I bought my first Beautycounter product in 2022 after a friend sat me down at her kitchen table with the pitch. The Never List, the banned ingredients catalog, the third-party testing. I tried the Countermatch moisturizer and the Skin Twin foundation. I stuck with both for years, through reformulations, a consultant-model wind-down, and an ownership change. Then in April 2024, Beautycounter filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its staff. In June 2025, a new owner relaunched the brand under a shorter name: Counter. That is where things stand in April 2026, and this review reflects that, not the brand I reviewed originally. For a broader safety lens on personal care, see is CeraVe non-toxic?.

How we picked the alternatives below: Each brand was evaluated against published ingredient databases, current certification status (MADE SAFE, EWG Verified, NATRUE), and whether the company is financially stable enough to still be selling the same formula next year. See how we test

The short version: Beautycounter as it existed before April 2024 is gone. Old stock still sells on Amazon through third-party resellers, but a lot of it is near expiration and the ingredient safety guarantee is tied to a company that no longer exists in the same form. The rebranded Counter is too new to trust with a skincare routine. According to NonToxicLab’s read on 2026 clean beauty, people who used to buy Beautycounter skincare have mostly moved to True Botanicals and Ilia. This article covers why, and what to buy instead.

What Actually Happened to Beautycounter

The timeline in plain language:

  • 2013: Gregg Renfrew founded Beautycounter on a clean-ingredient promise and the Never List.
  • 2021: Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake at a reported $1 billion valuation. This was Beautycounter’s peak.
  • 2023: Carlyle Group sold the brand after it failed to hit growth targets. Consultant model was scaled back.
  • April 2024: Beautycounter filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Most staff were laid off. Production stopped.
  • June 2025: A new owner (reported to be a private equity group) relaunched a slimmer product line under the name Counter, at counter.com.
  • 2026: Counter is operating but untested. Most of the founding team is gone. Ingredient screening is reportedly continuing, but there is no independent confirmation yet.

If you see Beautycounter products on Amazon today, they are almost certainly legacy stock from third-party resellers. Expiration dates matter for skincare, especially products with vitamin C (like the All Bright C Serum), retinol analogs, and fresh botanicals. If you buy legacy Beautycounter, check the batch code before using.

Is Counter Worth Trying in 2026?

Not yet, in my opinion, and here is why.

Counter launched with a smaller product lineup than the original Beautycounter carried. The marketing says the Never List is still in place. Without the original formulation team, without the QA staff who ran the heavy metals testing, and without years of track record on the new manufacturing partners, nobody outside the company can verify whether the new products actually match the old standards. This is a brand that needs twelve to eighteen months of third-party testing, customer reviews, and batch-to-batch consistency data before it earns the benefit of the doubt.

The rebrand has the shape of a private-equity relaunch: same name recognition, slimmer product line, lower operating cost, pricing that still reads as premium. That model can work. It can also fail. I would rather recommend brands with continuous operation and a track record than a restart that happens to use the old logo.

Dr. Shanna Swan’s research on how everyday chemical exposures affect reproductive health is one of the reasons the Never List mattered in the first place. Phthalates, parabens, and synthetic fragrance are the ingredient categories that do the most damage, and they are still in most conventional beauty products. The Never List as a framework is not wrong. It just no longer has a reliable brand attached to it.

The Never List, Applied to Brands That Still Exist

The Never List bans over 2,800 ingredients, including:

The brands below were chosen because they either meet or exceed this standard today, and they are still actively operating with stable ownership. Each one has been run against the same chemical safety filter Beautycounter used.

What to Buy Instead: Five Brands to Replace Beautycounter in 2026

True Botanicals, Best Skincare Replacement

True Botanicals carries MADE SAFE certification on most of its skincare products, which is a stricter certification than EWG Verified for personal care. Their ingredient screening process is comparable to Beautycounter’s Never List but is published with more specificity, and every product lists every ingredient by name with no hidden fragrance blends.

The Vitamin C Booster is the closest analog to Beautycounter’s Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum. It uses a stable L-ascorbic acid formulation with plant botanicals. At the mid tier ($$), it is in the same price band as the original Countertime. After using it alongside ex-Countertime for the past six months, the skin texture changes I noticed were comparable, which is what I was hoping for.

The Renew Repair Serum is the closest match for the Countermatch moisturizer. True Botanicals also carries a full-strength retinol alternative serum (Pacific Resilience) for people who want the anti-aging step without actual retinol.

