About Environmental Working Group (EWG)

It's our mission at the Environmental Working Group to use the power of information to protect human health and the environment.

Often, that means building databases. EWG's data gives you practical solutions to protect yourself and your family from the health risks we all face from everyday exposures to myriad industrial chemicals.

In 2004 we launched Skin Deep, an online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products. Our aim was to fill in where companies and the government leave off: companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient they wish, and our government doesn't require companies to test products for safety before they're sold. EWG's scientists built Skin Deep to be a one-of-a-kind resource, integrating our in-house collection of personal care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases.

Now in its fourth year and third major update, our Skin Deep database provides you with easy-to-navigate safety ratings for nearly a quarter of all products on the market — 55,512 products with 9,006 ingredients. At about one million page views per month, Skin Deep is the world's largest and most popular product safety guide.

About The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

Skin Deep helps fuel the nationwide Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, womens, environmental and consumer groups working to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of dangerous chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives. Through the Campaign, as of May 2007 over 500 companies have joined the effort by signing the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. Environmental Working Group is a founding partner of the Campaign.

Brand and company information in Skin Deep's database

Skin Deep currently holds products sold under 2,501 brand names and manufactured by 1,680 companies. To build this core brand and company database, we first estimated brand names as an extraction of the first words in product names, or relied on a listed brand name from product information originally extracted electronically, if available. We then manually corrected each estimated brand name, as needed, and associated each brand with a manufacturer. We did this primarily through online research of manufacturer websites and to a lesser extent through direct contact with manufacturers. We also linked manufacturers with parent companies, as appropriate, again primarily through online research. This brand and company database forms an integral part of the Skin Deep data structure.

Because animal testing is an issue of concern for many consumers, we also incorporate into Skin Deep information on company and brand stances on animal testing. Information on company positions on animal testing is obtained from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) index. Brands are noted for their stance on animal testing based on a review of official statements provided by their parent companies to PETA. We will periodically update our Skin Deep database according to changes in PETA's roster.

To learn more about EWG, please check here.