The beauty industry is catching up with the concept of clean. As consumer culture continues its slow shift toward a more sustainable future, a growing guard of beauty brands is committing to menus of natural ingredients, crafting formulas with the goal of improving and maintaining skin health and honoring the planet’s natural bounty, all with a minimized environmental footprint.

The best way to spot a natural skincare brand? Look to the label.

The Problem With Synthetic Skincare

A thoughtless skincare routine comes with negative side effects for your complexion and the planet. Synthetic chemicals are ultimately washed down the drain, ultimately harming marine wildlife. Along with their environmental burden, synthetics can also do some serious damage to your skin, disrupting the moisture barrier, causing inflammation and irritation, and more.

Sharōn Ronen, founder of From Head to Toe Spa Studio in Los Angeles, notes that if water is the first ingredient listed, that often means that water comprises the majority of the product—which makes the world of waterless beauty one worth investigating. In addition, ingredient lists freckled with unpronounceable words and an abundance of hyphens should be off-limits. “Avoid synthetic fragrances, lanolin, mineral oil, petroleum, urea, and other clogging ingredients,” she says.

How to Shop Natural Skincare Brands

Contemporary natural skincare brands rely on organic ingredients along with science-backed formulas to ensure efficacy.

“Active ingredients are what you want to spend your money and time on,” says Ronen. “Ingredients that come from nature can be used in combination with proprietary formulas that translate natural ingredients into active ones.”

Ronen uses the example of an orange: A peel rubbed over skin won’t have the same effect as fruit’s essence infused into a well-crafted vitamin C serum. “We want to take nature’s offerings and utilize science to create products our skin can recognize as clean, but that also transform the skin in a meaningful way and lead to real results,” she says.

In short, contemporary takes on natural beauty offer the results you’re looking for in a safer, smarter, and more sustainable guise. Running low on a product that could use a more mindful replacement? Read on for eight natural skincare brands to help bring your beauty routine down to earth.

8 Natural Skincare Brands to Try in 2023

1. Weleda

Start Here: Weleda Skin Food Original, $13

Weleda is a veteran of the natural skincare game. The brand has been around since 1926 and features a bevy of active naturals like mallow, calendula, wheat kernels, sea buckthorn, and more. Weleda also strives to make sure that processes stay sustainable, championing biodynamic agriculture and moderation.

2. Cocokind

Start Here: Cocokind Resurrection Polypeptide Cream, $27

To protect your skin’s natural moisture barrier while hydrating, soothing, and smoothing, reach for Cocokind’s emollient creams. The cruelty-free brand values transparency and walks customers through its use of natural actives to promote understanding.

3. Rosen

Start Here: Rosen Earth Cleanser, $18

Rosen is the next generation of acne care. The brand addresses breakouts with what it calls “clean-ical” ingredients including updated naturals like mulberry extract and Kojic acid.

4. Well People

Start Here: Well People Dewy Juice Hydrating Aloe Essence, $20

Well People relies on renewable natural ingredients like green tea, pomegranate, broccoli seed oil, and more to create its line of dermatologically-approved products. The brand is EWG-Verified, cruelty-free, free of sulfates and preservatives, and more.

5. Juice Beauty

Start Here: Juice Beauty Blemish Clearing Serum, $32

Juice Beauty ditches synthetics like parabens, sulfates, and more in favor of organically-grown, high-oxidant ingredients, many grown on the brand’s own farm located in Healdsburg, California. Juice Beauty is vegan, cruelty-free, and EWG-Verified.

6. True Botanicals

Start Here: True Botanicals Renew Nourishing Cleanser, $48

True Botanicals values sustainability at all levels, and its ingredients are no exception. The natural additives are wild-harvested and traced to origin points to ensure that their usage is sustainable to communities in addition to customers.

7. Andalou Naturals

Start Here: Andalou Naturals Rejuvenating Cream, $29.99

Rose stem cells, heirloom apples, hemp stem cells, and more feature in Andalou’s revolutionary skincare products. Potent stem cells are used to create natural products that restore skin while remaining gentle on the planet.

8. Osea

Start Here: Osea Seaglow Overnight Serum, $68

Vegan and cruelty-free, Osea has been leading the way toward a more eco-friendly future since 1996. The brand’s naturally-derived ingredients—particularly different species of seaweed rich in vitamins, nutrients, and minerals, along with snow mushrooms, aloe, and much more—serve both your skin and a sustainable skincare industry.