Clean Beauty: What It Means to Us
Of all the popular beauty terms on social media and in daily conversation, nothing is more unclear than “clean.” Since there’s no standard definition of the term, clean means different things to different people. When Sarah set out to create Sarah Creal Beauty, she thought critically about what she’d consider clean, in terms of the brand’s products and formulations. We formulate to Sephora’s Clean at Sephora standard, while also maintaining our “clean list” of ingredients we won’t use, because we believe you shouldn’t have to sacrifice performance in the process. At Sarah Creal Beauty, we hold ourselves to the highest standards, not because we want to check some arbitrary “clean” box, but because we were founded on a revolutionary premise: to solve the beauty pain points of women over 40—something that had never been done before.
"Clean beauty” is a term that gets used a lot in 2026. How does Sarah Creal Beauty define it?
These days, it seems like every other product calls itself clean, and there’s no universal clean beauty standard to measure against, which can make things frustrating.
We pride ourselves on our transparency, especially around ingredients and formulation. All our products meet Sephora’s well-defined Clean at Sephora standard. This means they’re made without parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, phthalates, triclosan, coal tar, oxybenzone, octinoxate, hydroquinone, methylisothiazolinone, formaldehydes, or formaldehyde-releasers, among other ingredients. They also adhere to all European Union (EU) regulatory standards and are vegan and cruelty-free.
We don’t stop there. Not only do we develop every product safety-first, but we also formulate with efficacy absolute top of mind, because our overarching mission is to create high-performance makeup. If the concealer we made is clean but settles into fine lines or our vegan, cruelty-free eyeliner runs down your cheeks, we’ve failed. We don’t like to fail, which is the reason we’re so passionate about independent testing. To verify our claims, we clinically test each and every item with third-party laboratories, as well as with real consumers age 40 and above because we deserve makeup and skincare that actually delivers on what it promises.
How do you know if a luxury beauty brand is actually clean?
There’s no single standard that verifies a product is clean. For that reason, the next best thing is to rely on a meaningful third-party standard. For us at Sarah Creal Beauty, that means formulating in adherence to Sephora’s Clean at Sephora guidelines. Third-party standards matter because they create an objective benchmark in an otherwise unregulated area. They also ensure transparency on behalf of brands and make it easier for you, the consumer, to compare products.
It’s important to note, however, that “clean” isn’t synonymous with “efficacy.” A mascara or blush can tick all the boxes to fit a third-party definition of clean, but that alone doesn’t ensure it actually works. That’s the reason we prioritize performance and clinical testing so heavily, along with safety and meeting the Clean at Sephora standards.
What clean ingredients truly perform?
This is where we shine. Since our number one priority is making cosmetics and skincare that do what they claim, we don’t release a product, whether it’s a brightening liquid moisturizer or a line-smoothing lip gloss, until we’re 100 percent certain it delivers on its promise.
That mission has led us to discover synthetic feats of ingredient engineering, like the flexible cross-linked polymers in our best-selling FACE FLEX Concealer & Complexion Enhancer that allow for crease-proof wear over 12+ hours. Or the wrinkle-reducing peptides in our THE ADULTS ARE TALKING Solid Serum Lip Repair, clinically shown to deliver a 21 percent reduction in the appearance of lip lines.
What’s the difference between “vegan” and “cruelty-free” when it comes to beauty products?
It’s a common misconception that these two terms are interchangeable. They’re not. Not all vegan products are cruelty-free, and not all cruelty-free products are vegan. Vegan refers to the ingredients, while cruelty-free relates to the product testing.
In order to qualify as vegan, a product can’t contain any animal-derived ingredients or by-products. Those by-products include honey, beeswax, and lanolin. To create vegan formulas, modern cosmetic chemistry replaces non-vegan ingredients with plant waxes and synthetic polymers that perform as well—if not better—than the original beeswax or lanolin, for example.
If an item is labeled cruelty-free, it means neither the final product nor its individual component ingredients have been tested on animals. A color cosmetic, like lipstick, could be 100 percent made of plants and still undergo animal testing, which is why you can’t assume if a product meets one criterion that it automatically meets the other.
There’s no singular third-party standard for verifying a product is vegan. However, the same isn’t true of cruelty-free. The Leaping Bunny certification from the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) is an internationally recognized verification that no animal testing was conducted or commissioned in relation to a product or its ingredients.
Rest assured, all Sarah Creal Beauty products are both vegan and cruelty-free (Leaping Bunny certified!).
Are clean formulas for eye makeup, like liner, especially important since you apply them so close to your eyes?
Clean is just one attribute to look for when assessing eye products. Precisely because you’re putting it right against your eyeball (literally, if you trace your waterline), any eye-area makeup should be ophthalmologist-tested—like our EYES UP liner, BACK OF THE CAB mascara, FACE FLEX concealer, and FACE FLEX CORRECT undereye brightener—to reduce the risk of it causing irritation or a reaction in the thin, delicate skin surrounding the eye.
Once again, performance is paramount when evaluating cosmetics formulas. Our founder, Sarah Creal, created our EYES UP Creamy Kajal Longwear Liner to fill a specific need for eyes over 40. Namely, eyeliner that didn’t tug on skin, wouldn’t dissolve around rich eye creams, didn’t transfer on hooded lids, and wouldn’t irritate sensitive eyes. EYES UP eyeliner is also hypoallergenic and clinically tested—on women 40+—to last up to 24 hours. It also contains moisturizing ceramides and soothing allantoin to give the eye area a little extra TLC.
What should babes 40+ look for in a clean SPF formulation?
Start with mineral sunscreen filters, such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. These physical UV blockers work by sitting on top of skin, whereas chemical filters need to be absorbed by the body in order to do their job. Our BRILLIANT REPAIR SHIELD 3-in-1 Illuminating SPF 50 Skin Tint is 12 percent zinc oxide but leaves no white cast on skin—we promise. And because sunscreen is something you should wear every day, it helps if your SPF’s formula is hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic, like BRILLIANT REPAIR SHIELD, to minimize the chances that it upsets your skin. Finally, sunscreen is skincare, so seek out one that contains antioxidants (think vitamin E and rice bran extract) to counteract skin-damaging exposure to free radicals and blue light. Naturally, you’ll find all those and more in our BRILLIANT REPAIR SHIELD 3-in-1 Illuminating SPF 50 Skin Tint.
Clinical evaluation of 20 volunteers in a 12-hour study.
Clinical evaluation of 33 volunteers, 40 to 55 years of age, in a 28-day study.
Clinical evaluation of 34 volunteers, 40 to 65 years of age, in a 24-hour test.