Getting Into Credo and Clean-Beauty Retailers

Clean-beauty retailers gate on standards before they gate on sales. With a conventional retailer, your pitch is mostly about whether your product will sell. With a clean-beauty retailer, you first have to prove your formula and packaging meet a published standard, and only then does the sales conversation start. Meet the standard first, or the pitch goes nowhere.

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The Credo Clean Standard

Credo Beauty is the largest clean-beauty retailer in the US, and its bar is the one most brands measure against. The Credo Clean Standard has a few parts:

• The Dirty List. Credo’s restricted-ingredient list covers more than 2,700 ingredients it prohibits or restricts, over safety and sustainability concerns. That is well beyond what any law requires, so a product that is legal everywhere can still fail. Check your full formula against it before anything else.
• Packaging and sustainability. Credo prohibits single-use materials, pushes brands to cut virgin plastic, and bans false or vague recyclability and “green” claims on packaging.
• Transparency and sourcing. Full ingredient disclosure, plus attention to ethical sourcing and working conditions in the supply chain.

How to get in

1. Audit your formula and packaging against the Dirty List and the packaging rules. Fix anything that fails before you reach out.
2. Prepare your submission package: a line sheet with wholesale pricing that survives a retail margin, clean and compliant labeling, and a complete ingredient list for every single product in your line. Credo will not consider a submission without full ingredient listings, because it checks each product against the Clean Standard.
3. Email your brand to Credo. Credo takes new-brand submissions by email. The current submission address is listed on its FAQ page, under the brand-submission answer. Send your package there and state plainly that every product meets the Clean Standard.
4. Include proof the product resonates: sales figures, reviews, a real customer base. Meeting the standard gets you considered; traction is what gets you a yes.

If you are a BIPOC founder, look at Credo for Change as well. It offers participating businesses mentorship, industry and investor connections, and an opportunity to pitch for funding, which is a second door into the same retailer.

The other clean retailers

Credo is the biggest, and there are dozens more clean-beauty stores, each with its own standard and its own way in. The main ones that carry indie brands:

• The Detox Market. A major clean-beauty marketplace with strict ingredient standards. It takes new brands through a brand submission form, and asks that your products be free of everything on its banned list before you apply.
• Beauty Heroes. A luxury clean retailer and discovery box with one of the most stringent ingredient standards in the space, published openly through its Good Face Project partnership. Brands apply through its “Become a Beauty Heroes Brand” form, and products must meet its standard first.
• Integrity Botanicals. An online retailer carrying natural and organic indie beauty brands, vetted to its own clean criteria.
• Independent boutiques. Regional clean-beauty shops like Onda Beauty (New York), Ayla (San Francisco), and Shen Beauty (Brooklyn) each curate indie lines and take pitches directly, usually by email through their contact page.

One note: Follain, once a well-known clean retailer, was acquired by Credo in 2022, so its assortment now runs through Credo.

Because there are so many, the fastest way to find the ones that fit your brand and region is our directory of clean-beauty retailers, which lists the major marketplaces, indie boutiques, and international stores with how to get into each. Every store sets its own standard and submission process, so a product that clears Credo will not automatically clear the others. Check each one’s rules against your formula before you pitch.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get my brand into Credo Beauty?

First, make sure your product meets the Credo Clean Standard, including the Dirty List of 2,700-plus restricted ingredients and Credo’s packaging and sustainability rules. Then email your brand submission to Credo (the current address is on its FAQ page) with a line sheet, wholesale pricing, and a complete ingredient list for every product, because Credo checks each one against the standard before considering the brand. Include proof the product sells. BIPOC founders can also apply to Credo for Change for mentorship and a chance to pitch for funding.

What is the Credo Clean Standard?

It is Credo Beauty’s set of requirements for the brands it carries. The core is the Dirty List, which prohibits or restricts more than 2,700 ingredients over safety and sustainability concerns, far more than any law requires. It also covers packaging (no single-use materials, reduced virgin plastic, no false green claims), ingredient transparency, and ethical sourcing.

Do all clean-beauty retailers use the same standard?

No. Credo, The Detox Market, and Beauty Heroes each set their own rules, and some are much stricter than others, so a product that qualifies for one may not qualify for another. Beauty Heroes, for example, restricts more than Credo does. Always check the specific retailer’s published ingredient and packaging standard against your formula before pitching.

Sources

• Credo Beauty, The Credo Clean Standard. The full standard covering ingredients, packaging, sustainability, and sourcing.
• Credo Beauty, The Dirty List. The list of 2,700-plus prohibited and restricted ingredients.
• Credo Beauty, FAQ. The brand-submission process, including the email address and the requirement to include complete ingredient listings.
• Credo for Change. Credo’s program offering BIPOC founders mentorship, connections, and a pitch-for-funding opportunity.
• The Detox Market, Brand Submission. The Detox Market’s new-brand submission requirements and form.
• Beauty Heroes, Become a Brand and its Healthy Beauty Standard. Its brand-partnership process and published ingredient standard.
• Femfounded, Clean Beauty Retailers directory. Our directory of clean-beauty stores and how to get into each.