Unilever gets transparent with US beauty shoppers

Beauty giant Unilever is doubling down on transparency for consumers. The personal care company, which counts brands such as Dove, TIGI, TRESemmé and Vaseline on its books, is set to list product-specific fragrance ingredients on more than 1,100 of its beauty and care products in the US.

The move will allow shoppers to make informed decisions about the scented ingredients in their products, which are commonly listed merely as ‘fragrance' in the US. The company will provide details about its ingredient lists via the digital platform SmartLabel.

"We are more committed than ever to transparency and building trust in Unilever and our brands," said Amanda Sourry, president of Unilever North America, in a statement. "With the completion of our fragrance disclosure initiative, people now have access to more detailed ingredient information for the products they use and love from Unilever. We are very happy to see that other companies in the industry have announced plans to disclose fragrance ingredients in the future."

The move is the latest indication that the beauty industry is adapting to calls for increased transparency from consumers. In September 2017, fellow personal care giant Procter & Gamble announced plans to share "all fragrance ingredients down to 0.01 percent" across its product portfolio in the US and Canada by the end of 2019. Last year, a global study dubbed the FIT Transparency Perception Assessment Survey found that more than 40% of beauty consumers felt that they did not get enough information from brands about ingredient safety, with 72% of respondents claiming they would like brands to explain the exact effects of the ingredients in their products.