Target Adds to, Cleans Up the Beauty Department

Target announced the addition of nearly 40 new brands to its beauty department, including several that are Black-owned and/or Black-founded, and thousands of new products from existing and just-added brands that meet the retailer's Target Clean ingredient standards.

Half of the new brands are Target exclusives, including Undefined Beauty and Sassy Hair—two labels to receive support through the Target Takeoff accelerator program for emerging brands. Most of the items, spanning hair, nail, makeup, skincare, and bath and body, are priced at $10 or less, Target noted in a post on its Bullseye blog. 

According to the Minneapolis-based retailer, nearly all of the newly available products meet Target Clean standards for ingredient transparency. The Target Clean label, launched in 2019, identifies beauty and personal care products that are made without phthalates, formaldehyde, triclosan, triclocarbon, BHA & BHT, and other unwanted chemicals.  

In a 2020 blog post on the CleanBeautyJustice.org website, Boma Brown-West, a director at the Environmental Defense Fund who leads engagement with CPG manufacturers and retailers, noted that while "claims like 'paraben-free' and 'phthalate-free' are starting to appear for some beauty products, they're not showing up as often in products marketed to people of color."

Target has sought to close that gap in availability of clean beauty products for consumers with diverse skincare and hair-care needs with the Building Blocks for Better Products (B3P) program, which launched last fall. Through that initiative, Target is working with 27 Black, indigenous- and people-of-color-owned and founded businesses, helping connect them with product development and analysis resources with a goal of helping companies scale up production of items made with vegan and/or "cleaner" ingredients. 

Target also noted in its blog post about the new beauty department additions that the retailer's assortment of products from Black-owned and -founded brands has grown 65% since 2020. 

"It’s a win-win and real progress toward Target's commitment to spend $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025," the retailer stated, referencing a goal it established last April. "With new additions like GlowRx, Thread, Kyutee, Pink Lipps, G.L.A.M., and more, we’re leading the industry with 70 Black-owned or Black-founded brands in stores and online." 

Target, which saw both comp sales and transactions climb nearly 13% in the third fiscal quarter of 2021, is set to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 earnings on March 1.  

Read more: The Color of Personal Care: Diversity in Health and Beauty Aisles