Check True Botanicals on Amazon

Ilia Beauty, Best Makeup Replacement

Ilia was already the clean makeup brand most often compared with Beautycounter. With Beautycounter gone, Ilia is the default. The Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 is the clearest direct replacement for Skin Twin Featherweight Foundation: lightweight coverage, clean ingredient profile, and the added benefit of a mineral SPF 40 built in. Shade range at last count was over 30 colors, which is broader than Beautycounter ever carried.

Their Multi-Stick is a good Color Pinch replacement, though I actually prefer the RMS Beauty Lip2Cheek for texture. Ilia’s mascara (Limitless Lash) performs well for a clean formulation and is one of the few areas where clean beauty genuinely competes with conventional products.

Check Ilia Beauty on Amazon

Attitude, Best Budget Clean Beauty

If the Beautycounter pricing was always a stretch, Attitude is the budget-conscious path to the same ingredient standard. Attitude is EWG Verified on a larger share of its product line than Beautycounter ever was, and the prices are roughly a third of Beautycounter’s equivalents. The Super Leaves Face Cream line covers dry, sensitive, and combination skin with a fragrance-free option available in every variant.

Attitude is a certified B Corp, Canadian, and carbon neutral. Their QC documentation is more publicly accessible than Beautycounter’s ever was. For the reader who came to clean beauty through Beautycounter but cannot justify $49 for a moisturizer, this is the most practical next step.

Check Attitude on Amazon

RMS Beauty, Best Clean Cream Makeup

RMS Beauty was clean beauty before the phrase existed. The brand has been operating continuously since 2009 with the same founder, the same ingredient philosophy, and almost no reformulations. Their raw, food-grade ingredient approach is stricter in some ways than the Never List (they reject a few ingredients Beautycounter accepted, including certain emulsifiers).

The Lip2Cheek is the Color Pinch replacement most ex-Beautycounter users pick first. It blends cleaner, holds color longer, and comes in more shades. RMS also makes a genuinely good mineral-based “Un” Cover-Up that is sharper than Beautycounter’s concealer ever was.

Check RMS Beauty on Amazon

OSEA Malibu, Best Clean Body and Bath

Beautycounter’s body lotion line was never their strongest category. OSEA fills that gap and does it better. The Undaria Algae Body Oil is MADE SAFE certified, scented with pure essential oils, and has a track record that goes back to 1996. The seaweed base is an actual ingredient differentiator, not a marketing claim.

OSEA’s Atmosphere Protection Cream is a solid face moisturizer option for people who wanted a premium clean formula at the Beautycounter price point.

Check OSEA on Amazon

How These Five Compare Side by Side

BrandCertificationsPrice BandBest CategoryStill Operating?
True BotanicalsMADE SAFE$$$Premium SkincareYes, since 2014
Ilia BeautyClean at Sephora, ECOCERT on some items$$-$$$MakeupYes, since 2011
AttitudeEWG Verified (extensive), B Corp$Budget CleanYes, since 2006
RMS BeautyClean at Sephora, raw/food-grade$$-$$$Cream MakeupYes, since 2009
OSEAMADE SAFE, Certified B Corp$$$Body and BathYes, since 1996

Each of these brands was operating in 2024, operating through 2025, and will almost certainly be operating in 2027. That is the baseline Beautycounter no longer meets.

What the Original Beautycounter Got Right (And Why It Matters)

I do not want to dismiss what the original brand accomplished. Beautycounter pushed the US beauty industry toward more transparent ingredient disclosure, helped pass the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) in 2022, and trained a generation of clean beauty consumers to read ingredient labels. Those contributions still matter. The Never List as a framework is still useful.

Dr. Leonardo Trasande’s work on the cost of endocrine disruptor exposure has documented that the health costs of widespread chemical exposure in personal care products run into billions of dollars annually in the US. The ingredient categories Beautycounter targeted (parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance) are still the categories that cause the most measurable harm. Applying that filter to a different brand is not abandoning the idea. It is continuing it.

Pricing Reality in 2026

A clean skincare routine in 2026 costs roughly what a clean Beautycounter routine cost in 2023:

  • Budget clean (Attitude Super Leaves cleanser, moisturizer, and serum): $45 to $70 total
  • Mid-range clean (Ilia, Attitude, Mad Hippie mixed): $100 to $160 total
  • Premium clean (True Botanicals full line): $250 to $400 total

The Beautycounter premium tier is genuinely replaceable. The budget tier is actually cheaper now than Beautycounter ever was, because EWG Verified mid-market brands have proliferated.

