5 Clean Beauty Brands We Love From Sephora
As a health and lifestyle writer, I spend a slightly unreasonable amount of time thinking about what I’m putting on my skin. I also love beauty - the browsing, the testing, the ingredient deep-dives, the swapping product recommendations with your girls, the “I’ll just have a quick look” that somehow becomes an hour. Sephora is dangerous territory for this.
So, after doing the digging (and a fair amount of adding to basket), I’ve narrowed my 5 top clean beauty buys from Sephora - the ones I’m genuinely excited about. The formulas that are undeniably clever. The ingredients that have my attention. And crucially, they’re products I actually want to use rather than admire once and forget about.
And yes, I ran them all past my clean-ingredients freak - aka the editor - before they made the cut.
BYOMA
What I love about BYOMA is that it’s clean beauty that doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard. Its formulas skip a long list of ingredients linked to harmful health effects, while keeping the good stuff front and centre - barrier support, clever actives and products that actually earn their place in my routine. There are two I quite literally refuse to live without.
First, the Longevit-8 Peptide Serum. I’ve been testing it for long enough to know whether it’s genuinely good or just having its moment - and this has stayed firmly in rotation. It combines copper peptides, niacinamide, vitamin E, vegan PDRN and NMN with a three-part ceramide complex. In non-science-speak? A lightweight, skin-longevity-focused serum that makes a very good case for itself.
Then there’s the Bio-Collagen Radiance Facial Mask, my answer to skin that’s looking a little flat and in need of an instant pick-me-up. It combines bio-collagen, ceramides, cica, and, the ingredient currently living rent-free in my brain - astaxanthin, a hugely powerful antioxidant I’m increasingly obsessed with.
And the added perk - It actually PEELS OFF.
No scrubbing, no wrestling with your face, no industrial-strength cleanser required. If, like me, you used to cover your hand in PVA glue at primary school purely for the joy of peeling it off, this is a TREAT.
And if you’re wondering why astaxanthin is suddenly everywhere, we’ve gone down that particular rabbit hole here.
MERIT
MERIT is exactly the kind of makeup I reach for when I want someone to say you look well rather than What foundation are you wearing? It’s clean, pared-back and very good at making your face look like your face - just slightly more pulled together.
My standout is the Flush Balm Cheek Colour, which is basically impossible to mess up. It’s a sheer, buildable cream that melts into skin rather than sitting on top of it, with microfine pigments that let your actual skin show through.
I love that I can swipe it on with absolutely no precision, tap it in with my fingers and be done.
More colour? Add another layer. Want to look naturally flushed rather than like you’ve been attacked by a blusher brush? One swipe. It’s also fragrance-free, non-comedogenic and uses vitamin E to condition skin - so, essentially, makeup that behaves itself.
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Biodance
I’ll admit it: when Biodance masks first exploded onto the scene, I was sceptical. Another viral sheet mask? Please. I now judge myself heavily for ever doubting the power these masks have.
For those who aren't as well-versed in the brand, besides the fact that at one point we were all sleeping in these masks for 6+ hours and then “shedding” in the morning, Biodance is a clean beauty brand that puts the emphasis on what’s actually in the formula. Its masks are free from harsh or controversial ingredients, with formulas built around things like collagen, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, ceramides and soothing ingredients such as panthenol and allantoin.
The range is also impressively broad, with different masks targeting hydration, brightening, calming and barrier support.
My favourite is still the Bio-Collagen Real Deep Mask, which is loaded with collagen, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and adenosine for hydrated, plumper-looking skin. But I can also be swayed by the Hydro Cera-Nol version when my barrier needs some love - it brings together panthenol, multiple forms of hyaluronic acid and a whole ceramide complex.
Basically, I went from “what is everyone playing at?” to “fine, I’ll have another one.” And now I have a drawer full of them.
KOSAS
Kosas is another one where the clean beauty bit doesn’t mean compromising on the makeup. The brand is big on using skincare ingredients alongside its colour cosmetics, which is exactly my kind of multitasking - if I’m going to put something on my face every day, I’d quite like it to do a little more than just sit there.
The product I keep coming back to is the Revealer Concealer. It’s creamy, brightening, and genuinely feels more like skincare than traditional concealer, with hyaluronic acid, panthenol, caffeine, squalane and a peptide in the formula. It gives enough coverage to make me look like I’ve had eight hours of sleep (a bold claim), without making my skin look like I’ve applied concealer.
Then there’s DreamBeam SPF 30, which may be my favourite kind of beauty product: one that quietly does two jobs. It’s a mineral SPF using zinc oxide, but it also works as a glowy primer, with ceramides, allantoin, hyaluronic acid and a peptide in the mix. It gives skin that soft, satin-y, slightly perfected finish before you’ve even reached the makeup stage.
And because Kosas actually clinically tests its complexion formulas for non-comedogenicity, there’s some substance behind the “skin-loving” claims.
Basically: the people's princess of concealer - formulated for people who want their skin to still look like skin. Which, frankly, should be the bare minimum.
Biossance
Biossance is quite possibly the clean beauty brand I’ve been shopping for the longest. I’ve been to multiple events, had the chance to properly get under the bonnet of the brand, and, at this point, I’m fairly confident there isn’t a product I haven’t tried or wouldn’t happily buy 100 times over.
What I love is that the clean bit is actually baked into the formulas: Biossance is fragrance-free, paraben-free, sulphate-free and phthalate-free, while its skincare is built around biotechnology and sugarcane-derived squalane rather than animal-derived squalane.
But if I really had to pick my heroes, it would be the Squalane + Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum and the 100% Squalane Oil.
The copper peptide serum is one of those products where my skin genuinely seems to sigh with relief. It combines copper peptides with squalane, hyaluronic acid, ectoin and polyglutamic acid to hydrate, plump and support that bouncy, healthy-looking skin I’m always chasing.
And then there’s the 100% Squalane Oil - quite possibly the ultimate multitasker. By now you’ll know I’m a fan of products that do more than one job; I’m a multitasking kind of girl. This is literally one ingredient - sugarcane-derived squalane - and I use it on my face, body, hair, cuticles... basically anywhere that needs a little extra hydration. So yes, I’ve tried the lot. But these two? I’d repurchase them until the end of time.
Words by Ellie Hammond for The Well Edit, with approval from Eleanor Hoath.
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