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Ingredient Philosophy
Ingredient Philosophy
For more than 75 years, discovering and sharing high-quality ingredients has been at the heart of what we do at The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC). Our beloved portfolio of prestige beauty brands delivers quality products and high-performance benefits to our discerning consumers. We use powerful, artisanal-quality ingredients to formulate transformative products that meet a diverse range of global beauty needs.
Our approach to ingredients is guided by our breakthrough green chemistry methodology, which is based on the principles of green chemistry and helps us evaluate every ingredient through the lenses of human health, ecosystem health, and the environment. We created this methodology to guide our ingredient selection, and it is a key step in our ongoing sustainability journey. As sustainability practices and innovations continue to advance, we will continue to challenge ourselves and the industry to push boundaries toward a more beautiful future. Exceptionally high standards for safety, quality, and efficacy are at the core of what we do.
That’s our commitment to you—exceptional ingredients powered by science and chosen with care.
Powered by Science
Continuous innovation is the driving force behind our company. By combining innovative science and creativity, our exceptional scientists with multidisciplinary expertise are able to unlock efficacious benefits and invent the unexpected. By marrying powerful active ingredients with artisanal craftsmanship at scale, utilizing the latest technologies, and partnering with academia and leading institutes globally to unlock the latest scientific breakthroughs, our brands can continue to deliver transformative products that meet our high standards for safety, quality, and efficacy.
Chosen With Care
Our commitment to excellence goes beyond exceptional quality, safety, and efficacy, because the best ingredients are ones that are sourced with thoughtfulness toward our planet and its people too. That’s why our teams work diligently to source ingredients with attention to potential impacts on people and the environment. We aim to continuously improve and strengthen our sourcing practices, while remaining sensitive to the regions in which we operate, in partnership with the communities involved.
We are a global purchaser of farmed ingredients and have a responsibility to avoid sourcing ingredients that were grown on land that was deforested for crop production, tree plantations, or other land uses. Our No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) Policy outlines our expectations for our raw material suppliers regarding no deforestation, no conversion, and human rights.
Our Promise
Because we prioritize consumer trust, we rigorously examine each ingredient’s safety profile to ensure it meets our high standards and the standards put forth by global governmental, regulatory, and scientific bodies. Only then do they become part of the world-class formulations that people rely on every day. You can find out more about our ingredient safety and testing here.
We have always believed that dialogue with our consumers on the ingredients we select benefits everyone, and we continually strive for ingredient transparency. You can find ELC’s corporate ingredient glossary here. Many of our brands have developed their own glossaries of key ingredients, and we aim to have glossaries for all brands by the end of 2025. We invite you to explore a few of our brands’ glossaries:
