Product Quality and Safety at Bath & Body Works

We were founded on a simple idea: make the world a brighter, happier place through the power of fragrance. While our products are constantly evolving, what will never change is our dedication to providing our customers fragrances and formulas they can trust.

From initial product development and formulation, product safety is our priority. Our personal care and home fragrance products are extensively tested and evaluated for safety and performance. Our evaluations of ingredients and formulas involve a multi-tiered and multidisciplinary approach to ensure that our products meet or exceed current regulatory and safety standards. We perform this review on every ingredient in every formula to ensure that our customers can use our products with confidence.

Ingredients and Product Formulation

We understand that there is often conflicting information on the safety of various ingredients used in personal care products. Ultimately, chemicals are all around us, and every chemical has a safety threshold — even water. The ingredients used in our fragrances and formulations follow our highly disciplined science-based approach to ingredient selection. Product safety and compliance is built into every product using industry best practices, regulatory requirements and guidance from authoritative bodies, including but not limited to:

• U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
• Health Canada
• EU Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
• Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR)
• International Fragrance Association (IFRA)
• World Health Organization (WHO)

Safety Reviews 

Our science-based safety reviews, conducted by product safety experts, begin with a thorough scientific evaluation of relevant, available information for each ingredient before we approve its use. If an ingredient does not meet the higher threshold of our safety standards and those set by regulatory bodies in the jurisdictions where the products are sold, it will not be used. After ingredients are confirmed safe for their intended use, our clinical safety experts ensure personal care product safety through confirmatory clinical testing.

Testing methods include controlled in-laboratory studies and in-home use studies with customers.

For our home fragrance products, we have developed best-in-class testing for all new candle materials and technologies, including rigorous burn testing to ensure exceptional safety and performance. The candle testing process is carried out in multiple stages from raw material suppliers to component manufacturers, candle fillers and a leading independent testing lab.

“When it comes to our products, quality and safety are non-negotiable,” says Steve Smith, SVP of Product Integrity at Bath & Body Works. “I’m proud of our incredible team who works every day to ensure every finished product we sell to customers undergoes extensive safety and quality review. Bottom line is that this work is never ending for our team, and we’re proud to offer customers products that we enjoy in our own homes.”

Post Market 

Once products are on store shelves, we continue to monitor feedback from several sources, including our customers, the latest scientific information and new and updated regulations. New information is used to further improve performance and to continue to provide safe, high-quality products to our customers.

No Animal Testing 

We have a long history of no animal testing. None of our branded products or formulations or ingredients have ever been tested on animals by Bath & Body Works, and we do not sell products anywhere that require animal testing.

We are committed to eliminating animal testing worldwide, and our company is an active supporter and a Science Advisory Panel member of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS) — a nonprofit research and testing laboratory dedicated to the implementation and regulatory acceptance of non-animal methods — and we serve as a member of the Industry Council for the Advancement of Regulatory Acceptance of Alternatives (ICARAA). Additionally, our technical experts are involved in innovative research and development to advance the acceptance and adoption of non-animal testing methods around the globe. As the global regulatory landscape changes, we will continue partnering with IIVS, government agencies and other industry leaders for animal welfare and the elimination of animal testing everywhere.

Learn More

To learn more about our commitment to product quality and safety, please visit the Thoughtful Products section of our 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance Report or see our corporate website at bbwinc.com/product.

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