20 Years of Supporting One Another: Karen Behnke, EWG Verified & the first Beauty Crush EWG Verified product

After 20 years of collaboration with EWG, Karen Behnke brings EWG Verified® to Beauty Crush Skincare. Discover what EWG Verified means and meet the first Beauty Crush product to be verified.

What does EWG Verified mean? Why has Karen Behnke worked with EWG for more than 20 years? And what is the first Beauty Crush product to carry the EWG Verified mark?

For more than two decades, Karen Behnke has been part of the movement to make beauty more transparent, ingredient-conscious and focused on both performance and safety.

Now, that journey has come full circle.

As Beauty Crush launches its first EWG Verified® product, Karen is continuing a relationship with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that began more than 20 years ago—long before transparent and clean beauty became mainstream categories.

The first Beauty Crush product to receive EWG Verified status is the SuperGlow Peptide Firming Body Moisturizer, a high-performance body moisturizer formulated with three peptides, antioxidant-rich Sonoma Sagrantino SuperGlow grape, Vitamin C, organic shea butter and jojoba oil.

Discover the EWG Verified SuperGlow Peptide Firming Body Moisturizer

What is EWG Verified®?

EWG Verified® is a certification program designed to identify products that meet EWG's strict standards for ingredient safety and transparency.

According to EWG, products carrying the EWG Verified mark must meet criteria that include avoiding ingredients on EWG's unacceptable list, providing full ingredient transparency and meeting the program's requirements for good manufacturing practices. EWG's standards are developed and updated by its scientists, formulators and toxicologists.

In other words, EWG Verified goes beyond simply looking at the ingredients printed on a package. The program requires brands to provide substantial information about their products so EWG can evaluate whether they meet its standards.

What is the difference between EWG Skin Deep and EWG Verified?

This is a question that Founder Karen Behnke has regularly been asked over the years.

EWG's Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database launched in 2004 as an online resource designed to help consumers understand potential safety concerns associated with cosmetic ingredients and products.

EWG Verified® takes that process further.

For a product to carry the EWG Verified mark, EWG requires substantially more information from the company, including information related to ingredient transparency, ingredients of concern, product preservation and manufacturing practices. Products must meet EWG's criteria before they can use the EWG Verified mark.

That distinction matters.

A product appearing in a cosmetic database is not necessarily the same thing as a product that has gone through EWG's Verified certification process.

Why has Karen Behnke worked with EWG for more than 20 years?

Karen Behnke has spent more than two decades challenging traditional ideas about beauty formulation and transparency.

Recently, Ken Cook, EWG's long term CEO posted on EWG Verified’s Instagram page: “Karen Behnke is a (EWG) verified GOAT in the world of clean beauty, dear friend, colleague and inspiration for decades. If Karen is making it, she’s CRUSHING it. Beauty Crush is but the latest example. WE NEED MORE LEADERS LIKE KAREN BEHNKE to drive the private sector forward—in personal care, food, home care and advocacy. Can’t wait to try these new products!” Ken Cook, CEO EWG.

Additionally, here is a short speech with Michelle Pfeiffer honoring Karen Behnke’s sustainability and disruption of the beauty industry by driving healthier ingredients:

Her relationship with EWG began during the early years of her pioneering the clean beauty movement, when conversations about ingredient safety, environmental health and greater transparency were still relatively new to the mainstream beauty industry.

That philosophy became part of the foundation of Karen's work as the founder of her former brand, Juice Beauty—and she has greatly elevated all aspects of that philosophy with her new brand, Beauty Crush Skincare, including sustainability, transparency, how ingredients are grown on the Beauty Crush Certified Organic Vineyard, biotech fermentation methods and the overall potency of the ingredients.

Today, Beauty Crush Skin combines that long-standing focus on ingredient transparency with a new generation of skincare technology, including biomimetic peptides, plant-based technologies and antioxidant-rich grapes grown at the Beauty Crush Sonoma Vineyard.

The goal has remained consistent: create high-performance skincare that achieves stellar clinical results while utilizing ingredients that are healthful to humans and the planet.

Why is EWG Verified important to Beauty Crush Skin?

Can skincare be high-performance, technologically advanced and more thoughtful about ingredients at the same time? That is the foundation of Beauty Crush Skincare.

Founder Karen Behnke has pioneered innovative beauty, clean beauty and high-performance beauty for decades, receiving multiple awards including Goldman Sachs' Most Innovative Entrepreneur Award and ULTA Beauty's Most Innovative Brand. Being EWG Verified shows that these clean standards can be met with high-performance and innovative skincare.

The brand combines modern skincare science with ingredients including biomimetic peptides, Vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, panthenol, Sonoma plant exosomes and antioxidant-rich Sonoma SuperGlow grapes.

EWG Verified adds another layer of transparency to that philosophy.

Rather than simply telling consumers that a product is "clean," Beauty Crush wanted to meet an established external standard and continue to collaborate with and support EWG's mission.

That is why the first Beauty Crush EWG Verified product is an important milestone for the brand.

What is the first Beauty Crush EWG Verified product?