Dr. Philip Landrigan’s research on cumulative chemical exposures makes a simple case: the personal care products you use every day matter more than the ones you use occasionally. Spending on a clean moisturizer, body lotion, and deodorant (which you use daily) has a bigger practical impact than spending on a clean lipstick (which you use for an hour at a time).

Who This Matters For

Some people miss Beautycounter more than others. The switch is most important for:

  • People who used Beautycounter skincare daily and want the same ingredient safety
  • Anyone with chemical sensitivities who had been told Beautycounter was safe
  • Pregnant or nursing women who relied on the Never List for screening
  • Shoppers who valued third-party heavy metals testing and now need that elsewhere
  • People who liked the scented body lotion and makeup line and are looking for the same experience in a brand that still exists

If you used one Beautycounter product and did not care about the brand mythology, picking up an Attitude moisturizer at Whole Foods and moving on is fine. If you built a whole routine around the Never List, the answer is True Botanicals for skincare and Ilia for makeup, with RMS and OSEA filling in the rest.

The Short Version

Beautycounter as it existed before April 2024 is gone. Counter, the 2025 relaunch, is unproven. The best clean beauty brands operating in 2026 are True Botanicals (skincare), Ilia (makeup), Attitude (budget), RMS Beauty (cream makeup), and OSEA (body). Each one meets or exceeds Beautycounter’s Never List standard and has continuous operating history. The Never List framework still works. It just needs a different brand attached to it now.

Start with one product from True Botanicals if skincare was your Beautycounter category. Start with Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint if makeup was. Either way, do not wait for Counter to prove itself before you replace the routine that was working.

Common Questions

Is Beautycounter still in business in 2026?

Not in its original form. Beautycounter filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2024 and laid off most of its staff. A new owner relaunched the brand under the name Counter in June 2025. The relaunched company uses some of the original brand assets but has a new team, smaller product line, and no public history of third-party testing. Products sold as “Beautycounter” on Amazon today are typically legacy stock from third-party resellers.

Should I buy Counter products?

Probably not yet. The relaunched brand is too new to have a track record, and the original QA staff who ran the Never List screening and heavy metals testing are no longer with the company. Until Counter has twelve to eighteen months of consistent third-party verification, the safer move is one of the clean beauty brands that has been operating continuously (True Botanicals, Ilia, Attitude, RMS Beauty, OSEA).

Are Beautycounter products on Amazon still safe?

The formulations themselves were safe when manufactured. The question is expiration and storage. Skincare with active ingredients (vitamin C, retinol analogs, plant botanicals) degrades after the “period after opening” stamp, and some of the Amazon legacy stock is past or approaching that date. If you buy legacy Beautycounter, check the batch code and the production date before using. If the batch is older than twelve to eighteen months, the formulation may no longer deliver what it did when new.

What is the best Beautycounter Countermatch replacement?

For daily use, True Botanicals Renew Repair Serum or Attitude Super Leaves Face Cream (budget). For the adaptive moisture technology specifically, there is no exact match. The closest approach is a hyaluronic-acid-based daily moisturizer from True Botanicals paired with an occlusive layer (squalane oil) at night.

What replaces the Beautycounter Skin Twin foundation?

Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 is the closest direct replacement, with broader shade range and better SPF. For fuller coverage, Ilia True Skin Serum Foundation is the next step up. Both use clean ingredient profiles comparable to the Beautycounter Never List.

Is True Botanicals as clean as Beautycounter was?

Yes, and by some measures cleaner. True Botanicals carries MADE SAFE certification on most products, which is a stricter certification than Beautycounter ever held. MADE SAFE requires ingredient review against a hazard database that overlaps with the Never List but adds criteria Beautycounter did not screen for, including reproductive and developmental toxicity beyond the phthalate family.

Does the Never List still mean anything if Beautycounter is gone?

The framework still works as a screening tool. The ingredient categories on the Never List (parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance, formaldehyde releasers, chemical SPF filters) are still the categories that independent research links to the most health concerns. What changed is that you now need to apply the filter yourself, using databases like EWG Skin Deep and MADE SAFE, or pick a brand whose internal standard is at least as strict. True Botanicals, RMS Beauty, and OSEA all publish ingredient philosophies that meet or exceed the Never List.

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What we don’t fully know: Long-term data on low-level chronic exposure remains limited for many chemical categories, and evidence on some mixtures and exposure combinations is still emerging. Researchers continue to refine exposure thresholds as new data becomes available.

Sources