A crop of beauty e-tailers are making it easy for shoppers to discover and become educated about natural beauty, from buzzworthy brands to in-the-know newcomers.

Beauty Insider reveals the breadth of choices for natural, organic and ethical beauty products online.

Credo

credobeauty.com
Positioning: Credo believes that knowledge is beautiful. Credo’s tag line is, “Totally clean. Super good. Absolutely beautiful.” (Credo is Latin for “I believe”). The site carries a huge range of natural and organic makeup and skin care brands in an easy-to-navigate layout.

Content: Credo’s

Clean Beauty section features an exhaustive list of “dirty ingredients to ditch,” including formaldehyde, parabens and animal fats. Clean Beauty Swaps suggests clean alternatives for popular beauty products.

Interactive/immersive elements: Visitors can write a review or ask a question about a product.

Building trust: Trends & Tutorials comprise brand videos with experts sharing makeup tips and techniques.

Engaging community: Maker Videos feature brand founders presenting the raison d’être of their brands. Credo Stories in the Blog section address a wide variety of clean beauty topics in categories such as Ingredients, Makeup, Meet the Founder, Skin Care and Wellness.

Distinctive site experience: Credo Beauty is a go-to destination for natural beauty brands and a trusted source for being informed about clean beauty.

Detox Market
thedetoxmarket.com


Positioning: Detox Market is “an educated community of health and beauty experts around offering pure, effective and elegant products.” The site’s mission includes “curating passion, testing efficacy and checking for purity (we are always on the lookout for hidden nasties).”

Content: The site educates visitors about the dangers of chemicals and toxins in beauty products in an unintimidating fashion. Top 5 features top-rated products by category.

Interactive elements: Visitors can write a review, ask a question or “love” a product.

Building trust: Ask an Expert enables visitors to chat with a green beauty expert and find the perfect beauty match.
Engaging community: Visitors can have a live chat with a Detox Market expert.

Distinctive site experience: Detox Market lets visitors sample an impressively large variety of products simply by clicking on the Sample It links.

CAP Beauty


capbeauty.com


Positioning: CAP Beauty’s mission is to create beauty “through health and vibrancy.” The focus is on beauty inside and out. (“Beauty is wellness. Wellness is beauty”).

Content/editorial: There are three main sections: Shop, Spa and Blog. CAP’s blog, The Thinking CAP, explores the natural beauty lifestyle and features Q&A’s with skin care founders.

Interactive/immersive elements: Ask the Consultant! filters products according to various categories and skin concerns. All products are 100 percent free of synthetic ingredients. Clicking on the Natural Means Natural sticker alongside products remind visitors that products are “100% clean as a whistle, no synthetics.”
Building trust: CAP’s credentials are linked to its spa located in New York.

Engaging community: CAP’s extensive product range also includes such user-friendly sections as Feel-Good Remedies, Superfoods, Under $50 and Mamas + Babies.

Distinctive site experience: With its spa heritage, CAP Beauty caters to a broad assortment of skin concerns and remedies.

Follain

shopfollain.com


Positioning: Follain offers a broad selection of nontoxic products. To be Follain approved, a product has to be safe, effective and luxurious to experience. “This isn’t just a business, it’s a movement,” states the site.
Content/editorial: The site’s content and language reflects Follain’s mission-oriented approach to “change beauty for good.” It is “building a community of activists who want a better kind of beauty.” The site refers to brands as “passionate makers.”

Interactive/immersive elements: Visitors can get a Clean Consult where they can ask a quick question or receive a full analysis of their daily beauty routine.

Building trust: Follain promotes safety on its home page: “Zero Toxins. Safe and effective. The new standard.” Visitors can read about its multi-step approval process for brands when they click through.

Engaging community: Follain emphasizes education and provides a comprehensive breakdown of restricted ingredients.The site offers Go-Clean Kits, trial-sized starter kits for face and body.

Distinctive site experience: Follain takes a clear and authoritative approach towards nontoxic beauty.

Le Vert
levertbeauty.com


Positioning: LeVert Beauty promotes clean beauty which it defines as: “Made pure & nontoxic – stripped of questionable ingredients found in conventional products.”

Content/editorial: LeVert has categorized its impressive range of products in appealing zones such as We Love, New In and Gift Guide.
Interactive/immersive elements: Small pop-up windows announce “Popular this week,” naming specific products purchased by Levert “beauties” across the country.

Building trust: Visitors to LeVert are encouraged to email its founder and CEO, Ana Congdon, any time. Beauty Advisors are also available.

Engaging community: Shop Social is a highly visual section that cross-pollinates popular Instagram accounts and posts featuring LeVert products.

Distinctive site experience: Despite Levert Beauty’s massive range of products, the site experience is not overwhelming. Visitors feel part of a welcoming and engaged community.

Nordstrom Natural Beauty


shop.nordstrom.com/c/natural-beauty


Positioning: Nordstrom expanded the natural beauty brands it carries in January with its natural beauty outposts, currently available in 46 bricks-and-mortar stores. These products are also available in a special section, Natural Beauty, on Nordstrom’s website.

Content/editorial: Nordstrom Natural Beauty defines natural brands as those that don’t contain parabens, sulfates and phthalates.

Interactive/immersive elements: Goop is currently featured as a special microsite, Goop-In@Nordstrom, from May 12 to June 25, in tandem with limited edition pop-up shops.

Building trust: Nordstrom Natural Beauty includes ingredient filters so that visitors can search for products according to specific requirements, for example, dye free, sulfate free, gluten free, vegan, etc.

Engaging community: Lots of user reviews populate the site, a feature that is sometimes sparse or absent on other sites.

Distinctive site experience: Nordstrom’s stamp of approval on its selection of brands makes this beauty section a meaningful destination.

Shen Beauty

shen-beauty.com


Positioning: Shen Beauty curates a range of natural indie and international brands across beauty and wellness.

Content/editorial: Shen Beauty’s blog is a magazine-style format full of engaging Q&A’s with brand founders.

Interactive/immersive elements: A revolving panel at the bottom of the home page promotes Shen’s Instagram activity.

Building trust: Shen’s roots as a spa in Brooklyn confers authority on the site’s viewpoint.

Engaging community: Visitors can contribute reviews.

Distinctive site experience: Shen prides itself on selling brands that are hard to find anywhere else.