Clean Charter | L’Occitane

Our Formulation Philosophy

Looking Into Our Relationship With You and the World

L’Occitane en Provence has always been, and will always be, deeply committed to consumer safety while limiting environmental impact at every stage of the product’s life cycle. We offer an exceptionally sensorial experience through textures, fragrances, and rituals while making no compromises on the integrity of our products.

THE LEVELS

LEVEL 3: L'OCCITANE'S CLEAN CHARTER
Leave-on products: natural origin ingredients ≥ 95% (based on ISO 16128 standard)
Rinse-off products: readily biodegradable ingredients ≥ 95% (based on OECD guidelines)
Maximum of 1 moderately-used ingredient per formula*

LEVEL 2: L'OCCITANE'S FORMULATION CHARTER
Preferred: natural origin ingredients are prioritized

Moderate: ingredients used to a limited extent while we constantly search for alternatives

Banned: ingredients we never use due to environmental, health, or ethical reasons

LEVEL 1: GLOBAL REGULATIONS
Global regulatory compliance for every cosmetic product on the market

*Excluding fragrance and allergens naturally present in the fragrance or plant extracts. Whenever fragrance is included in one of our formulas, we introduce it at the optimal measure to enhance the product’s sensoriality.

LEVEL 1: Global Regulations

We are committed to the safety and efficacy of our products. For this reason, we manufacture products that are fully compliant with the applicable regulations worldwide, including the EU Cosmetics regulations, one of the strictest regulations today. At L’Occitane, approximately 30 people are dedicated, every single day, to making sure our products are safe and compliant with all regulations.

LEVEL 2: Formulation Charter

How do we want to take care of you?

Our strong belief in nature and people has pushed us to develop our own strict Formulation Charter. Going beyond regulatory compliance, we transparently share our formulation choices with the world. This means clearly disclosing the cosmetic ingredients we prefer to use, those we use in moderation and for which we are constantly looking for more natural and environmentally-friendly alternatives, and those we choose not to use at all.

SAFETY

We test our products on different hair and skin types, including sensitive ones, using dermatological and ophthalmological controls. 100% of all our products are put through rigorous testing, including more than 800 applications per product. We manufacture and control the quality of our products before launching them and apply the strictest international quality and regulatory standards. Consumer safety has always been, and will always be, a top priority.

EFFICACY

The effectiveness of our ingredients is proven through in-vitro laboratory tests to predict their clinical efficacy. Moreover, we complement this with additional consumer tests and in-vivo clinical studies on the finished product. We run about 600 efficacy tests per year. Independent doctors (dermatologists, ophthalmologists and pediatricians) carry out our clinical studies. They use clinical evaluation methods in real life conditions, or instrumental measurements on panels of volunteers.

SENSORIALITY

We are also widely known for our exceptional sensorial experiences thanks to our textures and fragrances, and we’ll continue to research the most innovative sensorial products. Approximately 200 sensory experts are trained to evaluate the fragrance, texture, and visual appearance of our new formulas, helping us reach the sensory characteristics expected by our consumers.

PREFERRED INGREDIENTS

Our first choice of ingredients has always been, and will always remain, ingredients of natural origin, such as our floral waters, plant extracts, and essential oils. Within our preferred ingredients, we prioritize those with a high biodegradability. Honoring years of expertise with these ingredients helps strengthen the ties to our Provençal heritage.

MODERATELY USED INGREDIENTS

Stabilizing or improving the efficacy and sensoriality of natural formulas is a big challenge in our industry. Therefore, while we are constantly looking for more natural and ecological alternatives to those ingredients that we use in moderation, we still need to keep them in some of our formulas to a limited extent, but only after a thorough evaluation by our toxicological experts and conducting tolerance tests.

BANNED INGREDIENTS

Controversial ingredients, such as parabens, phthalates and animal matter*, although permitted by regulations, are banned from our cosmetic formulas because of environmental, health, or ethical reasons.

*Except for bee products

LEVEL 3: Clean Charter

How do we go the extra mile for you?

Through our dynamic programs of continuous improvement, we have set a new global challenge for ourselves with our “Clean Charter” criteria, in addition to our Formulation Charter commitments: these additional criteria highlight our increased commitment to create formulas with even more natural origin ingredients (leave-on products) and ingredients that minimize our environmental impact (rinse-off products), without any compromise on the sensoriality.

For leave-on products.

For rinse-off products.

NATURALITY & BIODEGRADABILITY

All of our Clean Charter formulas contain at least 95% natural origin ingredients for leave-on products (based on ISO 16128 standard) and at least 95% readily biodegradable ingredients for rinse-off products (based on OECD guidelines).

ADDITIONALLY BANNED INGREDIENTS

We have also made significant strides by managing to replace the following moderately-used ingredients with more natural and ecological alternatives:

PRESERVATIVES: Phenoxyethanol and Polyaminopropyl biguanide -also called PHMB-
SENSORY AGENTS: Cyclosilicones
UV FILTER: Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate
FOAMING AGENTS: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate -also called SLS-

LIMITATION ON MODERATELY USED

Each Clean Charter formula includes no more than one moderately used ingredient* and only at just the right amount to guarantee your safety and the product's efficacy. More importantly, each product is thoroughly checked by our toxicological experts and via tolerance tests before we let it near your skin.