Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty™ Reinforces Commitment to Sustainability, Transparency

Ulta Beauty Establishes Five Beauty Pillars, Sets Sustainable Packaging Goals

BOLINGBROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ulta Beauty, the nation’s largest beauty retailer, today announced the launch of Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty™, a holistic initiative to provide guests greater choices and transparency. With strategic partners in place, the program will debut this fall and will certify brands under five, key pillars -- Clean Ingredients, Cruelty Free, Vegan, Sustainable Packaging and Positive Impact – intended to meet guest needs and leave a positive legacy for our world.

Under its Sustainable Packaging pillar, Ulta Beauty is taking further steps to do what’s right for the environment. Effective today, Ulta Beauty pledges to ensure 50 percent of all packaging sold, including the Ulta Beauty Collection, will be made from recycled or bio-sourced materials, or will be recyclable or refillable by 2025.

“As the beauty retail leader, we have the unique opportunity to inspire positive change in our industry,” said Dave Kimbell, president of Ulta Beauty. “With Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty, our focus is to educate, guide and simplify product choice and elevate those brands doing good for our world. This initiative helps our guests readily navigate our assortment through the lens of what matters most to them. We are thrilled to offer such transparency and set significant standards as a company.”

The platform will help guests navigate brand choices tailored to their personal values across the following areas:

• Clean Ingredients: Indicates which brands comply with the Ulta Beauty Made Without List, an ingredient standard created for Conscious Beauty.
  • The Made Without List is grounded in science and was developed in partnership with ingredient and health experts. As research, technology and regulations evolve, so too will the Made Without List. At launch, this designation indicates a brand is free of parabens, phthalates and ingredients from more than 25 chemical categories.
  • Participating brands will be certified via ClearForMe, largely regarded as the leading independent ingredient authority, to ensure ingredient transparency.
  • The recently announced Credo Collection at Ulta Beauty, featuring eight exciting clean beauty brands, will launch within the Conscious Beauty platform.

• Cruelty Free: Elevates brands that certify as never engaging in animal testing. This pillar incorporates third-party certification from organizations such as PETA, Leaping Bunny, and Choose Cruelty-Free.

• Vegan: Underscores beauty products made free of animal products, animal by-products, or animal derivatives.

• Sustainable Packaging: Designates brands made with reduced, recyclable or refillable packaging to minimize the more than 120 billion packaging units produced globally annually within the cosmetics industry¹.
  • Ulta Beauty will pilot a circular shopping experience as the exclusive beauty retailer for Loop, a reusable packaging pioneer. This relationship will fuel actionable improvements to packaging processes, begin to tackle the sizeable beauty-waste issue, and contribute to Ulta Beauty’s2025 sustainable packaging goals.
  • The company will support the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s (SPC’s) mission to make actionable improvements in packaging systems and will apply How2Recycle instructions on owned brand packaging and print materials.

• Positive Impact: Highlights brands with giving back at their core and those that champion meaningful causes.

To ensure accountability and drive the initiative forward, Ulta Beauty established the Conscious Beauty Advisory Council. Collectively tackling industry issues, cultivating communal efforts, and bringing unique perspectives across beauty forward, the Council brings together experts at the forefront of clean beauty, product development, packaging sustainability and brand leadership. To date, the Council includes Annie Jackson, co-founder and COO, Credo Beauty and Tom Szaky, CEO and co-founder, Loop, among others.

“We have always taken pride in offering guests a diverse assortment of products to meet their individual beauty needs, including many brands that align to the Conscious Beauty pillars,” continued Kimbell. “Today’s announcement marks a definitive milestone on our ongoing journey in this space and we look forward to further meeting guests needs this fall in-store and online.”

About Ulta Beauty

At Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA), the possibilities are beautiful. Ulta Beauty is the largest U.S. beauty retailer and the premier beauty destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products and salon services. In 1990, the Company reinvented the beauty retail experience by offering a new way to shop for beauty – bringing together all things beauty, all in one place. Today, Ulta Beauty has grown to become the top national retailer offering the complete beauty experience.

Ulta Beauty brings possibilities to life through the power of beauty each and every day in our stores and online with more than 25,000 products from approximately 500 well-established and emerging beauty brands across all categories and price points, including Ulta Beauty’s own private label. Ulta Beauty also offers a full-service salon in every store featuring hair, skin, brow, and make-up services.

Ulta Beauty is recognized for its commitment to personalized service, fun and inviting stores and our industry leading Ultamate Rewards loyalty program. As of February 1, 2020, Ulta Beauty operates 1,254 retail stores across 50 states and also distributes its products through its website, which includes a collection of tips, tutorials and social content. For more information, visit www.ulta.com.

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¹ According to Zero Waste Week