products marketed as “containing organic ingredients.” These aren’t perfect, but they’re meaningfully better than a brand’s own “natural” claim.
Use EWG’s Skin Deep database as a starting point, not a verdict. It’s useful for flagging potential sensitizers and tracking ingredient research. But the database tends to penalize well-studied ingredients based on hazard classification rather than actual risk at the concentrations used in products, which can lead to misleading scores. Cross-reference with primary sources when something matters to you.
According to testing data from Qalitex Laboratories, label accuracy in cosmetics can vary more than most consumers expect — some products marketed as “natural” have been found to contain synthetic ingredients not disclosed on the label, and active ingredient concentrations sometimes deviate significantly from what brand marketing implies. Third-party verification closes that gap in a way that label reading alone can’t.
Start with the Ingredients List, Not the Front Panel
You don’t need a chemistry degree to shop smarter. You need to stop letting the word “natural” do your vetting for you.
Flip the bottle. Read the first five ingredients — they account for the bulk of what you’re actually applying to your skin. Look for whether there’s a preservative in a water-based formula (there should be). If you see “fragrance” listed high up on something marketed as “non-toxic,” it’s reasonable to ask what’s in that fragrance — because the brand has no legal obligation to tell you.
One honest question on the back label is worth more than ten claims on the front.
Written by Nour Abochama, Host & Quality Control Expert, Nourify & Beautify. Learn more about our team
Have questions about product safety? Talk to our experts. Contact us
Related from our network
- Cosmetic Ingredient Testing and Label Accuracy Verification — Qalitex Laboratories offers ISO 17025-accredited testing to verify what’s actually in skincare formulas versus what appears on the label.
- Raw Material Sourcing and COA Verification for Cosmetic Ingredients — Ayah Labs covers how ingredient quality and purity are confirmed upstream — before a raw material ever reaches a finished product.