The first Beauty Crush product to carry the EWG Verified® mark is the:

SuperGlow Peptide Firming Body Moisturizer

This body moisturizer was formulated with:

• Three peptides to support the appearance of firmer-looking skin
• Organic Sonoma Sagrantino SuperGlow grape for antioxidant-rich skincare
• Vitamin C for antioxidant and brightening benefits
• Organic shea butter for rich moisture
• Jojoba oil for conditioning and hydration
• Plant glycerin to help attract and retain moisture
• Hyaluronic acid for hydration
• Vitamin B5 and Vitamin E to nourish

The formula is designed to deliver rich hydration while supporting smoother, softer and firmer-looking skin.

Why did Beauty Crush choose the SuperGlow Body Moisturizer as its first EWG Verified product?

There is something especially fitting about beginning the Beauty Crush EWG Verified journey with the body moisturizer.

The formula represents many of the principles behind the brand: performance, plant-based ingredients, antioxidant-rich Sonoma grapes, modern peptide technology and ingredient transparency.

It is also an example of the Beauty Crush philosophy that clean beauty doesn't have to mean compromising on sophisticated skincare technology and results.

The formula combines multiple peptides with antioxidant-rich SuperGlow grape, Vitamin C, shea butter, jojoba and other skin-conditioning ingredients.

What does EWG Verified mean for consumers?

For consumers, the EWG Verified mark provides a way to identify products that have met EWG's specific standards.

EWG states that EWG Verified products must avoid ingredients on its list of unacceptable ingredients and meet its standards for ingredient disclosure and transparency.

That can be particularly useful for shoppers who want to understand not only what a product claims to do, but also what is in the formula and how the ingredients are evaluated.

At Beauty Crush, we believe consumers should have access to that information.

Is EWG Verified the same as "natural" or "organic"?

No.

EWG Verified, natural and organic are not interchangeable terms.

EWG Verified refers to EWG's own standards for ingredient safety, transparency and other product requirements. Organic certification, meanwhile, involves separate standards and certification requirements.

Beauty  Crush's Certified Organic Vineyard goes through a rigorous annual re-certification process to comply with USDA Certified Organic regulations.

A product can therefore be EWG Verified without being an organic-certified finished product.

For Beauty Crush, the philosophy is to bring together thoughtful sourcing, organic ingredients, modern skincare science and rigorous product development.

Does EWG Verified mean a product is effective?

EWG Verified and product efficacy are two different questions.

EWG Verified addresses whether a product meets EWG's standards.

Beauty Crush separately conducts independent clinical testing for its products to determine efficacy, safety, ingredient potency and more. See the Proven Results tab for more information.

For example, the SuperGlow Peptide Firming Body Moisturizer's peptide ingredient testing reported improvements in measures including wrinkle appearance, roughness, elasticity and skin tone. The cited ingredient testing was conducted with twice-daily application on 23 women over two months compared with placebo. Of course, individual results may vary.

That distinction is important.

Safety and transparency matter. Performance matters, too. And consumers deserve both.

What does "clean beauty" mean to Karen Behnke?

For Karen, clean beauty should now be table stakes for any brand, but unfortunately, the industry still has a lot of work to do.

She has never been focused simply on removing a list of ingredients.

Karen is always about asking better questions:

• Where do ingredients come from?
• How are they processed?
• Can the ingredient provider guarantee the source?
• Have they been thoroughly tested?
• What are the cutting-edge ingredients?
• Why are they being used?
• What does the science tell us?
• Can a formula perform at a high-level while being thoughtful about ingredient selection?
• Can packaging be more sustainable?
• And can consumers have greater transparency about the products they put on their skin?

Those questions have evolved over the past 20 years—but they remain at the heart of Karen's approach to beauty.

EWG Verified and Beauty Crush Skincare

The beauty industry has changed dramatically since Karen Behnke first began working with EWG.

The term "clean beauty" has become mainstream, but it is not a regulated term, and that is another reason why Beauty Crush works with EWG—it provides an established external standard for ingredient transparency and product requirements.

Consumers have access to more ingredient information than ever before, but it can still be difficult to understand.

Biotechnology has opened new possibilities in skincare formulation. And shoppers increasingly want to understand the science, sourcing and sustainability behind the products they purchase.

Beauty Crush Skincare was created for this next chapter.

It brings together Karen's decades of experience in beauty entrepreneurship with a new generation of skincare technology—and with the same commitment to transparency that has been part of her journey for more than 20 years.

The first EWG Verified Beauty Crush product is therefore more than a new moisturizer.

It is a milestone. A continuation of a relationship that began more than two decades ago.

And a new chapter in Karen Behnke's ongoing mission to create skincare that combines high performance, thoughtful ingredients and greater transparency.

What comes next for Beauty Crush Skincare?

Beauty Crush is continuing to develop its next generation of skincare around core ideas:

Regenerative Biotech. The Best Clinicals of Karen's Career. Transparency. Organic Ingredients. 3 Simple Step Skincare.

From antioxidant-rich SuperGlow grapes grown at the Beauty Crush Sonoma Vineyard to biomimetic peptides and plant-based technologies, the brand is leading the way in what modern beauty can look like when science and thoughtful sourcing come together.

And now, with the first Beauty Crush product carrying the EWG Verified® mark, that journey has another important milestone.

Twenty years later, the CRUSH continues.